The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-07-11
AGRICULTURAL.

CARE OF YOUNG FRUIT TREES
Young fruit trees, either apples or pears
need careful attention for three or four
years from the time they are transplant
ed into permanent place, until the roots
ore fairly established. During these
years the best results are brought about
by keeping the surface soil loose, either
by frequent disturbance, or mulching
the ground as far as the roots extend.
Frequent stirring will accomplish the
same ends, although for young trees
transplanted the past spring, mulch
will keep the soil more moist, and on
this account o more certain and uniform
growth of wood will be made the first
year than without the mulch. Drawing
the soil away from the body of trees,
bowling them out, is sometimes prac
ticed by fruit-growers, so that an extra
amount of rain water will remain near
the roots during the summer months,
about young fruit trees. This plan will
entail more labor than mulching, and
the results will not be as certain. When
young fruit trees are planted in grass,
circle should be kept dug around the
body of the trees further than the roots
extend, and under no circumstances al
lOW Ullt SIdSS w elCIOdCu Ou UlllS space.
If it does, in eight cases out of every
ten the trees will be stunted in growth,
and present sorry appearance, grow
ing smaller instead of larger each year.
When fruit trees are eight or ten years
old, strong, and vigorous, before allowed
to go into grass they may live and bear
some pears but with young trees this
method of grass culture is poor one,
judging it from the experience and OBJ
servation of the writer. Six years ago
a neighbor planted hundred fine two
year-old Standards in meadow. The
ground was in good heart, and the trees
set out with care. Since the time these
trees were set out, no pains have been
taken to keep the grass away from these
trees. The result is that now these
trees will not average as large in size
as they were when taken from the
nursery row; or rather those that are
living, for during these six years num-
Der of trees have died. This is only one
of great many instances that have
come under the writer's notice of the
foolishness of planting young pear trees
in grass, with any hopes that they will
make strong, healthy trees in a few
years. That there may be exceptions to
this rule, there is no doubt; but there
Is no dodbt in the writer's mind but
what they are very rare exceptions.
Although being familiar with pear
growing for the past 15 or 20 years, and
during that time have visited many of
the leading pear orchards the writer has
never been able to find 80 trees in one
lot where the growth i'll grass would
equal the same number of trees where
the soil was kept cultivated.
What have seen of pear growing in
grass has convinced me that grass cul-
ture, for profit, just about equals dwarf
culture for the same object-very dis
couraging to the person who attempts
the experiment.
With young or old pear trees, it is q
good plan in the fall, when the wood is
ripe, and the fruit gathered, to raise the
soil around the fruit trees. Beside cast
ing the water during the winter and
spring months, it is an excellent pre-
ventive to keep field mice from girdling
the trees. In the garden, this can easily
be done with spade or digging fork
In the orchard, for the purpose of rails
ing the soil toward the trees, use a one
horse plow, throwing the furrow slices
toward the bodies of the rows of trees
This L do late in the fall, before tht
ground freezes up and when the GROUND
has been turned in this way, 1 have
never had a pear tree girdled during thu
winter, no matter how much snow, MOI
how long it had remained on the ground
While in the same orchard, trees stand
ing in grass have been girdled at differ
ent times, one winter as many as forty
one trees, that were growing in a patel
of grass, laid down for the purpose O
testing this method in the writer's or
chard. More than half that number o
trees were girdled all the way round
Some of them were then ten inches il
diameter two feet above the surface
During the writer's practical experience
i'll pear growing for profit, he has neve
had single tree girdled by field mic
when thetree stood in cultivated ground
If for nothing else, this would be som
inducement to keep the surface of tn
orchard under culture.
In the spring, when the ground is dr.
enough to work, the raised ridges alon
the lines of the trees are thrown bacI
with one-horse plow and cultivator, S
that by the first of June the surface
nearly or quite level. In the garder
the raised mounds may be drawn partl
away from the trees with hoe or rak,
when working over the soil in the spring
A thin coating of well-rotted yard ma
nure may be scattered on the mound {
earth in the fall, before winter sets il
This will encourage more vigoror
growth in the spring.-N y. Tribune