Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-03-22
Forcing Fruit bearing.

CONDENSED from Farmers Review steno.
graphic Report OF Wisconsin Horticultural
Convention)
A. l.. Hatch Spoke on what can be
done to make plant live, grow and
bear fruit. He said in part: A tree
or any plant should have balanced
ration. The soil must be suited to
the plant to be grown. and must con-
tain the proper foods. Thus, you can't
grow apple trees successfully on muck
soils. Cultivation should begin early
in the season, for 1t is early In the
season that the tree makes most OF its
growth. Every fruit tree and plant
should make a good growth, every sea-
SON. We should mulch and cultivate
our trees every year. / have found
that spring pruning gives better fruit
age than at any other season of the
year. Later pruning removes foliage
that contains growth matter.
Water sprouts and those not coming
out where wanted should be rubbed OFT
in the spring, while yet In the bud
stage. The real winter protection is
in so growing the tree that the wool
Is we'll fipened and hardened up tc
stand the winter. The man that per-
mits the foliage OF his trees to be dam
aged by insects or diseases will have
trees with wood only partly ripened.
and such will have less power to stand
hard winter conditions than will the
trees that have had good foliage to
ripen up their wood.
Q. Do you recommend pudding the
roots of all trees before setting?
Ayes, sir. But perhaps l should
not say all trees. However, do not
know any other way of getting good
capillarity. that is, getting the roots
so intimately connected with the dirt
that capillary attraction can operate
between them. This does not mean
that We should make a thick, heavy
mud to hold the roots. Would not you,
Mr.. kellogg, puddle your trees before
setting?
NJ. S. Kellogg-Yes.
Q.-How deep is II advisable to cul-
tivate the orchard?
much cultivation the orchard has pre-
viously received. II 1t has been always
in grass, the roots will be found so
near the surface that only very super
fetal cultivation can be given; but II
the orchard has, been cultivated. from.
the first, the roots will be deeper. II
had trees that had been planted for
ten years, and never cultivated,
would not cultivate more than four
inches deep. Grass sod in the orchard
is very injurious to the trees. especial
ly at times of the year when soil wa
ter is deficient and trees have to de-
pend to some extent on the occasional
showers. In that case the roots OF the
grass drink up about all OF the mois-
ture before 1t gets down to the roots.
l have dug up sod in the orchard hours
after a good shower and found that
not one drop had~got within reach OF
the roots of the trees; every blade OF
grass was acting as a pump, pumping
the moisture back into the atmosphere.
There are multitudes OF trees that by
reason Oh LIE SUI pcucatn thCh dAO
thirsty most of the time during the
growing season. You must remember
that not a particle of food can enter
the tree except by being carried in
water; therefore you can starve tree
to death by depriving it of water. The
reason that so many orchards in grass
are moderately successful is because
they get in the springtime the water
from melting sGow and from spring
rains, and for part Of the growing
season have all the water they can
use. But they remain thirsty for a
large part of the season.
Q.-Can't you extend the season Of
cultivation If the cultivation is light?
Mr.. Hatch-Professor Bailey says
that the orchard should/not be Guilt
waited after midsummer.
Q.-Can we make trees bear alter
nate years?
Mr.. Hatch-Yes. If the trees are 60
ing to bear this year we can prune a
part of them and prevent them from
bearing a crop this year; they will
then probably bear next year.