The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1904-08-12
DWARF FRUIT TREES.

pear or apple is curiosity, and there
are hundreds of wide awake farmer
and fruit men who never saw one IN
their lives, says the Country Gentle
man.
The reason for the neglect Of the
dwarfs is not far to seek. They be-
long distinctively to the European sys-
tenn of horticulture and are quite out
side the American system. In other
words, they belong to the fruit gar
den and not in the orchard. In this
country we are concerned with fruit
only on the large scale. Yet, with the
present significant increase of inter
est in suburban affairs, with the pres
ent rapid extension of the garden cult
among those who work in town, and
who live at least in the edges of the
city, there is bound to be revival of
interest in this really practicable and
useful business of dwarfing trees.
At the present the pear is the only
fruit grown to any extent in the dwarf
form. A few growers have orchards
of dwarf pear trees reaching CONNER
cial proportions. These are most nu-
merous in southern Michigan. An
other and more considerable number
of pear growers have been planting
new orchards of standard trees with
dwarf pears as "fiilers.'' That is they
use rows of dwarf pear trees between
The standards, with view of getting
several crops from the former and cut
ting them out before the standard
trees needed all the space. Apples
are still occasionally grown as dwarfs,
though we have never heard of sim
gle instance in which they have been
planted for commercial purposes.
Other trees, such as plums. peaches.
apricots and cherries are almost total
ly unknown as dwarf.
The dwarf fruit is secured by a com
bination of two processes-propaga-
ton and pruning. The tree is first pro-
pagated upon some slow growing root.
which tends TO dwarf it-that is. to
stunt it''-and then it is pruned back
severely, and not allowed to fill
great space. This second part-the
Druning-is quite essential with many
trees, and some inexperienced garden
ers have earned serious disappcint
ment through its neglect
The first problem, then, is the seiec-
ton of the dwarfing stock. In the
case of the pear this is nearly always
the ounce. The ounce root grows
much slower than the pear root, and
when a pear scion is put on ounce
stock it is simply starved or stunted
into the dwarf form. In a similar way
the Paradise apple. which was origi-
nally a dwarf wild apple of Europe. is
used as dwarfing stock for apples.
The plum is usually said to be
dwarfed by working it on Myrobolan
stock, but as a matter Of fact, nearly
all plums in this part of the country
are now worked on that stock, yet
they are grown as standards. In this
case IL is a matter of pruning. Such
stocks as the sand cherry are much
more effective in dwarfng the plum,
and il is possible that they will come
into use for that purpose. The cher
ry is said to be dwarfed on Mahaleb
stock, but this statement stands just
where stands the one about plums on
Myrobolan stock. A dwarf cherry tree
may be made by budding on Mahaleb
roots, and then by giving severe prun-
ing, but the pruning is the greater
part of the business. The peach may
be worked on any species of plum.
and the plum stock has tendency to
dwarf the scion. The same thing can
be done with the apricot. Any of
these can be made into dwarfs'by cut.
ting back.
Most persons seem to jump at the
conclusion that when the tree is
stunted the fruit is unfavorably af-
fected IL the tree is made smaller
rbey think the fruit would naturally
be smaller. too. In fact the reverse is
true. The fruit is usually made
larger Perhaps Il would be impos.
siblo 10 explain why this Is the case,
and at any rate there is not space
here to guess why; but such is the
general truth.
They are highly useful for small
yards on town or suburban lots. where
space is crowded, and where it is
especially desirable that trees come
into bearing at once. When a man
rents the premises he lives on, and
moves every two or three years, az
large part of our population uuhap-
PLY does, he cannot wait ten years for
big tree of Northern Spy or Twenty
Ounce to get down to business. A
dwarf tree is a curious, interesting and
entertaining object, anyway. and every
we'll regulated family ought to have
three or forr merely as playthings.
Dwarf apples may be planted as close
~ as six feet apart. but pears and
most other dwarf trees require at
least ten feet.
Pull ne beans aud other garden