Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — Management of Fruit Trees. [ARTICLE]

Management of Fruit Trees.

What may be now a tender, quickgrowing sprout, will, in October, be a strong, woody branch, and perhaps a branch just where it is not wanted, and which must be removed by the use of a saw or strong knife. At the right time the shoot could have been rubbed off, and not only the trouble of .removing the branch avoided, but the useless growth would .have been directed to parts where it wa3 needed. If one has a careful eye to his young trees, he can, by rubbing off a bud or shoot here and pinching a shoot there, so direct the growth that by the time the trees come into bearing they will be of proper form, and very little work will be required of the pruning saw and chisel. If large limbs are to be removed from neglected trees, this month or next (according to locality —at any rate, when the spring growth is made and the leaves have attained full size and substance) is by many preferred for the work, as wounds now heal rapidly. Cut all lurge wounds smooth with a drawing-knife, and cover with shellac varnish, melted grafting-wax, or thick paint. Borers do not breed in the tree, as some suppose. Every borer in the tree went in. The parent winged insect laid the egg on the bark. The little borer hatched out at once bored its way into the tree, and there it will stay until it comes out a perfect insect, or is cut out, or is punched to death in the hole. But please observe, no patent stuff that is to be laid in the crotch of the tree, no stuff' that you may paint on the trank, no “ invigorator,” or anything that you apply to the soil to be taken up by the roots and thus poison the borer, will be of any earthly use. While you are fussing with «uch treatment the borer is quietly at work, perhaps stopping now and then to laugh at the folly of the performance. Cut with the knife and punch with wire. The slug, so-called, but which is really a caterpillar, will appear, especially on the pear and cherry-leaves, and, unless checked, often makes sad work. It is a dark-green leech-like creature, that leaves a slimy trail. Slaked lime, dusted from a coarse bag at the end of a pole, will soon end it. In a dry time fine dust from the road may be thrown into the trees With igood effect.—AT. T. Independent.