Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1909 — RAISING DWARF APPLES. [ARTICLE]

RAISING DWARF APPLES.

Borne Interesting Experiments Being Made in New York. G. T. Powell, of Columbia county, N. Y., is conducting some interesting experiments on the value of dwart apple trees in business orchards? says the American Cultivator. It Is the idea of Mr. Powell that trees of a low habit of growth will be required more and more, because of the need of convenience for spraying and harvesting. The scale insects make it almost impossible to thoroughly treat large trees, and the cost of labor makes a saving at harvesting time of great importance. Two styles of dwarf trees are under trial. The socalled “Paradise” is very dwarf and is short lived. The “Doucin” stock is half dwarf, making trees 16 to 18 feet high, and proinises gopd results in commercial orcharding. The trees are planted two or three Inches below the union of slock and top. In Mr. Powell’s orchard the trees of “Paradise” stock are set as fillers between those of the larger dwarf kind. The rows, in the orchard are 20 feet apart, and the trees 10 in a row. The wide spaces between thp rows allow plenty of room for cultivation by horse power, while the trees in the rows will be thinned out as soon as they become crowded. The dwarf trees give fruit in a few years from planting, and the amount gradually increases. The small dwarf kind lasts six to eight years, and the semidwarfs for about 20 years. For dwarf trees the Spltzenberg, Jonathan, McIntosh are found successful. They produce fruit of very fine appearance and quality, suitable for packing in boxes for the choicest trade. For the half dwarfs, the Northern Spy, Roxbury russet, Twenty-ounce, Astrachan Baldwin and greening are satisfactory. The dwarf trees must receive good culture, with plenty of plant food, and careful cultivation. The soil is plowed and harrowed in the spring, and is kept in a cover crop of clover during the summer. Scale and ither insects are easily treated in the dwarf orchards. The idea appears so promising to Mr. Powell that he is pruning his large trees on the dwarf plan, cutting back the tops the standard trees, in order to cause them to spread out and to remove the high .parts of the tree, which make so much difficulty in spraying old trees.