n: Residence of Dr. Huestis, at Mound, Lake Minnetonka.]

In pruning those that have been in eight years I have tried to use the
renewal system as we use it on grapes sometimes. I take out some of the
older branches and fruit spurs that have borne two or three years. They
must be thinned out. I counted twenty apples on a branch a foot long. I
let them grow until they are large enough to stew and then take some off
and use them, when apple sauce is appreciated. I thin them every year
and get a nice lot of good fruit each year.

I have noticed for two years that I have about ninety-eight per cent. of
perfect apples, not a blotch nor a worm. I spray them all, first the
dormant spray and then just as the blossoms are falling, and then one
other spraying in two weeks and another spray three weeks later.

Mr. Ludlow: Do you mulch the ground?

Dr. Huestis: Well, I dig up the ground a little in the spring. The roots
are very near the surface, not very penetrating, and I cultivate around
the roots, but I am careful not to cut them. Every fall I put a good
mulch of leaves and hay around them. I have been a little fearful they
would winter-kill. I wouldn't lose one of them for ten dollars, and I
think it well to mulch them, leaving a little space at the base.

Mr. Andrews: Are the roots exposed in some cases?

Dr. Huestis: Yes, I noticed on two of the older trees, those that have
been in eight years and have borne six crops, you can see the roots on
one side, the top is exposed a little, and I think it would be well to
put a little dirt on those another year. The stock of these dwarf trees
is slow growing with a rapid growing top, and that is what dwarfs them.
I have transplanted one tree three times, which would make four
plantings in eight years, and that tree bore almost as much fruit last
year as any of them. In another case once transplanted I think the tree
is better than the others that were left.

[Illustration: Dwarf Yellow Transparent, bearing 96 apples, third year
from planting at Dr. Huestis'.]

As I said before, if I was planting an orchard I would put dwarf trees
between, and by the time they had borne three or four crops, and you
were expecting a crop of fruit from the standard trees--about seven
years from the time you put them in--I would put the dwarf trees as
fillers, costing about forty cents apiece, and by the time they are
bearing nicely your friends would have seen those, and I believe would
want the