I have sixty dwarf trees, five of which have been in eight years, and they have borne six crops of apples.  The last ones I got two years ago, and they were two years old when I got them.  I planted five of these dwarf trees at the same time that I planted forty standards.  The dwarfs have borne more fruit than the standards up to date.  Of course, they have only been in eight years.  The standards are Wealthy, Duchess, Northwestern Greening and one or two Hibernal and some crabs; the dwarf stock is the Doucin.  It is not the Paradise stock, which is grown in England largely and some in France and Germany.  My trees are a little higher than my head, and I keep them pruned in a certain way.  One of my older trees the second year had ninety-six apples on it.  It was a Yellow Transparent, and they came to maturity very well.  Several of my trees are about four feet high.  I had from twenty-five to fifty apples on them, and they all ripened nicely.  The Red Astrachan and the Gravenstein and one Alexander had a few apples on them, and I notice that they are well loaded with fruit buds for another year, which will be the third year planted.

The care of these trees is probably a little more difficult than that of the standard tree, or, at least, I give them special care.  I have attempted to bud into some of these, but in my experience they do not take the bud very well.  I can take a bud from one of the dwarfs and put it on a standard, and it will grow all right, but I can’t take a bud from a standard and put it on a dwarf as successfully.  I judge it is because it isn’t as rapid growing as the Hibernal, for instance, would be.  I notice the Hibernal is the best to take a bud because it is a rapid growing tree and an excellent one on which to graft.

If I wanted to plant an orchard of forty or fifty acres I would plant standard trees and would put the dwarf between the rows, probably twelve feet apart.  Mine are about ten feet apart, some of them a little more, but I have two rows eight feet apart each way, nine in each row, which forms a double hedge.  I expect them to grow four feet high.  I will prune them just as I wish to make a beautiful double hedge between two cottages.

[Illustration:  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.