Yo Mike:

If you have old farts in your area, they're just a gold-mine of
information. They
can probably tell you who planted your trees, when and what varieties they are.
I'd be willing to bet that you can make some friends, just by asking the
old poops
for help on rehabilitating your orchard. A 20 year old orchard is no big
deal, but
making friends with the old-timers is priceless. (They can tell you the entire
history of your land; all the gossip, rumors and the true stuff, too.)

When I was pruning 100 year old trees in the Mother Lode of California, I had
folks who were 4th generation on the same land telling me about their families
planting the orchards 3 years after gold was discovered down there at John
Sutter's
sawmill in Coloma (10 miles away) in 1848. The families had been there
continuously, and they *knew* the history of all of the orchards and places
in the area. I made *many* lifelong friends by cutting fruit trees for
those folks
and heard stories that would give most historians the vapors : )

Jan


In article 9Go%a.4937$uh6.2763@lakeread05, "Mike Davis"
wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions. In addition to reading, I am
very likely to implement Jan's idea of consulting an "oldster". It's a small
town and there are a few fellows around who know their stuff. I'll try to
enlist their aid. Intergenerational knowledge transfer (folk wisdom) is a
lost art here in the suburbs of Virginia, but it keeps many small rural
areas, like our place in WV, going.

Mike D.

"Mike Davis" wrote in message
news:rws_a.7178$Ue.2746@lakeread05...
We're trying to rejuvinate some 20+ year old very overgrown apple trees on
our WV property. Can anyone suggest a good guide for pruning to get them
back into shape?

Thanks,
MJD