The Apple Crop and its Management. 169 



THE APPLE CEOP AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 

 By J. C. Plumb, Milton. 



The apple crop of 1880 will not be scon forgotten by the fruit 

 growers of the west. In many sections of southern "Wisconsin, 

 tens of thousands of good fall apples could have been bought, 

 delivered at ten cents a bushel. At this price they were fed to 

 stock, left to decay or a more wasteful use of feediog the cider 

 barrel and fostering the appetite for a stronger beverage. Even 

 this resource failed, as barrels could not be had for either fruit or 

 cider, and so from cellar to garret piles of apples in all stages of 

 decomposition were to be seen in many a farm house ; the barn 

 floor was used as a temporary storage until crowded out by the 

 corn pile. All sorts of temporary expedients were resorted to, to 

 carry the bountiful supply over to a better market and winter use. 



For want of the proper storage and fixtures, this unusual crop 

 was half of it lost to the grower by actual decay or a bottomless 

 market. Good winter varieties were allowed to hang on the trees 

 until over-ripe and were put into the market in competition with 

 short lived sorts for cooking apples. On the 28th day of October 

 last I saw beautiful Northern Spy on sale in this city, at the store 

 of Mr. Huntley at twenty-five cents per bushel retail, while to-day 

 no better are sold at one dollar per bushel. Utters, Plumb's 

 Cider and Fameuse were ranked only as fall apples and sold at 

 current rates. Unfortunately the larger part of our bearing trees 

 are not long keepers and in seasons like the past, when all ripened 

 fifteen to thirty days before their usual time, the overplus was the 

 more apparent. The result was an over supplied market, prices 

 unprecedentedly low, and a large portion of the crop as good as 

 wasted, in hundred of cases. Enough wasted to have given a 

 a winter supply to ten thousand families now destitute. 



The idea has largely prevailed that Wisconsin was not, nor 

 could ever be, an apple growing region. But this illusion is now 

 dispelled. We have profited by the lessons of the past, and now 

 plant and grow varieties found equal to the vicissitudes of our 

 climate, and planters are calling for good keeping apples. Nor is 



