y^ state; pomologicai, society. 



use of chemicals in tlie orchard. I told him I didn't think I could 

 prepare anything that could be dignified by the name of a paper 

 or address, but if the subject was opened up here that I would 

 be glad to help along with a few words in the discussion. 



Now my vocation is that of a commercial traveler and I have 

 been following that business for eighteen years, and I have 

 acquired the habit of being very bashful, so that it is embarrass- 

 ing for me to appear here before such a large crowd. I could 

 take one man I think out in some corner or in some secluded 

 place and I could either paralyze him or I could sell him a bill of 

 goods, but it is very embarrassing to speak here. However, I 

 will give you as briefly as I can my experience on chemicals in 

 an orchard. 



I want to say first that I was brought up on a farm and I have 

 always had an interest in fruit growing and always liked it and 

 always thought I would like to have an orchard. So in 1891, 

 when I had an opportunity to buy a comparatively small orchard, 

 about 150 trees with 16 acres of land, I purchased the land and 

 the orchard. Being away from home all the time as I am, I keep 

 no stock. The field was in a run out condition and if I did any- 

 thing with it I had got to do it with commercial fertilizer. I 

 commenced first by plowing up this orchard, and I want to say 

 that this was an orchard that had been set out perhaps thirty 

 years, twenty-five to thirty years, and had never yielded what 

 might be called a fair crop. I plowed it in the spring of 1891 

 and applied commercial fertilizer at the rate of about fifteen 

 hundred pounds to the acre and planted it to potatoes. The next 

 year I sold $400 worth of apples ofif that orchard. I thought 

 that was a success and that I would try some more trees. I 

 bought and set out 300, using commercial fertilizer in the holes 

 where they w^ere set, perhaps a quart or a quart and a half to a 

 tree, and where I set these young trees I plowed a narrow strip 

 perhaps 6 to 8 feet wide up and down the row, and I have kept 

 them cultivated from that time to this and have applied each year 

 a moderate amount of commercial fertilizer. On the larger trees 

 I have applied about 400 or 500 pounds, since the first applica- 

 tion of 1500 pounds I have applied about 400 or 500 pounds to 

 the acre sowed broadcast and harrowed in. The result has been 

 that that orchard has been very profitable. Since 1892 when I 

 got my first crop I have failed but one year to get a good fair 



