ORCHARD MANAGEMENT. 35 



fungous troubles and reduce the ravages of the codling moth 

 to a small per cent of the crop. Bacteria troubles and the "rail- 

 road worm" are about the only things that are not amenable to 

 spraying. Use "Sculecide" for all scale insects and for cleans- 

 ing and invigorating trees, and use Bordeaux and arsenate of 

 lead for apple scab and all kinds of chewing insects, amongst 

 which are the apple worm and all leaf-eating caterpillars. The 

 apple maggot or railroad worm is in many sections a bad pest. 

 The apple maggot hatches from a small fly which deposits her 

 egg under the skin of the fruit at almost any time during the 

 grow'ing season. The little worm hatches and mines or rail- 

 roads through the apple in every direction and practically ruins 

 the fruit. This insect is peculiarly difficult to fight. It can- 

 not be poisoned hence all fruit must be quickly gathered and 

 fed to stock or destroyed. I think the trouble can be somewhat 

 controlled by withholding nitrogenous food from a variety of 

 trees infested with this pest and adding potash and phosphoric 

 acid. The reason for this is to make the fruit more firm. Rav- 

 ages of this insect pest are more prominent some seasons than 

 others. Fire blight or twig blight is a disease of bacterial origin 

 and the only known remedy is the removal of the blighted wood. 



HARVESTING APPLES. 



This is largely a business proposition. Today it is pretty 

 generally conceded that the method used in harvesting the crop 

 is almost as important as the method of producing the same. 

 One of the fundamentals in the proper harvesting of apples is 

 to be ready with an ample supply of packages, either boxes or 

 barrels, likewise a proper supply of equipment in the shape of 

 ladders, picking baskets or bags and a corps of the best pickers 

 available, so that when the picking season arrives the work may 

 be done in the easiest, cheapest and quickest manner. When to 

 pick is a question each grower must determine for himself. It 

 is a good rule for the average apple grower to follow, to pick 

 one's apples when a little underripe, rather than to leave them 

 on the trees until fully or over ripe. When fruit is of a good 

 size and fairly well colored it may be considered the proper 

 time to begin to pick. There are some very important reasons 

 why it is desirable to pick as early as possible. Early picking 



