24 STATE TOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



trees tire once planted, it is for a generation, and year after year the same draft 

 is made upon the soil, only increasing as the trees grow larger, until every 

 square foot of the soil is filled with a net-work of roots ; hence the greater 

 necessity that there should he regularly returned to the soil such fertilizers as 

 will best meet and supply the draft made upon it. 



After an orchard has become so large that it is inconvenient to plow it, and 

 it is seeded down, I think it is better for the trees and more profitable to feed 

 off what grass grows upon it than to mow it, and I know of no better way than 

 to pasture with hogs and calves, until the windfalls begin to be of value answer- 

 ing the double purpose of saving what grass there may be, and also destroying 

 to some extent the codling moth. 



The fall growth of grass may perhaps be profitably left as a protection to 

 the roots of the trees against freezing in the winter. 



The profit to be derived from the sale of a crop of apples well grown depends 

 very much upon the manner and care with which they are gathered and prepared 

 for the market. I have found a bag hung upon the left shoulder as convenient as 

 any thing to pick into, and after picking those that can be reached from the 

 ground, gather the others by means of light ladders of different lengths made 

 broad at the bottom and very narrow at the top. Carefully empty the apples 

 into baskets and from thence sort into barrels, putting in only those of first 

 quality, leaving the inferior ones in piles under the trees, to be afterwards 

 gathered up, again sorted, and the best of them, together with the most per- 

 fect of the dropped apples, barrelled up and marked and disposed of as second 

 quality fruit. 



In this way the reputation of our apples can, not only be maintained, but 

 -steadily increased, and the highest price obtained for our fruit, and much more 

 profit made than by mixing a few not strictly prime apples in each barrel of 

 first quality ones. 



At what time in the fall will it be most profitable to gather our winter fruit, 

 is a question that will depend upon circumstances that we can neither foresee 

 nor control. If we pick in the last part of September and the month of 

 October is as warm as it was this last season, we may find it difficult to dispose 

 of our apples early (if we desire to do so) at a remunerative price ; and if we keep 

 them for a late market, we may lose from decay, unless very great care is taken 

 to prevent it. On the other hand, if we delay gathering them, waiting for the 

 warm weather to pass by, until the middle or last of October, a sudden change 

 •of weather and heavy frosts may very materially injure the keeping quality of 

 the fruit; and severe winds may shake off large quantities of it, rendering the 

 same comparatively worthless. 



It is generally conceded that winter apples gathered as early as the middle 

 of September in this latitude are less liable to decay than those that remain 

 upon the trees a month later. At the same time they may lack something of 

 the fine flavor that those will possess that are more perfectly matured by 

 remaining longer upon the tree. On the whole, as a matter of profit, I believe 

 it best to commence gathering winter market apples as early as the 20th of 

 September, finishing such gathering if possible by the 1st of October. 



If the early market is good and it is desired to sell at once they should be 

 carefully packed, the bottom head nicely set with two courses of average apples 

 placed with the steins down. As the barrel is being filled it should be several 

 times lightly shaken so that the apples may lay as compact as possible, and 

 when so filled the head should be very firmly pressed in so as to prevent any 



