120 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



We must take good care of the orchard to have good fruit. I 

 woukl cultivate well until the trees begin to bear, then keep the land 

 in clover and orchard grass, which I cut once or twice in a season. 

 After the hay is off I pasture the orchard with pigs and sheep until 

 the fruit is gathered. I have sheep and calves in the orchard 

 through the winter. It is a good plan to pasture an old orchard 

 through the summer. I feed the most of my hay in movable racks 

 on the ground to sheep and <3alves. This feeds the land and the land 

 feeds the trees, which helps them hear better and more fruit. I 

 spread manure from the barn thinly around the trees any time in the 

 winter when the ground is frozen or dry. 



The next thing is careful pruning. This I consider the hardest 

 thing to do in fruit-raising; to train a tree right and have the fruit 

 so the sun can get to it some time in the day to color it and give it 

 its best flavor. 



In regard to gathering fruit, it shoukl be carefully done; care- 

 less work spoils the fruit and ruins the trees. 



I begin to gather in the first or second week of October on my 

 winter apples, and pile them on the ground close to the trunk of the 

 tree on the north side, so the tree will protect them from the sun. 

 After laying in the piles two or three weeks, I commence to barrel 

 them, being careful to keep all inferior apples out. By inferior, I 

 mean all specked and all that fall under an average of two inches. 



I would not leave the barrels in the orchard to get wet. I did 

 that once too often. We then pick up all, and use what is large 

 enough and sound to dry, and the small ones go to the cider mill, or 

 to the stock. If I have many rotten apples, I put them in a large 

 hopper and let them leach out and make vinegar. It must be done 

 under shelter, to keep the rain off of the apples, and off of the 

 barrels. 



When apples are cheap, it pays to feed them to stock. All stock 

 will eat them. I think them worth ten cents a bushel to feed, if we 

 do not feed too many at a time. 



My way of keeping apples in the winter is to put my barrels in 

 the cellar as soon as they are barreled, leaving the top hoop unnailed, 

 ready to be repacked. 



I think a great many of the apples that are shipped are gath- 

 ered too green. 



Our best eating fruit (the peach), we have had no crop since 1883. 

 We had about 1,200 boxes that season. I am almost oat of practice 

 in handling peaches, still I live in hope of raising some yet. I had 

 a few for home use last summer. 



In handling this fruit, to get money out of it, it must be 

 handled with great care. It must be gathered when the bloom 

 shows on the red places. It should never be gathered too green. 

 Their bloom shows first on one side and then spreads over the whole 

 peach. Still the peach is firm. There is a point that is hard for a 



