288 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



give most of his attention to his orchard. The orchard consists of 

 eighteen acres of which about sixteen acres are sixteen years old and 

 two acres are eight years old. The oldest part consists mainly of 

 Grimes Golden, Jonathan, Winesap, Ben Davis, Black Twig, Wealthy 

 Missouri Pippin, Maiden Blush and some other varieties of only a few 

 trees. The trees are set thirty by thirty feet apart. The varieties 

 are set out together, that is each kind is in a block by itself. This 

 is of marked advantage when gathering the fruit. The orchard is on 

 rolling land but not so steep as to preclude cultivation. The soil is 

 the loess soil found adjacent to the Missouri river and which is espec- 

 ially adapted to tree growth. 



The first thing Mr. Beavers did after taking personal charge was 

 to get what information he could from the horticultural department 

 at the state experiment station in regard to spraying. He had some 

 ideas of his own as to how an orchard should be cared for, also he 

 had read a good deal of the methods pursued in other sections. The 

 first year after taking personal supervision he pruned the orchard so 

 that every limb of every tree had an equal chance of getting enough 

 air and sunlight to produce the best colored and best size fruit. This 

 pruning was done in the winter. The wounds made where limbs 

 were cut off were painted with an asphaltum paint, so that the wound 

 would not dry out and check, letting decay enter. In the spring as 

 soon as the ground would work Mr. Beaver put a disc in the orchard 

 and disced up the ground thoroughly, going both ways through the 

 orchard. The disc was followed in a few days with a common spike 

 tooth harrow and thus alternating the discing and harrowing until 

 about July 1. As the trees in Mr. Beaver's orchard are getting large 

 there is scarcely room to drive, after the fruit attains any size without 

 knocking off the fruit. So it is impossible to continue cultivation 

 much later than July 1. During the past two years on account of the 

 dry weather it would have been better if cultivation had been con- 

 tinued later. However, there was enough moisture stored up in the 

 soil so that the crop matured in good shape without any injury to the 

 trees. 



Before taking active charge of the orchard Mr. Beavers had not 

 sprayed his orchard. He could see the difference in the sprayed and 

 unsprayed fruit as it passed through his store. He saw that to get the 

 greatest returns the fruit must be protected from insect and fungus 

 injury. To do this he bought a Cushmon Power Sprayer with a tank 

 capacity of 2 50 gallons and having a pump capable of throwing 8 or 

 9 gallons a minute under 200 pounds pressure . He followed direc- 

 tions received from the Experiment Station as to mixtures to use and 

 time of application. The first application which he applies is what 

 is known as the cluster bud spray applied at the time the cluster of 

 flower buds has just opened. This application consisted of Lime Sul- 

 phur solution 1 gallon to 40 gallons of water and Arsenate of lead 

 iy2 pounds to 50 gallons of water. In this spray his chief concern 



