428 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Four or five men will work the entire winter in sorting them, and 

 we sort them well. Make a strictly first class grade of apples, re 

 gardless of what it cost you. We have exported a great many of 

 our apples to the old country. We were among the first exporters 

 in Western New York, and had a very profitable business for sev 

 eral years, but there is a great deal of competition. But there 

 is still a good trade for thoroughly sorted apples and it pays to 

 sort well. The Tompkins County King is a first rate apple, but it 

 never produces as many barrels to the tree as the Baldwin; but 

 they are very saleable, and bring a good price. One year it hap- 

 pened that there was a shortage in Tompkins County King apples, 

 and the English market was good. My father posted a notice that 

 he would pay twenty or forty cents a barrel more than other dealers 

 were paying, and he got all there were of that variety within a 

 radius of four or five miles, in all 875 barrels. We bought them for 

 No. 1 apples. They were all put into the storehouse and resorted. 

 Every apple repacked was perfect and over two and one-half inches 

 in size. We took out of those 875 barrels, 275 barrels of No. 2 

 fruit, put the GOO barrels of No. I's on the cars and shipped them to 

 Liverpool. The Liverpool quotations were |4.00 a barrel for Tomp- 

 kins County Kings. We had to compete with the Canadian apples, 

 which have always outsold the New York State apples, and yet 

 because of fancy pack, we were paid $6.00 per barrel for the 600 

 barrels, or |2.00 above the market. We packed the balance and 

 shipped to Baltimore unbranded. There was some rot to come 

 out of the No. 2, but we came out even on the 275 barrels and made 

 a nice profit on the No. 1. This shows what thorough sorting will 

 do. 



Mr. Eldon. How do you spray them? 



That depends somewhat on the season. I spray three times, 

 once just before the blossoms come out, and once just after the 

 blossoms go off, and then just about two weeks later, and we some- 

 times have to make a spray between the two last sprays. After 

 the blossoms fall all the apples are on the tree, upside down. There 

 are four little leaves at the blow end of the apple, that are opened 

 right out when the blossoms fall, and we try to get our poison in at 

 this time, and it is foolish to spray after these leaves close. The 

 last spray is more practically for the leaf blight and the fungus 

 on the apple. The time differs in neighboring orchards. Some- 

 times there will be a few days between the fall of the blossoms In 

 one orchard and that of another right across the fence. Don't go 

 to the almanac, but watch when the leaves are open,, but after the 

 leaves close up you can wait two weeks, possibly, if it is dry, three 

 weeks after the bloom goes off will answer for third spray. In 

 spraying, we have been using five pounds of blue vitriol and one one- 

 fourth pound of Paris green to fifty gallons of water. We use now 

 a power sprayer. I am not advertising any particular sprayer. I 

 am using the Deyo Sprayer, made in Binghampton, New York, but 

 there are other sprayers just as good. It is run by a two and one- 

 half horse power gasoline engine mounted on a wide-wheeled wagon. 

 The gasoline engine is on the back part of the wagon. We have a 

 two hundred gallon tank, and our proportions are made in accord- 



