18 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



following estimates and figures : A few years ago the legislature of Illinois passed 

 an act to protect the purchaser of tax-title land in his improvements. In estimat- 

 ing the value of orchards, they estimated apple trees at $1 each with one year's 

 growth ; $1 was added for each year's growth for five years. Thi^ same estimate 

 was made by a jury in our circuit court in Grundy county in a case of Dickerson 

 against Hard, for the non-compliance of the terms in a lease in which Hard was to 

 grow an apple orchard of 100 trees. Dickerson got judgment for $500 ; the time of 

 the case was five years— the orchard should have been five years old. Remember, 

 these estimates were made under oath. Now what I want to show is that the profits 

 of an apple orchard begin with the planting of the trees, for many hesitate to plant 

 orchards, because they think the profits are too far oft. You can see by these 

 estimates, which we are bound to accept as facts, that we can advance the valua- 

 tion of our land to $500 per acre in five years, for 100 apple trees is about the right 

 number to an acre. But the valuation of your orchard depends very largely upon 

 how your trees have been propagated, and the main object of this paper is to show 

 how a tree should be propagated to cause it to come into quick and profitable 

 bearing. Hear : 



If you would have jour orchard do you good, 



You must grow your trees from bearing wood. 



To explain : The cions for your trees should be taken from healthy, vigorous 

 trees in full bearing. Remember, nature produces her like in everything. These 

 grafts should be made so that they can be planted deep enough to cause the cions 

 to emit roots ; then you will have a domesticated tree, root and branch. If a Ben 

 Davis it is Ken Davis, root and branch — a tree that will come into bearing as soon 

 as it is large enough to support an apple. Yes, I have seen apples as large as 

 quails' eggs on these grafts the first year, grafts not more than t tree inches high. 

 These young trees matured apples at four years old in the nursery rows, and some 

 of the trees bore one barrel of fruit at six years in the orchard, eight years from 

 grafts. This orchard has been very profitable to me. The first ten-acre orchard 

 that I planted the trees had been propagated from water-sprouts. This orchard is 

 17 years old, and has never produced fruit enough to pay for the growing of 

 the trees. The twigs or terminal branches still retain the characteristic of water- 

 sprouts. Last winter I sold 20,000 water-sprouts from this orchard to a wholesale 

 nurseryman. He ordered them to be one to tbree feet long. I made the bundles 

 average three feet. This ten-acre orchard has been very productive in this 

 respect . The balance of my forty-acre orchard was grown from bearing wood, and 

 I failed to get one thousand water-sprouts from this thirty-acre orchard. Trees 

 grown from nursery trimmings are too late coming into bearing to make a profita- 

 ble orchard. To make a success of your orchard, you must know that your trees 

 hive been propagated from bearing wood ; then if you have planted the right vari- 

 eties on the right location, and are proud of your occupation, your success is 

 certain. 



Now in conclusion, let me give a few reasons why I would be a fruit-grower: 

 First, apple money is the easiest money that a farmer can make, because the work 

 of the orchard can and should be done during the summer and fall months. The 

 harvesting and marketing of our apples must be done in October and November, 

 during our beautiful Indian summer, when the roads are always good. Then our 

 money all comes in together, which makes ue feel good. We can then go into 

 winter quarters and read and post ourselves on the topics of the day and sympa- 

 thize with the live-stock farmer, who has to expose himself to the inclemency of the 

 winter weather in feeding and caring for his stock, and finally beat out of bis profits 



