44 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



What do you mean by that? 



He said; "Cap'n, I don't know as I can make you understand." 



I assured him I would do my best to understand. 



"Yo' know de Good Book say dat de Lawd He make man out of de dust 

 of de earth." 



I aihnitted I had heard that story. 



"Yes, Cap'n, but yo' know if de Good Book do say dat de Lawd made 

 man out of dust of de earth, He couldn't make him ouf of dry, dry dust 

 like dat, if de Good Book do say so. An' de story is dat He made men out 

 of wet dust and He set dem up against de palings for to dry, and then de 

 Lawd go about He other business. By an by He done come back to put 

 brains in dem, and some of dem done walk off before de Lawd got back. 



That is what that darky says makes the Populist Party. I liave made 

 up my mind there are a good many land owniers done walk off before the Lord 

 got around wdth apple brains and apple sense, or else they would not neglect 

 the apple as they do and would take better care of it because of its wonderful 

 results when properly treated. 



In Michigan, New York and New England the apple is a long-lived tree. 

 In the central and middle and far west, where they are growing aj^ples aiid 

 planting large acreages, the trees come into quick bearing; in five or six 

 years they are bearing freely, and in eight or ten abundantly, and in tw^elve 

 to L5 they are fading off the face of the earth. An apple tree in Michigan 

 is good for forty, fifty, sixty, and I suppose a hundred years. You have any 

 quantity more than forty years old; and in New England we have them — 

 I have had 15 to 20 barrels per tree off trees seventy years old. It is a great 

 advantage to be able to own land and live in a climate where the conditions 

 are such that the apple tree when once established and cared for will last 

 much longer than the life of the man who planted it. 



We can best afford in these fruit localities to give the apple the best land 

 we have, the choice of the very best land upon our farnis, provided its eleva- 

 tion or rolling condition is such as to make it desirable for high class fruit. 

 I would not take our low land valleys, but high rolling land suitable for apple 

 cultiu-e. We can afford to give the apple our very best land, and we can 

 afford to give it the very best of care and feed and attention. If the apple 

 growers in other sections of the country can afford to do things only half 

 well, we certainly, with the trees so much longer-lived, can afford to do it 

 as perfectly as we know how, and as others may teach us how. So that now 

 is the time and here is the place for the development of the new modern 

 apple orchard to its very highest state of perfection. 



The apple wants, just as thorough soil preparation as for any other fine 

 crop. Too many apple orchards are planted out in rough fields with just 

 a moderate hole dug for the tree and the tree put in and allowed to make as 

 reasonably fair fight for life as it may. But you can aft'ord to take new 

 lands for the apple orchard, and give it the most thorough preparation 

 of ploughing and of subsoiling and of feeding and a thorough working in 

 every way to get it ready for the young tree at the very start. 



Then, again, you want to start with good trees. Too often when you 

 get converted to apple planting, you always want to plant in a hurry; that 

 is the American way of it; so you are apt to buy the cheapest trees you can 

 find, nearest at hand. But if you can plan a little further ahead than to- 

 morrow, an ideal apple orchard can best be made from trees two or more 

 times transplanted before they go into the orchard. Whether the nurserv- 

 man can afford to do that, or whether you will be willing to pay him for doing 



