322 State Horticultural Society. 



favorable places. Trees grow larger and look nicer in red lands, but I 

 like the whitish, yellowish and black clay soils best for they appear to 

 grow nicer fruit, and the fruit does not mature so early in the fall. I 

 think the trees bear better in such soils. 



I have one orchard that was set out first in 1885. We sowed the 

 land in oats and clover the same year. The orchard consisted of five 

 hundred Ben Davis, two hundred and fifty-six Winesaps and Hunts- 

 man, seven hundred and fifty-six trees, in all. We cut the crop of 

 •clover in 1886. In the spring of 1887, we plowed the land for corn 

 and reset five hundred of the trees that had died. We continued to 

 cultivate the orchard and reset each spring. In 1892 we sold $50.50, 

 worth of wormy, scabby apples. In 1895 we got a spraying machine 

 and commenced to use it the best we knew how. My crop in the fall was 

 much better than I expected. I received something over $650 for the 

 •crop and it was sold very cheap, for I had had no experience in selling 

 fruit. In the bad year of 1896, I raised seven hundred barrels and 

 sold for $850, and estimated that I had cleared $650, after paying all 

 •expenses of raising, spraying and handling. In 1897, this orchard set 

 very full of fruit and had to be thinned a great deal. We cultivated 

 some, but not enough. The crop sold for $2,000 on the trees, which 

 was about equal to $1.50 per barrel. In 1898, Ave had only a light 

 crop and most of it was blown off during a storm in July. In 1899, 

 Three hundred and sixty Ben Davis trees, in this orchard, bore seven 

 hundred and thirty barrels of apples, five hundred and ninety of which 

 were hand-picked. My loss in sorting and packing of hand-picked 

 fruit, was about one barrel in sixty. The hand-picked fruit sold at 

 $1.85 per barrel, while the best of the wind-falls brought $1.25 per 

 barrel. The evaporator stock sold at about sixty-nine cents per barrel. 

 Adding the balance of the sales of Huntsman and Winesap, we re- 

 ceived, in all, for the year, on the seven hundred and fifty-six places 

 for trees $1,500. The total sales from this orchard for five years, 

 beginning with 1895 and incbiding 1899, was a little over $5,000, 

 and the cost has been about $600, for all cultivating, spra,%dng and 

 pruning during the time. This orchard of 756 trees is the oldest one 

 ■of my several orchards. I mention it particularly, because it being 

 the oldest one, has given me most experience. The trees in this 



