72 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There is one thing that has occurred to me many times, but it is just 

 one of my theories, and lliat is— sometime we will have a brush binder 

 that you can run through the orchard and bind the brush up the same 

 as they used to bind wheat. Then use the brush for wood. I do not 

 see why we should not save our trimmings for firewood. 



In the spring we tiy to get a cover crop on our orchards. We sow 

 any time from the middle of June to the last of July. I am sure you 

 all know as much about this as I do, but your Secretarv has me liere 

 to talk and I will have to talk on the things that I know best. 



When we plant our trees, if there are more limbs on them than we 

 want for the top we cut off the ones not wanted, but never cut back 

 any (jf the limbs left. The trees are then dipped in a solution of lime 

 sulphur. We make our own lime sulphur. Sometimes the entire tree 

 is dipped, sometimes only the trunk. It is not advisable to dip the 

 roots in the lime sulphur, but I have never killed trees by dipping the 

 roots. Our young trees are trimmed but little after being set. I have 

 one orchard of twenty acres set six years that has never been trimmed. 

 From this orchard we picked this year three hundred and forty bar- 

 rels. This orchard is Baldwins and the fall varieties. The trees are 

 twenty-one feet apart. The Baldwins are forty feet apart. I have 

 the Maiden Blush, Duchess and Mcintosh Reds for fillers. This is the 

 first year that I have ever grown apples too large to sell. They told 

 me that the Wolf River apples were so large that the Governor of 

 Illinois said that in one barrel there were only ten apples. I think he 

 must have stretched the apples or shortened the barrel. 



Our spraying is done in the general way. All my orchards are plowed 

 towards the row of trees and cross cultivated and this keeps the laud 

 froln getting deep ridges and gives it a chance to drain after a heas-y 

 rain. 



We try to buy our barrels early in the season and usually begin to 

 store them in May and June. Before they are taken to the orchard, 

 tlie head is taken off and the quarter hoops are nailed. The apples 

 are all picked by the ban*el and drawn at once to the storage and sorted 

 there. We found it best to pay by the barrel and let the men make all 

 they can. We pay from ten to fifteen cents per barrel and board. I some- 

 times wish we had the Czar of Russia here, especially in regard to sell- 

 ing drinks. The apple pickers that I know as a rule require more to 

 drink, or think they do, than any other class of people that I know 

 of, especially if we have a wet spell and they all go to town, when 

 they come home they do not know an apple from a bluejay. 



We have a few pear trees, 12 acres of Bartletts. I have sometimesi 

 thought I would set a few more. 



Up to two years ago, I have followed the plan that if a tree showed 

 blight I would cut the blight out. I have, however, come to the con- 

 clusion that this is labor lost. We now leave ours and cut it out in 

 the spring before warm weather comes. This past year in twelve acres 

 of pears, we had just one limb of blight, but our young apple orchard 

 was blighted quite badly. I do not know whether the conditions can 

 be laid to the climate or not, 



Q. Would you advise trimming a young orchard? 



A. About twelve years ago one of the best fruit growers in the state 

 of New York set out an orchard. The untrimmed trees are one third 



