590 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NOETHEA.ST MISSOURI FOR ORCHARDS. 



In the cultivation of the apple my experience is limited, and I 

 realize that there is much to be learned in this progressive age before 

 one is up with the advancing prosession. My first acquaintance with 

 the apple orchard was my father's some 50 years ago. The sprouts 

 from which this orchard was grown were taken from my grandfather's 

 orchard near Huntsville, Mo. My grandfather's orchard was planted 

 from the seeds of three apples that he brought from Kentucky in 1818, 

 and there are some of these same apples grown now in this county. 



Well do I remember these two orchards of my boyhood days and 

 the many happy hours that we children spent in gathering up the red 

 ripe apples. They were not such apples as we now have, but they were 

 then the best of the land. If my father ever took a borer out of a tree 

 or was troubled any way with them I never heard of it. From all that 

 I can now remember it seems that about all that was done in producing 

 this orchard was to set out the sprouts and tie them up in winter to 

 keep the rabbits from barking them, and to trim up the trees so that 

 the plow could get close to them, for corn was grown most all the time 

 in the orchard. I was at the old homestead two years ago and found 

 some of these trees living; they must be over 60 years old. 



Ten years ago I became the owner of a farm near this place and 

 resolved to have an orchard. I talked with my fellow-citizens that had 

 had some experience in growing apples, and learned what I could as 

 to the varieties to plant. The piece of ground selected was on the 

 side of the highway, and I planted four rows next to the road of Ben 

 Davis to keep people out of the orchard. My other selections were 

 Astrakin, Belle Flower, York Imperial, Jonathan, Maiden's Blush, 

 Early Harvest, Red June, Willow Twig, Smith's Cider, R. I. Greening, 

 Milam, and many other varieties. The orchard consisted of 432 trees, 

 of which about 200 trees were ,Ben Davis. This year I sold $200 

 worth of apples, and every one of them were Ben Davis. The ques- 

 tion would naturally arise as to what did the other trees do ! They 

 were apparently as full as the Ben Davis. The Red Jonathan began 

 to fall in August, and I could not do anything with them. They were 

 worth nothing in market. The summer fruit fell off and rotted on the 

 ground. The Willow Twigs blighted and many of the trees died, and 

 the apples withered ; and so it was when gathering time came — they 

 were nearly all gone except the faithful Ben Davis. 



