3i4 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



varieties named are of the best winter sorts, Jonathan excepted. Jona- 

 than can, by early picking, be made to carry over into spring. Its 

 color, size, flavor and bearing qualities make it a necessity. The other 

 varieties named possess more points of excellence than any other four 

 with which I am familiar. Good trees, bear young, bear often, large, 

 red, good keepers, good for cooking, handsome, bruises don't show, 

 are widely known and wanted for export. These are some of the good 

 points of these varieties. Can you name any other list with so many 

 good points ! I think not. 



How soon will apples begin to bear! An orchard well cared for, 

 of vareties named, will bring returns in three to five years; not much, 

 it is true, until seven or eight years old, when the returns will far ex- 

 ceed any part of the farm not planted to fruit. I have picked two 

 barrels of choice fruit per tree at eight years from planting. An or- 

 chard, if well cared for, at twelve years should return from three to 

 five barrels per. tree. This year, and it would apply to two years since 

 1890, or three years in seven, when apples in the orchard were "worth 

 $3.25 per barrel, making from $6.75 to $11.25 per tree. Seventj trees 

 per acre would return $458.50 in the first case and $787.50 in the second. 



Now multiply these amounts by three, the number of crops since 

 1890, and the chances are that the orchard alone would have paid for 

 the whole farm. This does not tell the whole story, for the other four 

 years have returned something. No one year has been an entire 

 failure. One other of the seven produced a good crop, but owing to 

 the over-production elsewhere the margin of profit was reduced to a 

 minimum, yet leaving a balance of profit. Can anything so good be 

 said of any other crop ? Surely not of wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, 

 potatoes or any agricultural crop. While it requires several years' 

 patient waiting, when once established, the orchard is good for a gen- 

 eration, while other crops must be planted annually. Orchards are 

 less susceptible to the vicissitudes of the weather than are grain crops. 

 In the purchase of trees always consult your home nursery. If you 

 would avoid mistakes, to say nothing of imposition, the tree circulator 

 is a very uncertain quantity. Buy only of nurserymen of known relia- 

 bility. Then if deception has been practiced you have redress. Don't 

 be afraid to plant apples, for overproduction is not yet and will not be 

 while you are in the business. — Col. Frank Hoisinger, Western Fruit 

 Grower. 



