160 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



those whose orchards have good and profitable varieties. I emphasize, 

 profitable varieties. 



We read in the " answer " column of our paper that some one is intend- 

 ing to plant an apple orchard and wants information as to the best 

 varieties. He may live in Iowa, and is answered by a New England man 

 who is well posted on the fruit that is best adapted to his particular local- 

 ity. His answer comes in the next issue, to set Baldwins with a few 

 other varieties for home use. Baldwins are set, and perhaps, when seven 

 or eight years old, a hard winter leaves him the bodies of the trees for his 

 firewood. Consequently he is heartily discouraged. Kight here I would 

 like to suggest to all prospective fruitgrowers that the best advice and 

 direction can be obtained as to variety, etc., from a successful fruit-raiser 

 in 3'our own neighborhood, or rather, fruitgrowers. Talk to all who are 

 raising fruit, and then you obtain information that relates directly to 

 your own case and particular conditions. Then, we don't have to " cut 

 and try " many times to our sorrow. 



Can apples be made as profitable as other fruits? I answer, 

 yes. My own personal experience will have to be submitted, so 

 pardon the personality. I have forty acres of apple orchard; have 

 €ultivated from two hundred to two hundred and fifty acres in 

 farm products, besides my orchards, rotating my crops and, com- 

 paratively speaking, successfully. By that I mean average acreage 

 of all crops. I have made more jnoney from my forty acres of 

 orchard than all the rest of my farm. Last year it netted me close to |55 

 per acre, and has run from $40 to |G0 the past seven years, with one 

 exception when I had onl}^ 300 barrels, owing to the continued rains dur- 

 ing the blossoming season. Apjjles bear with quite a degree of uniformity 

 for about twenty years, being among the longest to bear of all fruit 

 trees. The average age of the peach is about twelve years, while here, 

 where we have yellows to contend with, it is not more than nine or ten 

 years; and the pear, we know, as compared with the apple, is shorter 

 lived; consequently we understand the apple has more time to bear, and 

 evidently results in being more a money-maker. Hardly any two men 

 agree exactly in the care of an apple orchard, but in the main there are 

 certain things that are required to accomplish results that are profitable. 



Trimming and cultivating apple orchards I believe to be essential, 

 although I do not advocate so severe pruning as some. I cultivate my 

 orchards, plowing early in the spring, and then sow two bushels of field 

 peas to the acre, for hogs, which are turned into the orchard about the 

 first of August. It is my idea that hogs in an orchard during early fall 

 or late summer are the means of destroying innumerable insects and 

 worms that prey on the apples. The peas are useful in giving the hogs 

 flesh preparatory to corn-feeding later, and the ground has received a 

 fine mulching and fertilizing. The peas take very little nutriment from 

 the soil, as they are air-feeding plants. This year I find that I will have to 

 either prop my trees or cut my peas and haul them out of the orchard, 

 as the trees are very low-headed, and limbs are on the ground now by the 

 weight of the fruit. If not, the hogs will feast on too many No. 1 apples. 

 In all truth, we should not cast pearls before swine; but when apples 

 are considered, hogs are very particular to discriminate in favor of the 

 best fruit, both in variety and quality. 



