Sitnuiicr Meeting. 13 



'is 



Make the grade of apples good, do not try to force apples on him 

 that are not in line with what you agreed to sell him. There is no money 

 in this sort of work. When you put your name on a barrel of No. i 

 apples be sure they are No. I's or any other grade that you may under- 

 take to make. Handle your apples nicely from the trees. After your 

 shipping apples are all picked out, keep your cider apples all worked up, 

 throw your pummace up in a hopper or tank with all other refused ap- 

 ples. Do not have any apples, not even a rotten apple, under the tree, 

 throw them in with the cider pomace into your vinegar tanks and let 

 them feniient, by doing this you will save everything ; also have a fine 

 lot of vinegar, from the refuse stuff that is thrown away. I had last 

 year some sixty barrels of fine vinegar. It was all saved in this way 

 and is bringing me from $7 to $8 a barrel. 



When you have cleaned up the apples, from all of your trees, then 

 commence to prepare your orchard for wmter quarters. Take a hoe, 

 and scrape all the dead grass away from the trunk of the tree, for two 

 or three feet around. Whenever we have dead or broken limbs we saw 

 them off, this is all the pruning we do, after w^e have headed and started 

 our young trees. You will find by doing this you will have no water 

 sprouts. As we go over our orchard, when we come to a dead tree or 

 one that is d}'ing-, we tag it so the man that follows may know what to 

 take out. Every tree then that is dead or dying is tagged when we go 

 over the first time. We then follow with dynamite, by boring a hole 

 under the roots of the trees with an auger, slip in a stick or half stick as 

 you may determine by the looks of the tree, and blow them out. . By 

 doing this the tree is blown out, all the dead roots and ground is thorough- 

 ly blown up where the tree stands, this cleanses the place and kills the 

 insects by the next spring. You will find the ground where the tree 

 has been blown out in fine shape to reset another tree. 



Last, but not least in the way of preparing our orchard for winter 

 quarters, we go over the orchard with a preparation of lime, sulphur and 

 carlx)lic acid. Commencing in the. forks of the tree we take a long 

 bladed knife and clean out the forks of the trees thoroughly. You will 

 find a great many leaves have lodged there and a great many insects 

 have gone there for their winter quarters. W^e then have all the grass 

 taken from the trees, the forks cleaned out nicely, and the broken and 

 dead limbs sawed off. The tree is now ready to apply the wash. Take 

 a brush and apply it well, putting all you can down in the forks of the 

 tree with your brush and then on down to the ground. All the settlings 

 in our bucket that we carry our wash in we empty that out around the 

 roots of the trees. 



