106 XEBKASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This is what we do in planting apple trees; head them low to begin 

 with, that is what the Oi-egon people do, where I believe are the best 

 managed apple orchards in this country and that is the Hood river dis- 

 trict. When they plant the trees they cut them back or whip stock 

 them in the ground twenty-four inches long. They like four buds and 

 ihey start out with them and then cut the branches back to four buds 

 and three branches. Then the head is composed of twelve main branches 

 and when the weight of the fruit comes it can be picked easier from the 

 ground. No man wants high apple trees. The only object of high 

 apple trees is to make easier cultivation, but if you want the easiest 

 Ijossible cultivation, why do not plant them at all. 



Now we will come to the subject of spraying. We are using lime 

 and sulphur. We had been using the old-fashioned spray of Bordeaux. 

 In some parts of our country we are troubled with the oyster-shell 

 s<ale, to which lime and sulphur is death. We have another trouble, 

 black rot canker. 



Have you the oyster-shell here? 



Mr. Marshall: Yes, a little. 



Have you the black rot canker? 



Mr. Marshall: No, sir. 



These are two hard things to fight, and I believe we have far more 

 insect trouble than you have, but you will get them; do not be worries' 

 about it. 



Our first spraying is done in .July for the oyster-shell, using largely 

 the commercial' lime-sulphur. Our farmers handle it more readily if 

 they buy it than if they manufacture it. 



In young orchards of any size I am going to make it myself and 

 1 will save fifteen cents a gallon by making it at home. That first 

 spraying we put on the commercial lime and sulphur in proportion 

 of one to ten; that is when everything is dormant. The next spraying 

 we use one to twenty; that is when the buds are breaking, and that is 

 when we put in our arsenate of lead. We have tried nearly all of the 

 poisons and I know of none so valuable as the arsenate of lead. You 

 can put it on just as thick as mud; you can plaster it on with the hands 

 .'ind it will not hurt. Put it on as thick as you like and it will set fai' 

 longer on the foliage and it will stay longer in the solution. 



Then we cultivate our apple trees up to a certain season of the 

 year. We begin in the spring and keep it up until the last week in 

 .lune or the first week in .July. That would depend upon your seasons 

 here, however, I am not prepared to say when you should stop culti- 

 vating here, but we keep absolutely clean cultivation until about the 

 first week in .luly. We have to conserve the moisture to make the apple 

 n-ees grow and keep the leaves green. Then we stop cultivation entirely 

 and plant our cover crop to enrich the soil. Then we do not do any- 

 thing with it imtil the next spring, when we turn it under and carry 

 on the same cultivation. Now. this cover crop is very good because 

 it stops the tree growth and starts the ripening of the fruit, and it 



