164 • NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this. In our orchard we planted Winesap, Ben Davis, Gano, Wealthy. 

 .Jonathan and Grimes' Golden, but more of the Ben Davis than any 

 other variety. We dug the holes for the trees with spades, cautioning 

 the planters to straighten the roots out as well as possible and arrange 

 the giound well around them. Out of nearly 4,000 trees I do not think 

 we lost a dozen. 



We cultivated them and raised corn the first few years. Later, when 

 the trees got larger, we ceased planting corn and grew potatoes and 

 small fruit, such as black raspberries, red raspberries and strawberries. 

 We also Planted a few rows of peaches between the trees, but the peaches 

 did not do very well. We probably got enough fruit off of them to 

 pay for planting the trees. We have never sown any kind of grass 

 seed in the orchard except clover. 



When the trees were four years old they commenced to bear some 

 apples, but not enough to count commercially until about the ninth year. 

 There is about sixty-five acres in this orchard. Mr. Wileman, who helped 

 to plant these trees, is still on the place and now owns a part of it. He 

 had never gone to college but he was a good, level-headed man with 

 natural tact, prudence and judgment. He was all right when he knew, 

 but, like the man from Missouri, "you had to show him." As indicated 

 before, a person to grow apples must have experience and with that 

 experience a desire to succeed, accompanied with persistence, stick-to- 

 itiveness, stubbornness and determination. Many times this same man 

 and his wife came to town ready to quit, saying that the apples would 

 not bear sufficiently to pay. I would encourage them and they returned 

 to the farm and took a fresh start until the blues overtook them and 

 they would come in again. 



When the trees were old enough to spray I wanted to spray, he did 

 not. He called my attention to the fact that nature was here before 

 I was and would be here after I was gone. He said. "The Great Ruler 

 will take care of them." In return I said, "You planted corn in the 

 field out there." He said, "Yes." "Well, what are you going and cultivat- 

 ing for? Nature was here before you was and will be here after you are 

 gone. I do not expect to change nature but only to assist it." Soon after 

 some government experts come down and gave a demonstration of spray- 

 ing. Some trees were not sprayed, some were sprayed once, some twice 

 and some three times. That settled the question. We commenced to 

 spray and have been spraying ever since and Mr. Wileman is probably 

 stronger for spraying now than I am. He does not want to leave the 

 orchard now. Last year we sprayed six times and cultivated eight times. 



We cultivate in the middle of the rows with a good farm disc 

 drown by four horses. Under the trees we used the Johnson orchard 

 disc which can be extended under the trees. Discing keeps the ground 

 moist all summer. The apples do not stop gi'owing if a dry spell comes on. 



As to time of spraying we think it a good time to spray, once in 

 the fall soon after the apples are gathered, with lime-sulphur, a spray 



