FRUIT IN SARPY COUNTY. 193 



FRUIT IN SARPY COUNTY. 



E. K. SANBORN. 



The season of 1895 has been a very good one for the apple crop in 

 this locality. We have not had such nice apples for years, so free 

 from insects and matured so well. The hot winds caused a good many 

 to drop ; then we had two days of very hard wind when the apple 

 was about one-third size, and blew about one-third of them off, and 

 as the trees were very heavily loaded, I think that was a benefit to the 

 crop, for it thinned the fruit and made it better quality. The yield 

 was better than we have had for years. From 200 Ben Davis and 

 Winesap trees I had 2,000 bushels of apples this year. My trees are 

 twenty-four feet apart, and about seventy-six trees to the acre, and an 

 average yield of ten bushels to the tree would be 760 bushels per acre. 

 My average price was sixty-five cents per bushel ; that would give me 

 $494 per acre. My orchard of 1,200 bearing trees yielded me about 

 5,000 bushels of apples this year. When I selected my trees, if I 

 had chosen the right varieties, and only about twelve varieties instead 

 of about seventy, my profit would have been much greater. I have 

 many varieties that are worthless for a commercial orchard, and if we 

 do not learn from others experience what to plant for profit, we must 

 learn from our own, and the old saying that "experience is a dear 

 teacher" is true. 



In selecting varieties for a commercial orchard we must consider 

 where our market is to be, for some varieties will not bear shipping 

 a long distance. For this market I would select a few summer, 

 such as Oldenburg, Red June, and Early Harvest ; and a very few 

 fall, such as Wealthy, Utter's Red, and Maiden Blush; but my 

 main crop would be winter varieties, such as Ben Davis, Winesap, 

 Jonathan, Grimes' Golden, Missouri Pippin, and York Imperial. 

 This will give a list of twelve varieties, and all hardy and productive. 

 The Ben Davis will not sell as high in the market as the Jonathan or 

 the Grimes' Golden, but I can make more profit on the Ben Davis at 

 fifty cents a bushel than on the Jonathan at $1. Last fall the Jona- 



