No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 397 



Up to the present time we have put our apples in storage as 

 soon as they can be packed with the packers sorting as fast as picked. 

 All the drops and culls are drawn to tlie evaporator, keeping the 

 orchard cleaned up as we go. 



At the evaporator apple prices are very satisfactory, 65 cents 

 per 100 pounds for all that aie on the ground and the culls. We ex- 

 pect to have a cold storage on our own farm and draw the apples 

 to the storage, and if we are in a hurry the apples will not be sorted 

 until they are all picked. The apples then will be cooled off and 

 will stop ripening. Will not ripen a bit from the time they are 

 picked until they get into storage. 



TILLAGE VS. SOD-MULCH 



By DR. U. P. HEDRICK, Horticulturist, Geneva, New York. 



Commercial fruit growing is a comparatively new development in 

 America. The first settlers of the new world brought seeds of fruits 

 from the old world, for it was impossible, with their slow sailing 

 vessels, to bring grafts or the trees themselves. All of the old 

 orchards came from seeds. The first great impetus to American fruit 

 growing came just after the Revolutionary War, when a great 

 number of men in different parts of America became interested in 

 introducing new fruits in America. They shipped to the old world 

 the trees, fiowers and plants that were found growing wild in this 

 country, and brought back varieties of the different European fruits. 

 Horticulture had its beginning at that time. Steam navigation 

 gave another impetus. Before that time trees and fruits could be 

 carried over the ocean only with the greatest difficulty. With the 

 advent of steam navigation these difficulties were removed and many 

 varieties were introduced into America. At the same time the 

 codling moth, apple scab, wooly aphis and other pests which before 

 that time could not be carried across the ocean, were introduced. 



The third and chief impetus came after the Civil War. It came 

 with the better transportation facilities whereby fruits could be 

 transported from place to place. Until that time fruit had been 

 carried from the producer to the consumer only by horses, but now 

 railroads and steamboats came into use. Later developments have 

 been the use of refrigerator cars, cold storage plants and means of 

 evaporating and canning fruits. 



In the old days the fruits were wholly an adjunct to the farm. 

 The trees were planted near the house and along lanes and fences, 

 and in sod, and the orchards were pastured. The trees received 

 comparatively little care. There was but little money to be made 

 from fruit growing, but with the development of commercial fruit 

 interest it was found necessary to change, and men began to culti- 



