THE APPLE ORCHARD IN MAY AND JUNE. 1 73 



THE APPLE ORCHARD IN MAY AND JUNE. 



NILS ANDERSON, LAKE CITY. 



About the first of May we usually find the weather wet and 

 cold ; still, the buds are opening, and I begin to look for the green 

 aphis. They are generally t'o be found on the early starting 

 varieties, such as the Transcendent, Early Strawberry and Minne- 

 sota crabs. If badly infested, the trees had better be sprayed, but 

 if not the orchard is considered safe until after the blossoms fall. 

 At this time we can use the teams for cleaning the orchard from 

 limbs that have been pruned from the trees in March and early 

 April, and haul off and burn other rubbish that has accumulated. 

 The young trees are now cultivated and are leafing out and start- 

 ing to grow. The bearing orchard that has been plowed must be 

 harrowed and made smooth, as the blossoms of all the early 

 varieties have fallen by this time, and but few blossoms remain on 

 the late bearing trees. 



The spraying must now be commenced, or your crop of apples 

 will be reduced. At first, I used the same amount of Paris green 

 on the apple frees as on the plum trees that had been sprayed be- 

 fore, viz : six ounces of Paris green to fifty gallons of water. This 

 mixture was all right for the codling moth but too much for the 

 foliage on the Tetofsky apple trees, which was badly burned. All 

 the other tree showed no signs of being burnt. The orchard that 

 is set in the old way, we spray on one side of each row or on both 

 sides as we go through the orchard, but where the orchard is 

 set in the new way, we spray one side and then come back the other 

 side ; and where the top of the trees cannot be reached with a 

 spray, it is changed to a stream, and we spray until the water is 

 dripping from the trees. It is better to waste some Paris green 

 than spend a lot of time that does no good. 



The last of May has now arrived, and the weeds are starting, 

 and we find it necessary to again cultivate the young orchard and 

 to harrow the bearing orchard. We aim to work the orchard once 

 every two weeks after this time. 



We are now entering the first days of June, ten days after we 

 have sprayed the apple orchard for the first time. About the first 

 of June I spray the orchard the second time. For the second 

 spraying I have been using four ounces of Paris green and about' 

 six pounds of slaked lime, mixed with fifty gallons of water. This 

 time I intend to catch all kinds of insects and use lime to pre- 

 vent the scab. There is one good advantage in using the lime, we 

 can see exactly where we hit. The orchard that is not under 



