MY DUCHESS ORCHARD. 297 



There has been a little difference of opinion about that, but I am 

 sure I am right about it, because I observed that the conditions 

 of the weather at that time were the cause of it. In September 

 and October we had warm, showery weather ; it was very warm 

 for that time of the year; and my Wealthy trees started to grow, 

 every tree had blossoms on it in October ; the trees were in a soft 

 condition, and tTie very first freeze in November killed the trees. 

 If we had had no more winter after that November they would 

 have been dead just the same. So it was not the cold winter 

 that did it, but it was that first freeze we had in November. The 

 leaves stayed on all winter. This little Duchess orchard that I 

 planted in 1882 killed back just the same. I grubbed out my 

 Wealthy trees and threw them away, but I let my Duchess trees 

 stand and sprout up. I saw they were bound to go ahead and grow, 

 so I helped them along a little by fertilizing them, and they made 

 a fair growth and soon came into bearing. I observed that in every 

 heavy shower we had in the summer 'time the water ran right off 

 on top of the ground (my trees were in grass sod) into the marsh 

 below and did not benefit my trees. So I conceived the idea of 

 putting into effect what I called natural irrigation. I removed 

 the sod on the upper side of the trees and made a kind of natural 

 basin, banking it up on the lower side, or on the downhill side, of 

 the tree. Then I made little diagonal ditches with my hoe from 

 one tree to another to conduct the water to the trees, and the con- 

 sequence was when we had a heavy shower the water would flow 

 over the top of the ground until it came to one of those little ditches, 

 when ft would be conducted to the little basin that surrounded each 

 tree. Each tree would in a heavy shower catch about a barrel of 

 water. That was a great benefit to them, and I noticed they began 

 to grow rapidly and do well. Since those trees have come into 

 bearing they have borne every year. They have not failed a single 

 year, and it is perfect fruit, there being very few apples that are 

 deformed or in any way imperfect. 



I never spray my trees. That may be contrary to what most 

 of you practice, but I have never sprayed them, and still my fruit 

 IS ver3' perfect. 



I have located in this little orchard on an average about twenty 

 swarms of bees. I do not claim that bees are a positive preventa- 

 tive against injurious insects, but 1 do claim that the bees make it 

 very uncomfortable for those insects. They are on those blos- 

 soms as soon as they begin to open, and they are covered with 

 bees from early in the morning till late at night every day as soon 

 as they come into bloom, and it does not give the insects a chance 

 to work in the blossoms. 1 attribute the perfection of my fruit 



