SOME LESSONS OF THE YEAR 1900. 287 



in at once, and they could not be sent to distant markets. The 

 Wealthy, Fameuse, Utter, Shockly, Plumb's Cider and the Russian 

 Anisim and Antonovky hung on very well until the last week m 

 August, when they began to drop freely, from having ripened too 

 early, and as they would not keep well had to be gathered and mar- 

 keted while prices were low to save them. The few long-keepers 

 that are grown with us are already decaying badly, and good winter 

 apples are scarce. The causes for this are generally attributed to 

 the drouth of early summer, the warm rains of mid-summer that 

 staited a vigorous wood growth, diverting the sap from the devel- 

 opment of fruit to the formation of wood, and the propagation of 

 fungous diseases and the long-continued extreme heat that occurred 

 during the month of August. 



Some orchards, some localities and some methods of treatment 

 brought better results than others, and it is from observations and 

 making comparisons that we are to learn our lessons. In my own 

 orcjiard scattering trees, standing in ground that was kept cultivated, 

 did not drop their fruit as early, and two large Duchess trees carried 

 a full crop up to the end of the season. On other scattering trees 

 that were not thoroughly cultivated the fruit hung on longer, and 

 it came to greater perfection than on those in full rows in the regular 

 orchard. Trees that stood twelve by eighteen to twenty feet apart 

 and had reached the age of sixteen to twenty years and but indiffer- 

 ently cultivated, ripened and dropped the whole crop earlier than 

 those standing at greater distance apart, and decay began earlier. 

 Trees on elevated land of clay loam or limestone soils held their fruit 

 better, and the quality was better than in orchards on low or valley 

 lands of light alluvial soils. Orchards on eastern and northern slopes 

 of hills or bluff's with shelter not too close on the south and west 

 did about as well as those on the tops of the hills, where they were 

 not too closely planted, and were less affected by heavy wind storms. 

 Where spraying was practiced and bands put upon the trunks as a 

 remedy against the codling worm and apple gouger, there was a 

 much larger proportion of the fruit that was of fair appearance and 

 free from worms and the irregularities caused by the gouger than 

 where these means were not practiced. In some cases where liberal 

 mulching was applied before the soil became too dry, the results 

 produced seemed to be favorable. 



The lessons to be learned in a season like the last are : First. — 

 That the best site for an orchard is upon high, well drained land, with 

 strong clay loam or limestone soil or on the northern and eastern 

 slopes of hills and bluffs. Second. — That for best results the trees 

 should not be too closely planted. For large commercial orchards 



