SUCCESS IN ORCHARDING. 215 



Success in Orcharding. 



AN EXERCISE LED BY J. F.». HARRISON, ORCHARDIST AND FARMER, EXCELSIOR. 



I think, in order to be a successful orchardist, the first thing 

 tc take into consideration would be — if I were starting out again 

 — the location of the land. I would also want to take the market 

 situation into consideration, because I don't think you could make 

 a success as an orchardist unless you do. I presume that is the 

 reason, if I am at all successful, because those two things were 

 there anyway, whether I took them into consideration or not. 

 I didn't have experience enough to take those things into con- 

 sideration, but the market, of course, developed later from our 

 fruit association. 



Then I think the next thing to take into consideration is the 

 planting of the orchard and the variety of trees and, of course, 

 that should include also the care of the orchard, which would be 

 spraying and pruning. You cannot make a success as an or- 

 chardist nowadays unless you do spraying and also pruning. 



The next thing would be variety, and there would be only 

 two varieties for me now. If I was planting out a commercial 

 orchard now I would plant a few Duchess and the rest would be 

 Wealthys. If I was going to plant an orchard of 500 or 600 

 trees, or a thousand, I believe I would put in about a hundred 

 Duchess. The Duchess always sell well because when the mar- 

 ket for the Duchess opens up, along in August, everybody is 

 apple hungry, and they always sell for a good price. My Duchess 

 that I sold this year brought me a good price, a dollar and a 

 half a bushel. I should certainly be careful about getting too 

 many varieties. That is where I made my mistake. I was for- 

 tunate enough to put in more than half Wealthys, and other 

 varieties would have gone begging for a market but for the 

 Wealthys, and they have always sold the other varieties. 



You have got to take the variety that the public is acquainted 

 with and that the public wants. If you take all these things into 

 consideration there is no question about your success as an 

 orchardist. 



Another thing, your orchard is like lots of other things, you 

 have got to enjoy it. There is no use of a man going into the 

 livestock business unless he enjoys it. If he enjoys it, it is a 

 source of pleasure to him — and it is the same with the orchard. 

 I know I enjoy my orchard; I have reason to enjoy it. 



Once in a while I tell the boys this : When I was a boy — that 



