O. V. CUMMINS 

 "The fruit business is more compiicafed now 

 than ever before. " 



^BOUI 25 years ago O. V. 

 Ud, Cummins was in the ium- 

 ^^^ I ber business in Kell, Illi- 

 nois, when he saw a friend taking in 

 money hand over fist from a few acres 

 of peach and apple trees. There didn't 

 seem to be much expense or work in- 

 volved, at any rate, that kind of work 

 looked better to O. V. than serving lum- 

 ber customers. He set out several acres 

 of peach trees on his father's farm in 

 Jefferson county and prepared to quit sell- 

 ing lumber. 



The farm had been in the family since 

 1860. It never was good corn land but 

 the Cummins family managed to do as 

 well as their neighbors. The average 

 corn yield, around 20 bushels per acre, 

 was enough to airy them along but 

 when compared to income from peaches, 

 it seemed like small potatoes to O. V. 



Tliree years after the first trees were 

 planted, Cummins moved hack to the 

 home farm where he could care for 

 them. As he became more experienced 

 m fruit culture he added to his orchards. 

 Today the Cummins' t!ees, most of them 

 of bearing age, cover 130 acres. Tliere 

 are 90 acres of apples, 30 of peaches and 

 1 of pears. 



Of the three kinds of fruit, apples arc 

 the best paying crop. They bear almost 

 every year while peaches sometimes fail 

 to make a crop three or four years in a 

 row. Cummins says that the Jonathan 

 variety of apples is his best money crop 

 over a long period of years. 



The Cummins' orchards, so beautiful 

 to look upon in the spring, are the result 

 of carefully worked out plans. All the 

 energy of one man over the most fruitful 

 period of life was spent in the develop- 

 ment of the farm. Now a second man. 

 Nelson Cummins, O. 'V.'s son. is direct- 

 ing his labors toward upkeep and growth 

 of these profitable orchards. 



The average com farmer may regard 



O. V. Cummins— Orchardist 



a farm of 1-10 acres as a one man enter- 

 prise but such is not the case in orchard- 

 ing. Besides working the year round 

 themselves, the Cummins' hire four men 

 to help during most of the year. There is 

 always spraying, pruning, picking, cul- 

 tivating, fertilizing, cleaning to be done 

 as well as repairing buildings, machines 

 and other equipment. 



"It didn t take long tor me to see 

 rhat my friend who had done so well 

 growing fruit had been lucky," Mr. Cum- 

 mins recalled. "We've had to fight pests 

 ever since we started — it s part of our 

 job. " 



In fact the production of fruit is such 

 a specialized job that Cummins never at- 

 tempts to market his own. He piik^ it. 

 grades it and packs it according to United 



rams interfered with pollenization which 

 IS done largely by bc-es. The greatest 

 hazard, however, was the apple scab 

 threat. 



Apple scab is a fungus disease that 

 causes leaves to wilt and. in severe cases, 

 to fall otT. When that happens the tree 

 dies. (Continual rains, accompanied by 

 dark, damp weather was ideal for the 

 development of apple scab. 



As soon as the petals start to fall, 

 orchard men coat every leaf with a sul- 

 phur dust or sprav to destroy stab spores. 

 Ordinarily one or two sprays will coat 

 the leaves and proteit ihtm from scab 

 during the spring and carlv summer but 

 this year frequent rains washed the spray 

 materials otf as fa.st as they were applied. 

 I his made it necessary to sjvay or vlust 



The Story <*' ^ Jefferson County Grower Who Found 



that Organized Buying and Selling 



Helps Him Make a Profit 



States standards and passes the resjionsi- 

 bility of selling the crop to the Illinois 

 I-ruit Growers Exchange at Carhondale. 

 The selling, Mr. Cummins believes, is 

 too big a task for small growers to t.ickle. 

 Fruit, a perishable product, must he soKl 

 when it is ripe and few growers ha\e 

 time during the picking season to study 

 market conditions over the country, a nec- 

 -essary step if the best prices are to be 

 obtained. 



This spring was a particularly difficult 

 one for orchardists in southern Illinois, 

 llie bloom was unusuallv lieavv but hard 



after every rain. On May 5 the Cum- 

 mins' trees were getting their fifth snti- 

 stab spray. 



In spite of the weather, prospects for 

 a large crop are good in the Cummins 

 orchards. Ten colonies ot bees were 

 rented to assure proper polleniz-ition. 

 liven before all the petals iVIl. some of 

 the calyxes, the green external parts of 

 the blossoms, had begun to swell ind;cat- 

 ini: that thev would later develop into ap- 

 ;-lcs. 



Mr. Cummins believes that the priic of 

 apples will he qooJ because tity people 



ORCHARDING A BIG BUSINESS BUT LITTLE THINGS COUNT 

 Run-off wafer from an adjoining feld, caught in a pit. is used to spray the trees, 

 hired at $1.25 a colony to pollenate the blossoms. 



Bees are 





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