822 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



paid about $15.00 to a man for pruning 

 about fifty apple-trees. Well, this pruning 

 made the Cocklin's Favorite larger and 

 fairer than ever before; but notwithstand- 

 ing the trees were loaded almost to the 

 breaking of the limbs, when the apples be- 

 gan to ripen along in August, as there was 

 no market for early apples, the ground was 

 literally covered with gi'eat beauties. We 

 told the neighbors to help themselves. I 

 told our employees, as they passed the trees 

 so near the sidewalk, to help themselves and 

 to get a basket and take some home. Well, 

 it was worth a hundred times what those 

 trees cost to hear the people shout, espe- 

 cially the urchins, as they took a big bite 

 of those luscious apples. Now, do not write 

 me to send you some grafts, for I start for 

 Florida to-day, Nov. 5, and there is no one 

 here on our busy ranch who has the time or 

 takes the interest to cut and pack grafts. 

 Go to any nurseryman and buy trees of 

 Cocklin's Favorite. The next tree in the 

 row was Early Harvest. This ripens con- 

 siderably earlier than Cocklin's Favorite. 

 But you know all about it, so I do not need 

 to describe it. 



The next tree proved to be Rawle's Ge- 

 net, sometimes called "Genet" for short. 

 This is the latest-ripening apple of which 

 I have any knowledge. They do not even 

 color up much before Thanksgiving time in 

 our locality. They are hard as a rock, and 

 keep so until spring, and with a little 

 trouble you can have them the Fourth of 

 July. 



Now, perhaps I had better mention right 

 here one of my discoveries. When you 

 have an apple-tree, early, medium, or late, 

 if you wish to prolong the season and have 

 fine fruit for a long while, begin to gather 

 a part of the apples as soon as they com- 

 mence to show color or come anywhere 

 near maturity. Keep these first-gathered 

 apples, unfit to eat at the time, in the cool- 

 est place you can find — a cool cellar on the 

 north side of the house — and you will find 

 they will be a long time in ripening — a 

 much longer time than if left on the tree; 

 and the important point is that those re- 

 maining on the tree will develop larger 

 and much finer fruit because they have 

 more room and more sunshine. Apple-trees 

 usually, especiallv where the trees are un- 

 pruned, set more fruit than they can ma- 

 ture properly. This year we went over the 

 trees and picked otf about half the fruit — 

 that which was colored up most — and left 

 the remaining half for two or three weeks. 

 Unless you have tried it you will be aston- 

 ished to see how this sort of thinning heirs 

 the remaining apjiles. Our winter apples 



were mostly jDicked before the leaves had 

 fallen, as we had no killing frost before 

 Nov. 1. Well, with the trees covered with 

 leaves it is almost impossible for the aver- 

 age man or boy to get all of them; and I 

 have greatly enjoyed, during the past 

 month, going around under our apple-trees, 

 especially after a blow or storm, and pick- 

 ing up the great beauties that were missed 

 at picking-time; and they are not only 

 great beauties, but they are finer in flavor, 

 and more luscious, than any apples I ever 

 ate before. The point is, after we had 

 gathered the fruit these few remaining 

 specimens hidden by the leaves had the 

 benefit of the entire vigor of the great 

 strong tree. I suppose there was more 

 vigor this year than usual away along late 

 in October, because the great mass of foli- 

 age was bright and green and unharmed 

 by frost. We gathered about half of 

 Rawle's Genet the last of October. The 

 remaining half will stay on the trees until 

 Thanksgiving, or perhaps till toward 

 Christmas. This Genet apple is so hard 

 that frost does not seem to aifect it — :at 

 least while hanging on the tree. The next 

 tree in the row proved to be a Maiden's 

 Blush, and probably you know all about 

 this. Then comes the Northern Spy, the 

 great standard winter apple for eating and 

 cooking. Then comes a tree of the Falla- 

 water, that a great many people make fun 

 of, but which, when j^roperly developed by 

 pruning and other care, are, I think, along 

 in the spring just luscious. And they grow 

 so large that one big apple makes a good 

 "supper." 



Now, after purchasing and setting out 

 the above trees I happened to visit our 

 State fair; and when there I got to tnlking 

 with an apple-man who wanted some bees. 

 I traded him bees enough for a hundred 

 apple-trees. I can not tell you about the 

 whole hundred trees, but I am going to 

 speak of three of them in particular in 

 that lot. They are the Gravenstein that is 

 just now making such s. sensation, not only 

 ii! the great apple regions of Colorado and 

 Oregon, but wherever these apples are 

 shipped. I suppose you know our pomol- 

 ogists have graded apples according to 

 quality. No. 1 is the poorest and No. 10 is 

 the best. I think the Ben Davis has the 

 honor (?) of being classed as No. 1; but 

 some of the Ben Davis apples raised down 

 in Missouri, "the land of the big red ap- 

 ple," are gi-eedily taken at a nickel apiece 

 along in the spring down in Florida. Well, 

 while the Ben Davis is classed as the poor- 

 est, the Gravenstein henr'^^ the list for qual- 

 itv. Its one fault is that, in our region, it 



