- 3 - 



of the largest growers did no leveling other than that which their pickers did in 

 the £ield. They admitted that the supervision in the orchard must be constant 

 and intensive. They were convinced however that their pickers were making more 

 money by picking a level bushel as opposed to one with as much as 10 per cent 

 extra on the top. Moreover, they felt they were also obtaining savings by elim- 

 inating the leveling operation. 



"The average cost of leveling was 3.7 cents per bushel for those who did 

 this job. One needs to gain an extra bushel from every five bushels picked to 

 pay for leveling from extra apples alone. While most growers did not indicate 

 that leveling was done to get extra apples, this was an end result. Every farmer 

 must make his own decisions with respect to leveling. Physical damage will occur 

 if apples are not level with or below the top of the box when another box is 

 placed above it. Of all the jobs during harvest, leveling is the most open to 

 question. Twenty per cent of the growers had found ways of eliminating it as a 

 separate operation. Another 20 per cent had combined it with the job of hauling 

 or unloading. In general these growers had lower costs per bushel for labor to 

 harvest their apples. 



"One exception is worthy of note. When apples are sold direct from the or- 

 chard as orchard-run, the leveling process takes on a more important role. Here 

 it serves as part of a field grading operation. Shrink must be controlled at 

 approximately 10 per cent. In this case four cents per bushel is a very inexpen- 

 sive grading process. Depending on the sales outlet, returns from selling on an 

 orchard-run basis may well merit the cost of a special crew in the orchard." 



---William J. Lord 

 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



DWARFING APPLE ROOTSTOCKS FOR COLD CLIMATE ORCHARDS 



The planting of apple trees which have been propagated on dwarfing or semi- 

 dwarfing clonal rootstocks has not been a recommended practice for the commercial 

 producers of Vermont. There has been keen Interest in the semi-dwarfing stocks, 

 largely as a result of an intense supply of popular publicity. Three or four 

 Vermont apple orchardlsts have planted trees on semi-dwarfing stocks on more than 

 a limited trial basis. 



The advantages, if any, of using stocks such as Mailing VII under Vermont 

 conditions may be far more than offset by the possible disadvantages. We are 

 very obligated to help the commercial apple grower in his decision to eliminate 

 any practice which Involves an added risk of loss of production or Income at a 

 later time. 



The most Important reasons why semi-dwarfing stocks are of Interest to apple 

 growers do not seem to be entirely valid. For example, tree size control of 

 Mcintosh is a much less Important problem under our cold climate conditions be- 

 cause vegetative growth is less than in warmer areas. Failure to control tree 

 size in our climate is an admission of failure to understand how to prune standard 

 trees to limit their height at maturity. 



