^66 A-pples in Connecticut. 



crops, was planted on soil lately cleared from forest growth, and has 

 woods growth on the north and south of it, the cleared portion 

 being not more than forty or fifty rods wide. The trees are all healthy 

 and remarkably free of insect enemies, fruit very fair and of good size, 

 and altogether the best orchard of fruit that the writer has seen of late 

 years. The fruit is as handsome and of as good eating quality as an}- 

 apples we get from the best orchards of the West. 



If it would not make this article too long, I should like to add the expe- 

 rience of Mr. Perry Smith, of Hartford, in managing an apple orchard, 

 ag related at a farmer's club meeting December lo, and reported in 

 the Connecticut Courant of December ii, 1S69, as follows: "When he 

 bought his place in Commerce Street, thirty years ago, there were three 

 apple trees upon it — one the Goodwin apple, another the Fall Pippin, 

 and the third a sweet apple. All the fruit that came from these was 

 nervy and scaly. Though he had no practical knowledge of horticulture 

 at that time, he instinctively went to work to put the trees in better con- 

 dition. The bark was covered with mosses, etc., and twigs grew thick 

 on every limb. He first cut away the surplus wood, — the big branches, 

 which were crowding, — and used a fine, sharp saw ; never used an axe, 

 and cut close down, for if a stump of a limb is left it will gradually 

 decay. The fruit spurs on limbs he broke off, and the ground was 

 literally covered with them. Then he sci'aped off all the loose bark, 

 under which worms will always be found, and made a wash of lime, 

 soft soap, etc., and applied. The ends of the larger limbs were covered 

 up with wax so as not to permit the escape of sap. He did this work 

 himself — didn't hire a man to do it, and then have it half done. The 

 first tree was the Fall Pippin, and the next year the fruit was handsome 

 and fair ; it had none of the seams and nerves which attracted his atten- 

 tion the year before. The second year he picked forty bushels of apples 

 from this tree. Previously the pippins had weighed less than half a 

 pound apiece, or about that at the best ; but some of them, after the tree 

 was brought up to a good state of culture, weighed twenty ounces ; and 

 he took twelve apples to the county fair, in 1842, which filled a peck 

 measure. The trouble with fruit growers is, that trees are planted too 

 close together ; or, if not, are allowed to weave their branches one with 

 the other, gathering wood from year to year, till they scarcely produce 

 anything. He mentioned two orchards, in particular, in this vicinity, 

 which show neglect of this character." 



This is the way to grow apples. They must have an interested culti- 

 vator, for no delegated cai'e can equal in success self-interest. When 

 we get to cultivating apple trees as thoroughly and with the same inter- 



