SIXTEEXTJI ANNUAL MEETING. 51 



We have a whole lot of difficulty as our orchards are on 

 hillsides, although we have some land that is nearly level ; 

 there are big, steep banks and you can't travel on them with 

 a team. }-ou can only walk. These banks are from fifty to one 

 hundred feet wide. We drive to the top of thetn with our 

 spraying apparatus and a man goes down the bank and sprays 

 say a half or two-thirds of that bank; then the next time we 

 drive at the lower half of the bank and spray the lower half 

 and that sprays the whole bank. 



It means a large amount of hard work to grow apples 

 right. We have to make roads on our banks so we can drive 

 our wagons holding our spraying apparatus and contrive 

 means to keep them from turning over and froni slipping ox^er 

 the banks. We use a power sprayer and a gasoline engine ; 

 we have two now and expect to have a third next year; we 

 have a pressure of from 100 to 125 pounds; we use three or 

 four different nozzles in a cluster, depending on the size of the 

 caps. I prefer the medium coarse nozzle and not too fine a 

 spray ; I don't mean a coarse nozzle to throw a large stream ; 

 but late in the season I don't know but it would be better to 

 have a little finer nozzle than earlier in the season. But the 

 main thing is to get the stuff on and get it all over the trees. 

 We can't use one of those overhead platforms on wagons be- 

 cause we \\ould turn over very quickly. Our men have to stay 

 on the ground and walk around the tree; we insist that they go 

 clear around it and thoroughly spray every portion of it and 

 x\here they can't get it on the outside we instruct them to put 

 it on the inside.- 



Then. I believe in thinning the apples. By thinning you 

 get a larger and finer quality of fruit, and too, our help is 

 more needed in the fall than in the summer time; and I figure 

 it is better policy to ])ut some men in the orchards in the sum- 

 mer anrl pick some of the fruit than to leave them all until fall. 

 .\fter vou have picked off half of the apples, sometimes two- 

 thirds or more, you will have practically as many barrels of 

 apples and they will be of better quality and you will' get a 

 better price. It is the only thing for a man to do who grows 

 fancy apples. 



The Colorado and far western growers thin apples and 



