1907 



GLEA^^INGS m BEE CULTURE. 



1513 



loaded with beantiful apples, many of the 

 limbs being propp3d up. 



Let me stop long enough to explain why I 

 was deeply interested. Right close to our 

 home nere in Medina we have about 50 ap- 

 ple trees; but during the past season we have 

 several times gone to the grocery and bought 

 ripples to make pies — yes, even though we 

 l;ad to pay 60 cents a j^eck for them. We 

 did get a few apples later on, perhaps five 

 buybe's all told from our 50 trees; but they 

 we:: eo precio.is that we picked up all the 

 wr--i'''' and cut out the rotten spots and 

 bruio. ! ;>laces in order that nothing in the 

 shape or an apple need be wasted. 



When 1 reached this Schmitkons home we 

 found a good-sized tent right in the midst of 

 a very pretty apple-orchard, or, rather, two 

 orchards. The larger one had 20 acres and 

 the smaller one 8 acres; and every tree, so 

 far as I observed in all those 28 acres, was 

 loaded, and the limbs were bending down 

 with beautiful apples, mostly Baldwins. The 

 spraying was commenced by Mr. Schmitkons 

 in 1896. His work finally attracted the at- 

 tention of the Ohio Experiment Station to 

 such an extent that they have kept a man 

 there during the past season to help and ob- 

 serve. 



Under one of the trees near the tent we saw 

 a heap of 20 bushels of apples that had just 

 been picked from that tree, and there were 

 many other trees that did equally well, al- 

 though none of the trees were very large, 

 such as we often see in an old orchard. If 

 the trees should average 10 bushels (and it 

 was estimated that they would do that), there 

 wei'e about 10.000 bushels, at least, of beauti- 

 ful apples on those 28 acres. 



Now to let you know exactly what that 

 means in such a season as the past here in 

 Northern Ohio, permit me to say that, just a 

 few days ago, I saw some Maiden's Blush ap- 

 ples in one of the Cleveland fruitstores mark- 

 ed $1.25 per half bushel— $2.50 a bushel for 

 fall apples and not first-class ones at that! 



The spraying-apparatus used was there in 

 the orchard, and set at work to let the great 

 crowd see all about how it was done. 



All the apples were picked from several of 

 the trees, the wormy ones put in one pile, 

 and those entirely free from worms in anoth- 

 er pile; and the same thing was done with 

 trees sprayed and with others not sprayed. 

 I can not recall the figures now; but on one 

 tree that had been thoroughly sprayed for 

 the last nine years in the above approved 

 manner there were only 27 wormy apples. 

 On another tree near by, containing about the 

 same amount of fruit, where no spraying had 

 been done during the past season, there were 

 over 900 wormy apples. It is true the spray- 

 ing had injured the appearance of some of 

 the Baldwins by making them look a little 

 like russet apples. In order to be sure that 

 this russet appearance was the result of spray- 

 ing I asked the speaker if there were no rus- 

 sets in other orchards in that neighborhood 

 that had not been sprayed at all. He laugh- 

 ed while he explained that the orchards in 

 that neighborhood,, where no spraying had 



been done, bore scarcely enough fruit of any 

 kind to show whether they were russets or 

 not. 



I can not take space here to tell you all 

 the points that were brought out; but it was 

 very evident that the man who chooses a 

 fair location for growing apples, who keeps 

 posted, and avails himself of the teachings 

 of our experts, can be pretty sure of having 

 a good crop of apples every year, and par- 

 ticularly so when apples are worth more per 

 bushel than they ordinarily bring per barrel, 

 as is the case this year. 



As one of the speakers was absent, our 

 good friend W. I. Chamberlain, of the Ohio 

 Farmer, was asked to talk. I hardly need 

 say that Prof Chamberlain is not only an 

 expert authority, but he is a successful grow- 

 er, and rarely fails to have a big crop of nice 

 apples. Friend Schmitkons was ahead of 

 him, however, this season. Pi'of. Chamber- 

 lain's fii'st point was one that interested me 

 particularly. He said, "If this were my or- 

 chard I would pick all of these apples inside 

 of a week, even if it cost me $500 to do it." 

 Then he gave his reasons for picking Bald- 

 win apples as early as the first Week in Octo- 

 ber. Last year a terrible storm and blizzard 

 ruined a crop of his apples — something like 

 5000 bushels — in his own orchard in Hudson, 

 O. Of course, the apples that were knocked 

 off and dropped on the grass were picked up 

 and sorted, and sold at a reduced price; but 

 his advice to some of us who had had some 

 sad experience was to pick the apples as soon 

 as they were fairly colored up. Some grow- 

 ers recommend picking the best-colored ones 

 first, and the remainder at a later date. 1 

 know by my own experience that many 

 beautiful apples ai'e reduced to the price of 

 windfalls unless picked early. 



Oh, yes! Do some of you feel like suggest- 

 ing that I made a blunder in my heading? 

 Well, all the above is just a preface to what 

 1 have been wanting to say for some time 

 past. You may be aware that for several 

 years I have been testing medicines — not 

 only those that are left on our doorsteps but 

 those that are advertised to perform such 

 "great wonders." By the way, I have a 

 drawerful of new remedies that I have been 

 proposing to test whenever I should happen 

 to have an attack of this, that, or the other 

 malady. I think it has been some time, how- 

 ever, since I have gone to that drawer. First, 

 I have been so well that I have had no oc- 

 casion to handle them. Second, I have come 

 to the conclusion that God never intended 

 we should get relief from our pains and aches 

 by taking drugs. When you have an earache 

 or toothache coming, or stomachache, instead 

 of going for a bottle or some pills, just say, 

 "Lord, help me to learn the lesson that this 

 pain is intended to teach me." Well. I have 

 found some medicines that cured. There is 

 a headache powder, for instance, that cures 

 my headache, or even toothache, in only four 

 or five minutes without fall. But I have 

 stopped using it It disturbed my digestion, 

 and got things out of shape in some other 

 ways. It is like the strong coffee I talked 



