STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETr. 3]^ 



orchard which is profitable let them try which of the old standard 

 sorts will do best upon his ground, and then have at least 75 per 

 cent of his trees of this. One man will tell you that nothing is so 

 profitable as the Baldwin, another will say the Roxbury Russet, 

 another perhaps the Bellfiower. This depends upon the soil and 

 location, but dealers will go a long way to seek a man who has five 

 hundred barrels of one kind to sell, when he would not cross the street 

 to see a man Avho has ten barrels each of fifty different kinds. If, 

 however, one has the taste and time to experiment, like Mr. Atkins 

 and others, with the hope of producing a new and superior variet}', 

 he is laboring in a good cause, and should have the hearty thanks of 

 every member of our Society, but although his experiments may 

 result in good to the world, there will be no profit to himself. 



The next point is the time and mode of gathering the fruit. I 

 ought to have said before that it is very important, if neither sheep 

 nor hogs run in the orchard, to gather daily all the windfalls. Most 

 of these are worm}', and when fallen the worms directlv leave the 

 apples and bur^' themselves in the ground, to be read}- for next 

 j^ear's operations. 



As to the time of gathering — this must of course depend upon 

 the season. A slight frost does not injure apples on the tree, but 

 with the temperature below 28° they will be injured. As a rule, 

 about October 1st is the time to begin to gather winter apples, but 

 generally they will not be injured before the tenth. Various methods 

 are followed in gathering and storing apples. Usually the apples 

 when picked are emptied from the basket into a cart which, when 

 full, is dumped on the barn floor, and on a rainy dav or other leisure 

 time are sorted and put in barrels. This plan may do for Baldwins 

 and other firm apples, liut will never answer for Bellflowers, Porters, 

 or other tender-skinned varieties. The plan I follow in gathering 

 Bellflowers is, to have three empt}' barrels under the tree ; a little 

 straw is always put in the bottom of the basket, which has a hook 

 attached to hang it to a branch of the tree ; when the basket is full, 

 the apples are placed b}' hand into the barrels — those unquestionably 

 first quality in one barrel, those decidedh* refuse in another, and 

 those that are doubtful in the third, to be subsequenth^ sorted. The 

 barrels, when full, are put in the store-room and not headed up till 

 about the time for marketing them. In packing for market, a flour 

 barrel is generally used. Make it a point alwa3'S to wash out the 

 barrel with water. Merely dusting out the barrel, no matter how 



