RENOVATING NEGLECTED ORCHARDS 405 



The annual average yield of these same orchards for the five 

 years preceding their coming under Dr. Lattin's care was about 

 27 barrels per acre ; the cash returns per acre, including culls, 

 about S60.00 ; and the average returns per tree, $1.50. 



A Vermont orchard. C. T. Holmes, of Charlotte, Vermont, 

 has brought a small yielding orchard up to high standards by 

 systematic, intelligent work. Just what he has done is given in 

 his own words : 



I was interested in this orchard before 1907, but not in such a way that I 

 could give it the kind of care I knew it should have. The 100 acres had been 

 in sod for years. The trees had been trimmed and sprayed thoroughly for 

 several years, but the yield had never been up to the average of orchards in 

 this section, although since spraying began, the quality had been good. 



In the winter of 1907, fifty acres of Greenings were given a good mulch of 

 barm aid manure as far as the branches extended. As soon as frost was out 

 of the ground, I turned this mulch under about 3 inches — not deep enough 

 to injure the roots. I don't believe in pruning a tree at both ends. One acre 

 was given a dressing of air-slacked lime, about 200 pounds to each tree. This 

 acre showed such marked superiority to the rest in color and size of foliage 

 and in finish and texture of fruit that 70 acres more were limed that fall, and 

 the remainder of the orchard will be limed this winter. 



To go back to 1907, the plowed ground was thoroughly pulverized with a 

 disk harrow and was gone over with a spring-tooth harrow about once every 

 two weeks until the middle of July, when I sowed a bushel of buckwheat to 

 the acre. Two weeks before apple-picking time, when the buckwheat was in 

 full bloom, it was rolled with a low roller in order to break it down and at the 

 same time provide a soft cushion for windfalls and keep them clean. That 

 fall I picked 2500 barrels from the 50 acres I took care of, and 600 barrels 

 from the rest. 



In the spring of 1908, foolishly allowing myself to be influenced against my 

 own judgment by the opinions of some of the " wise ones," who said the crop 

 of the previous year was due to manure alone, I manured the entire orchard, 

 but cultivated only 25 acres. Everybody knows what a dry season we had in 

 1908. I cultivated the 25 acres once every ten days until the middle of July, 

 when I seeded it to Mammoth clover for a winter cover crop. The outcome 

 of this experiment was that from the 25 acres cultivated two years in succession 

 600 barrels were picked ; the 25 acres cultivated but one year yielded 200 

 barrels of a product much inferior in size ; and from the other half of the 

 whole orchard I got nothing. 



I was now convinced that intensive cultivation was of the greatest importance, 

 and the following year the whole orchard was under cultivation. From inquiries 

 coming from all parts of the continent, it would seem that everyone had 

 heard of the crop of apples which rewarded me in 1909. Of 4000 barrels, I 



