Sei'Tember 27, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



405 



the methods employed by this prosperous business con- 

 cern, and we, therefore, publish the essential parts of the 

 address delivered before the Horticultural Congress in 

 Chicago last month by Mr. F. Wellhouse, since it is a 

 record of actual experience : 



Commercial orcharding has only been possible in this 

 western country within the past twenty years. Previous 

 to that time a tew hundred bushels glutted the local mar- 

 ket, and with no means of rapid transportation the sale of 

 large quantities of fruit was out of the question. But now, with 

 railroad facilities and the reduced cost of transportation, with 

 but a small belt of the earth where apples can be profitably 

 grown, it seems as if there is no likelihood that apple-culture 

 could be overdone, or the price reduced below the cost of pro- 

 ducton, conceding that supply and demand control prices. 



The selection ot varieties has much to do with insuring the 

 financial success of the orchard. Out of several thousand 

 varieties of Apples there are probably not more than a dozen 

 that will pay in Kansas. The Missouri Pippin has, so far, 

 paid us better than any other kind ; it is a strong grower, 

 comes into bearing early and produces heavy crops. The 

 fruit is of good size for the first six or eight years, but after 

 that the trees overbear and the apples are small and scabby ; 

 the tree is also defective in side-roots and is liable to be blown 

 over. 



Ben Davis will probably yield more first-grade fruit than any 

 other variety grown by us, and has paid us better for the past 

 five years than even the Missouri Pippin ; the tree is excep- 

 tionally healthy and bears well. The apples are large, and 

 fewer of them go into the cull-pile than of any other variety 

 we grow. About the first thing generally said of the Ben Davis 

 apple is that its flavor is not pleasing, and yet there are more 

 of (hem grown here than any other variety, and the fruit 

 always sells well. Two years ago a Baltimore firm bought 

 from us twenty-two car-loads, all Ben Davis apples, although 

 we urged them to buy part Winesap and Missouri Pippin. 

 Three years ago our entire crop went east, and the Ben E)dvis 

 was preferred, and brought as high a price as any except the 

 Jonathan. 



The Jonathan has paid us fairly well ; the tree is exception- 

 ally good, and is a fairly good bearer; the fruit is of extra 

 quality, and brings twenty-five to fifty cents more a barrel than 

 any other variety we grow. It has one serious fault ; the fruit 

 drops from the tree badly, although not to any great extent 

 with us. The dropping begins about the time the apples should 

 be picked; and by being careful to gather them in time we 

 have been able to save the fruit in good condition. 



The Winesap has been less profitable than the varieties 

 already named ; and much of the fruit had to be used for cider 

 because of its small size. 



Maiden's Blush has proved an excellent variety, but it ripens 

 at a time when the markets are usually glutted, and has not 

 paid well. York Imperial and Ganz have been substituted for 

 for Winesap and Maiden's Blush in our recent planting. 



For large commercial orchards we think it best to grow our 

 own trees from the gratt. The grafting is done in the usual 

 way. Pieces of roots about two inches long are used, and we 

 graft into them a cion from eight to twelve inches long. Thegraft 

 is thus set deep enough into the ground to root above the 

 union of the root and cion, and produces a tree on its own 

 roots, which we consider much better than to have the roots 

 entirely below the union. 



We set our grafts in the nursery in a different way from that 

 practiced by most nurserymen. The stakes are placed about 

 ten rods apart in line where it is intended to set the grafts, we 

 then take the steel runners of a common two-horse corn- 

 planter, detach the wheels and all gearing, leaving the tongue ; 

 with a good steady team we drive with the tongue in a line 

 with the stakes, the driver riding on the runners and pressing 

 them into the ground. These runners each cut a crevice of a 

 uniform depth, and the rows can be run straight enough for 

 all practical purposes. It the ground is in good order a lot of 

 fine earth falls into the crevice after the runners have passed, 

 through which the grafts can be pushed with ease. Our grafts 

 are tied in bundles of fifty. Carrying a bundle of these in his 

 left hand, a boy with his right hand gently presses a graft at a 

 time into the crevice to the proper depth, and from six to 

 eight inches apart in the row ; boys soon become expert at this 

 work. A man follows, stepping with a foot on either side of 

 the row, thus firmly pressing the earth about the grafts. We 

 have planted our grafts in tliis way for over twenty years, and 

 think it a decided improvement over setting with a trowel. 



The grafts set in nursery form require no attention for that 

 season but to be kept clean, and this must be done with plow 



and hoe. When one year old we trim them to a single upright 

 shoot, and during the second year cultivate and keep the 

 ground clear from grass and weeds, and shape the top, head- 

 ing them from one to two feet from the ground. If they have 

 made a good growth they are ready to set in the orchard when 

 two years old. We consider any good Wheat or Corn land 

 suitable for an orchard. Apples grown on sandy land 

 usually grow faster and mature earlier than those grown 

 on clay soils, owing to the warmer nature of the sandy soil. 

 A Philadelphia firm who came here two years ago would not 

 buy any apples grown on sandy soil, claiming that they ma- 

 tured too early, and were too ripe when picked to keep well in 

 cold storage. The best soil, to my mind, is that composed of 

 about twenty to thirty per cent, ot sand and seventy to eighty 

 per cent, of clay ; this is sufficiently porous for the surplus 

 water to penetrate, and the clay helps to retain the moisture. 



In the preparation of the soil we have found it a good plan 

 to break raw prairie in May or June, cross-plow in the fall and 

 again the next spring. If there is time it is best to grow one 

 or two crops before the trees are planted. If old g-round is 

 used it should be put in such condition as would be consid- 

 ered good for any kind of grain. We run a digger under the 

 trees m the nursery, cutting off the roots at a depth of eight or 

 ten inches, and ten inches on either side ; this is done early 

 in the spring. As soon as the ground is in condition we 

 lay off the space for the orchard by running light furrows 

 east and west sixteen feet apart, and north and south thirtv- 

 two feet apart ; running a furrow in line with stakes, we 

 throw the furrow to the east, then turn and let the left-hand 

 horse (we use a right-hand plow) walk in the furrow just made 

 and throw this furrow.to the west, leaving a strip from twelve 

 to sixteen inches wide between the two furrows ; we now turn 

 and go another round and throw out this strip, running the 

 plow ten inches deep, or about the depth the digger is run in 

 the nursery; this should give a furrow ten inches deep and 

 from twenty to twenty-five inches wide. We consider these 

 furrows much better than holes in which to plant trees, and 

 they are much more rapidly made. 



In transplanting the trees from the nursery to the orchard 

 we rim a potato fork into the ground at the side of the tree, 

 lift it out just as we would a hill of potatoes, and set it into the 

 wagon with all the earth that will stick to the roots. In the 

 orchard there are two men to each row. One man sets the 

 tree in place where the east and west furrows cross the north 

 and south and holds it, while the other man with a shovel 

 throws fine earth around it. The man holding the tree tramps 

 the earth firmly around the roots ; he should always stand on 

 the north side of the tree while tramping, as he nearly always 

 leans the tree from him, and we like to have the tree inclined 

 a little to the south or south-west. As soon as the trees are 

 set out we throw the furrows shut by going one round with 

 the plow, and in a week or two when the weeds begin to start 

 we go another round, setting the plow so it will only take a few 

 inches of soil, and run it a little deeper ; this enables us to 

 entirely cover the first turrow thrown in, and all the weeds that 

 may have started ; in a few weeks we repeat, cuttmg a few 

 inches more and so on, until by midsummer we have a bed 

 running the entire length of the row, elevated six or eight 

 inches above the surrounding land and about eight feet wide. 

 The space between the rows in a commercial orchard we cul- 

 tivate in corn. The second year we commence cultivation by 

 throwing the earth from the trees, and wind up by throwing 

 it to them again ; we repeat this system of cultivation four or 

 five years until the trees come into bearing, when we seed 

 down to clover. For cultivating the trees we use the Sher- 

 wood steel harness, which has no single-trees to bark the trees. 



Among the enemies we have had to contend with are the 

 round-headed borers. The only safe remedy we have found 

 is to dig them out. The woodpeckers have assisted us 

 very much in this work. The flat-headed borer has also 

 done considerable damage, and has received the same treat- 

 ment. The twig-borer has given us but little trouble. Rab- 

 bits worked great mischief for a time. We now use a 

 small box-trap costing about fifteen cents each. Two of these 

 to the acre protect our orchards from this troublesome pest. 

 Mice have girdled many of our trees. We drop six or eight 

 grains of corn soaked in a solution of arsenic at each tree and 

 some in their runways. Canker-worms did fearful execution in 

 our orchards until we secured suitable machinery for spraying ; 

 it is now easy to clean them out with a weak solution of arse- 

 nic. The same treatment is applied to tent-caterpillars, fall 

 web-worms, leaf-rollers and the caterpillar of the handmaid 

 moth. If there is fruit on the trees we clip olf the twigs con- 

 taining the nests of the fall web-worms and burn them. 



One of the most difficult things we have had to contend with 



