Ee ee ee en 
ca 
JUNE, 1908 
Peach tree “fillers’’ in apple orchard. Heavily 
““dehorned’’ two years ago to make new tops 
which the aphis feeds, to a distance of two 
or three feet from the tree. From two to 
four pounds of tobacco dust are then sprink- 
led over the roots, and the soil replaced. 
Trees badly attacked by aphis make a very 
poor growth and look sickly. Tobacco, 
dust costs $45 a ton, or two and one half 
cents per pound, so this treatment alone 
is quite an item of expense. 
“The coddling moth is the next worst 
pest. The Eastern fruit growers have but 
one, sometimes two, broods in a season to 
fight and they come at fairly regular times, 
so that a spraying just after the petals fall 
and again about August ist, is bound to 
control the worm, if well done. But here, 
we have several broods, and they overlap 
one another, so that there is a continual 
stream of moths attacking our apples all 
the season from May to September. Noth- 
ing but constant spraying will keep our 
apples from being wormy. If we neglect 
spraying late in the season, the apples have 
tiny worm holes in the sides, a sufficient 
blemish to cut their selling value in two. 
I know a man who sprayed thoroughly 
until August rst, then stopped, and he had 
over 50 per cent. of wormy fruit in the fall. 
I spray for coddling moth three times any- 
way, sometimes four or five. The first 
spraying is given immediately after the petals 
fall, the second within a week after, the 
third, from the 5th to the toth of July. 
I use the arsenate of lead altogether, because 
I can use it without lime; it never injures 
the foliage, and it does the work better 
than other poisons, though it is somewhat 
more expensive. 
“We have no scale as yet, and the climate 
is too dry for scab to grow much. We never 
have to spray with Bordeaux for scab. 
Almost all our troubles are insects.” 
The apple trees are planted 16 feet by 32 
feet. Peaches are grown between the rows 
for the first twelve to fourteen years. The 
illustration on this page shows how heavily 
the peaches were “dehorned” two years 
ago in order to get new wood and a 
low tree. 
It is now time to take out every other 
apple tree in the row, leaving the permanent | 
trees 32 feet apart, each way. But these 
apple trees that will come out in the fall 
were girdled last spring, they bore extra 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
heavy crops this year in consequence, 
and although the girdling would seriously 
injure the trees if they were to be left, 
it does not matter since they are to be 
removed. 
Here is the owner’s statement of his 
business, from exact records. The last three 
years only are taken: 
“Tn 1904, I took 27 carloads of apples from 
the 35 acres, which brought me $10,000 gross. 
In 1905, 12 carloads brought me $10,000 
gross. In 1906, 25 carloads brought gross 
returns of $14,000. The Jonathan is my 
best money maker. In 1906, Jonathan trees 
t2 years old brought me $800 per acre. 
In 1904, a block of 600 Gano trees, 10 years 
old, on two and three-quarter acres, gave me 
$2,800 gross. In the same year, two acres of 
Rome Beauty gave $1,226 gross. I under- 
stand that the best of the thirty or forty year 
old orchards in western New York, bring 
in $1,000 to $1,500 an acre, but I have 
yet to hear of an Eastern orchard that does 
anywhere near as well when 12 years old. 
Putting tobacco dust on roots of apple tree to kill 
the woolly aphis 
283 
“It costs me $25 an acre to care for the 
orchard, pruning, spraying, irrigating, etc. 
My records show that I pay thirty-five to 
forty cents a box for the subsequent ex- 
pense; this furnishes the box, nails, and 
paper, picks, grades, and packs the fruit, 
and delivers it at the depot, two miles 
away. 
“In packing, the sides and ends of the 
box, which holds one bushel, are lined with 
a nice grade of white paper, as you face 
an apple barrel; the balance of the fruit is 
put in loosely. This ‘shuffle pack’ is 
more commonly used here than the ‘tier 
pack,’ in which the fruit is placed in rows. 
But I make the fruit of absolutely uniform 
grade throughout. 
“T sell F. O. B. always. During the last 
three or four years, I have received $1.25 to 
$1.50 a box, F. O. B. Five carloads of 
Jonathan sold in 1906 for $1.50 per box, 
Ole Deedes init oes mom California. 
Texas, Louisiana—everywhere. 
“It costs 75 cents to ship a fifty-pound 
box of apples to Chicago; $1 to New York, 
60 cents to St. Louis. It costs 75 cents to 
ship a box of peaches to St. Louis, $1 to 
Chicago, $1.50 to New York. And California 
gets the same rate that we do!” 
On the whole, my opinion is that the 
opportunities are equally great, or greater, 
in the East, provided the same degree of 
intelligence and energy is invested. I 
know many men in Michigan and New York 
and elsewhere in the East who have equaled 
or surpassed this record of Mr. Sweitzer. 
But if one wishes to grow superb fruit for 
the general market with a safe guarantee 
of at least fair financial success; and to live 
in a most delightful and exhilarating climate, 
among enterprising, big-hearted people, I 
recommend a visit to Delta County, Colorado. 
7] 
Six-year-old Winesap apple tree. Four years after planting the trees bear a paying crop 
