272 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



Jaxuaby, 1911 



Advantage is taken of modem eauipments ; the spraying is done by a power macMne mounted on a wagon. 



a winter cover crop. As a result of the 

 experiment, I picked 600 barrels of choice 

 fruit from the 25 acres cultivated two 

 years in succession, while the 25 acres, 

 dropped and cultivated but one year, 

 yielded only 200 barrels of inferior size. 

 From the remaining half of the entire 

 orchard I got nothing. This shows that 

 it pays to work. 



"Being now convinced that intensive 

 culture is of the greatest importance, I 

 put the whole orchard under the plow 

 and harrow in 1909. This gave me 4,000 



barrels; but 3100 of them I picked from 

 the 50 acres cultivated two and three 

 years, and among these I did not have ten 

 barrels of stung apples. The crop was 

 packed as fancies, firsts and as number 

 twos. There were 2200 barrels of fancies, 

 nothing smaller than 2?^ inches, and 

 800 barrels of firsts, nothing smaller than 

 2^ inches. The windfalls were small 

 but not wormy; they brought the tidy 

 price of $2 per barrel delivered at the car. 

 The others were placed in cold storage 

 in Troy, New York. 



At harvest time. The trees laden with fruit of liigh quality. Note the well cultivated area immediately 



about the trees. This pays 



KEEPING DOWN INSECTS 



"To keep the trees and fruit clean from 

 fungus and the ravages of worms and leaf- 

 eating insects we have got to spray and 

 spray thoroughly. We learned this about 20 

 years ago. No poison was employed then 

 but Paris green, and it was to be used 

 but once, when the trees were in bloom. 

 After a few years of this, science came to the 

 orchardist's rescue and we learned to 

 spray after the blossom falls, which is 

 the only time to kill the codHng moth. 

 For the last ten years my trees have been 

 sprayed with the bordeaux-lead-arsenate 

 mixture before the buds open, and with 

 arsenate of lead and lime after the blossom 

 falls. The first is for bud moth and 

 cigar case borer. I sprayed an orchard 

 three times last July for codling moth but 

 could not see that it was of any benefit. 

 Spraying makes a great difference to the 

 number of barrels of second quality ap- 

 ples an orchard will yield. It costs just 

 as much to pick and pack a barrel of 

 seconds as firsts. The former sell for 

 about $3 and the latter for $6, while for 

 many of ours that were stored until nearly 

 the spring of 1910 we got $7. 



'T use a 23^ horse-power gasoline sprayer. 

 Hand-power pumps are too laborious 

 and do not give force enough to produce 

 the fine spray necessary to reach every 

 part of the tree and fruit. For blight 

 fungus and the codling moth, spray just 

 before the apple turns down. This fiUs 

 the calyx end with sure death for the 

 pest as it emerges from the egg. 



LIME AND FERTILITY 



'Tn the Hne of experiments I have learned 

 something about hme. I dressed an acre 

 with 200 pounds to the tree of air-slaked 

 lime to watch the outcome. These trees 

 showed such marked superiority to the 

 rest in color, size of foliage and in finish 

 of fruit, that 70 acres more were limed 

 the succeeding autumn, and the remainder 

 of the orchard the following winter. 

 Lime is good for the trees and bad for 

 their enemies. There is not an apple 

 that seems more hardy and prolific than 

 the Rhode Island Greening nor one that 

 is better adapted to our markets." 



Mr. Holmes has come into the manage- 

 ment of this famous farm only within 

 recent years and consequently is unable 

 to state definitely what the expenses have 

 been per acre or tree, but in the last three 

 years fertilizing, spraying and cultivating 

 have been pushed at more than usual 

 annual cost and the outlay per tree has 

 been but 52 cents per annum or $13.50 

 per acre of 2 5 trees. During many previous 

 years the outlay has not been one-half 

 this amount. The cost of picking, packing 

 and carting has averaged 85 cents one 

 year with another. When asked if cold 

 storage of the fruit has paid, Mr. Holmes 

 exclaimed, "Yes! Big! The cost is 10 cents 

 per barrel per month. The prevention 

 of decay, loss in re-sorting and advance 

 in price very much more than meet all 

 expenses." 



