September, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



VI 1 



of the most difficult to deal with, because we 

 can not get at them. The leaves are curled up 

 at once, so that spray will not hit a very 

 large number of the enemy. A curious re- 

 sult of the invasion was that ten times as 

 many blossoms set fruit as would do so under 

 normal conditions, resulting in bunches of 

 crabbed apples, of no use to human beings. 

 There was not enough growing force to se- 

 lect the more promising, and push off the 

 poorest. Those who thinned their fruit suc- 

 ceeded in getting a marketable stock. This 

 matter of thinning is always necessary, but in 

 1907 it was imperative. 



Another feature of the year was the enorm- 

 ous development of the latest and worst apple 

 enemy — the trypeta fly. This fly is infinitely 

 worse than the codlin moth, because it works 

 the whole summer through, laying its eggs at 

 any time. The eggs are placed just under 

 the surface of the apple, to hatch out into 

 very minute larva?, which gutter the apple, 

 while on the surface it looks fairly sound. In 

 some varieties these larvae do not hatch out 

 until winter, and in the cellar. In some other 

 varieties they hatch very early, requiring a 

 degree of heat. So we have a pest that has 

 to be guarded against at every season of the 

 year, while at the same time we are unable 

 to fight it with spray. The particular reason 

 for noticing this pest is the fact that it works 

 most readily and rapidly in cloudy days, and 

 in shady places. Keep your orchard well 

 aerated and trimmed. Let the sun in as much 

 as possible, and keep bushes out from under 

 the trees. Constant cultivating is of service, 

 and be sure that dropped apples are picked up 

 and destroyed. This picking up must begin 

 with the very earliest fruit, for there are no 

 apples worse infected than the Early Bough 

 and Golden Sweet. On sunny knolls apples 

 are clean and bright, while in hollows, near 

 by, the whole stock is ruined. 



Another lesson of 1907 was the value of 

 mulch for old trees as well as young. I am 

 ashamed when I look back and note the treat- 

 ment I have given to my old servants — the 

 fifty-year-old trees. Having occasion to build 

 a compost pile near my orchard, I placed it 

 around a Northern Spy tree — of course, not 

 allowing it to pile up about the bark. This 

 tree began to increase its crops, and to bear 

 annually. In the course of five years I have 

 netted from it over one hundred dollars — 

 counting in the cider apples it is much more 

 than one hundred dollars. The fruit is high 

 flavored and high colored. It means simply 

 this, that an old apple tree needs feeding to 

 do its best work, and it will continue to do 

 this annually if the stimulant is sufficient. 

 The "off year" in an orchard means generally 

 the year when nature undertakes to recuperate 

 the exhausted strength of the tree. Mulch- 

 ing can hardly be carried to an injurious ex- 

 treme. Keep the exhausting suckers out of 

 the tree, and feed it liberally, and see what 

 returns you will get. The best material for 

 mulch is any waste stuff you have — including 

 coal ashes, spoiled hay or straw, autumn leaves, 

 with an admixture of barnyard manure and 

 house waste. This should be spread so as 

 not to heat with any rapidity, while it re- 

 tains the normal temperature below, around 

 the roots. 



I have been learning that there is some- 

 thing like immunity from insect pests on the 

 part of some kinds of apples. I think an 

 orchard could be made up of varieties that are 

 almost safe from codlin moth, as well as free 

 from fungoid diseases. I should begin with 

 Red Astrachan, and follow it with Wealthy. 

 The trees in both these cases are clean, and 

 the apples come out so perfect that the waste 

 is at a minimum. Of our winter sorts I find 

 the old-fashioned Westfield Seeknofurther is 

 about as clean as the orchard holds. This is 

 a beautiful apple, and as it ripens in open 



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