1512 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



but if properly worked a mud ball may- 

 be dug up within six or eight inches of 

 the surface any time during the driest 

 seasons. 



The harrows are not allowed nearer 

 than 18 inches to the trees, hoes being 

 used to keep the ground worked around 

 the trees and to cut out the weeds and 

 sprouts missed by the Kimball weeder. 

 We aim to keep all weeds out of the 

 orchard during the summer, and never 

 allow them to go to seed. The trees are 

 hoed around every twenty to thirty 

 days. 



Apple thinning begins about June 10. 

 We thin to one in a place and from six 

 to eight inches apart, aiming to make 

 one thinning suffice, as we do not believe 



Triple-Deck Orchard Wagon. 



a second thinning will pay for the ex- 

 pense it incurs. As our pear trees gen- 

 erally will mature all the fruit they can 

 be made to stand up under, we seldom 

 have to bother about thinning them. 



When picking time arrives we have 

 lug boxes distributed through the orchard 

 a day or two in advance of the pickers, 

 the distributors estimating the number 

 of boxes required for each tree and plac- 

 ing them accordingly. We seldom make 

 but one picking. Ordinarily we work 

 12 men gathering the fruit, four on the 

 ground and eight working from ladders. 

 The ground men clear the lower limbs 

 before the ladder men arrive, thus pre- 

 venting much of the fruit being bruised 

 that otherwise would be by coming in 

 contact with the ladders. Aprons are 



used exclusively, and we find them far 

 superior to the bucket or any other pick- 

 ing device that we have ever seen. A 

 large apronful will fill a lug box, and 

 with only ordinary care none need be 

 bruised. I think I am safe in saying 

 that three-fourths more fruit may be 

 gathered in a day with an apron than 

 with an ordinary picking bucket. 



Two orchard wagons equipped with 

 tripple deck and covered to shut out the 

 sun and rain, and each holding 54 lug 

 boxes, are kept busy hauling fruit from 

 the orchard to the packing house, where 

 it is graded and packed in boxes which 

 have been built and labeled here on the 

 ranch, and immediately hustled off to the 

 station for shipment. Two large wagons, 

 each holding from 96 to 100 packed boxes, 

 are used for this purpose. 



The picking, packing and shipping of 

 pears finished, we turn our attention to 

 the orchard again and pick up the loose 

 rocks that have worked to the surface 

 and then harrow it once more to close 

 up the wagon tracks. This is done to 

 prevent the packed ground from drying 

 and cracking. It is rarely necessary to 

 harrow after apple picking, for the rain- 

 falls usually begin before we have fin- 

 ished picking. 



The leaves have now fallen and we 

 take up the pruning shears. We use the 

 short-handle shear and a ladder. 



The age and condition of each indi- 

 vidual tree determines the manner of 

 pruning it. After the young trees have 

 been "shaped," and until they have been 

 brought to bearing no more wood is cut 

 out than is absolutely necessary to re- 

 tain that shape, unless the tree has be- 

 come stunted or weakened in some way, 

 when enough wood is removed to restore 

 vitality to the remaining parts. After, 

 however, the tree has reached the age 

 of say ten or twelve years, some of the 

 more crowded large limbs are removed 

 so that more new wood may be grown 

 to take the place of the old that will be 

 removed from time to time thereafter. 

 For it is a well-known fact that new 

 wood produces the better quality and the 



