90 



not feel like ti;yino- many new ones. Our permanent trees are the 

 standard sorts, namely, 60 acres of Greening, 60 acres of Baldwin, 

 20 acres of Spy, are planted 50 feet by 44 feet; as fillers among 

 these, planted at 25 feet by 22 feet, we have 20 acres of Mcin- 

 tosh, 20 acres of Wealthy, 20 acres of Wagner, 10 of Hubbardston, 

 10 of Duchess of Oldenburg, and the balance are Rome Beauty, 

 Boiken, Maiden Blush and Twenty Ounce. 



Member. Will the tree roots not interfere with the drains? 



Mr. Frazer. I do not think they will. 



Member. What varieties of peaches do you grow? 



Mr. Frazer. Mainly Elberta, with a few Craw fords and some 

 Belle of Georgia, and we are trying a few other varieties. The 

 Belle of Georgia has done very well for us. 



Member. What have you after Crawford? 



Mr. Frazer. W'e have a few Niagara and a few Salway. We 

 ate our last Salway after election. Our Elbertas were sold at 

 $1.80 per bushel in the village. The Niagara ripen with the Late 

 Crawford. 



Member. How about putting barn-yard manure on peaches? 



Mr. Frazer. In New Jersey we keep the manure away, but 

 on our land we are not likely to get too much manure on it. 



The cost this year for labor and teams to cultivate the orchard 

 was about $15.00 per acre. It cost us more the first year to culti- 

 vate our currants because they were planted on a piece of land 

 which was full of quack and we cultivated that field fifty times 

 during six months. On those thirteen acres of currants in the 

 spring we find it necessary to keep one man on the field all the time.. 

 We can only work it with one horse now since the bushes are 

 large. AVe keep an exact record of all work done on each field. 

 Each man has his time sheet and his time and that of his team is 

 charged up to each field each night. So far we have not been able 

 to secure more than $200.00 per acre, gross, on our bearing or- 

 chards. AVe hope to get more. We hear such stories about some 

 of the orchards of the West yielding from $800.00 to $1,500.00 

 per acre that one is lead to wonder whether their acres are average 

 acres or not. 



I was in a four-acre block of Twenty Ounce and Alexander 

 apples this year at Hilton, N. Y., and the fruit from it was sold 

 two years ago for $6,400.00, or $1,600.00 per acre, and I judge it 

 would make about the same money this year. This represents what 

 is obtainable. We pick our fruit in baskets. We pack some in 

 boxes, but have generally used the barrel. A¥e usually make three 

 pickings of our Greenings and the same of Spy and have made two 

 of the Baldwins. The fruit left on the tree will frequently double 

 in size in ten days. We are verv much troubled with mice ; and 

 in the winter time, in order to protect our trees we bank them with 

 soil and when the snow comes high and drifts we have to tramp 

 it round the trees. Last year this took all our force for about three 

 weeks to keep our trees protected. AA^e find it necessary to throw 

 some soil to them in September since the mice will work even be- 

 fore snow comes. I have seen as high as 15 per cent, of the trees 

 30 years old injured bv mice during the winter. I know of one 



