March, 1918 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
105 
meet disaster, when this devilish 
malignity of the Germans shall 
make them suggest a trap for 
fools among us by which an in- 
conclusive peace is to he brought 
about — -that we shall have to call 
on the strength and pride of our 
people to stand up against any 
such lure and have the Germans 
know that they cannot lead a mor- 
al people like us to give up a mor- 
al fight like this.” 
A Letter and an Answer. 
Dear Sir : The farmers in this 
section nearly all have some apple 
trees but realize very little from 
apples. About 85% of Duchess, 
McMahan, Wealthy, etc., are left 
to rot on the ground. There are 
very few that spray the trees, as 
they claim it does not pay to 
bother with apples at the price of- 
fered for them. Would a plant 
for evaporating apples pay, and 
what would you estimate the cost 
ofsuch a plant? I have an orchard 
of 1,100 trees that will come in 
bearing soon. About 80% of my 
trees are Wealthy. 
M. 0., 
Vernon Co. 
I have your interesting letter of 
Feb. 16th, but will admit that I 
have no ready solution for the 
* problem you propose. For 25 
years I have pleaded with the 
farmers of Wisconsin to take bet- 
ter care of their orchards. Many 
others connected with the Agri- 
cultural College have done the 
same thing, but we have met with 
poor success. 
The farmers of Wisconsin do 
not take care of their orchards, 
and I doubt if they ever will. Of 
course the apples rot on the 
ground. How can it be other- 
wise? In the first place less than 
one-half of them are fit for mar- 
ket. There are too many good 
apples for the buyer to bother 
with wormy and scabby ones. 
Even if the farmer should prop- 
erly care for his trees so as to 
have clean, marketable fruit he 
would still be handicapped be- 
cause he is not equipped for mar- 
keting. His crop is so small and 
of so many different kinds that he 
would find difficulty in disposing 
of it in the wholesole market to 
say nothing of buying barrels and 
learning the art of packing, and 
the local market as a rule is eas- 
ily glutted. 
If you ask me the answer of this 
problem I will reply that I have 
none to offer unless it is this; if 
the farmers of any community 
will cultivate their orchards, 
prune the trees and spray them, 
giving the same attention to their 
apple trees that they do to their 
corn crop and will then co-operate 
in packing and shipping, they can 
dispose of their crops profitably. 
If they are unwilling to do this 
they should dig out their orchards 
except a dozen or two dozen trees 
from which they can take what 
they get from year to year for 
home use. My hobby is that the 
fruit in Wisconsin should be 
grown by fruit growers, special- 
ists, who will give proper atten- 
tion to their trees. You would 
easily fall within this class as you 
have 3,100 trees. I think, how- 
ever, that you have a dispropor- 
tionate amount of Wealthy, 80%. 
You have too many eggs in one 
basket. However, I am sure you 
will find no difficulty in disposing 
of your crop to advantage. 
We are investigating the evap- 
orating business and hope to have 
something interesting to offer 
soon. Sec. W. S. H. S. 
About Garden Peas. 
Smooth peas may be safely 
planted earlier than wrinkled 
peas. 
Of the wrinkled varieties some 
are hardier than others and may 
l>e planted earlier. The Alaska is 
the hardiest of all the kinds com- 
monly sold, Gradus next, and Lax- 
ton third. 
The late pea, Stratagem, is* the 
best all around variety, is half- 
high and does not require sup- 
port. Champion of England is 
better quality than Stratagem 
but requires support. 
N. A. Rasmussen. 
Much can they praise the trees 
so straight and liy, 
The savling pine, the cedar proud 
and tall, 
The vine-propp elme, the poplar 
never dry, 
The builder oake, sole king of 
forrests all, 
The aspine good for staves, the 
cvpresse funerall. 
The laurell, meed of mightie con- 
querours 
And poets sage, the firre that 
weepeth still, 
The willow worne of f rlorne 
paramours, 
The eugh obedient to the benders 
will, 
The birch for shafts, the sallow 
for the mill, 
The mirrlie sweete bleeding in the 
bitter wound, 
The warlike beech, the ash for 
nothing ill, 
The fruitful olive, and the platane 
round, 
The carver holme, the maple sel- 
dom inward sound. 
Spenser’s Fairie Queen. 
