1 14 AMERICAN POMOXvOGlCAL SOCIETY 
HANDLING THE ORCHARD CROP. 
F. E. McCall, Iowa. 
It is not my desire in submitting this paper to make it of undue length, 
thereby exhausting your patience, but I will ask your forbearance for a 
short time, while I endeavor to outline as briefly as possible some of my 
observations and experiences in commercial orcharding. 
I have had three years of practical orchard experience. One year was 
spent in the fruit regions of the Northwest, the past two in the State oi$ 
Iowa. This experience, added to my college training under Professor S. A. 
Beach of the Iowa State College, has* I believe, trained me to the point 
where I am able to recognize and grasp some of the more important 
factors in orchard management. While my premises may seem somewhat 
premature and my conclusions rather hasty, yet I assure you they are drawn 
from actual data elaborated by an honest opinion. 
Various phases of the subject “Handling the Orchard Crop,” have been 
discussed so often, that I feel quite unable to present anything new; but 
we must remember that the Gospel has been preached for nearly two 
thousand years and there are still sinners in the world. In spite of all 
the advice given in fruit growing, we still have orchardists who need the 
same old story, told perhaps in a little different way. 
I am sure that trained orchardists need no instruction from me upon 
the topic of handling orchard crops. There may be those, however, who 
have never given the subject much attention; thos'e who would be glad to 
learn of the application of some of the principles of commercial orcharding, 
in a region which the general public believes unfavorable for apple pro- 
duction. 
Many are the advertisements we see and the articles we read of the 
wonderful opportunities awaiting the orchardist in the valleys of the 
“Golden West.” After making a close study of fruit growing in those 
regions as compared with my home state, I have concluded that Iowa 
measures up favorably with the best part£ of this earth ; and that “Paradise” 
has no geographical location on this planet. In fruit growing, the man 
who leaves his trees to shift for themselves, finds orcharding an unprofitable 
business wherever he is located. 
Apples a Success in low/a. 
Apples can and are being grown commercially by many orchardists of 
the state. Those who have followed apple culture intelligently and per- 
sistently have found it profitable. The premiums won at various National 
fairs and fruit shows, have demonstrated the quality of the Iowa Apple; 
the records of the railway companies' at various shipping points prove the 
productiveness of the trees; and the 1910 census ranks Iowa as sixth place 
in the list of apple producing states. 
There has never been a boom or special effort to advertise the region 
as especially advantageous for apple growing. Consequently, with the ex- 
ception of those actually in the business, few recognize the extent of 
