140 
AMERICAN P0M0E0GICAE SOCIETY 
culture of the Yellow Newtown, which thrives only in soils rich in humus, 
and abundantly and equally watered, such as are found in the coves on the east 
slope of the Blue Ridge. Four years of reasonably good care have not made 
either of these varieties productive and profitable, as grown in this orchard. 
It does not seem, therefore, that it will be wise to continue to keep them at 
a loss, so they have been pulled out. Many fruit growers, I believe, are 
keeping certain varieties at a loss simply because they have not taken the 
trouble to figure but cost and return. It takes nerve to pull out thrifty apple 
trees that are in their prime, but the “Woodman, spare that tree” sentiment 
cannot be allowed to influence decisions in a commercial apple orchard. 
In some cases it might pay to top work the unprofitable varieties, but in 
this orchard York replants thrive and come to bearing five or six years 
from setting, if liberally manured, so it seems that replanting is preferable 
to top working. 
Weak Trees of Profitable Varieties. 
The most valuable result obtained for the live orchardist of the 
individual tree records in a commercial orchard is the line they give upon 
unprofitable trees of varieties known to be profitable. This orchard is large- 
ly York and Ben Davis, there being 1,245 bearing trees of these varieties. 
The orchard is quite uniform in site and soil; it has had uniform care, and 
there has been practically no loss from frost injury to these varieties during the 
four years; hence conditions have been favorable for a fair comparison of 
individual trees. The records of these 1,245 trees show the following in- 
teresting condition: 
215 trees, or 16% of the total, have produced less than one barrel per 
tree annually, and have been kept at a loss. 
375 trees, or 30% of the total, have averaged four barrels per tree 
annually, and have produced 60% of the crops. 
Between these two extremes are trees of all degrees of mediocrity. In 
considering these figures it should be remembered that this orchard was 
badly neglected for many years, and hence contained trees of all degrees 
of vigor and debility. Much greater uniformity of production will be found 
in orchards that have received good care from the beginning/, hut it is 
probable that the conditions found in this orchayd are fairly representative 
of old orchards in other sections. Nearly all the older apple orchards, 
especially if they were neglected in early years, contain a large percentage 
of unprofitable trees and a considerable number of very profitable trees 
that are paying not only their own expenses, but are also carrying along a 
good many of their unprofitable neighbors. This has been a profitable orchard 
as a whole; yet it is shown by the records that two thirds of the profit has 
come from a third of the trees. 
Fertilizer Treatment of Unprofitable Trees. 
Naturally there arises the question after having discovered and marked 
the unprofitable trees, what shall be done to redeem them? Mani- 
festly, the treatment given will depend upon the cause of the trouble which, 
in this case, is not hard to find. Nearly all of the 215 unprofitable trees. 
