320 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 4, 1922 
Orchard Notes 
Strong germination 
and heavy crops 
Good seeds show their 
merit soon after planting. 
DICKINSON 
PINE TREE BRAND 
SEEDS 
Shall We Keep Our Home Orchards? 
Part I. 
Buying Fruit.— A few days ago a 
farmer friend dropped into the office 
munching a red-cheeked Baldwin apple. 
"Where did you get them?” I asked, 
and as he pulled another from his over¬ 
coat pocket and handed it to me, he told 
of his recent purchase of two barrels 
just like the sample presented. 
"I paid $7.50 a barrel for these ‘B’ 
grade apples," he said, "and they came 
from Sodus, up in Wayne County.” 
“But I thought you had an orchard of 
your own?” I said, for I knew he prided 
place, my farmer friend with the Baldwin 
apple certainly is right regarding the use 
of the spray machine. To have not only 
perfect, but presentable fruit, nowadays 
one must use both insect and disease pre¬ 
ventives, whether he has five trees or 
five acres. And it must be applied at 
the right time as well as in the right 
quantity. This year, when trees around 
here were unspra.ved and uncared for, 
practically every apple was wormy and 
covered with scab. Then where weeds 
and grass grow under the trees the cur- 
eulios thrive, and the result on the fruit 
is hard chunks or knobs wherever the 
scab happens to miss. This morning, 
while trading at a local store. I examined 
three packages of apples displayed side by 
side. In the center was a barrel of the 
same Baldwins my farmer friend had 
purchased for $7.50. On one side was a 
box of Delicious apples from the West, 
retailing at® five cents apiece. I found 
on examining the box that it contained 
150 apples, which meant that the bushel 
box was selling for exactly the same price 
as the three-bushel barrel. On the other 
side was a bushel of “horue-orebard” 
Spys, with a price mark of $2,50 for the 
bushel (or the same price as the barrel 
apples), hut they were scabby, wormy, 
knotty, off-size. off-shape and, in fact, 
every way but normal. Which would 
you buy? No, that isn't the question. 
The question is. Can't the home-orchard 
fruit he the same as the commercial ap¬ 
ples from the fruit belt in appearance and 
keeping quality as well as in price? 
Congenial Homes for Fruit Pests. 
—Those home orchard trees now and 
I hen have a dead limb (Fig. 147). When 
the owner forgets to remove it the bark 
loosens, and xvc have an ideal place for 
the eggs of any and every pest. Then 
when the fruit is so poor it isn’t har¬ 
vested, the diseases live over until Spring 
in the rotted specimens, giving a bounti¬ 
ful supply for the new season (Fig. 148). 
Often we hear how the potato or cabbage 
grower unites with his neighbors in pur¬ 
chasing a community spray rig, or how 
the breeders unite and purchase a pure¬ 
bred club hull. Couldn't a community 
spray rig for the home orchard be secured 
by my Baldwin friend and his neighbors? 
A casual glance at any of their trees will 
show the need, and by a little extra ef¬ 
fort all can keep the worms and scab in 
check. 
Undesirable Varieties. — Many of 
these dead fruit trees are the result of 
planting wrong varieties. From my win- 
1, eaving It to tiie Specialist. —After dow I can see an orchard with sweet and 
my farmer friend had departed I thought sour trees planted side by side. That 
over (his fruit problem of his, and won- is 1o say, there were sweet cherries, 
dered if he had really adopted the correct for all that remains is the stock, which 
solution. Is it right that dairy farmers, 
or any other class, for that matter, should 
purchase a farm product, and that it 
should he grown only by the specialist or 
commercial grower in the most highly 
favored locations? My thoughts went 
back to a fruit survey of this particular 
county made two years ago in company 
with the Fann Bureau manager and a 
fruit expert from the Stale agricultural 
college. We found approximately 50 per 
cent of the apple trees in the home or¬ 
chards were dead (Fig. 140), and no at¬ 
tempt had been made to put them into 
their proper place, namely, the fireplace. 
We also found that very few young trees 
had been set to replace this 50 per Cent 
dead trees. Thus we are sure in this 
section, ajul by a casual glance now and 
tjien through other sections where we 
travel, we cun see there are less fruit 
trees in the home orchards than there 
lqtvo been,.for many years past. On our 
survey we visited several large orchards 
Which had hc.cn cared for as one would 
expect in a commercial orchard in the 
fruit belt. In such orchards very few, if 
any. trees were missing, and a fine crop 
of fruit hung on tlu* trees. Then why 
the backsliding in the home orchard? In 
answer I will try to touch on the causes 
for loss of trees as found in this section, 
also the causes for inferior fruit which 
make us purchase our Winter’s supply 
from the fruit bolt, a hundred or more 
miles away. 
Spraying and Care.—I n the first 
germinate quickly and possess 
ample vigor to nourish a strong, 
healthy stand. No fertilizer will 
supply this strength; it must 
be in the seed. 
ASK YOUR DEALER FOR 
PINE TREE BRAND 
MARK 
IT STANDS ALONE 
THE ALBERT DICKINSON COMPANY 
Chicago Minneapolis 
ilo Binghamton Hoboken Pittsburgh 
himself on the dozen or 15 fruit trees he 
had planted around his farm home. 
"I have," he replied, "and my wife and 
I have figured on growing enough fruit 
for ourselves and in plentiful years 
enough for the neighbors, but caring for 
a dozen fruit trees on a dairy farm isn't, 
the same proposition as caring for a 
dozen acres, as we did in Ontario County 
before we came here to raise cows. We 
don’t grow potatoes, except iu the garden 
for our own use, and we can’t afford a 
spray rig for so few trees; it: seems as if 
the worms and scab and other pests are 
worse than ever before, so we have de¬ 
cided to cut the trees down and buy our 
fruit. If we grew enough potatoes so 
that we had a spray machine for them, 
we could rig it over to spray fruit, hut 
as it is now we have nothing but the 
knapsack sprayer we use in the cow 
barn, and that is useless with 15-year-old 
trees.” 
Harris’ Pedigree Seed Corn 
Real Northern-Grown Seed 
For the northern parts of the country it is of the greatest importance to 
plant corn grown in the north for many years. A good many dealers who do 
business in New York and New England sell seed corn grown in Nebraska or 
other western points. 
Harris’ Seed Corn (except three late ensilage varieties) is all grown in 
Northern Western New York near Lake Ontario. This insures early maturity. 
By careful selection and breeding for many years we have produced strains 
that are superior to common varieties in yield as well as earliness.^ 
Harris' Early Red Glaze and Smutnose Yellow Hint are the earliest varieties 
grown, and have very long ears and yield heavily. Davis Early Huron and 
Michigan White Cap'Jji extremely early Dent varieties that mature perfectly any¬ 
where and yield immense crops of grain in all corn-growing sections. This is 
not common corn sold for seed, but real, high-grade seed corn. 
Qppd Oitk We can supply some very fine oats of the follow- 
‘ ~ meas- 
IldiilS Ot-Ull Wdla ing varieties: Carton’s Abundance,42 lbs. per 
ured bushel, Bumper Crop, Scottish Chief, Iowa Pedigree No. 103, Swedish Select. 
Samples free. 
Barley, Spring Wheat arid Rye, Buckwheat, Spelts, Sudan Grass, Soy Beans, etc. 
Montana-Grown Alfalfa, hardy, and the only kind that should be used in the 
North. 
Harris’ Vegetable and Flower seeds are well-known for high quality; and 
our prices are lower than city seedsmen charge. Buy direct from the grower. 
Send for JOSEPH HARRIS CO. 
ft’s free Drawer M Coldwater, N. Y. 
will be rebudded next Summer to a sour 
variety that can withstand the cold. The 
sour varieties do nicely and are perfectly 
normal for their 10 years of growth. The 
same is true of some of the apple varie¬ 
ties planted here, the Baldwins, Graven- 
steins, Hubbardstons, and the like, all 
showing sun.sen id or crotch injury or tip 
freezing, and dying before a crop can be 
harvested. Take the McIntosh in con¬ 
trast. The 15-year-old tree shown (Fig. 
140) has not missed a year in hearing 
until the frost nipped the buds last 
Spring. We examined the fruit buds yes¬ 
terday, wading through 2 ft. of snow, 
and from all outward appearances we 
and shall have a line crop. 
T. II. TOWNSEND. 
- 
% 
In the first 
