634 
SEPT 22 
tor »1}< Doutig 
YOU MS’ HORTICULTURAL CLUB 
OF THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER , 
TENTH REGULAR DISCUSSION. 
Topic: — Apples—Where to Grow Them — 
How to Care for Them—Their Value 
Upon the Farm—The Insect Pests Troub¬ 
ling Them—A Remedy for Them—The 
Most Profitable Varieties—The Best Va- 
riety. 
Uncle Mark: —With such a large number 
of the Club members before me. I dare not 
take much time in speaking, knowing that my 
young friends have much to say for them¬ 
selves upon this very popular fruit of ours, 
the apple. 
11 gives me great pleasure to welcome so 
large a number of young horticulturists, 
whom I hope will be greatly benefitted by this, 
our tenth discussion. 
The subject we have to discuss is an old 
cne, but one that should never lack in interest 
to the boy or girl who has grown up with his 
or her pockets laden with rosy-cheeked ap¬ 
ples; who always knows where the biggest 
and best ones are to be found in the orchard 
back of the old rusty barn; who has sat and 
pared apples for mother on long Winter even¬ 
ings to make mince for Thanksgiving pies; 
who loves to sit by the ruddy glow of the open 
fireplace with basiu of pop-corn aud apples, 
while the fierce storm drives without; or, who 
as a last extremity, have earnestly begged to 
“give me the core.' 1 All such boys and girls, I 
say, cannot fail to take an interest in this sub¬ 
ject, aud as I think 1 see a number of them 
before me, 1 will open the discusssion by call¬ 
ing on O. F. Fuller. 
I. Where to Grow Them.— The subject 
presented by Uncle Mark this time is old and 
familiar, and yet always an interesting one. 
It may be asked what the Cousins have to 
offer that is new. Possibly not much, but I 
believe that some good al ways comes from a 
free discussion of almost any subject. 
Almost any good, strong soil adapted to 
com or grass, is suitable for an apple orchard. 
In sections where there is a hard-pan, a tena¬ 
cious subsoil, it should be dry,either from nat¬ 
ural or artificial drainage. A sheltered hill iu 
New England is better than a valley, as it 
escapes frosts On the hills a resonable circu¬ 
lation of air promotes the health of the trees 
and fine color in the fruit. The east winds are 
more to be feared than any Other, for 
cold, wet storms are the most fatal scourge 
that over alHiet our Mass, orchards. Generally 
upon our strong soils, not too heavy, we have 
the best flavored fruit, there being a few ex¬ 
ceptions, but when the seasons are wet and 
cold, trees ou warm, quick soils have the ad¬ 
vantage. The distance apart 1 would set them 
would be 35 feet each way. 
II. How to Care for Them.— When this 
country was new, and the soil was full of veg¬ 
etable matter in the form of decayed roots 
and leaves of old forests that formerly occu¬ 
pied the ground, apples grew almost sponta¬ 
neously, and little skill or care was required 
to secure an abundant supply. To-day as one 
travels over New England, the dilapidated old 
orchards are the most melancholy objects to 
be seen. The gnarled ami mossy ti uuks, dead 
limbs and bushy tops of the few trees that 
marked the site of once thrifty orchards, 
suggest sad thoughts of decay and ruin. 
The trees should be well pruned every year, 
and all the suckers cut c ff. Every wound made 
in pruning that is over half an inch in diame¬ 
ter should be covered, If the trees are vigor- 
ous the wound will probably heal over with¬ 
out help, but covering greatly aids the effort 
of the trees in repairing any damage done to 
its outer covering. Paint of any color will do. 
I generally use blue paint. The best time to 
prune is in March or April; then the saw runs 
clear and bright. The aim is, to keep the 
head of the tree open to the air and liglu, and 
free from limbs that are crossing and rubbing 
against each other. Cut out these and all 
dead wood. Each tree should be examined an¬ 
nually. 
I prefer Spring planting, with no satisfac¬ 
tory reasons for my preference. At planting, 
cut smooth all broken roots, ami remove fully 
one-half of the head by thinning out and cut¬ 
ting back, I prefer young trees two yeans 
from the bud, to those that are older; large 
trees suffer so much by removal that smaller 
ones often outstrip them in growth. Deep 
ploughing after the trees have been set out 
and attained some size, is very bad for the 
orchard. Summer apples should ripen fully 
on the trees. Winter apples should hang as 
late as liability to dangerous frosts and storms 
will allow. We generally pick our apples *i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKERS 
from September 20th to October 10th. A 
slight freezing does not hurt them, providing 
they are left undisturbed while frozen. Sum¬ 
mer apples may be allowed to drop, or be 
gently shaken from the trees on a soft mat of 
grass, or a mulch of fine hay or straw. Fruit 
never keeps well without the stem. 'lhey 
never should be poured into a box or barrel, 
as it will bruise them. Wash the trunks of 
the trees with a solution of soft soap and wa¬ 
ter, in the months of May aud June. Nothing 
should be used which will tighten or bind the 
bark. 
III. Thf.ir value upon the farm.— Ap¬ 
ples of late years have been a little coquettish 
in their habits, and some may have been dis¬ 
couraged iu cultivating them. Let such re¬ 
member that eveu iu our most unproductive 
seasons, more and better apples are raised in 
Northern and Western sections of our country 
than any other part of the world. Our soils 
aud climate, as a whole, are exceedingly well 
adapted to this fruit. Others have feared that 
hy the great increase of nurseries, and multi¬ 
plication of orchards, the apple market would 
be overstocked. Wc need only to remind such 
that the price of apples has steadily risen in 
onr country. The demand for good apples 
has been greater than the supply. Our fathers 
thought themselves fortunate if they could 
obtain §1 per barrel for picked, grafted ap¬ 
ples. Foreign demand for apples has greatly 
increased. England with her foggy atmos¬ 
phere cannot produce the high flavored fruit 
peculiar to our country, and will take all of 
our surplus stock; when they are in profu¬ 
sion multitudes of f amilies can indulge in the 
purchase of a few barrels. At such times 
apples are worth much more than the cost of 
production for feeding stock. Hogs eat them 
with the same avidity as do children One of 
the best modesifor feeding swine upon apples, 
is to let them run in an orchard, eatiug all 
windfalls, which are generally wormy, thus 
preventing the worms from burrowing in the 
earth, and causing trouble the next Summer. 
Cows are fond of apples, and if fed judicious¬ 
ly upon them, the flow of milk will greatly in¬ 
crease. Horses also enjoy them, and I can see 
no reason why they should not be occasion¬ 
ally fed with them. Apple pomace is valuable 
for feeding cattle, horses, swine and sheep. 
My father has fed it to all four with satis¬ 
factory results. All surplus apples can be 
made into cider, and subsequently into vine¬ 
gar. Pure cider vinegar is always in great 
demand aud commands a high price, 
IV. The insect pests troubling them,— 
The Apple Maggot .—Without doubt the most 
important insect euerny of the apple is the Cod- 
lin Moth or apple-wort^, as it is often called. 
This is the small white worm which infests 
apples near the core. 1 lie danger from this 
pest is due to two facts. First, it is very wide¬ 
ly distributed, occurring almost everywhere 
where apples are cultivated. Second, it is 
usually so abundant wherever it occurs that it 
destroys a large proportion of the fruit. The 
apple-worm is small, white, aud footless, meas¬ 
uring about cue quarter of an inch iu length. 
In some instances the body is yellowish-white, 
in others it. has a greenish tinge. The import¬ 
ant peculiarity in the habits of this insect is, 
that it. bores large tunnels in all directions 
through the pulp of the fruit; freqnently these 
tunnels are enlarged into cavities the size of a 
pea, and when several of the larva? are present 
in the same apple, it is honeycombed, so as to 
be rendered useless. The Apple Woiin is much 
more apt to infest early apples than Winter 
varieties. 
The Apple-core Worm .—Among the insect 
tribes many are known as nighCfiyers, bent on 
mischief. At night time these moths will 
pitch pell-mell into a light. The parent of the 
Core Worm is a little grizzly moth. 
The Apple Tree Tent Caterpillar .—The cat. 
erpillar is found in nearly every orchard, and 
on every wild cherry tree, the leaves of which 
it. is especially fond of. The eggs are deposited 
iu June on small twigs, and are not hatched 
until the following Spring. The caterpillar 
feeds twice a day; once in the forenoon, and 
once in the afternoon. They feed about six 
weeks, and then form cocoons, from which the 
moth issues about three weeks later. 
The Round-headed Apple Tree. Borer .—The 
tree aud shrubs principally attacked by this 
borer are the apple, quince, etc. The perfect 
insect which makes its appearance the latter 
part of May or the first of June is about three- 
fourths of an inch iu length. It may be easily 
recognized by the two white stripes on the up¬ 
per side of the body, alternating with three of 
a light brown t?olur. The face, the under part, 
of the body, and the legs are white. This 
beetle flies mainly at night, the female depos. 
iting her eggs on the tmnks of the trees near 
the ground. In two weeks the eggs are 
hatched, aud the 3 T ouug worms commence eat¬ 
ing into the bark. It remains nearly three 
years iu the tree as a borer. During the first 
year it does but little harm, living mainly up¬ 
on the inner bark. By the end of the second 
Winter, when half grown, it usually begins 
boring into the solid wood. It. often makes 
tunnels a foot or more in length. 
The Conker Worm .—The perfect insect is 
a gray or ash colored moth, but the male 
and female present a very different appear¬ 
ance. The former is smaller bodied and has 
wings. The female has a body two or three 
times larger than the male, and has no wings. 
These moths make their appearance the first 
warn days of Spring. The male moth is 
very active, but mostly so about dark, at 
which time the female may be found climb¬ 
ing up the trunks of the trees. The eggs 
are usually placed near buds. In the Spring 
the young worms may be seen feeding on the 
young and tender leaves. When full grown 
the worms are about one inch in length. 
V. A Remedy for them.— The destruc¬ 
tion of fruit infected by Apple Maggot, prompt¬ 
ly after it falls from the tree, aud before the 
worm leaves it to go into the ground to trans¬ 
form, is one good remedy. Aud when the 
pest is very abundant the grafting 
of the trees into varieties less liable 
to be infested, is another. In such cases it 
would be well to leave a few early apple trees 
to serve as traps, and promptly destroy the 
fruit as it falls from them. If such trees 
could be enclosed, aud swine pastured uuder 
them the success of the traps would be assured. 
The same method may be employed with the 
Apple-core Worm. 
The nests of the Apple Tree Tent Caterpil¬ 
lar can be destroyed, or syringed with soap, 
lye, coal-oil, etc. but a much cheaper way is 
to destroy the eggs when the trees arc bare, 
is a swab prepared and dipped iu coal-oil, 
lit, aud used as a torch burning out the 
nests. 
A remedy for the Round-headed Apple Tree 
Borer, is to apply a solution of soft soap aud 
water with an old broom on the trunks of 
the trees. Another remedy is by thrusting a 
wire about the size of a knitting needle into 
the hole made by the borer. The mouth of 
September is the best time to go through the 
orchards to kill them. 
Canker Wonns may be kept from the 
trees by canvass bands about eight inches in 
width, tacked around the trunks of the trees 
near the ground, and smeared with tar or 
printers’ ink, which must be renewed as soon 
as it becomes dry. Another thing to look 
out for, is that they sometimes bridge the 
piece of canvas. 
VI. The most profitable varieties are Rhode 
Island Greening, Baldwin, and Roxbury 
Russet. 
VII. The best varieties which every farmer 
should have for home use are the Baldwin, 
R. I. Greeuing, Roxuury Russet, Gravestein, 
Fall Pippin, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Red As- 
trachan, Early Harvest and Porter. For sweet 
apples, Golden Sweet, Talman’s Sweet and 
Sweet Russet. 
Jessie Hubbard: — I prefer for Summer 
apples, Red Astrachan, Garretson’s Early, 
Sweet Bongh and Golden Sweet. Early Har¬ 
vest is not hardy. The Garretsou’s Early 
have to be gathered and marketed as soon as 
they begin to ripeu, as they soon become dry 
and mealy. The Red Astrachan and Sweet 
Bough nre my favorites. 
For Fall apples, Fall Orange, Col vert. Ram- 
bo, Duchess of Oldenburgb, Golden Pippin, 
Long Island, Seek-No-Further, Jersey Sweet¬ 
ing, Barn ham’s Sweet, Drap d’Or and Keswick 
Codling. The Fall Orange is the favorite and 
proves best in our orchard. For W inter, Bald¬ 
win, Red Canada, Rhode Island Greening, 
King of Tompkins Co., Northern Spy, West- 
field Seek-No-Further, Wagener, Swaar, and 
English Russet. 
Apples should be put in barrels, boxes or 
bins aud kept in a cool, damp pluce. Last 
W inter our cellar was very dry and cool, aud 
toward Spring the apples began to wither and 
shrink, but when the snow molted and the 
water leaked into the cellar, the apples Qiled 
out considerably and stopped withering. 
The insects that work ou the trees and fruit 
are numerous. As it would take too much 
room to give the description I will give the 
names of the pests. On the trees, there are 
two kinds of borers, the wood and tiark. The 
wood borer works in tbe wood only, and the 
bark borer in the bark. Then there are sev¬ 
eral kinds of measuring worms aud caterpil¬ 
lars. There are tent worms, slugs. Itarkliee 
and a worm Pa calls the calico worm on 
account of its color. It eats nearly every leaf 
from the trec6. Besides these there is the 
partridge, which does the most damage by 
eating the fruit buds; and sapsucker also does 
considerable damage. 
The fruit is troublod by the Codling Moth, 
which is its greatest pest. The moths cau lie 
found iu the Spring in cellars where apples 
have boon kept, and in orchards. Also on 
warm evenings, just at dusk, on the south sido 
of buildings, always head downward. When 
looking for them a person must be very care¬ 
ful, for they will be easily mistaken in the 
twilight for a piece of brown leaf or stick. 
Besides these pests there are ants, hornets, blue 
jays and sapeuckers that eat the fruit while on 
the trees; and the cricket, aud grasshopper 
when on the ground. The squirrels for the 
first time, are makiug a terrible raid ou the 
orchard this Hummer. They have cut off 
bushels of apples and a great many limbs. 
They do not seem to eat much fruit, but just 
cut it off and drop it to the grouud. also nearly 
every apple left on the trees have been bitten 
by them. 
Libbik Clark:— Fruit-growing is becoming 
one of the principal industries of the United 
States, aud apples are extensively produced. 
They are easily grown, command a good price, 
and, like everything else, to render profit, de¬ 
mand care. 
The mode of action most common in putting 
out an orchard is to have the soil well pre¬ 
pared aud plant trees from two to three years 
old, m the Spring or m the Fall as the planter 
deems wisest, A profitable method is to ob¬ 
tain root-grafts, plant, them in the garden aud 
keep them well cultivated till they are large 
enough to put iu the orchard. The cost, is 
about one cent each. Spring is the best time 
to set them. They should lie set about 18 
inches apart, in rows three feet apart,. The 
roots should be placed iu as natural a position 
as possible, and covered with mellow earth. 
The young trees should be kept pruned. At 
two years of age most of them will be large 
enough to transplant. Spring is the best time 
to put them out. The ground should bo put iu 
order and the trees set about 30 feet apart. 
Places should be dug about eight inches deep, 
allowiug space enough to spread the roots out. 
Beret's prove destructive if the trees are not 
attended to. They work near the root and ai e 
generally got rid of, by means of a jack knife 
aud a sharp stick. Cora may be planted be¬ 
tween the rows till they have been three or 
four years out. Later the trees are too large 
aud the roots are injured by the cultivation 
of the crop. An orchard should be pruned 
every Spring. A great deal of wood produces 
a great number of apples, but they are worth 
less than fewer apples of better quality. I 
think apples kept in a pit in \V inter, are 
better than those kept in a cellar. 
The most profitable apples an? the Ben Davis, 
Willow Twig, Little Romanite, Winter Wiue- 
sap, Fall Winesap, Rarnbo, Maiden’s Blush, 
Red June, and Haiwest. The first four are 
Winter applas and all are good keepers. I 
like VV Blow Twig better than Ben Davis, be¬ 
cause it is juicy when mellow. The Ben Davis 
is rod, has a tough skin, aud bears shipping 
best. 
George B. Fox. —Apple trees require a 
mellow, fertile soil, which should be deep 
enough to allow the routs to extend well into 
the ground, and be either of a dry nature or 
well drained, to prevent injury from stagnant 
water. The ground should be well manured 
before the trees are set out. Coarse manure 
should not be used in contact with the roots 
of young trees, but chip-dust, bones of dead 
animals, hoofs, hair, old plaster, etc., ure all 
good for growing trees. 
Trees for setting out an orchard should al¬ 
ways be procured of some rebable nursery¬ 
man. In planting the trees, each limb should 
be cut back to withiu two or three buds, and 
all broken or bruised roots should be cut off by 
the sound wood. Then holes should lie dug til 
the grouud large enough for the roots of the 
trees to be placed in a nat ural position. One 
can then hold the tree upright in the hole 
while another shovels in the earth, being care- 
lid to have all the roots in contact with the 
earth. When the hole is nearly full, throw in 
a pail of water to settle the soil around t he 
roots. In poor, gravelly land, the hole should 
be filled with good ground. Mulch in the Full 
with stable manure and in the Spring plow or 
fork uuder. For the first five years alter set¬ 
ting out, plant between the rows with potatoes 
or vines, ami then allow the hogs aud chickens 
to ran in. 
The value of upple trees upou the farm is 
probably greatly underrated. If properly 
cared for the trees will bring in as large re¬ 
turns for the amount of ground invested, 
and the amount of care involved, thau 
almost any other fruit the farmer can pro¬ 
duce, besides the large amount generally used 
for home consumption The wind-fails can 
lie grouud into cider, which iu time changes 
into very good vinegar, which iu many sec¬ 
tions will yield profitable returns. 
The worst insect enemies of t he apple trees 
in this section, are the borers and a striped 
worm thut eats the leaves. We always wash 
our trees iu the Hpriug with potash and usu¬ 
ally have a nice bark on them aud are never 
troubled with the borer. For the worms, the 
only remedy is hand picking 
It is almost impossible to give a select list of 
different varieties for the whole country as 
some varieties prove very good in one section, 
but of not much value in another. For this 
part of the country there arc no better varie¬ 
ties than the following; for early, Early Har¬ 
vest, Hweet Bough, Fall Fippin, Uawlo’s 
Genet, Maidens Blush. For Winter, Bald¬ 
win, king of Tompkins Co., Found Sweet, 
Twenty Ounce, and Rhode Island Greening. 
We also have a local variety called the Hum¬ 
mer Fippin which is one of our best Hummer 
apples. For the best variety there is none 
which does better here than the Rhode Is¬ 
land Greening. 
