Vol. LV. No. 2432. 
NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 5, 1896. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
A NEW ENGLAND APPLE ORCHARD. 
THE “ NEW ” APPLE CULTURE. 
There Is Profit In An Apple Tree. 
Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., is well- 
known as a veteran nurseryman and fruit grower. 
Last winter, at the Connecticut Farmers’ Institutes, 
he gave an excellent talk on “Apple Orcharding.” 
With this address for a basis, The R. N.-Y. has pre¬ 
pared the following talk on apple growing in New 
England. While it refers especially to Connecticut, 
there are many ideas in it that will be useful to fruit 
growers everywhere. 
“ What do Connecticut farmers think of apple grow¬ 
ing, Mr. Hoyt ? ” 
“ They seem to think that there is no profit in it.” 
“ Are they right, in your opinion ? ” 
“ I do not deny that there is good ground for this 
belief, from the present conditions of apple raising.” 
“ But is the failure to make it profitable, because 
apples cannot be profitably grown in this section of 
the country, or is it because those having the or¬ 
chards are not pursuing the proper methods for profit¬ 
able results?” 
“ To my mind, 
the latter is the 
reason. What crop 
is there on the 
farm that will pay 
if no more care, 
expense or atten¬ 
tion is given it 
than that given 
most apple or¬ 
chards throughout 
our State, and, I 
might say, our 
country ? ” 
“ You mean to 
say that the apple 
crop should re¬ 
ceive as much care 
and attention as 
field crops of vege¬ 
tables or grain ? ” 
“Certainly? 
Why not? While 
farmers are rais¬ 
ing large and 
profitable crops of 
farm products, 
how few there are 
who set an apple 
orchard, and give it the care and attention they do 
other farm crops, or the care necessary to insure a 
good and profitable crop of apples. Do you know of 
an apple orchard that is treated and cared for as one 
would treat an onion or potato crop? Is there an 
apple orchard in your community that is manured 
annually, and as carefully watched and attended to 
as the potato or onion crop ? People say, ‘ Orchard¬ 
ing does not pay.’ No, of course not. How should it, 
or how can it pay when there is very little or no out¬ 
lay ? To grow apples by the old methods, there is 
little, if any, profit. But if you ask, Can apples be 
grown in this section at a profit ? I should certainly 
say, yes.” 
“ What is the first important thing about your new 
apple culture ? ” 
“ First make up your mind to follow orcharding as 
a business, and to follow it as such almost exclusively. 
Farming and fruit raising may, but will not, as a 
rule, be carried on together successfully on the same 
farm. The necessity for annually manuring the or¬ 
chard, frequent spraying and pruning the trees, thin¬ 
ning the fruit, cultivating, or stirring the soil to in¬ 
sure success, is apparent, and to neglect these things 
for other pressing farm work, is to sacrifice the apple 
crop to a very large extent. If orcharding is followed 
as a business, as it should be, then the time and atten¬ 
tion necessary for securing a successful and profitable 
crop will more likely be given the trees, the same as 
is now given other farm products.” 
“ But you have to wait too long for an apple crop ?” 
“I would plant trees with the idea of making the 
most money possible from it in our day, and not as an 
investment for those coming after us. To do this I 
would set the trees 18 feet apart, which would re¬ 
quire 135 trees to the acre. Of course you will say at 
once, ‘That is too close’; but wait till I show you 
what can be done. Remember, we are after the 
money in this, our new departure in orcharding, and 
want to get as much as possible out of it in our own 
day ; therefore, plant quickly.” 
“ What soil would you select ?” 
“ Do not select some back lot, too poor and stony to 
be used for ordinary farm crops, as has only too often 
been done in the old way ; but select the very best 
land you have, which should be dry and well adapted 
to growing onions, potatoes, corn, clover, etc. Much 
of our ridge land may, however, grow good crops of 
onions, potatoes and corn, yet be too wet for trees. 
Any land in which a hole dug for a tree, to a depth of 
about 20 inches, which, if left over night in the spring, 
would fill half full or less with water, is too wet for 
best results from an orchard, and should be under¬ 
drained. It is always best to have the land well 
manured, plowed and cropped one season before set¬ 
ting the trees.” 
“ What about setting the trees and manuriug ? ” 
“ In digging the holes for the trees, it is not neces¬ 
sary, in such tilled soil, to dig large ones ; two feet in 
diameter, and 20 inches deep are sufficient. But in 
digging, be careful to place the surface, or black soil 
in a pile by itself, and, likewise, the subsoil, or yel¬ 
low earth ; then, when setting the trees, use the black 
soil only, and to make up a sufficient quantity to fill 
the hole, take a shovelful of the surface soil from 
here and there about the tilled field. The yellow soil 
may afterwards be sprinkled over the surface of the 
ground away from the trees. After the trees have 
been set, and the holes filled in, sprinkle about two 
or three pounds of some good fertilizer about each 
tree. The rains will then earry this plant food down 
through the soil to the roots in good time. The or¬ 
chard should be manured or fertilized every year, 
using 25 to 30 tons of stable manure, or if fertilizer be 
used, one ton or more per acre. The land may be 
planted to onions, potatoes, or some low hoed crop, 
until the trees come into bearing, which will be in 
about four or five years, at which time cropping 
should cease, but manuring and cultivating should 
be kept up annually, as well as pruning, spraying and 
thinning the fruit.” 
“ Now then, what do you expect to get from such 
an orchard in the way of fruit ? ” 
“ An orchard set on good soil, manured and culti¬ 
vated with crops annually for four years, will, the 
fifth year, produce from one-half to three-quarter 
bushel of apples per tree, and should, and will, if 
properly handled, bear every year, each year with an 
increased yield ; at eight years each tree should bear 
two barrels ; at 12 years, five barrels, and at 15 years, 
10 barrels per tree. Now, as we have 135 trees per 
acre, and each tree bears, say, one-lialf bushel of ap¬ 
ples the fifth year, we have 67 bushels, or 50 bushels 
more than if the trees were set 35 feet apart, the 
usual distance. 
The sixth year, we 
would have one 
bushel per tree, or 
135 bushels in all, 
which is 100 bush¬ 
els more than if 
set 35 feet apart. 
The seventh year, 
say, 1)4 bushel 
per tree, 202 bush¬ 
els per acre, or 150 
more than if 35 
feet. The eighth 
year, two barrels 
per tree (as an or¬ 
chard in New 
Canaan, Conn., 
did), would give 
you 270 barrels 
per acre, or 200 
barrels more than 
if set the old way. 
The trees should 
thus continue to 
yield more each 
year until the 
fifteenth year, at 
which time they 
will begin to touch 
each other. The orchard has now borne 10 crops. 
There have been 100 trees more per acre to bear ap¬ 
ples those 10 years, by being set 18 feet apart, than if 
set 35 feet apart, and each tree has yielded fully as 
much fruit as it would have done had they been set 
35 feet apart. Now, it is safe to say that more money 
has been taken from this orchard in these 10 years, 
with 135 trees to the acre, than could be had from the 
acre in 25 or 30 years, had there been but 35 trees on 
the ground.” 
“ What is done to the orchard when the trees grow 
large enough to touch each ocher ? ” 
“If the trees begin to crowd at the end of 15 years, 
cut down every other row, and every ocher tree in the 
rows left, and we then have 35 trees to the acre, the 
same as though we had started with that number at 
first; but the 100 extra trees have produced thousands 
of barrels of apples, thus enabling the planter to re¬ 
alize more from that acre of orchard in the first 15 
years from planting, than he could have done in 30 
years had they been planted 35 trees to the acre origi¬ 
nally. Again, the expense for manuring, spraying, 
cultivating, etc., is not, proportionately, as heavy 
with 133 trees to the sere ag there are only 35 t 
