Vol. LXVI. No. 3016 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 16, 1907. 
WEEKLY. {1.00 PR It YEAE. 
APPLE CULTURE IN 
WESTERN NEW YORK. 
CULTIVATION OR MULCH ? 
An Important Experiment. 
Let us call a business meet¬ 
ing of the American Apple 
Consumers’ League. We will 
not limit it to apple men, but 
call all people who are inter¬ 
ested in American progress. 
Here are three apple stories 
which we may eat to-day! 
On October 8, I was in an 
orchard of 500 Baldwin trees, 
about 35 years old. which 
produced $10,000 worth of 
fruit this year. 
* * * 
I met a reliable man zvho, 
this year, sold $1,000 zvorth of. 
fruit from 25 Baldwin trees. 
* * * 
I sazv one tree now 49 years 
old which has produced, dur¬ 
ing its bearing years, at least 
$350 worth of apples! 
* * * 
Do you expect people to 
believe any such stories? Yes, 
and very likely you would say 
that the half had not been 
tc.ld if you could go to these 
orchards and see for yourself! 
I realize what it means to a 
man of middle years to have 
such an orchard at his back. 
There isn’t any $50,000 block 
of stock in Wall Street that 
can match it. Another thing 
—if you could study these or¬ 
chards you would also realize 
perhaps for the first time what 
it means in the way of skill 
and energy to handle a good 
commercial orchard. 
But where is this wonderful 
place—in fairyland? 
You might think so if you 
stood at the center of one of 
these orchards and looked 
through long avenues of green 
with the red apples hanging 
in ropes, and the trees stag¬ 
gering beneath their load. 
They seem to be reaching out 
far across the rows for sup¬ 
port! The orchard I speak of 
is at Hilton, N. Y., but a few 
miles from Rochester. There 
is a mile of road at Hilton 
which is said to run through 
the richest fruit section in the 
world. That is, the orchards 
of apple, pear and peach which 
touch this road are said to 
produce more money than any 
other equal area in tree fruits, 
and farther west through Or¬ 
leans and Niagara counties, 
and east and north through 
Wayne there are hundreds of 
oth£r orchards just as good. 
There are others, too, that 
have been neglected, and are 
not doing so well. Now, it is 
the ambition of many capable 
A STONE WALL EXERCISE OF J. H. HALE. Fig. 411. 
CLEARING THE LAND. THE BIG CHESTNUT WILL BE LEFT. Fig. 412. 
THE BEGINNINGS OF A PEACH ORCHARD. Fig. 413. 
and farsighted men to live to 
see the time when the great 
fruit counties of Western New 
York will be one great or¬ 
chard north from Rochester 
and along Lake Ontario. 
These men expect to see it 
even more beautiful and pro¬ 
ductive than the great orange 
groves in California. 
Is there anyone who cannot 
see that this would not only 
benefit this section, but every 
part of the State as well ? 
When one class of farmers 
can show that their business 
ranks in importance with man¬ 
ufacturing, every other class 
of farmers will be helped di¬ 
rectly or indirectly. 
Now there is only one way 
to bring such a thing about, 
and that is to improve the 
methods of growing apples. 
There is a right way and a 
wrong way. The man who 
picks $1,000 worth from 25 
trees must be nearer right 
than he who grows a crop fit 
only for evaporator or cider 
mill. How can the cider apple 
man be induced to grow high- 
class fruit? That is the prob¬ 
lem which the Geneva Experi¬ 
ment Station took up, and is 
the one I want to describe. 
A large proportion of the 
orchards in Western New 
York are in sod. Of late 
years many of the most suc¬ 
cessful growers have given 
their orchards the most thor¬ 
ough culture. Some of them 
have listened to the arguments 
of the sod or mulch men, and 
have left certain orchards or 
parts of orchards in grass for 
comparison. Both sides have 
what they call good arguments, 
one pointing to larger fruit 
and more of it, the other 
showing less cost for culture, 
higher colored and firmer 
fruit, and greater ability of 
one man to care for an or¬ 
chard. Some definite and un¬ 
prejudiced experiment was 
needed to settle it, and the 
Geneva Station undertook the 
work. I have advocated the 
mulch system of culture, and 
have a good-sized orchard that 
has never been plowed. Most 
of these trees are quite satis¬ 
factory, yet I must say before 
we begin this story, that I 
never was so severely tempted 
to plow and cultivate, wher¬ 
ever the ground is level enough 
to do so, as since I saw those 
Western New York orchards! 
In order to make the ex¬ 
periment a fair one, the Sta¬ 
tion wanted soil that would be 
a fair type of orchard land in 
that section. They also wanted 
trees that would fairly repre- 
