200 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 4, 
FRUITMORE ORCHARDS. 
Our orchard being the most 
profitable part of our farming, 
we (my wife and I) concluded 
to set out more apple trees and 
expect them, to get busy in less 
than the proverbial 20 years. 
Not liking the heavy three and 
four-year trees we persuaded the 
nurseryman to sell us the pick 
of the two-year trees, all to be 
low-headed. The ground selected 
was a piece containing every¬ 
thing from light sand to heavy 
clay, and was in only fair con¬ 
dition as to fertility, being 
planted the two years previous. 
Our bread and butter demanded 
our supply of manure for our 
truck garden, and our finances 
would not warrant the purchase 
of commercial fertilizer, and so 
the trees had to do with good 
cultivation. Good large holes 
were dug about 18 inches deep, 
the subsoil scattered «nd top soil 
put in its place; all of the 
smaller roots were removed and 
the ends of the large ones were 
cut so that the cut would rest 
fiat on the ground, and consider¬ 
able pains, were taken to firm the 
soil around the roots, leaving the 
tree three or four inches deeper 
than it stood in the nursery row. 
The top was shortened to the re¬ 
quired height of a little less than 
three feet, and . all of the 
branches cut off except three or 
four, and they were shortened to 
three or four buds, always cut¬ 
ting to an outside bud. Prac¬ 
tically no further trimming was 
done until they were three years 
set, when we went over them 
and cut out all the limbs not 
wanted to make the head, which 
was only three or four, and from 
that time on very little trimming 
has been done, only cutting out 
suckers and limbs that crossed 
each other excepting on the four 
rows of Sutton. We kept trying 
for three years longer to make 
them spread out, but failed, and 
on account of this continued 
trimming we have kept this part 
of our orchard from bearing, 
throwing to wood growth. The 
other 20 rows, containing 7 
acres, gave us nearly 100 barrels 
last year, and this year 1080 
bushels, single trees having 10^4 
bushels this year, and making 
from one to two feet of growth 
at nine years from setting, with a 
good showing of fruit buds for 
next season. 
During the life of this orchard 
it has received 1000 pounds of 
commercial fertilizer and an old 
stack bottom, for which we paid 
$10, which is all the manure it 
has had, but the five years pre¬ 
vious to 3910 we raised five crops 
of beans between the rows, plow¬ 
ing the ground early and keep¬ 
ing it harrowed until June 20, 
when the beans were drilled in, 
leaving a good space for the 
trees. This strip each side of 
the trees was allowed to grow 
up to weeds, and the weeds were 
allowed to mature and when 
turned under the next Spring 
made a large amount of slow 
decaying humus which takes a 
year .or more to decay, furnish¬ 
ing a continuous supply of car¬ 
bonic acid, which in turn releases 
the potash and phosphoric acid 
already in the soil in the same 
continuous though not rapid 
manner, giving the trees all they 
need for a healthy, hardy growth, 
and not forcing them as manure 
or green crops turned under 
would do. The beans on adjoin¬ 
ing strip furnished some nitro- 
THE PICKERS READY FOR WORK. Fig. 77. 
SAME TREE RELIEVED OF ITS CROP.' Fig. 78. 
gen to entice the roots farthefi 
from the trunk and give a little 
extra stimulus. The beans were 
sowed one way one year and 
the other way the next, which 
changed the weed strip each yeaC 
also. 
One advantage of these low 
heads is the ease with which we 
can spray them and trim them, 
thin and pick the fruit. One 
man picked 186 bushels in this 
orchard in nine hours and 10 
minutes, so the picking problem 
is much simplified. We aim to 
spray this orchard two or three 
times a year with lime-sulphur 
mixture, the first time six to 50 
strength, just as the first green 
shows when the buds are break¬ 
ing, getting some of the aphis, 
all of the blister mite and much 
reducing the apple scab, and 
serving as a safeguard against 
San Jose scale. Our second 
spraying we aim to commence 
when the blossoms have half 
dropped with a V/2 to 50 strength 
with V/i pounds of arsenate of 
lead added; the third spraying 
two weeks later with the same 
solution. As soon as the natural 
drop was over we went over the 
trees and thinned the fruit, where 
there were bunches of two, three 
or four we only left one, and 
when they were still too thick 
we took more, taking off several 
hundred apples from some of 
these trees. The result was that 
nearly all that were left went 
into the barrels, a fine quality 
of No. 1 fruit that the buyers 
tumbled over themselves to get. 
We make our concentrated lime 
and sulphur at a cost of $2.42 
per barrel testing from 31J/j 
to 35. JOHN Q. WELLS. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
AN IRRIGATION FARM. 
One of the prettiest productive 
sights of Cumberland Co., N. J., 
the past Summer was the farm 
of Arthur Seabrook. Acres and 
acres of fresh green growing 
vegetables are good to look 
upon. Mr. Seabrook has 14 
acres under the Skinner irriga¬ 
tion system, and in this way lie 
can raise two and three crops 
from the same ground in one 
season. For instance, onion 
seed is sown in March, and from 
five acres of onions Mr. Sea¬ 
brook sold a crop amounting to 
$1500 the past season; then cel¬ 
ery was set out. He com¬ 
mences to sell Golden Self 
Blanching celery in October and 
continues through February. 
Early cabbage, beets and rad¬ 
ishes are followed by lettuce 
and romaine (in England known 
as cos lettuce), and a third 
crop of spinach. Early lettuce 
is followed by leeks (almost an 
all-season crop, as it takes from 
May to December to grow); 
early lettuce is the only crop to 
get leeks after. Fifteen years 
ago Mr. Seabrook was a small 
trucker, but he wanted to own a 
farm, and he hunted around and 
found this one, all hedgerows 
and briars. He purchased it 
from the man holding the mort¬ 
gage for $3,000 for 50 acres. 
To-day his farm is worth $20,- 
000, with an annual income of 
$20,000 more. 
Two years ago Mr. Seabrook 
placed four acres under irriga¬ 
tion and met with such success 
that last season he tried 10 acres 
more and this has enabled him 
to raise perfectly wonderful 
crops. New Jersey has a good 
trucking soil; as children study¬ 
ing geography we were taught 
