Vol. LXX. No. 4115. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 9, 1911. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
DRYING THE FEET OF APPLE TREES. 
What Old Orchards Can Do. 
One thing we try to avoid—“big stories.” The 
plain truth is never a big story—that is, an exaggera¬ 
tion or some truthful fact stretched and twisted away 
from its true meaning. You can make a “big story” 
out of the truth by cutting out the history or teaching 
a false lesson from it. 
Some of the worst big stories are written about 
orchards. We all know that certain trees will in cer¬ 
tain years give a tremendous crop. The big story¬ 
teller can take the exact crop from one of these par¬ 
ticular trees in a favored season, multiply it by 50 
as the crop from an acre, and then multiply that 
acre by 20. He tells this story as though it were a 
common thing, and as if the average back-to-the-land 
farmer could go out without much experience and 
duplicate these figures. That is one reason why we 
hesitate ever to tell some of the true stories about 
what skilled business 
men have done in or¬ 
charding. If we could 
always make it clear just 
what success stands for 
it would be a different 
matter, but the story is 
almost sure to be mis¬ 
understood by the very 
people who ought to ap¬ 
preciate the shade which 
goes along with it. We 
give, however, the facts 
in the following case, as 
they are typical of what 
is being done in many 
parts of the country by 
business apple growers. 
Mr. J. S. Beckwith, of 
Orleans County, New 
York, has been in the 
cold storage business for 
some years. He got the 
idea of developing farms 
or more particularly 
neglected orchards as a 
business enterprise. 
Three years ago he 
bought a farm in Or¬ 
leans County near Lake 
Ontario. This farm had 
28 acres of mature apple 
orchard. The trees had not done great things in the 
past, but the first crop of fruit brought Mr. Beckwith 
$18,000. We must understand, however, that there 
was, back of this, a lot of good money invested to 
produce this crop. Part of this money went into a 
lime-sulplntr plant, the mixture being used to kill the 
scale. In addition to this car after car from Buffalo 
brought stock-yard manure. This was hauled from 
the railroad a mile and a half, and applied thickly 
with a spreader among the trees. Then came car 
after car of lime, and this was spread in the same 
machine. You will see that Mr. Beckwith went at 
this proposition just as a man would who had bought 
a factory and made up his mind to put his money 
into it in order that he might take money out. Large 
capital is required to handle orchards of this sort suc¬ 
cessfully. It cannot be done without money and with¬ 
out all necessary apparatus and material. The ques¬ 
tion of labor must also be considered. 
After this crop of fruit was sold Mr. Beckwith 
bought another farm of 90 acres in Oswego County. 
This farm had a mature apple orchard of 46 acres. 
Here was another and different proposition, for this 
orchard was on wet land undrained, and in the 46 
acres there were 500 vacancies where the trees had 
died from wet feet. This orchard had received less 
care than the 28 acres in Orleans County. When 
the manager started in to prune those trees the neigh¬ 
bors declared that he would ruin the orchard. They 
cut up 45 cords of wood from the first pruning. The 
manager was raised in an apple country. He knew 
what he was doing, and the old tops had to come 
down. The first crop of barreling stock was only 
about 700 barrels, there being a heavy crop of evapo¬ 
rator fruit due to a high wind. The second crop 
from the Orleans County farm did not sell for as 
much as the first one, yet five figures were required 
to name it. In 1910 the crop of apples from both 
these farms sold for about $30,000. Mr. Beckwith 
has planted in the three years 60 acres of pears, 
peaches, quinces and cherries. At the present time 
late cabbage is growing in all these 60 acres of young 
orchard, and will no doubt more than pay for the care 
and labor in fitting and planting the land. This inter¬ 
cropping makes the orchard pay its own way. 
It early become evident that the Oswego County 
orchard must be drained. In the Spring of 1910 
tile drainage was begun on both farms. In the Orleans 
County orchard 29,000 feet of tile were buried and 
on the Oswego place 16,000 feet, the latter mostly 
mains. In order to secure good outlet it was neces¬ 
sary to put some of these mains over nine feet deep. 
During the present season the remainder of the drains 
were put into the Oswego orchard, making a total of 
60,000 feet for the one farm of 90 acres. Mr. Beck¬ 
with’s father is now putting in 55,000 feet more of 
tile on a new orchard in Orleans County. This 
work is done with a steam traction ditcher, 15 men 
and two teams. Some 44,000 feet of this tile is in a 
young 50-acre orchard only four years from planting. 
Our picture on this page, Fig. 356, shows the 
gang of drainers who are now on the job. This ex¬ 
tensive draining of apple orchard alone is something 
of a new thing, yet the results already justify the 
work, and show the necessity of giving our apple 
trees a chance to dry their feet, if we expect them to 
do their best. Mr. Beckwith still lives in Orleans 
County, and leaves the management of his farms to 
competent managers. Fie selects men who know their 
business and then gives them a free hand. All that 
he looks out for is results. This gives the manager a 
chance to make good if he has it in him. It often 
happens that a man undertakes to run a farm, but is 
sadly handicapped through petty dictation from au 
owner who lives miles away, and merely comes to 
the place to find fault before studying the full situa¬ 
tion. We give these facts about orcharding because 
few of our people seem to realize the tremendous 
work that is being done in saving or building up old 
orchards. During the past few years the value of 
some of the old trees and orchards throughout the 
Eastern States has come to be recognized by observ¬ 
ing men, and some of 
them are being taken up 
as a speculation, and a 
profitable one at that. A 
man must understand 
what he is doing in or¬ 
der to handle such a 
thing to advantage, but* 
there can be no question 
about the opportunity 
for making money and 
developing a business for 
those who have the capi¬ 
tal and the skill, and are 
willing to do the work in 
reviving apple trees that 
are of mature age. Take 
a tree with a sound trunk 
or body and a fair root 
system and a reasonably 
good top, the man who 
knows how can bring 
that tree to profitable 
bearing and keep it there 
without great trouble. A 
good authority tells us 
that there are thousands 
of old veteran apple trees 
in New England which 
might be given new life 
in this way. But be sure 
you understand that this 
is a full man’s job—a man with all the trimmings of 
brain and energy and patience. In a few cases already 
worked out the profit of the enterprise is assured. 
A PENNSYLVANIA STONE WALL. 
We live in Pennsylvania, and love the farms of the 
Keystone State. We do not like to have residents of 
other States claiming championships in anything per¬ 
taining to the farm, even such nuisances as stone 
walls, so will tell about one to compare with those 
mentioned in The R. N.-Y. on pages 701 and 814. 
The Exeter Fruit Farm was originally a truck and 
dairy farm, well covered with stones and rocks. The 
owners cleared the land of stones for two reasons; 
to get the stones off the land, and build walls to con¬ 
fine the cattle. They were laid up into very heavy 
walls in order to use up all the stones possible. When 
the farm was turned into a fruit farm these walls 
were a nuisance, as they prevented driving from one 
orchard into another, and harbored vermin, rabbits, 
