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Vol. LXIX. No. 4076 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 10, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
A VIRGINIA APPLE ORCHARD. 
How Good Fruit Is Produced. 
The picture on this page shows a scene in the orch¬ 
ard of Mr. J. J. Boaz, Albemarle Co., Va. This shows 
the character of that country except that it is usually 
more rugged, having beautiful valleys and “coves,” 
well watered and surrounded by beautiful hills and 
mountains. The trees shown in the picture are York 
Imperials and Winesaps, 12 years old. \Ye have 
asked Air. Boaz many questions about his orchards 
and some of the replies will interest our people. 
“This orchard looks as if it were kept in sod. We 
would like to know about that and how it is tilled if 
at all.” 
“It is plowed and sown in peas, every three or four 
per barrel, and packing 10 cents per barrel. Older 
trees cost much more to gather, as some of the or¬ 
chards have trees 40 feet high and gathered principally 
from ladders.” 
“These trees look as if they had grown naturally 
without much pruning.” 
“The trees have not been heavily pruned, as this 
is not necessary in this climate, but rather detrimental, 
but they have been pruned with regularity and good 
judgment. The fruit was evenly distributed through 
the trees.” 
“We assume that you spray carefully. Tell us what 
you use.” 
“We use homemade lime and sulphur solution for 
trees in dormant state; formula 20 pounds lime, 20 
pounds sulphur and 50 gallons water, boiled about V/z 
in 1909, 5,689 barrels without culls or cider apples; 
in 1910, about 7,000 barrels not including cider apples. 
The grass shown in picture is broom sedge, which was 
cut and left on land in green state. This is the 
second crop, which would have been cut again, but 
would have knocked off too many apples. We shall 
cultivate this orchard again this Fall and sow in peas 
in June.” 
A CROP OF POTATOES. 
There has been quite a strife on potato raising in 
a section a few miles from here, to see who could 
raise the most bushels regardless of cost. While that 
is all right in a small way for experiments to see what 
fertilizer combinations to use, it would not be profit¬ 
able for those who must pay the expenses of the farm 
PICKING AND PACKING APPLES IN A VIRGINIA ORCHARD. Fig. 485. 
years. We plow with two-horse plow in the Fall, 
disk with harrow after sowing fertilizer broadcast 
about middle of March, sow in June in peas and cut 
about last of August with mowing machine for hay.” 
“These trees look well fed; what have they had to 
eat?” 
“We use stable and farm pen manure, and also com¬ 
mercial fertilizers mixed as follows: 1000 pounds of 
South Carolina phosphate, 400 pounds raw bone, and 
220 pounds sulphate of potash; this mixture applied 
broadcast at the rate of 500 pounds per acre.” 
“How many hands do you keep, and what does it 
cost to pick and pack a barrel of apples?” 
“About 40 men picking, packing and hauling on the 
Home Orchards, where this picture was taken. In 
this orchard where the trees are young, one man can 
pick at least 10 barrels per day, costing about 15 cents 
hour in-100-gallon cauldron. For spraying after bloom 
drops, I use self-boiled solution, eight pounds lime, 
eight pounds sulphur, three pounds arsenate of lead, 
and 50 gallons of water. For late spraying I use 
Bordeaux Mixture, three pounds of copper sulphate, 
tour pounds lime and three pounds arsenate of lead 
to 50 gallons of water. I spray once during dormant 
state, and use the arsenate in the first three sprayings 
after dropping of blooms; afterwards leave out the 
arsenate of lead. I spray my Albemarle Pippins from 
six to seven times and the red fruit about three 
times. I am using on the Home Orchards a gasoline 
spraying machine, mounted on low-wheel wagon; cost 
of machine without wagon $275. I have under my 
personal attention, including my own orchards of 5,000 
trees, about 14,000 trees, consisting of Albemarle Pip¬ 
pin, York Imperial and Winesap, which produced 
from the proceeds of the crop. Some have used from 
$15 to $20 worth of potato fertilizer to the acre, and I 
believe nine seasons in 10 here in western New York 
that amount will show a loss instead of profit. The 
selling price of the mature stock alone governs the 
amount of fertilizer that can be profitably used. A 
careful study of our experiment station bulletins will 
be very profitable to those who are thinking of using 
a large amount of high-grade fertilizer. I believe 
thoroughly in “bag fertilizers” as they are often called, 
and use them on all crops, but have studied the land 
and know just about how many pounds to use to se¬ 
cure the maximum net profit, not maximum yield. If 
we could govern the price of our crops as the manu¬ 
facturer does the price of his wares, we could then tell 
more about the amount of fertilizer to apply. One 
could use much more and be sure of a profit if he 
