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Voi.. LXXVI. NHW YOFiK. ]\[ Vltf’Il 17. 1!»1T. No. lll'l. 
A Jersey Apple Orchard Comes Back 
What Waked It Up! 
AKIETIES AND TREATMENT.—This oreliard 
was put out by my fatluu- uii his fainu iu Mer¬ 
cer County, near Trenton. N. .1.. about 20 years 
ago, and covers a little less than tive acres. Mo.st 
of the trees are Stark. In addition to the Stark 
there are about 20 tret's each of Raldwin. Yellow 
Transparent. Cooper’s IMarket or lYiilow Twig. Par¬ 
agon and Arkan.sas Rlack. The trees were well 
cared for the tirst five years, were propei'ly headed 
hack and intercroi>ped with jtotatoes. The ground 
around the trees was keid well tilled and they made 
an excellent growth. About this time other business 
,‘ictivities occupied much of my father’s time and 
the orchard began to be negh'cted. A fence was 
put around it and the orchard used :is a pasture. 
For 10 years absolutely nothing was done with it 
this being the best land on the. farm and potatoes 
h.'iving netted us an average of .$25 iui acre the 
ten i)recedTng years. Several neighbors had just 
dynamited o\it orchards which at least presented a 
better api)earance than ours, so father and I ser¬ 
iously con.sidered this treatment for our orchard. 
However, father, who rc'ally likes fruit, did not want 
to do this. Father and I f.-irm on shares, but to en¬ 
courage me to work in the orchard he ofR'red nu* 
all the profits from the orchard if I w(»uld “get 
busy” and earn any. so T .sent for onr county Jigent 
and talked things over with him. AVhen I asked 
his advice he hesitated to commit himself. We fig¬ 
ured the probable co.sts for the first year, spraying 
outfit, .spray materials, fertilizer, plowing, pruning, 
etc., to he about .$500. It took .some courage to put 
this amount into such a doubtful ventvwe. neverthe¬ 
less, I finally decided to go to work. 
WORK OF RECLAMATION: PRCNINO.—First 
been renmxed in one opei'ation the remaining limbs 
would have been unsupported and weak, while the 
growth. (>f water-sprouts resulting from such ])run- 
ing Avould have been .so great that ])robably the 
trees would Inive yit'lded no fruit for three or four 
years. Our big yield of fruit each year while Rd- 
lowing this method ])roves it to be the right one. 
IT.OWINO. —In jdowing this 10-year-old sod we 
found .some real Avork for man and team. J’low¬ 
ing four inches deep, we tore off a great many roots 
Jis large ;ire one’s arm. and innumerable small ones. 
-At first, this cau.sed me considerable anxiety, as a 
well-knoAvn orchardist advised us to .stop plowing, 
assuring me we Avere seriously injuring our trees. 
Rut Ave continued. neA-ertheles.s, and found out 
.•ifterwards tlnit AA'e had apparently done them mt 
harm. I can explain this onlj’ by the conclusion 
that IniAing pruned tlie tojis so sc'A'erel.v. ]»runing 
the roots na'rely balanced things. 
e.xcept to have a lU'ighboring orchardist .spray in 
IIMJT and IDll to check .'^an .lose sc;ile. 
A DI.^COURACINC OFTLOOK.—A little over 
two yeai's ago father and I began to realize that 
something must he done Avith the orchard. After 
bi years of neglect it pres(‘nted :i decid('dly unkempt 
and ragged appearance. Y'oung cedar trees grcAv up 
and blackberry bashes and dewberry A’ines groAv 
everywhei'e. The trees themseU'es AV(*re making v('ry 
little growth and the foliage had that yellowish 
color due to under-nourishment. The aA'erage yield 
of apples for the ten years Avas 270 bu.shels a sea- 
S(»n. all of them of inferior <iuality. Foav Avere 
picked; practically all Avere picked up from the 
ground, carted .six miles to a cider-press and .sold 
for 10 cents a bushel, netting us a profit of about a 
cent a bushel. This income did not pay interest on 
the money invested in the land, so Ave Avondered if 
it Avould not be a good business jAroposition for us 
to take out the orchard and grow potatoes there. 
After the Reclaimed Orchard Got to Work. Fig. 158 
w(' took out the dt'ad trees and tho.se so lU'arly dead 
as to be useless. We found 25 of thes(' :ind n*- 
lilaced them Avith .Stayman Winesap trees. We cut 
the briei's amt brush and cleaned things up in gen¬ 
eral. Then Ave pruned the trees, first taking out 
all the dead wood, next the Avater sprouts, or suck- 
('r.s, and last much of the excess Avood. The trees 
Avere greatly overgroAvn. not having been touched 
for 10 .A'ears. C:irefully examining the structural 
build of each tree Ave removed the first year only 
those branches that seriously interfered Avith the 
proper groAvth of the main tree skeleton. Of course 
limbs Avere removed from the centre to leave an 
open middle, and care Avas taken never to leave 
stubs and to cut all Avounds at a slight angle In 
order to shed Avater. All brush Avas removed and 
burned. This Avas in 1915 and last year (1910) Ave 
cut out a great deal more of the AVOod that aa'us not 
AA'anted. Next year Ave expect to put the trees in 
practically the right shape. If all the AA'ood had 
FERTILTZINO AND CF LTI VATINO. — .Vftcr 
[iloAA’ing, tAA’O tons of ground limestone jK'r jicre,AA'ere 
ai)plied. This aa'us harroAved in :ind folloAved by 
an application of KK) pounds of acid phosphate and 
■100 pounds of ground l)one per acre. Il;ilf of this 
fertilizer Avas applied Avith a fertilizer distributor, 
covering the orchard both lengtliAA’ise and cross- 
Avi.se. The other half Avas put on by hand, using a 
pail or a half-bushel measure, and distributing the 
fertilizer under the outer circumference of the 
branche.s. AA’here the majority of the feeding roots 
are located. This application by hand t:ikes time, 
but pays. The ground Avas kept thoroughly culti- 
A'ated to keep doAvn Aveeds ;ind conserA'O moisture 
until .Tilly first. Avhen Frimson clover Avas soavu for 
a cover crop. 
SPRAYINR. —I purchased a poAver sprayer 
equipped Avith tOAver and tAvo lengths of hose. Thor¬ 
ough spraying has meant more than all el.se to bring 
big net returns from the orchard, so I have kept 
