1007 
Summer Meeting of the New York Fruit 
Growers 
The Summer meeting and excursion 
tliis year of the New York State Fruit 
Growers’ Association was in the fruit belt 
adjacent to Lake Ontario, from Oswego 
to Niagara Falls. The route first taken 
by the autos was to the Beckwith 
orchard at New Haven. There we saw 
many acres of renovated apple orchards. 
The old trees had been dishorned and 
so well pruned that they presented the 
appearance of new trees, and were very 
thrifty under good cultivation and feed¬ 
ing. The set of apples in New York is 
very light, probably less than 20 per cent, 
of normal with Greenings, and almost 
no Baldwins. The Greening trees in 
this orchard were bearing a fair crop, 
with every prospect of their being extra 
large and perfect, because of the thor¬ 
ough system of spraying under the super¬ 
vision of the New York State Experi¬ 
ment Station. In this orchard the sta¬ 
tion has been conducting experiments to 
control the rosy aphis. The following 
is a brief statement of the results of the 
experiment from the leaflet lately pub¬ 
lished : During years when it is abiind- 
ant it checks the growth of the young 
apples, caiKsing them to become knotty. 
Serious infestation usually decreases the 
•Tune drop, as clusters of small, deformed 
apples remain on the trees, which are 
often called aphis apples or cluster ap¬ 
ples. Leaves attacked by the aphides be¬ 
come tightly curled and later turn yel¬ 
low and drop. During severe outbreaks 
infested trees lose many leaves. Experi¬ 
ments during recent years by the Expe¬ 
riment Station at Geneva have pointed 
to a delayed dormant application with 
lime-sulphur and nicotine solution (lime- 
sulphur diluted 1 to 8.1 Of) gallons, and 
nicotine solution 40%. % pint) as the 
most practical means of preventing inju¬ 
ries by the rosy aphis. The experiment 
in the Beckwith orchard is one of a se¬ 
ries that is being conducted for ,a period 
of years in Oswego, Orleans and Niagara 
counties to demonstrate to owners of 
apple orchards the value of the delayed 
dormant treatment for the prevention 
of important damage. In this experi¬ 
ment 14 bearing Greenings were sprayed 
on May 8, when the leaves of the more 
advanced buds were projecting about half 
an inch, witli lime-sulphur and nicotine 
solution in the proportions previously 
mentioned. For checks on this treat¬ 
ment six large bearing Greenings and 
two small trees were left unsprayed. In 
examining the individual trees of these 
two plots, Avhich are plainly labeled, it 
Avas evident that -the aphis had been al¬ 
most entirely controlled by the addition 
of nicotine to lime and sulphur. 
On the Beckwith farm there is a large 
pear orchard of young trees just coming 
into bearing. The Bartletts showed very 
little blight. For reasons not well known 
there is le.ss blight in Oswego County. 
The county has been famous for Bart¬ 
lett bears and strawberries. Small pear 
trees only seven or eight years old 
Avere heavily loaded with fine pears. The 
Glen Mary strawberry is the leading va¬ 
riety, and is generally grown by the 
Avide Imattedrrow system. The plants 
are hardy and producth'e, and the ber¬ 
ries very firm, so they can be shipped to 
distant markets. On the typical farm 
in Oswego County the plan is to grow 
a few acres each of apples and pears 
and some strawberries or other fruit, 
also to keep a small herd of cows. Often 
potatoes, beans, cabbage, etc., are cash 
crops on the farms. 
During the trip there Avas a spraying 
demonstration, and in connection ProL 
MTietzel of Cornell gave a talk on con¬ 
trolling apple scab. He advised plowing 
under the old leaves early iii Spring so 
no spores can be throAvu off from the old 
leaves on which the scab fungus lives 
during the Winter, also the delayed dor¬ 
mant spray when buds begin to open. 
Wednesday morning those A\ho did not 
have their own autos Avent by railroad 
to Red Creek, Avhere they A\’ere met by 
the Wayne C!ouuty people Avith autos. 
The program for the day Avas to Sodus 
fruit farm via several of the best or¬ 
chards, arriving at the picnic grounds in 
time for lunch. Afterward an address 
by Gov. Whitman was scheduled. , In 
the afternoon the route A\as to Rutney- 
ville, stopping at Maple Hill Farms, 
then to CornAvall and Roger farms, 
thence to Rochester to spend the night. 
Apple crop note Avas only about 20% 
in general, but some exceptional trees at 
North Rose under ideal culture were 
l)eariug very good crops. This proved that 
it is a good proposition to keep up the 
full schedule of spraying and good cultu¬ 
ral methods, even with a light set of 
fruit. Insect pests on unsprayed or¬ 
chards Avere making the little fruit on the 
trees of little value, so there Avould be 
almost a total loss. With spraying and 
high culture the fruit set, because thinly 
set, grows to a large size Avithout defects 
and brings a high price in a year of 
hu’ge shortage in the supply. The cause 
of the short crop is doubtless due to a 
lack of good pollenization because of con¬ 
tinual rains. Well-pruned trees opened 
lip to sunshine had a better chance for 
cross pollenization. 
Much space could A\-ell be given to de¬ 
scribing the Sodus fruit farm, but a few 
Avords Avill give a general conception of 
it. One can think of GOO acres of fruit 
all under good cultivation. The fai’m is 
I'Avned by a stock company and is all tin¬ 
der one superintendent. The great blocks 
of fruit under clean cultivation and 
©ic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
thrifty appearance should be seen by the 
owners of neglected orchards. The bear¬ 
ing trees are proving a good business in¬ 
vestment and there are great possibili¬ 
ties in the young trees soon to come into 
bearing. The farm is divided into sec¬ 
tions of apples, peaches, pears, plums and 
cherries, each containing hundreds of 
acres, occupied by many hundreds of 
trees. 
Not on the program, but of interest, 
Avas a short address at Sodus Grove by 
Commissioner of Agriculture C. S. Wil¬ 
son. M. C. Burritt. former Farm Bu¬ 
reau manager, said the best Avay to help 
the fruit grower or farmer is to help him 
to help himself—to stand on his OAvn feet. 
Gov. Whitman concluded the program at 
Sodus Grove with his address. 
The remainder of Wednesday afternoon 
was taken up in seeing some orchards 
between Sodus and Rochester. The one 
of special interest is the Cornwall or¬ 
chard near Putneyville. Avhere the Agri¬ 
cultural College, Cornell University, is 
conducting some 'experiments. Different 
kinds of commercial fertilizers have been 
used on blocks of peaches; on some acid 
phosphate alone, others acid phosphate 
and nitrogen, and others, acid pho.sphate, 
nitrogen and potash. All those Avere in 
addition to clov'er and other cover crops 
plOAved under in the orchard. Acid phos¬ 
phate alone did not much increase wood 
groAvth, but the fruit ripened eaidier. 
The addition of nitrogen increased 
groAvth and made a dark green healthy 
foliage. lattle difference was noticed 
from the application of potash. Nitro¬ 
gen caused the fruit to grow a little 
larger, but it ripened later. So far the 
conclusions are that the application of 
chemical fertilizers to orchards under a 
good system of cultivation and cover 
crops do not return any profit, except 
possibly to promote the groAvth of indi¬ 
vidual Aveak trees. This, it may be Avell 
to state, is in accordance Avith experi¬ 
ments made Avith apples by the College 
and Experiment Station in other orchards 
in the State. 
In the Cornwall orchards blocks of 
trees sprayed AA'ith lime-sulphur solution 
and those dusted AA’ith dry lime and sul¬ 
phur were carefully examined. No dif¬ 
ference could be seen in the results. One 
seemed as effective as the other' in the 
control of insect pests, and the fruit was 
all in fine condition. It seems to be a 
matter of labor and cost as to the rela¬ 
tive value of the two methods. Wednes¬ 
day forenoon AA'as mostly t.aken up in 
visiting Irondequoit, near Rochester, a 
truck-farming section three miles wide 
and fiA'^e miles long. It is probably the 
large.st solid section used for intensive 
gardening, both in the open and under 
glass’, in the TTnited States. There are 
600 acres under glass, and gardening in 
the open is so intensive that two to four 
crops are produced on the ground^ in one 
year. Over, a large part there is com¬ 
plete control of the moistiu’e conditions 
by the installation of |the “Skinner” 
ovei*-head system of irrigation. The .soil 
can be watered so plants can be tran.s- 
l>lanted any time and the plants can be 
fully supplied with moisture after set¬ 
ting. Cultivation follows AA’atering,^ so 
rapid growth is the result. The fertilizer 
is mainly manure from the city. The 
crops in the open are celery, cabbage, 
lettuce, salsify, onions and all the other 
garden vegetables. Under glass lettuce 
and radishes ax-e grown in the early Fall 
without heat. Later cucumbers and to¬ 
matoes occupy the house. Celery is 
sometimes started in the greenhouse Tin¬ 
der the cucumbers, which are on trellises, 
and transplanted out in cold frames 8x4 
inches where it is irrigated and left to 
grow and blanch for market. Thursday 
afternoon was spent in visiting orchards 
at Hilton, ■ where are those of the Col- 
lamer Brothers, Avho have had very large 
I'eturns for apples under high cultivation. 
Some valuable- lessons in up-to-date 
orchard management were learned on Fri¬ 
day when visiting several farms between 
Kendall and Albion; Avest of Roches¬ 
ter, all in the Ontario fruit belt, and 
like the most of the other sections vis¬ 
ited, the soil is the original lake bottom, 
and the climate being tempei’ed by Lake 
Ontario, a few miles distant, all the con¬ 
ditions are ideal for fruit. It is enough 
to say thiit cultural methods Avith all 
these progressive orchai’dists are very 
much alike—clean cultivation, generally 
Avith tractors, during early Summer, then 
seeding to cover crops and following out 
the full spraying schedule and pruning 
and thinning to secui’e color and size in 
the fruit.. All the suri’oundiugs show 
that the best class of orchardists are pros¬ 
perous. One man told me he Avould not 
even consider dairy farming if he owned 
an orchard in the Ontario B*uit belt, the 
“(larden of the AVorld.” av. ir. l. 
Crops and Farm Notes 
AVheat good, very few poor pieces, har¬ 
vest just beginning, Avhich AA^e fear will 
mean light oats. They are coming fast, 
and it will be a question of getting the 
Avheat out of the AA-ay before they are 
ready. Barley, A’ery limited acreage but 
good. Corn on the whole as poor as Ave 
ever saw it. A right good piece is the ex¬ 
ception. One of the party Avas an old 
farmer; we sized it up one-fourth good, 
one-half medium to poor and one-fourth 
very poor. Many pieces to-day are not 
six inches high and look as though there 
had never been a cultivator in them. 
AVhat I have seen of the corn crop in 
AA'^estern New York will not average over 
50% of .normal. Beans, large acreage 
and A?e sized it up .as about one-half good 
to Al, and one-h,alf poor to practically 
nothing. Many pieces looked ns though 
they had come up poorly and and then so 
much rain has Avashed them out or cov¬ 
ered them up so that there is little ch.ance 
for much of .a crop. Hay pretty Avell out 
of the way, although Ave saw a good many 
at Avork in the meadoAvs. More and more 
Ave realize that Alfalfa is a coming crop. 
Pastui-es are excellent, but it does not 
seem to me that there are even the aver¬ 
age number of cattle in them, and calves 
are very scarce. A suckling colt excites 
more than the usual number of com¬ 
ments, shoAving that there are few. Un¬ 
less ti’actoi*s come into A-ery general rise 
Avhat are farmei’S going to do for work 
horses in the not distant futui’e is a mys¬ 
tery. I think that I have to admit there 
are more than the average irc.mber of po¬ 
tatoes planted, even if the seed Avas high 
and help scarce. I have felt that it would 
be an acreage beloAV the average, but I 
think now that it Avill be fully up to other 
years. Possibly it is a little too early to 
tell yet what they will be. Many pieces 
are very small, are weedy, much com¬ 
plaint of lice, bugs are bad, stand hardly 
average. This we think possible because 
the higli priced seed was cut small and 
anything Avas used that was a potato. 
Early potatoes are just beginning to come 
on the public market of Rochester. They 
retail from the stores at 45 to 50 cents per 
peck. The few orchards we saw seem to 
have mighty few apples on them. One of 
our friends who has a fine evaporator says 
he is doubtful about oixening it this Fall 
the outlook is so poor. They may show 
up better a little later. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. c. I. 
The thrashing machines are hu.sy 
thr.ashing Avheat. MTiexit not as good a 
quality as usual, also not as good a yield. 
Farmers are just commencing cutting 
oats; the ci’op is good. If Ave do not 
liiTve an early frost we shall have a fair 
corn crop. Thex-e is lots of Aveedy corn 
this year on account of so much rainy 
Aveather in the early pax-t of the plowing 
season. o. r. b. 
Henry Co., O. 
We have had record-breaking Aveather 
for the past two months, the oldest in¬ 
habitant never seeing its equal. Corn, 
potatoes and beans were put in very late, 
and since then it has bben so Avet that 
they could not be cultivated, hence the 
outlook is for poor crops. AVe had a 
hard time in harvesting Alfalfa; many 
tons of it was spoiled by rain. The last 
few days have been better to secux*e Tim¬ 
othy, and it has gone in in good shape; 
the crop is quite good. Wheat harvest is 
vex’y late, and will be done in August. 
Strawberries were quite a good crop, but 
suffered from wet Aveather. Red rasp¬ 
berries and currants are a good crop. 
Cherries a short crop. E. T. B. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
“AA'oaiex are said to be the spice of 
life.” “You can’t depend on the hibels, 
though. I figured on getting cinnamon, 
hut I got pepper.”—Ijouisville Coux-ier- 
Journal. 
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