The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Fruits for Northern New York 
We are interested in the suggestion of 100 apple trees 
for every farm. Our farm is located in the highest part 
of Lewis County. We would appreciate your advice as 
to what kind of trees would be best suited to that cli¬ 
mate. F. D. 
Lyons Falls, X. Y. 
T IIE great drawback to fruit growing in Northern 
New York is the extreme cold of the Win¬ 
ter. The thermometer often goes down to 25 de¬ 
grees below zero, and sometimes lower. This causes 
Winter injury to trunk and crotches of even hardy 
varieties. Trees in this locality should he planted on 
a suitable site, and proper cultural methods used in 
order to carry them safely through the Winter. The 
following varieties have been extensively grown in 
this section, and when properly cared for produce 
very fine fruit. The list P prepared from the view¬ 
point of the farm home orchard: Yellow Trans¬ 
parent, Red Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, St. 
Lawrence, Wealthy, Fameuse or Snow, McIntosh, 
Bethel, Northwestern Greening. 
For commercial planting I would recommend 
Wealthy and McIntosh. Fameuse is included in this 
list, as it is very popular with the people in this sec¬ 
tion. However, I consider McIntosh a better apple in 
all respects. There are two local varieties grown 
in St. Lawrence County known as Stone and Limber- 
twig. They look very much alike, and have been 
confused together. In the local market they always 
sell as Stone. Some of the farmers around Canton 
who claim they know the two varieties apart say 
that Limbertwig is a better apple than Stone, since 
it is a better keeper and not as sweet. Both these 
varieties are seedlings of either Bethel or Blue 
Pearmain. which ^liey resemble. Unfortunately, 
nurserymen do not carry them in stock, although 
they would be exceedingly good varieties for this 
section. 
Wellington, of the Minnesota Experiment Station, 
writes me that they are successful in growing De¬ 
licious, Winter Banana and Jonathan when grafted 
on hardy stocks. Their climate is fully as severe as 
ours. I intend to test these varieties in St. Lawrence 
County, but include them only as worthy of trial. 
What we need is a high quality red Winter variety, 
similar to Baldwin. Baldwin, Rhode Island Green¬ 
ing and Spy are not included in this list, as they are 
not hardy enough. I find some Spies in this section, 
but the trees show evidences of Winter injury, and 
the fruit is not of high quality. 
It is impossible to grow peaches in the North 
Country, and I know of no hardy variety of pear. 
In cherries I am growing Montmorency. May Duke 
and Late Duke. In plums, French Damson, Moore's 
Arctic, Lombard and Drop d'Or. The last named va¬ 
riety is a delicious sweet Damson, but unfortunately 
no nurseryman carries it in stock. k. p. a. 
Small Orchard for Indiana 
I NOTICED your note on “One Hundred Fruit 
Trees on Every Farm.” It is uniformly the case 
that a farmer is not interested in raising more than 
enough fruit for his own use. Ordinarily, he is not 
well equipped to spray and care for an orchard, and 
considers it as quite an undertaking if he has very 
much of it to do. It would seem logical, then, that 
as-we all agree that every farmer should have an 
orchard, the number of trees be cut down to the 
smallest number which would furnish an adequate 
supply for the farmers’ home use. It has been my 
experience that an orchard of 100 trees is just the 
type of an orcharu "'at is too small to pay to buy a 
power sprayer and too m.:ge to care for efficiently 
with a barrel pump. The result has been that even 
though the owner sometimes bought a spray outfit, 
the orchard lias been finally entirely neglected when 
it comes to spraying, and you must acknowledge that 
at the present time an orchard which is not sprayed 
is just about worthless from the standpoint of pro¬ 
duction. 
Allow me to suggest the following list as large 
enough for the ordinary farmer: Two quince, live 
■ cherry, five plum, three pear, 15 peach and 20 apple 
trees, the varieties in each case to be selected so 
there will be a succession of ripening throughout the 
Summer, thereby furnishing as long-a season as pos¬ 
sible for each fruit. I might cite the example of 
Fveritt Newlin. Hendricks Co., Indiana, who has a 
small home apple orchard of 20 trees. This orchard 
has received no special care as regards soil manage¬ 
ment. and*has been in sod without mulch or manure. 
In 1917 it produced 170 bushels of apples, which 
brought a gross return of $191.25. The following 
year. 1918, the orchard had a very light crop, but still 
produced 22 bushels of fruit, which was enough for 
Mr. Nowlin’s family. With a little extra care as re¬ 
gards soils, this 22 bushels could have probably 
been increased to 75 or 100. In addition to this fact, 
it took Mr. Newlin only about three hours to spray 
this 20-tree orchard each spray, and I fear that if it 
had been 50 trees none of the trees would have been 
HalFs Gold Nugget, Natural Size. Fig. 55 
(See Next Page) 
sprayed, and instead of getting 170 bushels from 20 
trees he would, no doubt, have raised 10 or 15 
bushels of culls from the 50 trees. I think every 
farm should have a small orchard, and it is my motto 
to start in with, that every farm have a 20- 
tree apple orchard rather than every farm should 
have 100 fruit trees. You will note that my total 
list only includes 50 trees, which is just half the 
number y ou recommend. Having worked with this 
problem for a number of years and having come up 
against a great many of the farmers’ difficulties, I 
am simply giving you the result of this work. 
Indiana. c. l. Burkholder. 
The Cost of Growing Tomatoes 
I SEND herewith a statement of the cost of rais¬ 
ing tomatoes on a 20-acre field on our farm the 
past Summer. Most of the figures are taken from a 
time sheet which I kept for a part of the year. The 
lest of the figures are careful and conservative esti¬ 
mates based on our work last. Summer. 
I find the feeling very strong in many places that 
the canners are now overstocked, and will not pay 
more than $25 next Summer. I am afraid that a lot 
of men who have kept no cost account, but who had 
good crops of tomatoes last Summer, would be will¬ 
ing to contract for $25 and think they could make a 
lot of money. Gloucester County costs were as fol¬ 
lows : 
On 47 farms there were 404U acres of tomatoes in 
1918. Their average tonnage was 5.9 tons per acre. 
The five-year average for this county is 4.5 tons per 
acre. T.ast year it cost on an average $131.68 per 
acre to grow this crop, which makes $23.33 per ton. 
II it had been 4^4 tons, there would have been only 
the picking and hauling to take off. and the cost 
would have been over $28 per ton. Cumberland 
County, on 35 farms, 2821 2 acres of tomatoes, cost 
per acre. $123; average tonnage, 1918, five tons; five- 
year average, four tons. 
O 11 one 10-acre field on which we kept account we 
got 150 tons, but we only averaged 6.3 tons per acre 
on the 25 acres we had in tomatoes, which would 
have made the cost $24 per ton. Taking the same 
proportion of this year’s crop on our farm as on the 
others, we find what we can expect for au average 
crop for our farm; we get 4.9 tons. The acre cost 
would vary but little, so the ton cost would go up 
over $30. 
I believe our ground is better than much of the 
soil in our county, because it has been kept in sod 
more. So we get a larger tonnage at less cost than 
the average, yet when figured on an average crop it 
is costing us very close to $30 more per ton. I firmly 
believe if we can get the farmers well organized, 
not plan to grow too great an acreage, that we can 
control the price. If we could do as well as the Tri- 
State Milk Producers' Association has done, not only 
for the farmer but 
for the consumer. I believe we 
should do a great deal of g 
ood. 
Cost of raising 19 
acres of 
tomatoes 
on Clover Yallev 
Farm, 1918: 
Hah »•*.- 
Man 
Horse 
Machine 
A 
Tractor 
Plowing. 
40 
. . 
40 
40 
1‘lan ting . 
20 
40 
Disking. harrowing 
(spike) . 
20 
20 
20 
Marking out. 
15 
28 
14 
Applying fertilizer. . 
30 
60 
60 
Setting plants. 
150 
68 
34 
Spraying. 
40 
so 
40 
Two-horse cultivator 
100 
ISO 
100 
One-horse cultivator. 
160 
160 
16o 
Hoeing . 
210 
Side dressing. 
150 
Poisoning bugs . 
100 
Time lost at canning 
house . 
200 
Hauling in from field 
200 
200 
200 
1,435 
816 
638 
60 
There were 20 acres in this field, but on account of 
< Id hedge rows and a lot in one corner with a house, 
I have called it 19 acres. 
Total cost of crop—150 tons sold. 
Plants bought . $185.00 
Baskets, 600 at 9c. 54.00 
Fertilizer— 
614 tons, 4-10. at $45. 292.00 
214 tons nitrate, at $100. 250.00 
Stalk manure, poor, 120 loads, at $2 . 240.00 
Spray materials . S7.49 
Man labor. 1.435 hours, at 25c. 358.00 
Horse labor. 816 hours, at 20c. 163.20 
Tractor, 60 hours, at $1.50. 90.00 
Land rent, value. $2,300 at 6 per cent. 188.00 
Interest on money, 14 percent per month. 28.00 
Hauling to Campbells. 363.00 
Picking, at 415c. 360.00 
Machine hours, 638, at 5c. 31.90 
$2,640.59 
Supervision, at 10 per cent. 264.05 
Total cost.$2,904.64 
Cost per acre. 152.S7 
Cost per ton. 19.36 
614 tons per acre, cost per ton. 23.55 
Figures include labor of hauling and spreading 
manure. We sprayed for blight, and on a test acre 
got" an increase of 114 tons over no spray at a cost 
of $12. Money invested in fertilizer, plants, etc., 
included in interest charges. a. h. forsythe. 
Gloucester Co., N. J. 
