
NOW, MORE THAN EVER, IT WILL PAY YOU TO PLANT TREES 

GROWING APPLES 
We, all of us, like to go back to the Gar- 
den of Eden, as it were, and I know that one 
time a Garden of Eden existed for why should 
a man want to go back to a place that never 
did exist. And if you lived in town when you 
were a boy you may have forgotten many 
things but you have never forgotten the old 
fruit peddler who came around mornings. 
Well, I was not raised in town. Just the same 
I can remember the apple merchant who was 
in Stephenville some fifty-five years ago. Ap- 
ple Walker, as we called him, climbed the 
last hill many years ago; but there is not a 
man around Stephenville whose hair is get- 
ting white who does not remember the jolly 
old fellow, and to me a boy, his apples also 
looked jolly. He furnished many apples to 
go in Christmas stockings and made Santa 
Claus a reality instead of an imagination. But 
I have gotten off on this and I am not writing 
what I aimed to write. Some one wrote me 
a letter the other day and asked why I do 
not discuss apple growing for Texas. Many 
years ago there were apple orchards planted 
in this county and in many other counties. 
But at that time no one had thought that ap- 
ples were like men; some liked one place and 
some another and most of the apples planted 
forty years ago just did not like Texas. They 
were born to live in a colder climate. But we 
have found apples that simply glory in our 
deep sand here in the South and our sun- 
shiny weather. 
Delicious, Delicious, Jonathan, King David 
and Smokehouse. Apples like deep sand here 
in the South. They will grow on the cold 
dead sand. They have a way of getting all 
there is in land out of it. 
Apples require different treatment to peach 
trees. They do not like being pruned much 
here in the South and they do not like a long 
shank for the body of the tree. They want 
to grow down close to the ground and that 
helps them to shade the ground and keep it 
cool under the trees. And they like plenty of 
room, say thirty or forty feet apart. But they, 
like many other creatures, like company. It 
is seldom a Delicious tree or any other apple 
tree will bear if alone. It must have some 
other kind of apple tree near it, one that 
blooms out the same time. They do not like 
to grow on land where cotton dies and they 
do not like drouthy land. But what they do 
like is good deep sand and good cultivation. 
They will grow much farther South than here. 
Some of the finest apples in the whole nation 
are grown on the Colorado River near Gold- 
Some of these are Yellow © 
thwaite and in sand that was washed there 
centuries ago by the river. You know a river 
constantly changes its bed and moves eastward 
all the time though it may take it many years 
to go far. And where it was a thousand years 
ago is an ideal place for an apple orchard. 
I believe such land is called delta land. But 
on the sand hills where the wind has piled 
up the sand is a good place for apples. I have 
one place in my field where at some date 
many years ago the sand was piled up and on 
top of this place and around it the apples are 
growing good. Apples need more spraying 
than other fruits. While they are thrifty they 
are like a strong man and may have several 
diseases but keep on going. Where good thrifty 
oaks have once grown is a nice place for an 
apple orchard. Down here in the South we 
need to plant apples that get ripe from about 
the fifteenth of August until the fifteenth of 
October. That gives us a chance to sell our 
crop before the apples from the North are 
shipped in. There is only one kind of apple 
shipped in at that time. It comes from Cali- 
fornia and it is the Gravestein, a very poor 
apple, and the yellow Delicious grown in 
Texas makes the California apple go back and 
sit down. 
Apple trees get along fine with many other 
farm crops and if the rows are thirty feet 
apart (and they ought to be) cotton, peanuts 
and vegetables can be grown between the 
rows. The trees do not like sweet potatoes 
and watermelons seem to sap them too much 
if planted too close to them. But if the melon 
vine is fifteen feet from the apple tree it will 
be fine. In our country, the cost of the tree 
and the planting is about all the cost of bring- 
ing an apple orchard to bearing, for enough 
crops can be grown between the rows to take 
care of all other expenses. A few rows of 
blackberries can be grown between the rows. 
Some people plant peach trees among them, 
but it seems to me an apple tree does not like 
a peach tree any too well. Our new varieties 
of apples come into bearing nearly as quick 
as peaches and if the land suits them an apple 
tree will live many years. And they bear 
from five to twenty bushels per tree. A much 
larger apple tree can be planted from the 
nursery than is the case with peach trees and 
the planter of apples can gain a year or two 
by setting large trees, often getting a few 
apples the second year after planting. 
—J. E. FITZGERALD. 
Stephenville, Texas 

Fal TZ GE RAL D ON Ucn Sse Ray, 
= S05 PH BeNe Vel Lee le ee 
[2] 
