
APPLES for Home-Gardens and Orchards 
HIS delicious fruit can be grown easily in the home-garden. The trees are orna- 
mental and useful; they need comparatively little care yet return a liberal reward 
if they are properly sprayed and pruned. 
Apples thrive best on moist, rich soil; bottomland is ideal, but where this is not 
available use the best upland, and if not already rich, make it so, as Apples will not be 
a success on thin, poor soil. First, the land should be well plowed; then mark off where 
trees are to stand; dig a hole 3 feet wide and 1 foot deep; fill this about half full of top- 
soil; then put in a half bushel of rotted stable or Jot manure and mix thoroughly with 
soil; then set in the tree, taking note that it should be slightly deeper than in the nursery 
after planting is finished. Fill up with top-soil, firming with the foot, and we advise 
banking up a few inches, to counteract settling, to prevent baking and to make culture 
easy. As soon as planted, cut trees back to 2 to 214 feet above ground, leaving 3 or 4 
sprouts near the top to make limbs. 
If domestic fertilizer is not available, a good substitute will be found in bonemeal, 
cotton-seed meal, dried blood, tankage, or fish-scrap; any one of these will answer alone 
but two or more mixed would be better. Use 1 pound of any of the above materials for 
each hole. Never use guano, nitrate of soda, or other caustic materials, as they will kill 
your trees. After the first year these can be applied on the surface and worked in to good 
advantage. — 
Cultivate around trees after every rain and plant in between rows with cotton, peas, 
beans, or other similar crops. Never plant corn or small grain in the orchard. 
Apples need to be sprayed when in bloom to control codling moth, and later to control 
fungus on leaf and fruit and to prevent worms and rot. Your State Entomologist will 
supply you a spray calendar for the asking and will advise you where to get spraying 
materials at nearest point to you. 
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