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FIELD NOTES

ON

reo CULT UR.

BY

L. H. BAILEY, Jr.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK:
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY,
52 & 54 LAFAYETTE PLACE.
1895,

- oe
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the.year 1886, by

L. H. BAILEY, Jr.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Lo

Wy tather,

THE RESULTS OF WHOSE TEACHINGS

4RE EMBODIED IN THESE PAGES

These notes have been prepared with a view to af-
ford a guide to those who would engage in apple
culture. The teachings here conveyed are founded
upon successful practice. ‘The author has aimed to so
guide the novice that mistakes may be avoided in the
endeavor to reach pvofitable results. Some of the pa-
pers have appeared in the “ American Cultivator”
and elsewhere.

L. H. B., Jr.
Michigan Agricultural College, October, 1886.

CONTENTS.

CuHaPrTer I.
Soil, Location and Windbreaks.___..........-.------------ 9
CHAPTER II,
Setting the Trees.—Distances--.....-----------.----------- 13
CHAPTER III.
When: to Blanticsssusiuceass 2 Secs ce eens sekcoteeencuien 16
CHAPTER IV.
Selecting Varieties of Fruit_......-..--.-----..--..--2----- 18
CHAPTER V.
Chéap Pritit!Treés seineccciac 2 tsiieete shee dgaseetincws Sa. 22
CHAPTER VI.
How to Plow an Orchard.—Orchard Tillage__.............- 24.
CHAPTER VII.
Manures for the Orchard ___________.--------.------------- 28
CHaPTer VIII.
Sodin:- the Orchard <=. o<iss2% 205 pacdee ewes seasee se ncice Bi
CHAPTER IX.
General Notes on Pruning.—Forms of Trees_--..-..-------- 33
CHAPTER X.
High or Low Heads for Apple Trees ........---.----------- 37
CHAPTER XI. |
Training and Repairing Orchard Trees.—Scraping-.--.-.__-- 39
CHAPTER XII.
General, Notes or Grafting --..------.--------.------------ 45
CHAPTER XIII.
Top-Grafting Old Apple Trees .....-------.---------------- 51
CHAPTER XIV.
Longevity of Apple Trees ..--.---------------------------- 54
a : _CHAPTER XV.
Picking Fruit.—When to Pick...-.-..-....---------------- 55

(7)

8 CONTENTS.

Packing Apples cowie 2 cee ey roe sete ae ec geeseee 59
CHAPTER XVII.
Profits in Apple Culture.—Shall We Plant More Orchards?

—Losses from Theft___.....------------------------- 66
CuaPTer XVIII.
Winter Preparations _____._._...----------------------- --- 8
sa CuapTer XIX.
Injurious Insects... ---..---- »ssessse2ese sere seeeeeeen ee ets 15
CHAPTER XX.
Brera: ssaeneesceae eke a ouinsor ni out ee ehe eee esseaseeccs 77
CHAPTER XXI.
Godlin, Moth: 33.222s222cccce. sassoseeeresteadeens ceeeseee 85
ILLUSTRATIONS.

A Model Apple Tree _.......--------------------- Frontispiece.
Figure 1.—Tree-Placing Implement. ........--------------- 15
Figure 2.—Shoulder of a Limb... .....--------------------- 84.
Figure 3.—A Short Ladder ---_...---.--.-.---------------- 35
Figure 4.—Twisted Branches in a Crotch -.-._--.---------- 41
Figure 5.—Living Brace in a Crotch _._.---.--..----------- 42
Figure 6.—Tree Prepared for Top-Grafting .... ----.------- ay
Figure 7.—Grafting Kmife_.-..-...-.-.--..---------------- 48
Figure 8.—Grafting Mallet _........-..-.-.------- -------- 49
Figure 9.—A Scion......-----. -. ceo Suse aes Sea Settee 50
Figure 10.—Stub with Scions in Place.-.-..-.---..--------- 50
Figure 11.==Picker c.cc2 cc 225 sarseseseesves os acesee cence 56
Figure l2.— Picker 2.2222. = tJ scaceeneas ss snaseneee sees 56
Figure)3.--Ho0ek 225 .a2%2n) vouneceoscka bes sedeeeenkece s 56
Figure 14.—Beetle of Round-headed Borer -..-..-.---...---- 77
Figure 15.—The Round-headed Borer -._.....-...--.--..--- vig
Figure 16.—Saperda Cretata --.-........------------------- 82

Figure 17.—The Beetle._......-.---.-----------------2---- 83
Figure 18.—Flat-Headed Borer ;
Figure 19.—Codlin Moth..........-...-.--2-..-----2----+--- 85

FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER I.
SOIL, LOCATION AND WINDBREAKS.

As a rule, rather light or loamy soils, with deep and
porous subsoils, are best adapted to apple growing. Nat-
ural drainage is imperative. Apple trees are impatient
of wet feet. Cold and backward soils, even if well under-
drained, do not give good results. I am not to be under-
stood as discouraging tile drainage, but I prefer a soil
naturally well drained to one tile-drained. Naturally
drained soils are warm soils. I have in mind a contrast
between two prominent Michigan orchards. Both were
planted about twenty-five years ago, and with essentially
the same varieties. One stands upon a rather poor sand,
which possesses no decided subsoil higher than ten or
twelve feet below the surface. The orchard has received
good culture, but no underdraining, and the trees are
to-day vigorous and productive. The other orchard stands
upon a heavy loam, with a clay or hard-pan subsoil within
two feet of the surface. The land has been remarkably

(9)

10 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

well underdrained, and the trees have received good cul-
ture and an uncommon attention towards cultural experi-
ments. Nevertheless, this orchard has never borne a
good crop, and many of the trees have been winter-killed.
/High lands are preferable for orchards, from the fact
that they enforce atmospheric drainage. “Cold air is
heavier than warm air, and it settles on the lowest grounds.
All have noticed the warmer air on the hills, when riding
over a hilly country at night. / Crops upon high or sloping
lands escape frost, while those in the valleys are seriously
injured. “In still winter weather I have known a differ-
ence of ten degrees between contiguous places with a
difference of thirty feet in altitude.

The aspect of the ground is sometimes important.’ If
the locality is especially liable to late spring frosts a
northern slope is to be preferred, since the trees will not
start very early in the spring. Near large bodies of water,
and in other places where there is no danger from late
frosts, a southern slope is probably to be desired. Other
things being equal, the southern slope will produce the
highest colored and finest flavored apples. The same is
true of a sandy soil.

There are many idle hillsides which would bear good
apple orchards. New England is especially rich in such
sites. As we approach the inviting, intensive husbandry
of the future, we must begin to appreciate the value of
many. of our waste lands for orcharding purposes.

WINDBREAKS FOR ORCHARDS.

During a still, cold ‘snap in a fruit-growing locality,
when the mercury sinks to twenty below zero, it is the

SOIL, LOCATION AND WINDBREAKS. 11

common remark, ‘‘ There is no wind and the peach buds
will not suffer.” If the thermometer registers a temper-
ature ten or fifteen degrees higher and a smart wind is
blowing, everyone feels discouraged or uncertain. It is
one of the commonest of observations that a wind in-
creases cold. I recall a farmer who had an old and poorly
made house, but who boasted that because he was well
protected by trees he suffered less than a neighbor on
a barren field, who had a new and tight house.

High winds are in several ways injurious to the orchard.
It is a common and correct teaching that orchards should
be planted on high land as a matter of winter protection,
but, as such places are invariably windy, the idea has ob-
tained that wind isin some manner a protection. The
advantages to be obtained from high places are two: The
soil, being commonly well drained, is warm; the atmos-
pheric drainage is good. If we can secure the congenial
soil and the atmospheric drainage at the same time that
we avoid high winds, we secure the greatest requisite in
orchard culture.

A high wind shortly before apples are ripe will shake off
and bruise half or more of them in unprotected orchards.
I have frequently known promising apple crops to be
ruined in this manner. It frequently occurs that the
trees are badly broken at the same time. An ice storm,
followed by wind, is exceedingly destructive. Young trees
set in an exposed situation are always being blown askew,
and they must be repeatedly staked and tied. Many
growers recognize this fact, and plant corn among young
trees, but as soon as the corn is removed the unprotected
trees are wrenched by Autumn winds. I frequently see

12 FIELD NOTLS ON APPLE CULTURE.

old orchards whose crooked trunks record early damages
from winds.

A good windbreak is the surest protection to an orchard.
A windbreak may be made too dense, however. A wall-
like hedge of evergreens is apt to obstruct atmospheric
drainage. A double or triple row of deciduous trees,
with a few spruces intermixed, appears to be the most
desirable. ‘The best protected orchard I ever saw was one
planted behind another orchard. The exposed orchard
suffered much, however. If the hard winds are mostly
from one direction the windbreak may not be needed on
all sides,

SETTING THE TREES. —DISTA NCES. 18

CHAPTER II.
SETTING THE TREES.—DISTANCES.

Care in setting the trees, as in all other operations in
the orchard, is imperative. The shiftless orchardist can-
not succeed. Thorough-going methods alone bring profit.
‘Trees should make a good growth the first season. If *
they are weak during the first summer they will likely
become the prey of borers, or they will dwindle for a
few years and die. The first requisite in setting is to
trim smoothly all broken roots. It is customary to cut
off the ends of the roots in a sloping manner from the
inside outwards, so that the wound will rest firmly upon
the soil. It is not necessary that a tree possess many
fine roots when transplanted. Such roots are very liable
to be broken in transportation, and when exposed they
soon dry up beyond recovery. If a tree has a quan-
tity of clean,. bright roots the size of a lead pencil or
larger, it ought to grow luxuriantly if other conditions
are satisfactory. I am not sure but such trees do better
than those with an abundance of fine roots, from the fact
that the earth can be packed more snugly about the roots.
I am not convinced that trees from a local nursery are
preferable to those from a distance, unless one desires to
remove a few trees with a ball of earth attached. With
our rapid transportation trees can be sent a great dis-
tance without injury. To be sure, in the case of tender
plants, such as peach trees, I should prefer trees grown
in my own latitude. Some years ago, before railroads

14 FIELD NOTES- ON APPLE CULTURE,

had reached Western Michigan, a box of apple trees was
received from an Eastern nursery in very poor condition
—so poor, in fact, that the roots were withered and the
trees given up for lost. By way of experiment, however,
they were thrown into a ‘‘cat-hole” and allowed to re-
main for several days. Signs of life began to return and
the trees were set among the logs in a clearing. Nearly
all of them lived and flourished.

The soil in which the tree is set should be well pulver-
ized. It is desirable to dig a hole three feet in diamater,
unless the soil is in excellent condition, and then pulver-
ize the bottom with the spade. Never make the mistake
of making the hole smaller than the expanse of the roots.
Let all the roots take their natural direction ; never
crowd them. Set the tree about as deep as it stood in
the nursery. It is not at all important that it should
face the same point of the compass that it did in the
nursery row. Work the earth about the roots with the
fingers, and be sure that you leave no air space under-
neath the roots. There is no- implement which can do
the work of the fingers in setting trees. When the roots
are covered, grasp the body of the tree and move it very
slightly up and down two or three times to further pack
the earth about the roots. Never use stones, clods or
sods to fill in with. When the hole is filled, stamp the
earth firmly about the tree.

DISTANCE APART.

Apple trees demand an abundance of room. For the
larger sorts, as Tompkins King, Baldwin, Spy, and
‘Greening, forty feet. apart each way is none too much,

SETTING THE TREES,—DISTANCES.. \ 15

I do not like the practice of setting peach and other
trees between the apple trees, because they are seldom
removed when they should be. Most people who begin
growing small fruits in an orchard continue the prac-
tice too long. It has been my experience that it is safer
to grow annual crops in the orchard than to grow other
fruits. We are obliged to remove the annual crops.

If the orchard is to be of considerable size, I should
survey it and drive a stake for every tree. If I did not
survey it, I should measure around the sides and sight

Fig. 1.—TREE-PLAOING IMPLEMENT,

across. I use an implement, represented in figure 1, for
locating the tree in the exact place of the stake. It is
held firmly in the ground by the three wooden legs, the
notch at a touching the stake. The arm, a 3, is then
turned back in the position bc, and the hole dug, after
which thé arm is turned down and the tree adjusted to
the notch. An old spade handle is used as a handle, and
if it is inserted: so that the implement will balance in the
hand, when the arm is turned back, one can push the
legs firmly into- the ground with a single thrust. This
implement (fig. 1) can be made out of light pine, with a
length from 6 to c of two and a half feet and twelve
inches wide across the end, c, and it need not weigh
above six pounds,

16 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER ITI.

WHEN TO PLANT.

As arule, fall planting is preferable to spring plant-
ing. The particular advantages of fall planting are two:
the tree becomes somewhat established in the soil before
spring opens ; there is more leisure in the fall.

It is well known to nurserymen that cuttings of fruit
or ornamental plants if set in the fall become callused on
the wounded surfaces, and often send out small roots
before freezing weather sets in. The same is true of
fruit trees. A pear tree which is set as soon as the
leaves fall will make rootlets in four or five weeks, if the
weather is open. There is nearly always a beginning of
the healing process as soon as trees are planted in the
fall. This healing, even though it be small, is a direct
and important gain over spring planting. The tree also
becomes thoroughly fixed in its place, the soil settlos
firmly about its roots, and it is ready to take advantage
of the first opening of spring. The matter of greater
leisure for planting in the fall is not an unimportant one.
Trees should not be planted hastily. Time should be
taken to pulverize the soil and to straighten each root.
In the hurry of spring work this thorough planting is
often neglected, and many times the trees are not set as
early as they should be. _

To insure success with fall planting the ground must
be well drained and thoroughly prepared, and much care
must be exercised in setting the trees. A poorly drained

WHEN TO PLANT. 1%

field is never fit for apple trees, and it is especially unfit
for fall planting. . Trees must be set so firmly that winds
will not rack and twist them. In severe climates fall
planting is often hazardous, although much care may be
taken. The climates of Massachusetts and Lower Mich-
igan are not usually too severe for fall planting. It is
only in much exposed places in our Northern States that
it is to be practised with caution. We might say, ina
general way, that north of Boston or Chicago fall plant- _
ing may be regarded as hazardous.

Spring planting is to be recommended in severe cli-
mates and in exposed places, and especially is it safest in
stiff and heavy soils where the effect of freezing and
thawing is disastrous to fall planted trees, and where the
hardening of the soil prevents their roots from starting
readily in early spring. Trees which are planted in the
spring should be set as soon as the ground is dry enough
to be worked.

18 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

CHAPTER IV.
SELECTING VARIETIES OF FRUIT.

Whether an orchard returns a profit to the owner will
depend in a great measure upon the kinds of varieties,
and the number of each, which it contains. There is
probably no greater mistake among orchardists than that
of neglecting to give earnest thought to the varieties to
be planted. Care in the selection of varieties is the first
stone in the foundation, the first step to success. It is
to the orchardist what the selection of the breed is to
the stock-raiser.

There are several things to be taken into consideration
in the selection of varieties. For profit, a fruit must
combine these four qualities and preferably in the order
named: hardiness, productiveness, beauty and good
quality. These terms are all relative. An, apple which
is hardy in one part of the country may not be hardy in
another part; the same is true of productiveness, and to
a less extent of beauty and quality also. Hence, the
subject of the selection of varieties must be a local ques-
tion. The same fruit may not succeed in different parts
of the same State. I have known good Sour Boughs to
be raised successfully only sixteen miles from a place
where they grew small, black and gnarly. If the grower
has not had personal experience in his locality, the safest
plan to pursue is to visit all the growers in the immedi-
ate vicinity, and to ascertain the most satisfactory varie-
ties. Ask what fruits endure extremes of weather best,
which ones bear the best, which are handsomest and best

re

SELECTING VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 19

in quality, and which ones keep the longest. It is not
necessary that experienced orchardists live in the neigh-
borhood in order that this information may be secured.
Select several of the most promising varieties grown by
the neighbors, and as an additional guide write to the
leading dealers of the market to which you will ship,
asking what ones of your list will best meet the demand
in the market. Experienced dealers’ judgments are in-
valuable in this matter, but they do not, of course, cover
the subjects of hardiness and productiveness. What
dealers can sell best is not always what growers can raise
best. Some apples are nearly cosmopolitan. Such, for
instance, is the Baldwin, which is a superior variety from
Maine to Michigan.

The varieties once deGided upon, plant enoxgh of each
variety to pay for the handling and hauling. Fifty bar-
rels of Gravensteins are worth as much as seventy-five
barrels of mixed apples of similar size. Plant each vari-
ety by itself. It is a most exasperating operation to be
obliged to pick Baldwins first in one corner of the orchard
and then in another. An orchard of five hundred trees,
if set fur profit, should not contain more than five or six
varieties, ond, on an average, four of them should be
winter apples. Three varieties are preferable to ten. I
recall a story of a prominent pomologist, who, when
asked what varieties he would plant in an apple orchard
of one thousand trees, replied, ‘‘Nine hundred and
ninety-nine Baldwins.” When asked what the other
tree would be, he replied, ‘‘I should make that a Bald-
win, too.” .

Hardiness is preéminently a relative term. The same

20 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

variety will prove hardier upon a gravelly eminence than
on rich bottom lands. This statement is true of the
Eastern States, at least. Of late, B. F. Johnson and
Professor Burrill, of Champaign, Illinois, contend that
the lower lands are generally preferable for apple growing
onthe prairies. On account of the pinching drouths the
trees upon the higher lands cease growing by midsum-
mer, but with the advent of fall rains they start into a
second growth which does not mature, and, as a conse-
quence, the trees are winter-killed. On the lower and
moister lands the growth is said to be continuous and
the wood matures thoroughly. In all cases, however, it
is important to bear in mind the fact that hardiness de-
pends as much upon soil and location as upon varieties.

Among the best market apples are the following :

For Summer and Fall: Early Harvest, Sweet Bough
(especially in New England), Red Astrachan, Williams’
Favorite (eastward), Oldenburgh (Duchess of Olden-
burgh), Alexander, St. Lawrence, Gravenstein, Maiden’s
Blush, Chenango (Chenango Strawberry), Twenty Ounce,
Shiawassee (early winter), Ohio Nonpareil, Lowell, Porter,
Hawthornden, Jersey Sweet, Fameuse (Snow Apple).

For Winter: Baldwin, Northern Spy, Rhode Island
Greening, Ben Davis (West and South), Talman Sweet,
Red Canada, Tompkins King, Grimes’ Golden, Stark,
Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet (eastward), Hubbards-
ton (early winter), Fallawater, Smith’s Cider, Jonathan,
Nickajack (South), Vandevere, Peck’s Pleasant, Limber
Twig. :

The following have a reputation for home use :

For Summer and Fall: Primate, Sweet Bough, Early

SELECTING VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 21

Joe, Summer Rose, Fall Pippin, Fameuse, Garden Royal,
Hawley, Keswick, Codlin, Shiawassee, Alexander, Jersey
Sweet, English Sweet, Dyer, Mother.

For Winter: Melon, Belmont, Swaar, Esopus Spitz-
enburgh, Jonathan, Hubbardsten, Lady Apple, Yellow
Newtown Pippin, Yellow Bellefleur, Northern Spy,
Wagener, Rhode Island Greening, Pomme Gris.

Numerous improved varieties of Siberian crab apples
are becoming popular, especially for our colder climates.
The best known crabs are Transcendent, Hyslop and
Whitney. The Russian apples are not yet sufficiently
known to be recommended.

22 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER V.
CHEAP FRUIT TREES.

It is a common supposition that second-class fruit
trees, if healthy and clean, make as good orchards as
first-class trees. J once knew a grower to put the matter
in this way: ‘‘Second-class trees have as good roots as
any, and I can grow the tops to suit myself. They will
cost me a third or more less than first-class trees of the
same varieties, and I believe it will pay me to buy them.”
He did buy them and set them. They were peach trees,
and as good as the ordinary run of second-class trees.
Most of the trees lived. There were some two hun-
dred of them. At the end of two years most of them
were dead or dying. Borers had been imported with
them from the nursery. The tops of most of the trees
were weak or crooked, and many had to be cut back
to the bud. The trees were given good culture,
though not the best. About the third year after the
trees were set I planted an orchard on the same
ground, and of all the former trees but one solitary
individual remained. This is a case of an experiment
with cheap trees. It is probably an extreme case, but
it does not convey too strong a lesson. I doubt if it
ever pays to buy second-class trees. They may grow
readily, but they do not make straight and clean trunks.
I am aware that some nurserymen advertise their second-
class stock to be just like their first-class stock, only
smaller. I have never seen such second-class trees, how-
ever. Of course the nurseryman cannot be particular

CHEAP FRUIT TREES. 23

about each individual tree of his lower grades. The
lower grades contain his odds and ends—trees with
gnarly trunks, those whose tops have been broken and
sprouts trained up in their places, those with one-sided
roots and weak growth. The orchardist cannot afford to
buy them. They prove expensive in the end. It requires
too much time and trouble to train them. In the
case above mentioned the tops had to be cut from about
half the trees, and a sprout encouraged. Usually more
than one sprout started, and the unnecessary ones had to
be rubbed off several times during the season. There is
usually a crook where the sprout starts, and the tree does
not always outgrow it entirely. In some cases all the.
sprouts started below the bud, and « seedling was the
result.

I must not be understood as recommending large and
stout trees. I only contend for good trees. A thrifty
, peach tree one year from the bud is old enough for plant-
ing. It is much better than one three years old. A
vigorous apple tree two years from the graft or bud is
preferable to one twice as old. It should be demanded,
however, that a tree be straight, vigorous, clean, and that:
it should have abundant and symmetrical roots.

24 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER VI.
HOW TO PLOW AN ORCHARD.—ORCHARD TILLAGE.

Whether to plow the orchard to the trees each year, or
to turn the sod in opposite directions in alternate years,
must depend upon the soil and location. It is only in
exceptional cases that the former course should be pur-
sued. In poorly-drained orchards, on low, black land,
this practice of heaping the sod about the trees has the
advantage of favoring drainage. Even in this particular,
however, it is doubtful if the benefits will overbalance
the inconvenience resulting from such a practice. Bet-
ter tile-drain the orchard and keep the surface even.
Drainage is not always secured by the deep dead fur-
rows. The ground must. have a good natural slope, or
deep pools will be formed in the dead furrows just where
the young roots demand warmth and drainage. The
constant lowering of the dead furrows cuts off the smaller
roots and drives them deep into the subsoil where there
is little nutriment. The valuable surface soil is piled up
about about the trees, where it does no good. Roots feed
largely upon the valuable elements which leach down
from the surface soil. The most active roots of large
trees are far from the trunk. An uneven surface in an
orchard is a constant source of aggravation, especially in
picking-time, when one must enter with a wagon. Wind-
falls roll into the dead furrows, and become bruised, wet
and decayed. ‘Thesod furrow does not usually strike close
against the body of the tree. As a consequence, a little
depression is formed there, into which drifts litter, form-

HOW TO PLOW AN ORCHARD. 25

ing an attractive home to insects and mice. There is no
danger of injuring trees by plowing away from them and
close to them, if one has trained his trees properly and if
he exercises care. If the practice of close plowing be in-
augurated in young orchards, the roots will start deep
enough to avoid the plow. It is not necessary to plow
deep. Trees should be pruned high. Low-headed
trees are an abomination, and they present hardly any
advantage over high tops. With moderately high-topped
trees, short whiffletrees, low hames, a strap back-pad
with leather turrets, a gentle team and a careful man,
one need not fear about injuring trees. Plow one year
east and west, the next north and south ; one year to the
trees, one year from them.

ORCHARD TILLAGE.

In the latitude of Bostou and Chicago, cultivation in
the orchard should cease before September. It is, per-
haps, a good rule to stop the plow and the hoe a month
before frost is expected. Late cultivation is always haz-
ardous, and especially so in the case of young trees or of
tender varieties. There is much room for an honest
‘difference of opinion as to the condition in which the
orchard should be left after a crop is removed. A
highly successful friend maintains that the orchard
should be left in weeds because they hold the snow.
I should much prefer a perfectly clean surface to
a weedy one. I doubt if snow is so valuable a cover-
ing about apple trees as some suppose. I even have
my doubts as to its value in peach orchards. At tho
best, it is a transient covering and 1t comes and goes

26 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

during the winter. I have often maie comparative ob-
servations on the effects of snow and no snow in the
large peach orchards along the east shore of Lake Michi-
gan, but I was never able to see any decided advantages
of the snow protection. If the snow can be held without
the expenditure of much labor, or without running the
risk of seeding the farm to weeds, then it may be desirable.
If the orchard is not in sod, the most desirable fall
treatment I have. ever known is sowing rye early in Sep-
tember. The rye does not demand a deeply plowed soil,
but the shallow plowing is sufficient to turn under weeds,
and the subsequent growth of the grain will keep down
those which may start. In the spring the rye may be
plowed under early as a manure.

The whole question of how much and what kind of
cultivation the orchard is to receive, will depend directly
upon the kind of crops grown in it. If it is necessary. to
grow grain—wheat, oats or barley—in the orchard, year
after year, the orchard had better be given up entirely.
I never knew any profit to come from such an orchard.
On the other hand, I would not recommend giving up the
ground entirely to the trees for the first few years. In
most cases the trees will receive just the cultivation
that the crops which are grown among them receive,
and, if no crop is raised, the cultivation of the orchard
will probably be neglected. For ten years, or more,
after apple trees are set, the soil ought to yield fair crops
of potatoes, corn or garden vegetables, and the same is
often true of a peach orchard for three or four years. In
most cases it is a direct benefit to the trees to grow crops
among them, and if a liberal amount of manure is used

!

HOW TO PLOW AN ORCHARD. 2%

and the crop is harvested early, no possible harm can re-
sult. The best apple orchards I have ever seen yield
remunerative crops of annual produce until the trees be-
gin to bear heavily. The trees, however, are the primary
care. I have no faith, asa rule, in the statements that
fruit trees do not profit by cultivation. A farmer would
not attempt to raise corn by planting it in sod and then
mulching it, but many undertake to grow apple trees in
this manner. The man who treats his orchard as he
would his corn-field is bound to succeed.

Returning now to the particular kind of crops for an
orchard, we will select first those which demand good
culture throughout their growing season. Among such
crops are potatoes, corn and garden vegetables. I know
of no better crop than early potatoes. The overturning _
of the ground at digging time destroys the late weeds and
furnishes a good late summer stirring of the soil. In
many places, especially at the West, corn is regarded as
the best crop for a young orchard, as it protects the trees
from winds and keeps the ground cool. The protection
from winds is rather an imaginary benefit, as the heaviest
winds occur when the corn cannot afford protection.
All the garden vegetables which are harvested by the
first or the middle of August are excellent orchard crops,
and in many parts of New England, at least, they are
profitable when grown in large quantities.

28 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER VII.
MANURES FOR THE ORCHARD.

It appears to be a general notion that fruit trees do
not require manure in the same proportion as other crops.
The reason for this notion is apparent. Entirely neg-
lected trees usually bear a moderate crop of fruit, at
least once in two or three years, and not having culti-
vated and liberally manured trees to contrast with them,
the grower does not see great need of manuring. To
satisfy curiosity, let a person cultivate and manure
a portion of a neglected orchard, and then note the
comparative thriftiness and fruitfulness of the cultivated
and neglected portions. Lack of vigor in trees is one
reason for their being attacked by insects.

The first step in the enriching of an orchard is good
cultivation, as recommended in the preceding chapter.
For good cultivation there is no adequate substitute.
Barnyard manure is the best of all manures for the or-
chard in the general rin of cases. It cannot always be
had in sufficient quantity, however, to supply the orchard
or even a portion of it, as the fruit trees are commonly
an entirely secondary consideration to grain and vegeta-
ble crops. If crops are grown in the orchard, the trees
will obtain a part of the manure which is applied to
thecrop. It isa good plan to reserve a certain portion of
the manure each year for the orchard and to apply it to
different parts of the orchard in succession. It should
be plowed or harrowed in in the spring. The old mis-
take of applying the manure close about the trunk of the

MANURES FOR THE ORCHARD. 29

tree should never be made. It is not advisable to feed
horses by tying oats about their legs. There are very
many refuse matters about the farm or in the neighbor-
hood which can be composted. An intimate friend,
who has the reputation of making everything into ma-
nure, has also the best fruit of any one in the neigh-
borhood. From a shingle mill nearly two miles from
his home he drew the shavings and used them as bed-
ding. From the stable they went into the manure
heap and from the manure heap into the orchard. A
pile of sawdust three miles away was utilized in the
same manner. Even cinders from the blacksmith
shop went into his manure piles. He asked the privilege
of mowing swales on his neighbors’ farms. The weeds,
brush and swale hay were obtained in quantities and
stacked in the sheep yard. Al! winter this was fed to
the sheep in abundance. They obtained half their liv-
ing from it, and the remainder was broken and trampled
down. In the spring it was carted to the orchard.
Even the fine brush, which was cut from the apple trees,
often went into the manure. Such litter, after standing
a year or more in a compost heap, with a number of
turnings and the use of a little quicklime, will be en-
tirely decomposed. In this manner utilize the refuse
from the vegetable garden, the autumn leaves, the brakes
in pastures, and all other materials which can be made
to decay. Of course the weeds should be cut before
the seeds are ripe. If one keeps stock, this litter
may be thrown directly into the stable or yard, to be
broken and picked over by hogs, sheep and cows. This
manner of disposing of litter produces a fertilizer little

30 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

inferior to a compost, and it is less expensive. Few
farmers realize how much fertilizing material annually
‘goes to waste. :

Wood ashes are an invaluable manure for the orchard.
They may be used when leached or unleached. Un-
leached ashes should be used with caution. Leached
ashes may be applied to the depth of two inches.

It is an absurd notion that manuring fruit trees is in-
jurious. I have applied barnyard manure for years and
never knew any injury to result. One must exercise
judgment, however, as well as in the case of grain or
other crops.

Green manuring is often to be recommended. Rye is
especially good for a green manure in the orchard. It
may be sown in the fall with a very little stirring of the
ground and turned under the next spring. During the
winter the rye holds the snow, which may give some
protection.

SOD IN THE ORCHARD. 31

CHAPTER VIII.
SOD IN THE ORCHARD.

For the first eight or ten years after apple or pear trees
are set, they demand cultivation with the plow and a lib-
era] application of manure. After this the orchard may
often be seeded down for a time to advantage. Whether
or no an orchard should be seeded will depend upon the
richness of the soil, the condition of the trees and the
amount of manure or mold at the command. of the
grower. There is no general rule. If there is a doubt
as to the expediency of seeding, it is best to cultivate.

If an orchard has been properly managed during the
first ten years of its life the soil will be rich and in good
tilth. The trees will be making a good growth, and they
will present a dark and vigorous appearance. Such or-
chards will bear seeding down and they may profit by it.
But even under these favorable conditions I do not be-
lieve that seeding should be pormanent. Two or three —
years of June grass, orchard grass or clover should com-
monly be the limit, and during -this time the sod should
be closely pastured. One trouble with high grass in
orchards is the increased liability to danger from drouth.

T have said that cultivation is always safe and profit-
able, and yet I have seen orchards on heavy land
which made prodigious wood growth and bore but lit-
tle. When such orchards were seeded down, the growth
was checked, and more fruit was the result. These are
exceptional cases. Apples on cultivated trees are usually
lighter colored than those on trees in sod. Highly col-
ored apples are oftenest borne on slow growing trees.

32 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

There are some cases in which seeding cannot be dis-
pensed with, as in old orchards and on stony ground
which cannot be plowed. One of the advantages of good
and persistent cultivation, as long as the orchard can be
plowed, is to prepare soil and trees for the sodded old
age which overtakes the tree at last and forbids the en-
croachment of the plow. Orchard grass is a general
favorite for old orchards, but unless it is sown thickly
and is fed down close it is apt to make ‘‘stools,” or
clumps. Nearly all soils will run into June grass,
which makes a smooth and firm sod. Every two or three
years apply a heavy top-dressing of any mulch or manure
which is cheapest. Dressings of wood ashes are excel-
lent. Straw is also one of the most desirable mulches.
I have known a straw mulch a foot thick to decay and
to pass almost out of sight in one year. Fallen leaves
spread over the ground and held down by sedge or other
coarse material are also excellent. The sedge and weeds
which grow in bogs, if mowed early, before the seeds
are ripe, may be used to advantagé; also brakes, fine
brush, sawdust, coarse hurse manure—in fact, any ma-
terial which can be spread over the surface to sufficient
depth to keep the sod loose and which will decay speedily,
is to be recommended. This mulch is to be applied only
through the center of the spaces if sufficient quantity can-
not be had to cover the whole ground. On many of the
rocky hillsides in the Eastern States, where the plow
cannot be used, trees could no doubt be grown at a profit
with no other cultivation than an annual heavy dressing
of manure. It should be remembered that old orchards
can usually be plowed to within ten or fifteen feet of

GENERAL NOTES ON PRUNING. 33

the trunk, especially if the trees stand a good distance
apart, and this should be done every three years at least.

To summarize: As a rule, cultivate for ten years
after planting and as long thereafter as possible. Short
rotations of grass are not injurious when the ground has
been enriched by tillage and manure and the trees are
thrifty. When seeding is advisable or necessary, pasture
closely with hogs or sheep-and apply liberal mulching
and top dressing.

CHAPTER IX.
GENERAL NOTES ON PRUNING.—FORMS OF TREES.

Most people make too hard work of pruning. In this,
as in other farm operations, the chief requisite to success
is good judgment. It requires no science to enable one
to prune an apple tree. The orchardist must at once
and forever renounce the notion that he must trim his
trees, that he must dress them up into symmetrical and
formal shapes. He must prune. He must decide how
long he will have the trunk and then, each year, cut out -
superfluous branches. It is necessary that the trees
should, if-~possible, be kept straight and evenly balanced,
but it is not necessary or desirable to trim into regular
forms.

I have always pruned in May or early June. Wounds
made at this time heal more rapidly than those made
in early.spring. It is commonly asserted that the re-

moval of growing branches weakens the tree from the
f

34 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

fact that so many leaves and so much young wood is
destroyed, but I have yet to see any confirmation of
this notion in practice. Pruning in February and March
has its advantages, the most important of which is the
greater leisure at that time. The fact that there is such
a balance of opinion as to the relative advantages of
early spring or late spring pruning, is proof that the
advantages of either are mostly unimportant. From the
facts that wounds heal sooner, that the work is pleasanter
and that the brush handles easier, I have a preference for
pruning just after the leaves appear.

There is a conspicuous shoulder or enlargement at the
7% base of most limbs. It is just at the
outer border of this shoulder that the
limb should be severed. Cut at about
Ya ‘ty right angles to the limb which
: you sever, and not to the trunk from
which the limb springs. If cut at a
right angle to the trunk the surface of
the wound will be larger. This is
illustrated in figure 2. The line a 6
Fig. 2.—SHOULDER F

OF A Lime, represents the proper direction of cut,

the line ¢ d an improper direction.

T have used many kinds of pruning tools, but for all
purposes nothing is so good as a small saw in the hands
of a nimble operator. A saw with a curved blade, with
reflexed teeth for-a draw cut on the concave edge and
ordinary teeth on the convex edge, is handiest. Long-
handled pruning contrivances are unfit for continuous
work, as the constant looking up is very tiresome. For
small twigs in the top of the tree nothing is so good as

GENERAL NOTES ON PRUNING. 35

the ordinary small hand pruning shears and a pruning
knife. I can work much faster and with less fatigue by
getting into the tree with saw and shears, than I can by
standing on the ground and using patent pruning tools.
Of course I am now speaking of pruning an orchard.
Upon isolated shade or ornamental trees the long-handled
tools are convenient. I do not like heavy ladders. If
step ladders are usec, they should be very light. The
best ladder is made of three rounds. This is long enough
to enable one to get into the tree, or the legs can be
crossed about the top round, as in figure 3, if one must
reach a limb where there is no support for the ladder.
This simple ladder is in use among grafters.
Branches iia are parallel with stronger horizontal
fi limbs should be removed. If
two limbs rub, one should be
cut out. The vigilant orchard-
ist will cut out unnecessary
limbs before they get large and
troublesome. It is often said
that one should never use any
other tool than a knife in prun-
ing an orchard ; that every un-
necessary limb should be cut
before it is‘large enough to de-
mand a saw. This condition
of things is certainly a desirable
Fig. 8.4 SHORT LADDER. ~— Ggngummation, but I do not be-
lieve that it can be done, unless the operator has little else
on his hands than a hundred apple trees. I should not
limit my pruning by the size of the limbs to be cut.

35 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

In other words, I should remove every limb which
ought to be removed, large or small. But it is a sign
of a good orchardist if the unnecessary large branches
are few or none.

FORMS OF TREES.

The idea is still current, as a result of old teachings,
that some form of top for all the trees of an orchard
must be decided upon before one enters upon the import-
ant duties of pruning and training. This shape, to
which everything must be made to conform, may be the
“hollow top,” the ‘‘ umbrella shaped,” the conical, or
the broad and flat headed. Whatever this uniform shape
may be, it is at variance with nature, and does not rec-
ognize the peculiar and distinguishing forms of different
varieties. It is by no means necessary that all the trees
of an orchard should be trimmed into one form. « A vari-
ety in the forms will heighten rather than decrease the
beauty of an orchard. But an orchard is not supposed
to be trained for beauty. The training must have for its
object the production of more and better fruit, and the
prolonging of the life of the tree. The best rule for
shaping a tree—if a general direction may be called a
rule—might be worded something like this: Let-the
top take its natural shape, keep it symmetrical, and cut
out all interfering limbs. The Rhode Island Greening
should be allowed to make its natural broad and flat
head ; in fact, it cannot well be made to take any other
form. The strict and conical head of the Northern Spy
should’ not be malformed. Under a proper and careful
thinning out of some of the minor branches each year,

HIGH OR LOW HEADS FOR APPLE TREES. 37

one sort of top can be kept as symmetrical and as open
to light as another. Half the difficulties of pruning are
done away with when one decides to let the top take its
natural form. If oneattempts to shape his trees to some
model he will be liable to constant disappointment and
exasperation. He will find many trees stubbornly con-
trary. He will cut and train and worry for a few years,
and find in the end that the tree has the mastery.

CHAPTER X.
HIGH OR LOW HEADS FOR APPLE TREES.

This subject is entirely unworthy the controversy it
has occasioned. Extremes in orcharding are as obnox-
ious as in other pursuits. It is evident that a top which
rests upon the ground is a nuisance, and equally evident
that one which is trained up beyond reach is scarcely less
so. The head must be high enough to allow a team to
work under it, and it must be easy of access for a
man and basket. With a properly trained team it is not
necessary that the limbs be much above their backs. It
is a good rule to start the top high enough to clear a
horse. At such a height, if properly pruned, the top
should be easy of access.

It is an erroneous notion that a low top is the easier
to pick from and to prune. It is easier to climb into a
tree than it is to crawl under it and into it, with no room
for standing up under it. It is also a mistake to suppose
that low trees hold their apples better during winds.

*:

88 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

Low trees give as many wind-falls as high ones. The
apples on the under side of these low heads are gener-
allyinferior. They are small, green, speckled and insipid.
They get little sun, and, in consequence of dampness,
they mildew. A very low tree is an abomination. I had
rather have a very high one, if I could not have the
golden mean.

It is a difficult matter to train some varieties into a
a satisfactory head. The Rhode Island Greening is an
unmanageable grower. At least some of the sorts of
Greenings are; for Greening, like some other of our
names, is one which covers a series of very nearly related
sorts rather than one well-defined variety. Some thirty
Greenings were trained up to the height of a horse when
they were young. Until they were fifteen years old they
were pruned regularly and judiciously, but at the expira-
tion of that time the lower limbs of twenty of them
touched the ground. The ten remaining ones continued.
to hold their limbs horizontally, but in three or four
years they began to drop. Some of the trees formed a
perfect arbor, with a cool, still nook around the trunk
and measuring from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter.
On younger trees I tried many devices in the way
of pruning to keep the branches upright, but sooner or
later, with a few exceptions, their ends went down. A
few show an upright habit, but I do not believe that they
are true Rhode Island Greenings. There is no remedy
for this provoking habit of the branches. The drooping
can be delayed, and it will be less aggravating when it
does appear, if the lower branches are made stocky. If
all the side limbs are cut off for. some distance, and a

TRAINING AND REPAIRING ORCHARD TREES. 39

heavy bush is left at the end of the branch, trouble is
inevitable.

Baldwins, and other varieties in the same orchard,
pruned in the same manner as the Greenings, but with
less care, donot droop. Trees of a drooping habit should
be planted on a dry and gravelly soil, and when they
begin to cover the ground all tall grass and litter should be
kept away from them. Dryness under the tree may then
be secured. Perhapsit would help Greenings to top-graft
them, although the most complete drooper I ever saw is
top-grafted.

CHAPTER XI.

TRAINING AND REPAIRING ORCHARD TREES.—
SCRAPING. te

Aside from ordinary pruning, which is chiefly con-
cerned with the form of the tree, there are certain matters
of secondary importance and of occasional occurence
which the pruner must not neglect. Young trees will
be twisted by winds, or they may be entirely broken down ;
crotches will need to be strengthened and broken tops re-
paired. Repair is not necessarily associated with old age
and decay. ‘Vigorous apple trees can sometimes be re-
paired to as good advantage as can a strong wagon or
sleigh. .

If the grower has been so unfortunate as to secure weak
and slender trees for planting, he must make them stocky
by good cultivation and by heading back. Induce 4 vig-

40 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

orous growth by a liberal application of marure, if the
soil is not strong, and by frequently stirring the soil.
Keep off all insects. It will not be necessary to cut the
tree back to a mere stump, as is often done. After the
proper form of the young top is decided upon, pinch back
or cut off the tips of all the twigs, and repeat the opera-
tion during the whole season. If the tree has a very
stroug leader it may be necessary to cut it off entirely.
If in a windy place, most slender trees will need to be
staked. I do not believe in the advice of many that it is
an injury to the tree to stake it. Some of the finest and
straightest trees I know were staked for the first two
- years after being set. If staking can be avoided con-
veniently, it would, of course, be folly to resort to it. It
is a good practice to stamp a sod firmly against the tree
on the side towards which it leans. If the sod is large
and properly placed, it will often answer all the pur-
poses of a stake. There are two troubles connected with
staking : the string or band is apt to gall the tree, and
the stake protects the tree from the wind in one direction
only. Toavoid the galling, I have found it best to use a
strip of ticking or flannel an inch or so wide, tied
snugly about the tree. Sncha band will yield enough to
allow the trunk to expand with growth: Rye straw,
when cut before the grain is ripe, makes excellent bands.
A stake upon each side of the tree, with a band tied
across, will keep the tree in place much better than a
single stake.

Trees which have been broken down by cattle, can often
be saved by tying them firmly against a stout stake both
below and above the break, and by thoroughly covering the

TRAINING AND REPAIRING ORCHARD TREES. 41

injured surface with grafting wax. In cases of “barking,”
which is almost unavoidable in large orchards, I have
found a good remedy to be a liberal application of cow
dung, over which stout cloths are firmly wound. All
the loose bark should be removed.

The disfiguring of the tops of trees by injuries from ice
or wind, and by heavy loads of fruit, is a frequent occur-
rence. In this matter ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a

Fig. 4.-TWISTED BRANCHES IN A CROTCH,
pound of cure.” In training young trees all crotches should
be avoided. If the tree, as it comes from the nursery, has
a fork, one branch should be removed and the other tied
up perpendicularly. If bad crotches should occur in trees
six years old or upwards, they should be braced. This
bracing is done by twisting together two twigs, one from
the inside of each branch of the crotch. The twigs may
be twisted abont each other loosely, the ends being
allowed to project freely beyond the opposite branches of
the crotch (figure 4). If kept in place, these twigs will
soon begin to adhere along their whole length, and after

42 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

three or four years the free ends may be cut off. Inafew
years they will be united into a perfectly solid bar across
the crotch (figure 5). Twigs from the size of a lead pencil
to the size of one’s finger unite most readily. All the
larger crotches of an apple tree may be braced in this
manner, and injury from splitting will be mostly avoided.

Fig. 5.—LIvING BRACE IN A CROTCH.
not wait for the growing together of smalllimbs. In such
cases iron bolts must be used. Much damage to trees
can be averted if bolts are used as soon as a weakness is
discovered. Half-inch rods of considerable length may
also be run through the branches at some distance above
their junction. When crotches have been split entirely.

TRAINING AND REPAIRING ORCHARD TREES. 43

apart, the branches may often be brought together again
and secured with bolts. I will describe a case of unusual
severity, which vill serve to illustrate the method to be
employed in repairing broken trees. An over-laden
Baldwin tree, a foot or more in diameter, the top of which
started about four feet from the ground, was broken down
by a wind storm. The broken portion included nearly half
the tree, and it split away from the main portion and lay
flat upon the ground. The split reached to the heart of the
trunk, and extended to the ground. Ropes were secured to
the fallen portion, and were then passed around limbs on
the standing portion, so that the broken part could be
pulled up as with so many ropes and pulleys. Several men
pulled up the broken half, and a three-fourths inch iron
rod was passed through the body, and the two parts
were brought snugly together by a heavy nut. Tworods,
five or six feet long, were passed through the branches
higher up, and were drawn tight by nuts. The heads of
the bolts were large and flat, so that they could not be
pulled into the wood, and the nuts had large washers
underneath them. The split was then thoroughly waxed
over and covered with a piece of rubber cloth. The two
parts of the tree united, and in two years there was no evi-
dence of a split except the bolts. Bands placed about
trees to brace them are always injurious, as they restrict
growth. I have never known injury to result from the
use of bolts. The heads soon grow in, and no trace is
left of them.

Large limbs often break down in such a manner as to
preclude all possibihty of rejoining the broken parts.
The loss of the limbs may destroy the symmetry of the

,

44 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

‘
tree. In such cases one must keep the remaining portion
of the tree cut back, and must train up the sprouts
which spring from the wounded places to make good the
missing portion. If such sprouts do not arise they can
be made by the use of scions. Trim off smoothly the
remaining broken ends of the branches, and insert the
scions between the bark and the wood, at a distance of
an inch or two apart all around the wound. Scions for
this purpose should be cut thin, with both edges of the
bevel equal in thickness. As soon as the scions are set,
wax over all exposed surfaces thoroughly, the same as for
ordinary grafting.

If trees are girdled by mice or rabbits in the winter,
some method should early be pursued to save them. The
very first measure after the mischief is discovered is to
protect the wounded surface by tying over it heavy rags,
or banking earth against it. This keeps the surface of
the wood soft, and prevents checking and drying by
wind. It is useless to insert scions or to apply other
remedies until the trees begin to start in the spring.
Fresh cow dung plastered over the denuded surface, and
tied on tightly with an abundance of cloths, will always
save trees that are girdled before July, and it will usually
save those girdled later. I have known no less than a
hundred trees to be saved in this manner, and I do not
recall a single failure.

THE RAGGED BARK.

The old and rough bark is probably some protection to
trees in winter. It presents an untidy appearance, how-
ever. Itisasafe practice to remove it in late spring.
A much worn, thin hoe, with a handle two feet long, is

GENERAL NOTES ON GRAFTING. 45

a handy implement for scraping trees. It is never ad-
visable to scrape to the “quick,” so as to expose the
live bark. Simply remove the loose shreds by a light
pressure of the hoe. The removal of this bark destroys
lodging places of insects, and adds wonderfully to the
appearance of an orchard. ‘The person who keeps his
orchard neat and attractive is usually successful. I know
of no reason for whitewashing the truuks of trees, although
the practice is a common one.

CHAPTER XII.
GENERAL NOTES ON GRAFTING.

In most cases it is better to set trees which have been
grafted in the nursery than to set seedlings, with the ex-
pectation of top-grafting them. If the variety of apple or
pear is a good grower, a tree can be grown more quickly
and more satisfactorily if grafted before being set in the
orchard. To cut off a tree after it is three years old to
graft it, is to put it back two years. It should be cut off
and grafted when a year old, and the process should be
done in the nursery. I am not speaking in the interest

.of root-grafting, but I wish to make it plain that time is
lost by top-grafting trees, and, in the great majority of
cases, no better trees are secured. In many cases there
are decided disadvantages, besides the loss of time, in
this top-grafting. When there is a great difference in
the rate of growth of the stock and scion, there will be

46 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

formed a disagreeable irregularity at the junction. If
the stock isa much more rapid grower than the graft
there will be a sudden upward contraction at the point
of union, or the opposite direction of contraction may
occur if the graft grows faster than the stock. This ir-
regularity in the trunk or main branches may not impair
the vitality of the tree, but it is always unsightly and
annoying.

It is a wise plan to avoid grafting as much as possible.
There are few orchards, however, in which it can be en-
tirely dispensed with. The most successful grafting is
that which disturbs the tree the least and which leaves it
the nearest like its original shape. The first rule to learn
in grafting large trees is this: Graft many and small
limbs. It is a good plan before cutting a tree to stand
at some distance from it and to decide carefully at what
distance from the body or from the center of the top the
main limbs should be grafted to insure a good top. Ifa
spread of ten feet each way from the center is decided
upon, let all the main branches be grafted at about that
distance. Figure 6 is a tolerable representation of this
practice.. Simply making the scions live is but a part of
the operation upon old trees. One must plan for the fu-
ture top of the tree. He must graft such limbs as should
make permanent factors in the top he is building, and
while he should avoid grafting too many limbs, he should
likewise avoid grafting too few. It should be borne in
mind that when a horizontal limb is grafted, the scion
will grow upwards, and the breadth of the tree will not
be much increased by subsequent growth. This is es-
pecially true of old trees. Trees ten years old, if prop-

GENERAL NOTES ON GRAFTING. AY

erly grafted, often overcome this fault and make good
horizontal growths. Ifa tree has been properly pruned,
nearly all the conspicuous branches should be grafted.
As a rule they should not be grafted where they exceed
an inch in diameter. Some scions should be set on side

Fig. 6.—A TREE PREPARED FOR TOP-GRAFTING,

branches of all the larger limbs, if the tree is large.
Long, pole-like limbs should always be avoided. The old
practice of grafting a few large stubs low down in the
largest crotches, has nothing to recommend it. Even
the plea of cheapness because fewer scions are set, is over-
balanced by the injury to the tree and length of time re-
quired to change the top. I have seen many cases of this

48 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

old style of grafting, and I think that in every case where
the tree was fifteen years or more old, bad results have
followed. In some cases trees have died. In others the
grower wisely concluded not to sacrifice all the large and
handsome branches which were not grafted, and the trees
soon grew up thick again on the old stock, and the scions
dwindled or perished. In other cases the whole top had

Fig. 7.—GRAFTING KNIFE,

to be grafted over again according to the newer methods.
The kind of grafting most likely to be practiced in the

orchard is that known ascleft grafting. The process is a
simple one. In May, just as the leaves are pushing out

vigorously, saw off the limb to be grafted where it is an
inch or Jess in diameter; trim the edges of the ‘‘stub”
smooth, and split it with a large knife, or a cleaver made

Fig. 8.—GRAFTING MALLET.
for the purpose. The best. implement for this purpose
can be made from an old flat file by any blacksmith.
Its shape is represented in figure 7. The curved cutting
portion should span about five inches. The handiest
mallet is made of a simple straight piece of hard wood,
about fifteen inches long and hung over the wrist by a
large loop of soft twine. This mallet is always in place
for use and it is not dropping from the tree.- It is shown
in figure 8. Split the “stubs” horizontally. If you

GENERAL NOTES ON GRAFTING. 49

split them perpendicularly, and both scions grow, you
will have one limb directly under another, which is al-
ways an inconvenient and ill-looking arrangement. The
cleft should not be more than four inches deep at the
most. The wedge of the knife is now inserted in the
center of the cleft, and a scion is set on each side of the
stub. When the scion is prepared ready for setting it
should comprise about three buds. The lower end is cut
wedge-shaped by slicing off each side of the scion with
an even, smooth cut. On one side of this wedge-shaped
portion should be left one of the buds. This outer edge
is commonly left thicker than the inner, 80 that it re-
ceives a firmer pressure in the stub. Figure 9 represents
a scion.

When the scion is set this bud will be deep down in
the side of the cleft in the stub, and will be covered with
wax, but being nearer the source of nourishment it will
be the most likely of any of the buds to grow, and it will
readily push through the wax. ‘The scion is set into the
cleft by exercising care that the inner surface of the bark
on the scion matches the inner surface of the bark on the
stub. A line between the bark and the wood may be ob-
served. This line on the scion, in other words, should
match this line on the stub. Figure 10 represents the
stub just after the scions are set. Wax the whole over
carefully and thoroughly. Do not leave any crack ex-
posed. Wax which is pretty hard, and which must be
worked and applied with the hands, is commonly best.
For several years I have made grafting wax after the fol-
lowing recipe, and I have found it perfectly satisfactory :
Two pounds of rosin, one pound of beeswax, one-half

50 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

pound of tallow. Melt the rosin and wax together in a
kettle, add the tallow, then pour a part of the melted
mixture into a pail of cold water. As soon as it begins
to harden, work with the hands until it gets nearly white.
Keep the‘remainder of the mixture warm until all has

Fig. 9.—A scron. Fig. 10.—8TUB WITH SCIONS
IN PLACE.

been worked over. Whenever the wax is handled the
hands should be greased with tallow.

Scions are secured by cutting the vigorous last year’s
growth. * They may be cut at any time during winter. If
cut in the fall it is not an easy matter to keep them in good
condition all winter. If xept too dry they will shrivel ;
if too wet they will sprout. I have had good success by
tying them in bundles two or three inches in diameter

TOP-GRAFTING OLD APPLE TREES. 51

and standing them half their length in moist sand in the
cellar. I have also kept them in good condition by stick-
ing them half their length into the ground about the
base of the tree from which they were cut. If scions are
cut in late winter or early spring, they can be kept better
because they do not have to be kept so long. It is a com-
mon notion that scions cut in cold weather will not grow,
but I have always had a contrary experience.

CHAPTER XIII.
TOP-GRAFTING OLD APPLE TREES.

Top-grafting large trees is at best a harsh and unnat-
ural process, and it should be practiced with caution. If
an old tree bears moderately good fruit, a grower should
consider well before top-grafting it. An apple below the
average in quality often makes good pies, sauce or dried
fruit. If the apples can be turned to any profitable use,
and the tree is twenty years old, it is doubtful if it will
pay to graft it. Much will depend on the thriftiness
of the tree. A man who feeds his orchard, and prunes
it regularly and judiciously, need have less hesitation
about top-grafting. Trees receiving such treatment will
stand a much greater chance of fully recovering from
the shock of grafting. Much also depends upon the
manner in which a tree is grafted. If a tree has been
properly pruned, nearly all the limbs may be grafted. If
it has not, many beside the grafted limbs will need to be
removed ; and if the tree is old, and especially if a little
feeble, it will be likely to suffer. A good grafter will try

52 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

to leave enough small brush in the center of the tree to
screen the trunk and large branches from the hot sun. I
have often known trees to be seriously injured by sun-
scald, after having been severely pruned. A tree which
will contain seven or eight stubs under the old system of
grafting, will contain thirty or forty under the newer
system. Two objections will at once be raised to this
method : as grafters charge by the piece, it is expensive ;
it makes the top too high, and renders the main branches
pole-like. To the first objection, I reply that no apple-
grower should hire a grafter ; he should be able to do the
grafting himself, or else his boys should doit. Every
farmer’s boy should learn to graft. Few occupations give
more pleasure or yield a greater reward. To convert a
wild and thorny tree into one bearing large and delicious
fruit is a wonderful and fascinating process. The sec-
ond objection is a more serious one. I have seen the
larger branches of top-gratted trees entirely leafless for
seven or eight feet, and crowned with a bush. Such
trees are of course a nuisance, but they are due to a
bungling grafter, not to the plan of grafting many limbs
and small ones. There are enough side limbs on the
average tree which can be grafted to correct this diffi-
culty. If there should not be side limbs, some of the
sprouts which start after the tree is grafted may be en-
couraged and grafted in a year or two. One must not
expect an old tree to have as good a shape after grafting
as before. It can sometimes be secured, but not often.

Old and long-neglected trees which are to be grafted,
may often be given a preparatory pruning for two or
three years with profit. Unnecessary limbs can be better

TOP-GRAFTING OLD APPLE TREES. 53

cut out before grafting than afterward; for after the
grafting is done, and so much of the top removed,
these limbs grow rapidly and soon show a marked increase
in diameter. So much of the tree top will be removed
in grafting, that the unnccessary limbs should not be cut
away for two or three years or more, if they are large.
It is not always an easy matter to prune a grafted tree
properly. The ungrafted limbs must be gradually re-
moved, and the grafts themselves must be trained. The
ungrafted limbs should be annually cut away in about
the extent to which the grafts grow, or a little more. All
suckers should be pulled off as they form during the sea-
son, unless there is noticed a tendency to sun-scald. The
suckers may then be needed to shade the trunk and
branches. I have known of a few cases in which nearly
all the ungrafted branches were taken off the second
year, without apparent injury to the tree, but I have
known of many more cases in which such treatment has
been ruinous. Improper pruning of top-grafted trees
often results in an abundance of flat-headed borers.
When the tree is weakened, borers attack it. -I have
several times observed the gradual weakening and final
death of large trees which were severely top-grafted. I
have so often seen ill results follow that I wish to dis-
courage the practice, unless all conditions are favorable.
I have often grafted old trees when I was confident that
they could never resist the operation, although their
owners would not believe it until too late. If the tree is
not perceptibly lessened in vigor, it is at least probable
that it will be made a sprawling and unsatisfactory
object.

54 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

CHAPTER XIV.
LONGEVITY OF APPLE TREES.

“‘Why are apple trees shorter lived than: they were
when I was a boy ?” asked an old New England farmer.
“*T know of orchards which were set before I was born,
and which are still in good condition, but my trees, set
forty years ago, begin to show signs of giving out.” The
causes of this difference in the longevity of fruit trees
are obviously three: the nature of the varieties planted,
the kind of culture given, and the increased severity of
the winters. 1. Nearly all the old orchards are com-
posed of seedling trees. Seodlings are hardier than most
of the improved varieties. Wostward, and especially on
the prairies, any particular veriety is commonly shorter
lived than it is in New England. It is probable that the
varieties which have originated and have been long grown °
eastward are not adapted to the West. 2. High cultiva-
tion, with consequent heavy crops, is a forcing process,
and no doubt tends to lessen the longevity of trees.
Trees which bear light crops of small apples approach
the wild state, and are not worn out so soon as highly
cultivated trees. High cultivation, judiciously applied,
is not to be discouraged, however, for a short life, with
an abundance of good fruit, is preferable to a long life
with less and inferior fruit. 3. As the country becomes
denuded of forests, the winter climate becomes more
rigorous. As a consequence, many varieties which were
formerly regarded as hardy are now destroyed. The

PICKING FRUIT.—WHEN TO PICK. 55

Baldwin is one of the first to suffer. The remedy lies
chiefly in growing windbreaks. Prairie climates are
especially destructive, and any natural protection for the
orchard should be eagerly sought.

CHAPTER XV.
PICKING FRUIT.—WHEN TO PICK.

I know of no pleasanter transition than that of turn-
ing from the elaborate stagings, ladders and fruit-pickers
often described in fruit books, to the simple and easy
methods of fruit harvesting practiced by successful grow-
ers. ‘There are three things essential to safe and rapid
apple picking : an ordinary light step-ladder, a couple of
half-bushel, round bottom, handled baskets, with a hook
on the handles, and a smart boy who is not afraid to
climb. ‘The ladder is the least essential article of the
three. If trees are properly pruned, they will allow a
man with a basket to enter the top. An ordinary iron
hook will serve to hang the basket on a limb while it is
being filled. Apple limbs are strong, and they will hold
a boy or man more safely than is generally supposed. As
a general thing, a boy is afraid to venture far, but a little
training will enable him to climb well. Nor is it essen-
tial that the boy should be exceedingly young and. light
in order to reach most of the apples on a high tree. It
is quickness and agility, rather than lightness, that make
a good apple picker. I know from experience that a
young man of twenty-five can be of more service in an

56 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

apple tree than any number of fruit-picking machines.
Professional grafters do not depend upon elaborate lad-
ders ; they climb. The fruit picker should do the same.
It may not be easy work, nor safe for fine shirts, but it is
rapid and successful, nevertheless.

When one basket is full it is handed down and another

Fig. 11.—PicKEr. Fig. 12.—Ptcker. Fig. 18.—H0oK.
one returned. A bag strapped on one’s back, in the
manner used for sowing grass seed, is usually a nuisance
in a tree, although 1t may be handy on a step-ladder.
The more one practices the more he will be surprised
with his ability to reach apples on the ends of limbs.
There will be some, however, which he cannot reach. If
there are no apples on the ground, nor any wheat or oat

PICKING FRUIT.—WHEN TO PICK. 57

stubble, these few apples may be shaken off with little
danger. Ifa fruit-picker is to be used at all, here is the
only place where it is necessary, in picking a few stray
apples which have escaped reach or notice. For this
purpose a cheap and simple picker can be made by bend-
ing a stiff wire into the form of a circle six inches in
diameter, with one side of the circle prolonged three
inches into a V-shaped projection. Upon this wire sew
a cloth bag a foot or so deep, and fasten it to a pole by
the end opposite the V-shaped extremity. This V-shaped
projection will serve as a corner in which to catch the
apple and pull it off, allowing it to fall into the bag. An
excellent picker, as represented in figure 11, can be made
from stiff wire by a tinner. The span across the top
should be about six inches, and the depth from eight to
ten inches. ‘The wires should not be more than a half
inch apart at their tips. The wires being more or less
flexible, the apple is apt to draw through them if they
are not close together. Care should also be taken to
have the implement made as light as possible. A bung-
ling mechanic will probably use too much solder. An-
other good picker is pictured in figure 12. It is pat-
ented. This implement is light, durable and pleasant to
handle. When an apple lies close to a limb, however, it
is much more easily removed by the former device than
by this. <A simple flattened hook with a thin, almost
cutting edge, secured on the end of a pole (figure 13) is
often handy for pulling off stray apples. This is the best
implement with which I am acquainted for thinning
apples. One of the most successful orchardists I know
makes two or three tours of his orchard every week in

58 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

July and August, and hooks off the wormy and ill-
formed apples. A drove of hogs follow him and devour
the applesand worms. I shall refer to this practice again,
in the discussion on the codlin moth. This practice of
thinning fruit is a profitable one, especially in the
instance of such heavy bearers as the Baldwin. If the
tours of the orchard are frequent, the work of thinning
is not burdensome.

WHEN TO PICK.

In general, it may be said that winter apples should be
picked when they are ripe. Ripeness is shown by the
color of the apples, and by the ease with which they part
from the tree. When sound apples begin to fall, they
are ready to pick. Apples keep longer when picked before
they are ripe, but such apples never possess the rich flavor
and the crispness of fully matured fruit. Sound apples
do not decay until they are over-ripe. Immature fruit
ripens slowly during the winter, and does not soon reach
the period of decay. It never ripens fully, however, and it
is therefore always inferior. It withers and becomes tough,

While mature fruit will decay sooner than immature
fruit, it is nevertheless much more preferable. Long-
keeping qualities are certainly inferior to good eating
qualities. Any treatment which retards the over-ripen-
ing of mature fruit will increase its long-keeping qualities.
Keeping the fruit in a cold place is the best ordinary pre-
ventive of decay. Fruits which are over-ripe when har-
vested have already entered upon the period of decompo-
sition, and they cannot be expected to keep long. There-
fore, avoid the extremes. I never knew Baldwins and _

PACKING APPLES. 59

Northern Spys to keep so well as when picked near the
middle of October, after half the leaves had fallen.
Professor Lazenby reports an experiment in picking Bald-
wins at different stages of maturity. Those picked early
kept long, but wilted. Those picked when fully ma-
tured kept well and were excellent in quality. Those
picked late kept poorly.

CHAPTER XVI.
PACKING APPLES.

It matters little how thoroughly the grower may have
cared for his trees and growing fruit, if he does not exer-
cise the same or even more scrupulous care in the hand-
ling and marketing of his crop he will fail to obtain a
profit. Care in harvesting and marketing is fully equiv-
alent, probably much more than equivalent, to all the
other labors of the year combined. Still, it is a patent
fault with our orchardists that this part of their business
is not studied closely.

Apples must be handled with care. ‘‘ Handle apples
as you would handle eggs,” is good advice. Do not shake
them from the tree. When a basket is handed down-
from the tree another is returned, while the apples in
the basket are sorted. The sorting is easily done by havy-
ing an empty basket at one hand into which the choice
apples are placed, while the culls are placed in a pile on
the ground. An experienced man. can sort rapidly and
accurately. The choice apples are commonly placed di-

60 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

rectly in the barrel. Only clean barrels should be used.
Old flour barrels, unless carefully washed and dried, will
usually impart a musty flavor to the fruit before mid-
winter, especially if the air in the storage cellar is moist.
The first apples which are put in market barrels should
be “‘ faced.” The facing consists in placing two or three
layers on the lower head with stems down—that is, with
stems pointing towards the head. Clean, bright apples
of ordinary size should be selected for this purpose. The
rest of the apples may be poured into the barrels. This
pouring, if properly done, will not injure the apples.
Eggs can be poured. Use a basket with a swinging
handle, one which can be lowered into the barrel and
turned while there, and hold the apples back with the
hand so that they will not pour out too rapidly. Two
or three times during the filling, shake the barrel gently
to settle the apples firmly. Face the upper head in the
same manner as the lower one. It is desirable not to
head up the barrel at once. Cover with boards to keep
out rain, and let the barrels stand open four or five days.
It is not always possible to cover the barrels, however, in
which case they may be headed up at once and turned
down on their sides. In this position they will shed
water. Thus far I have spoken of packing out of doors.
The best results are always secured under cover. A
cheap shed which will not leak is sufficient. It should
be erected in a cool and shady place, as on the north side
of a building. The apples can then be carted to the shed
in the baskets, just as they come from the tree, in a
spring wagon. If baskets cannot be had in sufficient
quantity, the apples can be emptied from the pickers’

PACKING APPLES. 61

baskets into small boxes in the wagon. Excellent boxes
for this purpose are empty grocer’s boxes which will hold
about a bushel, or the contents of two baskets, and still
not be.so full as to prevent other boxes being set on
them. A hole should be made in each end large enough
to admit the hand. Such boxes can be handled with
dispatch. From these the apples can be sorted into bar-
rels and the barrels can be headed up at leisure. It is
imperative that the apples should not rattle in the barrel
after it is headed. Apples shrink a little after they.are
barrelled. They will usually sweat, also. Therefore,
delay the heading up for some days. The barrel should
be rather more than full when the head is put in. If
the upper layer of apples is considerably bruised, no
harm will result, especially if the head is soft wood, so
that the juice is readily absorbed. It is better to jam
these apples severely than to allow those in the interior
to rattle. If the heading is done in a building, a lever
press of simple construction does good work, but it re-
quires two men, one to press and one to adjust the head.
A lever press is nothing more than a lever under a girt
with the barrel for a fulcrum. The ordinary screw press
is troublesome. It persists in twisting to one side as soon
as strong pressure is applied. ‘This may be remedied by
having the iron standards thick and stiff and by securing
a long set in which the screw shall work. If this set or
thread is four or five inches deep, and if the wooden
cross-bar in which it rests is correspondingly thick and
heavy and well secured to the iron standards, the press
should do good work. I have never seen such a press for
sale ; it must be made to order.

62 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE,

Great pains must be taken in the sorting. Few people
are aware of what constitutes a first-class apple. Such
an apple must rot be immature, over-ripe, wormy, or
otherwise injured in any part, scabby or bruised. Very
small apples from the interior of the tree are usually im-
mature. Large and highly colored apples are apt to be
wormy, over-ripe, or of poor quality. With some experi-
ence, one can be able to tell a first-class apple by its feel-
ing. First-class apples should not have their stems pulled
out. Second-class winter apples can.be put upon the
market at once for immediate consumption. :

Winter apples should be picked in cool weather, and
they should be handled on the shady side of the tree. A
detached apple will ripen very rapidly in the warm sun,
and its keeping qualities will be impaired. In order to
keep apples, bear in mind the fact that they must be
kept cool. If one has not a good apple cellar, he should
store them in a shed until cold weather, or in any cool
building which has windows opening to the northward
and none to the southward ; in short, put them anywhere
where they will keep cool. If the apples begin to assume
a yellowish cast, they are getting too ripe. An atmos-
phere may be too dry, but a decidedly moist one is equally
dangerous. Some cellars keep apples well, but most of
them do not. The fruit cellar should be deep, cool,
clean, well ventilated, and should have a northern expos-
ure. A cellar which is stoned up in a gravelly soil, with
a brick or gravel floor, should keep apples well. Keep
the north windows open until there is danger of freez-
ing. Shut them up on wet days. Water will freeze
before apples will. If a person has a good cellar for

PACKING APPLES. 63

keeping fruiv, vhe apples may be taken to it as soon as
they are picked. It is an excellent plan to store apples
on shallow shelves in cellars if one has the room and
does not care to barrel them for market until spring.
They can then be sorted at any time. Cider apples
should be left on the ground in piles. They will lose
some of their water and will make better cider. If they
freeze a little on top they will not be damaged.

If the house cellar will not keep apples well, or if the
quantity of app'es to store is large, a fruit cellar should
be built at some other place. Mr. Horace Rainey details
his experience in keeping apples for market at Columbia,
Tennessee, in the “‘Spirit of the Farm,” from which I
extract as follows: ‘In the fall of 1882 I excavated a
space eight feet deep, eight wide, and sixty feet long ;
this I walled up and arched over with a nine-inch wall
of brick. Over the arch I put a coat of cement, and
over this I placed all the earth from the excavation, and
at intervals in the arch of four feet I built small
brick chimneys, or ventilators, which came out above
the ground. I also made ventilators in each end. The
door I placed in tlie north end. The floor I also laid of
brick. The cellar being completed, the next question is
to properly store the apples in it so as to economize in
space.

“*T had made several hundred slat-boxes or crates, each
tc hoid one bushel. ‘These I carried to tle orchard and
left as many as necessary under each tree. Each picker
is provided with a small basket and a ladder, and is re-
quired to leave off his shoes or to wear rubbers ; to handle
the apples carefully, and to place them carefully, one at

64 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

a time, in the boxes. The boxes are hauled in spring-
wagons to the cellar, and placed one above the other up
to the top, leaving a narrow passage down the center, so
as to enable me with a lantern to examine their condition
at any time.

“The advantages of the slat-boxes are many; the
principal ones are thorough ventilation, economy in
space, and ease of handling ; and when ready for market,
I nail a few slats on the top, and the apples are ready
to ship. The boxes are much cheaper than barrels, and
if the apples are highly colored, they sell much better
than in barrels.

«The cellar being completed and filled, I watched the
experiment with a great deal of interest. I gathered the
apples from October 20th to November 10th, according
to the variety, and about December 15th I overhauled
them, and less than one per cent. were unfit for, market.
On February 1st I overhauled again, preparatory to
placing on the market. I found about two per cent.
unfit to ship, and this two per cent. was sold for more
than enough to pay the expense of overhauling. The
apples paid from $1 to $2.50 per box, according to vari-
ety, size, and color.

“The temperature of the cellar varied but slightly.
During the winter of 1882-3 the lowest was thirty-eight
degrees, and the highest was forty-seven degrees ; and
the past winter, which we all know was extremely severe,
the lowest was thirty-six degrees. * * * * Now,
after the second winter’s test, Iam glad to say that the
cellar has sustained its well-deserved reputation, for, up
to June 1st I had seven varieties in a good state of preser-

PACKING APPLES. 65

vation. * * * * It more than paid for itself the
first season. In addition to an apple-house, I use it dur-
ing the summer months for milk and butter, vegetables
and fresh meats.”

Apples can be buried, something after the manner of
potatoes, with good success, but they usually decay rap-
idly after removal from the pit. They usually keep well
if buried after they are barreled, the barrels being laid
on dry ground and covered deeply with straw. As win-
ter sets in, cover the straw with earth, using just enough
to prevent freezing. In cities apples are often placed
in a cold attic and allowed to freeze for safe keeping.
If they remain frozen until spring, and are then al-
lowed to thaw gradually by the natural rise in tempera-
ture, they will not be injured. It appears that all win-
ter varieties cannot be kept in this condition, however.
T have known apples to be frozen solid in the barrel, but
when placed in a cool cellar and not disturbed until the
frost had entirely left them, they came out as bright and
hard as ever, and kept as long as those of the same variety
which had not been frozen.

66 FIELD NOTES ON avPLin CULTURE,

CHAPTER XVII.

PROFITS IN APPLE CULTURE.—SHALL WE PLANT
MORE ORCHARDS?—LOSSES FROM THEFT.

There are several reasons why apple culture is not
oftener a source of profit, and these reasons fall under
two classes: errors in culture and errors in marketing.
However well adapted to apple growing the soils and sur-
roundings may be, the industry is bound to be a failure
unless uniform good culture is given the orchard. There
are many obstacles in the way of producing good and
marketable fruit, and the grower must know how to over-
come them. These obstacles are poor varieties, too many
varieties, poor cultivation, neglect and carelessness in
pruning, lack of thinning, insect enemies, etc. Every
effort must be made to secure fruit which is perfect in
shape and in surface, firm in texture, and free from
insects. But even good fruit will not demand a good
price if put upon the market in poor condition. It
must not only be sound, but it must be attractive. It is
safe to say that not one barrel in twenty which goes into
the markets of our large cities is properly packed. Peo-
ple must learn to sort their apples with great care before
putting them upon the market. They must learn to
pack them snugly, honestly and attractively.

Even in years of heavy crops, good apples, nicely packed,
hring good returns. This is especially the case if the
grower has established a demand for his fruit by care in
growing, handling and packing. Such ademand is easily
secured if under the grower’s name, or name and trade-

PROFITS IN APPLE CULTURE. 6%

mark, a superior and uniform quality of fruit is sold.
The following figures represent actual crop sales from
a large orchard: In 187%, the crop sold for $3 per
barrel; in 1878, $2.75 and $3; in 1879, $3; 1880,
$2, $2.50 and $3; 1881, $2.75 and $3.50; 1882, $3.
These figures do not include the culls and cider apples,
which were either sold to applicants from local markets
er were made into cider or vinegar. It will be observed
that the prices averaged about the same for each year.
These are not prices made to a few local customers, but
the crop was put upon the city market, where it com-
peted with other fruit. It was placed in the hands of
competent dealers, however, who were acquainted with
the merits of the fruit. The prices are for barrels hold-
ing two and three-quarter bushels. ‘This orchard is upon
land worth $60 an acre, and it will return more money
from apples at twenty-five cents a bushel than from
wheat at $1 a bushel, although if is in a good wheat
country. ‘‘ Leroy,” in a recent Philadelphia ‘‘ Press,”
‘makes the following comment upon a very ordinary apple
tree: ‘A prolific tree of salable apples brings much
more money from the ground it occupies than would
most farm crops. Ona medium sized tree thirty years
old the owner has every year sold eightto twelve or more
bushels of fruit. This year the crop was eleven bushels
and sold readily at fifty cents a bushel, or $5.50. Assum-
ing that the tree occupies fully four square rods of ground,
which it does not, here are $220 an acre for a single year’s
product. This is more than the land. itself is worth.
Really, this sum, after deducting a small amount for ex-
penses, represents the interest on the amount which an

68 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

acre of trees equally prolific and profitable would be
worth.”

In the present season (1884) of cheap fruits even good
fall apples, packed in the ordinary careless manner, have
brought remunerative prices. Hubbardstons have sold
in the Boston markets on an average of $1.50 a barrel net,
and Gravensteins have brought from $2 to $3. It is still
an open question how to bring the producer and the con-
sumer closer together. Most consumers are willing to
pay good prices for good fruit, no matter how great may
be the supply of inferior fruit. During the season of
1884 Hubbardston apples have retailed rapidly for $1 to
$1.50 per bushel, when the grower received $1.50 per
barrel for them, and the best Gravensteins have sold-all
along for $1.'75 to $2.75 and upwards per bushel. The
dealer, with less risk, makes a greater profit than the
grower.

In years like this prices are injured by the great quan-
tities of poor fruit put upon the market. It is time for
growers to understand that there are other ways of dis-
posing of apples advantageously than by lumping them
all off to the Boston, New York or Chicago market as
soon as they are picked. The markets of inland towns
are often more satisfactory for limited quantities than are
those of the great cities. It is safer to ship only the
best grade of green fruit and to make other grades into
cider, vinegar or jellies, or to evaporate them. The ad-
vent of evaporators has opened a new source of profit to
fruit growers. One bushel of apples will yield from four
to eight pounds of evaporated fruit, such as sold in job-
bing lots in our market all last winter for twelve and

SHALL WE PLANT MORE ORCHARDS ? 69

fifteen cents per pound. Under the most favorable cir-
cumstances one pound of the evaporated fruit will about
pay for the cost of evaporating a bushel. Moreover,
‘the skins and cores need not be wasted. A bushel will
give about three and a half pounds of skins and cores,
and these sell for two and a half and three cents a pound
for making into jellies.

Of ordinary apples from seven to twelve bushels are re-
quired for a barrel of cider. Wholesale dealers are now
selling cider in limited quantities at ten and twelve cents
pergallon. At present prices, cider apples certainly ought
to bring a fair return beyond the cost of manufacturing.
Cider vinegar, at retail, brings about a half more per gallon
than cider, and it is generally in fair demand, though in-
ferior vinegars seriously interfere with its sale. The
local demand for cider vinegar is usually good among
those who appreciate its superiority. Apple butter is
coming into the markets to some extent, and were it
manufactured in sufficient quantity to give certainty to a
market, it would, no doubt, soon come into general de-
mand at good prices.

SHALL WE PLANT MORE ORCHARDS ?

This is a perennial question, which presents itself
after every season of low prices in fruits, and one which
acts as a stumbling-block to the general farmer and fruit
grower alike. The impression somehow becomes current
that the prices rendered the grower from metropolitan
dealers in these years of great plenty should determine
the future supply of fruit. This is a fallacy which needs
correction.. The farmer is bound to be undeceived if he

70 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

anticipates a uniform success, one year with another,
from any system of husbandry. From this year’s mar-
kets alone the wheat farmer has more reason than the
fruit grower for anticipating an uncertain future, still I
doubt if many grain farmers will give up the growing of
wheat. The questions, whose answers should have most
weight in deciding the matter of planting, relate more to
the adaptability of the man to the business, of the soil to
the health and productiveness of trees, to market facili-
ties, etc., than to the state of the market in a single year.
It should be borne in mind that good fruit is nearly
always in good demand. :

The most complete failures I ever knew in fruit grow-
ing were those connected with men who had no native taste
for the occupation, or who attempted too much. While
fruit growing is not a difficult branch of husbandry to
follow, it nevertheless requires a vigilance and a certain
adroitness which are not commanded by all farmers, and
which are not readily adaptable to large estates. The
bungler and shiftless farmer are entirely out of place in
the orchard. Good fruit growers are nearly always good
observers ; they recognize and study insects, birds and
insidious plant diseases; they exercise great care in
handling and marketing their produce. A successful
orchard is commonly planted with much thought. Trees
are perennial ; they ought to last as long as their owner.
They cannot be cut down each autumn and a new crop
started the next year. It is the lack of a good founda-
tion, a thoughtful, well-pondered beginning, which ren-
ders half our orchards unsatisfactory. Almost any fruit
grower will tell you that he would have made money by

LO3SES FROM THEFT. val

laying a better foundation. The orchard which is set in
haste this year, will probably be excelled in ten years by
one which is thoughtfully planted, three years from now.
The fruit grower must be a man of method.

It was said twenty-five years ago that apples would not
be worth picking in ten years from that time, and there
is record of a farmer in Western New York who cut down
an orchard of ten acres because of that supposed fact.
This same man has since planted an orchard of twenty-
five acres, and is said to be getting profitable returns for
his land and labor. It is extravagant to suppose that
the supply of apples can exceed the demand in this coun-
try. The country is settling up much faster than orchards
are being grown, and there are large portions of the coun-
try in which apples can never be grown, but where they
will always be used.

LOSSES FROM THEFT.

In some places more fruit is lost from theft than
from the combined depredations of injurious insects. It
is a trouble, also, which is exceedingly difficult to man-
age. So long as parents neglect to teach that petty lar-
ceny of fruit is no less a theft than taking a man’s
money, so long will the trouble continue. There are
always some families in the neighborhood in which such
teaching is never heard. These families are commonly
the ones who do not attend the meetings of fruit grow-
ers, who do not attend church, and who do not take a
good paper. It is therefore hard to reach them. It is
comparatively easy to check a spirit of pilfering when
the offender can be brought to hear mild discussions or

2 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

teachings upon the subject, or when he can be induced
to read good agricultural papers. As such offenders can-
not be made to go to farmers’ meetings or to other public
gatherings, however, I have thought that it might be an
experiment worth trying to send to them agricultural
papers regularly. Let them understand how much of
work and of difficulty there is in growing crops, what
the rights of the farmer are; in short, get them inter-
ested in a progressive agriculture, and it appears to me
that some, at least,-would be influenced for the better.
For other reasons, also, ] have sometimes thought thet
it would pay an intelligent community to circulate agri-
cultural papers among the poor and illiterate families,
The attitude of a grower towards all with whom he
may come in contact, will largely determine the extent
to which his fruit and vegetables will be pilfered. A
man who is universally disliked may expect to suffer. I
have often observed that college students, by common
consent, do not pilfer from a man who is always kind
and free-hearted, while their attitude towards a stingy or
disagreeable man is quite the opposite. I once knew a
man who-placed a great picket fence about his orchard
and who kept armed men init all night, and I also knew
many idlers who experienced the keenest delight in get-
ting into that orchard. A neighbor who took no precau-
tions lost less fruit. In a neighboring community the
fruit growers posted in public places the law concerning
trespass, and they reported good success from the _prac-
tice. It appears to me that there is no subject more
worthy of occasional discussion in farmers’ clubs, in the
local paper, in the pulpit, in the Sunday school, than

WINTER PREPARATIONS. "3

this. It is not a subject which will bear much malice
or personal rebuke. It must be discussed in a mild and
thoughtful manner.

VHAPTER XVIII.
WINTER PREPARATIONS.

The orchard should not be neglected as soon as the
fruit is harvested. During winter, trees are exposed to
wind, ice, water, rabbits and mice. Weak or cracked
branches are apt to be broken down by wind and ice.
All crotches which show a disposition to split should be
tied or bolted together. Weak and injured limbs should
be tied up or cut off. Small and weak trees should be
staked.

During thaws, water will settle in the hollows. See to
it that there are no such hollows about the trees. Level
culture is the best safeguard against winter and spring
injury from water. Where hollows occur, either fill
them up, or provide a way for the water to escape.

If the orchard and surrounding fields are kept clear of
brush heaps and other rubbish, rabbits will not make
much trouble. Slovenly fence rows afford good winter-
ing places for rabbits. Unless the snow drifts into the
branches, these pests will not injure large trees. A good
dog is a good remedy for rabbits, but I should prefer to
employ other means of getting rid of them, and dispense
with the dog altogether. I have melted sulphur and
poured it over small pieces of cloth, which were fastened.

74. FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

to sticks and placed promiscuously through the orchard,
and rabbits did not annoy me. Blood and various ani-
mal substances smeared on the trees will keep rabbits
away. .

Mice are a worse evil than rabbits. Their work is not
often discovered until too late to be avoided. Clean cul-
ture is a good preventive of injuries by mice. Mice de-
light in high grass, which bends under the snow, and in
all litter which accumulates about the tree. They are
especially fond of corn shocks about trees. If a loose
mulch remains about the tree, they will be likely to dis-
cover it. Therefore, keep the base of the tree clean.
Remove all grass and litter, or cover it up with soil and
pack it down firmly. In Northern New England, where
the paper birch grows abundantly, it is a favorite practice
to peel strips of bark two feet long and place them about
the trees. This bark soon curls up tightly about the
tree, and protects it.

INJURIOUS INSECTS. 05

CHAPTER XIX.
INJURIOUS INSECTS.

Numerous insects prey upon the apple orchard. In
fact, Professor Lintner catalogues one hundred and sev-
enty-six such pests. Fortunately, comparatively few of
these are yet seriously troublesome, and it is not probable
that many more will become pests over any great extent
of territory. There are more species of injurious insects
apparent now than there were a half century ago. This
is due in part to the introduction of insects from the Old
World, and in part to the taking on of new habits by
native insects. The disagreeable apple maggot, which
has attracted so much attention of late, was first known
as breeding on the wild hawthorns, but it took on a new
habit of attacking cultivated apples, and it has thrived
upon its new diet.

In order to combat insect enemies the orchardist must
acquaint himself with the general natural history of in-
sects, their common habits and the best means of destroy-
ing them. He must read and study. He must also be
vigilant. He should seek for preventives in preference
to remedies. A clean orchard is necessary. Keep down
weeds and remove rubbish and do not allow the fence-
rows to grow up with promiscuous vegetation.

He must destroy the wild food plants of insects. This
is a subject which has a very important bearing on fruit
growing, and one which, it appears to me, does not re-
ceive the attention it deserves. The continued prevalence
of injurious insects in some localities where there has.

76 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

been a general concert of action to destroy them, can be
accounted for in no other way than by supposing that
they breed on wild plants. Many orchardists have found
that a hawthorn hedge has been an expensive luxury by
breeding apple tree borers and other insects. Now that
the disgusting apple raaggot has spread itself over so wide
an extent of country, it becomes important that we de-
stroy the wild hawthorns. To those who love the wild
plants which decorate our copses and tangles, this de-
struction of hawthorns and other bushes will come as a
hardship ; but it is to be remembered that utility must
come before beauty. Moreover, those who admire the
hawthorns can plant them and keep off the insects.
The wild crab breeds the Codlin Moth. The wild cherry.
is perhaps the favorite food plant of the destructive Tent
Caterpillar.

Not only do some wild plants breed orchard insects, but ©
they are not infrequently the means of causing little
known insects to multiply so rapidly as to take on new
habits and overrun the farm. I have in mind a pain-
ful instance. In Western’ Michigan a swamp of wild
roses bred the rose chafer. The insects were noticed by
residents in the vicinity for some years, it is said. The
insects multiplied to such an extent that the swamps
could no longer hold them, and they overran small fruits
and orchards for miles about in the most destructive man-
ner. Over a considerable area these insects have been
the mosi serious of orchard pests for some years.

Information concerning insects is now easily obtained.
The scope of these notes allows me to discuss only the
most injurious pests, the Borers and the Codlin Moth.

BORERS. “99

CHAPTER XX.
BORERS,

An attack of borers is to be suspected as soon as a tree
begins to show a gradual diminution of vigor. If borers
are present, one will discover little masses of chips pushed
out from small holes about the base or along the trunk of
apple, pear and quince trees, or wax at the base of peach
trees, or he will observe dead and discolored patches on
the bark. The damage done by borers is so permanent

Fig. 14.
BEETLE OF ROUND-HEADED BORER. THE ROUND-HEADED BORER.

care to prevent an attack. Neatness about the trees will
enable the grower to discover an attack before it has done
great damage. A wash made after the following recipe,
and applied to the tree with a broom or brush, is a general
preventive of attacks from borers: Water, one gallon ; soft
soap, one quart ; crude carbolic acid, about one pint.
ROUND-HEADED APPLE TREE BORER.

This insect (Saperda candida) commonly begins its work
about the base of the apple, pear or quince tree, although
it is occasionally found in the branches. Its presence is
indicated, especially after the first year, by the chips which

%8 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

are pushed from its burrows. The larva or grub lives three
years. When full grown (figure 15) it is about an inch
long, nearly cylindrical, whitish or often tinged with
yellow. The pretty brown and white striped parent
beetle (figure 14) is commonly nocturnal in its habits,
and is therefore seldom seen by the casual observer.

Tf one would know the whole life history of this insect,
he will be obliged to watch it three years, and to follow
it from an egz laid on the bark, through a tiny opening
into the sapwood, through a gradually enlarging channel
tending inwards and upwards, and finally reaching its
termination just beneath the bark. There the insect
would be at the end of nearly three years, a motionless
pupa, wrapped in a cocoon of its own chips. During the
first year the grub works in the soft sapwood, just under-
neath the bark, but about the beginning of its second
year it enters the hard wood. Sometimes, however, the
tunnel is nearly superficial for its whole length. During
two winters the insect remains in the tree as a grub, but
before the third winter, it has changed into a pupa, and
lies in its cocoon until tne following spring, when it be-
comes a beetle. The pupa sometimes transforms into a
beetle before warm weather appears, and the beetle will
then lie in the burrow until awakened by the warmth of
May or June. It then gnaws a smooth, round hole
through the bark, and escapes at night. Evidently
aware of the ill repute in which it is held, the beetle
hides itself during the day, and at night flies about
the orchard, bent upon mischief. It is occasionally
met with in the daytime. All through June and July
it lingers about the orchard, but before the summer

BORERS. "9

is over it is dead. Before its final departure, however,
it has made an ample record. The female has laid her
eggs in the crevices of the bark, usually about the base of
the apple tree or pear tree or the quince bush. If culti-
vated fruit trees are not abundant, she has probably
sought out their nearest relatives, the Mountain Ash, the
June berry and the wild thorns. By early fall, perhaps
as éarly as July, the eggs have hatched, and the young
legless grubs have entered upon their work of destruc-
tion. It sometimes happens that the tree does not show
strong signs of debility for a couple of years or more. In
the meantime, it may have been extensively channelled,
and limbs an inch and less in diameter may have been
tunnelled. Finally, the tree begins to die, or a strong
wind breaks it down. When a tree is thus past recovery,
it should be burned. Short pieces of limbs may be put
into a box, covered with a wire screen, and if the larve
are well matured, the striped beetles may be secuied. In
the Eastern States this borer is abundant. It has been
my observation that in Michigan and westward it is less
common.

PREVENTIVES.

Attacks of borers can be prevented by a liberal use of
the carbolic soap wash. The wash should be applied early
in June and again near the last of the month, or early in
July. All shreds of rough bark should be removed before
the wash is applied. Especial care should be exercised to
make a thorough application about the crown of the tree.

A small mound of ashes or lime, placed about the base
of the tree in spring, is an old preventive; but as the

80 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

beetle sometimes lays its eggs on the upper trunk or
branches, it is not to be relied upon.

Tying heavy brown paper about the base of the tree
for a distance of two or three feet above the ground, and
smearing the paper with coal tar is often recommended.

REMEDIES.

When the chips are discovered, procure a flexible wire,
or peel the bark from a small twig and thrust it into the
hole. A wire which is setinto a handle will be found
convenient. A peculiar pressure will tell you when you
have struck the grub. When the grub has once reached
the hard wood, it is a barbarous practice to whittle it
out with a jackknife. The grubs are easily killed during
the first year after they begin work, especially in the fall.
During that time they work just underneath the bark,
eating out irregular burrows as large as a half-dollar. If
more than one borer should attack the tree, it may be
well-nigh girdled the first year. Before the chips of the
borer appear, a drop of brown sap may be seen exuding
from each hole. One can readily see just where the
young borer is, and can kill it by using the point of
a knife.

Woodpeckers often destroy many borers while the grub
is working just under the bark. I have frequently seen
them digging out the borers in winter.

The beetles secrete themselves in the tree during the
day, and they may be jarred down upon sheets in the
manner of catching curculios. They are not attracted by
lights at night to any extent.

N. 8. Smith, Buffalo, N. Y., published a remedy nearly

BORERS. 81

thirty years ago, and I transcribe it with the reeommend-
ation that if used it be done cautiously : ‘‘ Make a con-
cave mound of mellow earth around the tree, rising about
six inches above the work of the insects. ‘Thoroughly
saturate this mound with a strong salt brine, twice at an
interval of four weeks, at any time of the year when the
ground is not frozen. Stale beef or pork brine in its full
strength is just the thing. The mound of earth holds
the liquid in suspension round the tree until, by capillary
attraction, it is carried into the holes and borrows’ of the
insect, where the salt is sure destruction to this ravaging
and pestilent enemy. Vary the quantity of the dose with
the size of the tree. Be cautious with small trees. Old,
large trees, three feet round, may have a pailful at a time.
I have revived trees by this application from apparent
death. Apple trees thirty years old, with their trunks
perforated very badly, are now perfectly healthy, and
their wounds are healing over.”

A correspondent of the ‘‘ Horticulturist,” 1846, rec-
ommends injecting a solution of potash into the holes of
the borer by means of a small syringe. Two pounds of
potash is to be dissolved in a gallon of water.

A small gouge and a mallet are often used, the wound
which is made by the gouge being securely waxed over.
This harsh remedy is to be employed only when the grub
has burrowed far into the wood, and where it is impossi-
ble to reach it with the wire or twig.

SPOTTED BORER (Saperda cretata).

This (figure 16) is closely allied to the preceding, and
in its habits is scarcely to be distinguished from that

\

82 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

insect. It is not generally known. On account of its
close resemblance to the Round-headed Borer it has
probably been overlooked. It has been observed by Mr.
H. Osborn in Iowa, and by Professor A. J. Cook in Mich-
igan. Professor Cook’s description of the insect is here
quoted :

“* Saperda cretata has hardly a mention in our current
literature on economic entomology, and yet I find that in
Central Michigan it is quite as common and destructive as
Saperdacandida, * * * * This beetle, like Saperda
candida, is from three-fourths to seven-eighths of an inch
long, and brown, marked with white,
though the white is not so prominent,
and, instead of white lines, it is only
4 represented by lines across the thorax
" and white spots on each elytra or wing
cover, one in the middle, notched in
! both ends, and one near the tip, notch-

Fig. 16.—sarrrpa ed or crescent-shaped on the inner

ar posterior angle. The head, antenne
and legs are all brown, while a broad, brown central stripe
extends along the cntire length of the ventral or under
surface of the thorax and abdomen. In Saperda candida
the head is striped above on each side with white, while
the antenne, legs and entire under surface are white.
The cylindrical, footless larva and the pupa are almost
entirely alike in both species, as are also the habits. The
eggs are laid in June on the trunk and main branches of
apple trees, wild crab-apples, June berry and wild thorn.”

Four or five years ago Mr. Osborn wrote as follows re-
garding the habits of the Spotted Borer :

BORERS. 83

*¢ The eggs are evidently laid in pairs, half an inch or
more apart along the branch, the larve of each pair, upon
hatching, working in opposite directions around the
branch, at first just beneath the bark, but afterward
(probably after the first year) ontering the hard wood.”

The preventives and remedies recommended for the
Round-headed Borer are to be used for this insect.

FLAT-HEADED BORER (Chrysobothres femorata).

The presence of this borer is usually indicated by
dark and dead patches on the bark of apple, pear and
peach trees. It is an insect no less pernicious than
the old Saperda. The grub, with its cnormonsly flat-
tened anterior, usually burrows just underneath the bark,
although it occasionally enters
the hard wood. Its tunnels are
flattened, and by this character
are at once distinguished from
those of the Round-headed Borer.
The workofthisborertellssooner __ :

5 : Fig. 17. Fig. 18.—Fuat-
upon the tree, and in weakexed yyy prerue, HEADED BORER,
trees it is more fatal, than that
of the other insect. It usually attacks trees upon
the south side, or on the side towards the prevailing
winds, or in other places where injuries are apt to occur.
It nearly always attacks trees which are weakened, such
as those recently transplanted or top-grafted. Newly set
treos should therefore be watched closely. ‘The eggs of
the Chrysobothris are laid on the bark from early June
until August. The young grub eats through the bark
and matures rapidly, for the next spring it transforms

84 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.
\
into a compact and shining dark beetle, as represented in

figure 17. These beetles have a coppery lustre under-
neath, and I have heard them called ‘‘ copper bottoms.”
They vary in size. They are commonly about three-
fourths of an inch long. In the Middle and Western
States this insect is abundant.

Dr. Asa Fitch first described the Flat-headed Borer in
1856 as attacking apple trees. Its appearance in apple
trees was at that time so recent that he could not obtain
much information concerning it. The insect had long
been known as attacking oaks, and it was probably the
destruction of these timber trees which caused it to
attack the apple tree. As late as Flint’s edition of Harris’
Injurious Insects (1862) it was not known to attack apple
trees in Massachusetts, although it was not uncommon
on oaks, and it had been found ‘‘ upon and under the
bark of peach trees.”

PREVENTIVES.

The soap wash recommended for the Round-headed
Borer is equally effective here.

I believe that tle best preventives of the attacks of the
Flat-headed Borer are tidiness about the orchard and
good cultivation. I have observed that the borer nearly
always attacks neglected trees. Those which have stood
in grass for some years, and which have not been prop-
erly pruned, are especially able to attack. A smooth,
clean, tidy bark is commonly an indication of thriftiness,
and borers do not attuck it. If the trunk of the tree
crooks abruptly to the northward, the sun beats upon
the more exposed point and produces an enfeebled condi-

BORERS. 85

tion. At such points, or in other weak places, the borers
are nearly always found. The majority of all the trees
which I have known to be infested with these borers had
crooked trunks.

REMEDIES,

The Flat-headed Borer is easily destroyed by crushing
after the dead bark is removed. ‘The bark, being dead,
is of no more use to the tree, and it had better be cut off;
otherwise it soon becomes loose, and affords a hiding-
place for insects. If the denuded surface is large, it
should be protected by wax or by cow dung, tied on with
cloths. Newly-set trees are soon ruined by an attack,
and they should be examined every month from July to
October.

CO. Baker, in ‘‘ Kansas Farmer,” recommends the use
of kerosene oil, freely pourcd on the bark, as a remedy
for borers.

86 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE CODLIN MOTH.

The pretty little moth (Carpocapsa pomonella), repre-
sented at natural size in figure 19, is the parent of the
apple worm. It is a European insect,
introduced into this country in the early &
put of this century. Very few apple
growers are acquainted with the moth, fig. 19.—cop-
as it flies at night. The outer wings are ™ MOT.
marked with irregular and ill-defined transverse streaks
of gray and brown, and on the end they bear a brown,
bronze-streaked spot. The inner wings and abdomen
are light yellowish brown. The moth flies with its
body in a nearly perpendicular position. There are
many moths or “millers,” which, to the unpracticed
eye, closely resemble this, and which are confounded
with it. Hence arise the erroneous statements that
the codlin moths are attracted by lights, and that they
have been captured in great quantities in preparations of
sweetened water, etc.

The moth makes its appearance about the time that
the apple blossoms appear. A moth lays about fifty eggs,
according to Mr. Saunders. A single egg is laid in the
“* blossom end” of the young apple, and in about a week
it hatches, and the young larva eats its way into the
apple. In three or four weeks the larva is full grown, and
it leaves the apple to find a hiding place under the rough
bark, where it may spin its cocoon and make the wonder-
ful transformation into a moth. The second moth of

BORERS. 87

the season—the second brood—repeats the operation of
the first one, and the second brood of larve is hatched.
The second larve do not transform into moths until the
following spring. Now, it so happens that all moths do
not appear at the same time in spring, so that there is a
succession of Jarvas in each brood. This accounts for
the fact that on the same day one may find larve of all
sizes.

PREVENTIVE.

The only preventive with which I am acquainted is a
systematic concert of action on the part of all who grow
apples tv destroy the insects. In fact, it is almost use-
less, or certainly discouraging, to make war upon any
insect nuisance if one’s neighbors persist in making no
effort in the same direction. This prevention is rather
in the nature of a remedy, however.

REMEDIES.

As there is no method of trapping the moth, we must
confine our remedies to the worm or larva. The old
remedy is to avail ourselves of: the opportunity afforded
when the larva leaves the apple and rolls np in its cocoon.
Remove the rough bark, as recommended on page 44,
and place a strip of woolen cloth, four or five inches wide,
about the trunk. Under this cloth the insects will hide.
In warm weather the transformation from the larva to ‘
the moth will take place in nine days; in cooler weather
the time varies to fifteen days. The bands should be put
on early in June, and during warm weather they should
be examined about every eight days. Many of the last

88 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CUTTURE.

brood will be taken to the cellar with the apples, and
they will hibernate in crevices there. I have found them
in great numbers under the hoops and between the staves
of apple barrels in the cellar. In spring the transforma-
tion takes place and the moths escape through the win-
dows. It is therefore very important that the cellar
windows and doors should be provided with fine wire
screens. Upon these screens the moths can be killed as
they endeavor to escape.

The greater number of the worms leave the fruit before
it falls. Hogs do not destroy them in quantity, therefore,
unless the apples have vrey recently fallen. Under the
discussion on picking fruit, page 57, I have referred to a
convenient method of thinning apples by means of a sharp
hook (figure 13). If hogs run in the orchard they will
soon learn to follow the operator and pick up the apples
as soon as they fall. Inasmuch as thinning is a necessity
to profitable results in most cases, it becomes an econom-
ical method of destroying the apple worm. If this prac-
tice were generally pursued in connection with the appli-
cation of bands, and the use of the following remedy, I
am confident that this pest would soon be lessened.

A remedy proposed of late is to syringe the trees with
a mixture of Paris green and water, very early in the
season, while the young apples stand erect. The poison
lodges in the ‘‘ blossom end” and destroys the first brood
of worms. Later, when the apples turn downward, the
poison is washed out by the rains. This remedy was
proposed, and its entire success demonstrated, by Pro-
fessor A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural College.
A tablespoonful of poison to a ga'lon of water is sufficient.

INDEX.

Age for Planting -..--...-.---- 23
Alexander ----------------- 20, 21
Apple Butter__.........-.----- 69
Atmospheric Drainage --.--- 10, 11
BeldWin-coscsessesses 19, 20, 55
Belmont 7205S eee es 21
6D) Davis - assesses cseeseewens, 20
Bolts in Trees__--.------------ 42
BOLreise sews wacce asweseesesisce VW
Broken Trees ----------------- 41
Carpacapsa Pomonella ---.---- 85
Cellarssncosuceuevessciweseeyes 63
Cheap Trees ._..:.-.---------- 22
Chenango. esesccccsessscceeess 20
Chryscbothris Femorata- ------ 83
CidOh: 28. seme seasons. 69
CARDS ecssncaenteadsaacicaa memes 21
Crops for Orchard.-----..--.-- 25
Crotches. 22 ass0cssccscccenecse. 41
Coddlin Moth---.---.-----.--- 85
Cultureé:..cs.ccsccrccescs
Distances

Drainage

Duchess of Oldcnbargh ------- 20
DCP csdesetasesteteuksecwe aks 21
Early Harvest...-.------------ 20
Marly JOC casccetesdseesccianes 21
English Sweet_--..-.-.-------- 21
Esopus Spitzenburgh- --------- 21
Evaporated Fruit -.-.-.------- 68
Fallawater

Fall Pippin ----

PPI GG oe csuctommnseecen
Fertilizers

Flat-headed Borer -..--..----- 83
Forms of Trees .-------------- 36

(39)

Garden Royal ----.----

Girdled trees__....-.-.-.
Golden Russet
GTaRIN ed cee aeseecsccwesaes
Grafting Wax__...------------
Grayenstein

Hardiness --------------

Hawley: cecseses: sere. fon
Hawthomnden ...--..-.--------
Heading In w2s2-2-5--2----2-4-
Heads, High or Low ---.-----_- 3
Hubbardston_--.-.....- 20, 21, 68
ELyslOp eects nie cceeee eee 21
INS6CU8 ssc. tees ecaices cases (6)
Jersey Sweet .....--------- 20, 21
Jonathan: 222o2esseecesenes 20, 21
Keeping Fruit -....-..----- 58, 62
Keswick Codlin .---.---------- 21
DG eee eee Pree eee 20
Ladder

Lady Apple-

Limber Twig

Longevity

Lowell

Maiden’s Blush -..------------ 20
Mann cc osceceoastescssescees 3 20
Manures: ccceciccesxwccce sce cds 28
M@lONY 2 weenie 2cccsseheceseade 21
MICO! 23 eds hee Ste aa ele as 74
OGY cock wicduin dadebeeea eke 21
Mulch svssscse2sdeewreece ccs 32
Nitkajacls : .scscecccestisee 20
Northern Spy ---------- 14, 20, 21

90 INDEX.
Ohio Nonpareil..-.-----.------ 20 | Snow Apple
Oldenburgh....-....---------- 20 | Sod .--..--_-.-----
PackiMpe os202 oe eee eevee sees 59 Sar
Peck’s Pleasant .-....-..------ 20) stark =
Bias ie eT ey pee et ee 55 Summer Rose--
Planting...--022----e5es0- 18,16 | gwoar
PIOWING: . cccecceceawesseuteses 24
POMME WG concn cauesxcneesen 21 Bibat HOME
Porter --.---------+-+----+---- 20 | Talman Sweet ....----.------- 20
Presses .---..----------------- Gh WEEE: ee te WL
Primate -_--------------------- 20) Tillage ........--2--2--- 25, 28, 81
Productiveness........-------- 19! Time for Planting._........... 16
Profits -----------+------------ 66 | Tompkins King. -._.__- -. 14, 20
Pruning ---------------------- 33 WrainiNg’ qs. sods eeeek eesewe 39
Rabbit. oss-uieesexe os ekiaeieces "3 Transeeuilens <e ---- 2b
Red Astrachan.--..-..-.----.- 20 Nir ee Sue ; ---- 88
Red Canada......._......----- 99 | Twenty Ounce ----..---------- 20
Repairing .--.-..------------- 39 | Vandevere --.---------------- 20
Rhode Island Greening'_-14, 20, Varieties

21, 88 | Vinegar_...--.-----.----------
Roxbury Russet.--.------------ 20
Round-headed Borer -.-.------ TC | Wagener=...2-scscccnaeececces 21
Russian Apples --.------------ QL | Wash. 2-22sscsesesceseecescess rid
St. Lawrence-----.------------
Saperda Candida
Saperda Cretata_....-.--------
Scraping .----.---------------
Setting .-..---.------------
Shiawassee -.-..----------- 20, 21} Yellow Bellefleur ----.-...---- 21
Smith’s Cider ----.------------ 20 | Yellow Newtown Pippin --..-- 21

SENT FREE ON APPLICATION.

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Containing 116 8vo pages, profusely illustrated, and giving
full descriptions of nearly 600 works on the following subjects:

FarM AND GARDEN,
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ANGLING AND FISHING,
BoaTING, CANOEING, AND SAILING,
FrieLp Sports AND NaTuRAL History,
HuntTine, SHoortine, Etc.,
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LanpscaPE GARDENING,
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Mushrooms. How to Grow Them.
For home use fresh Mushrooms are a delicious, highly nutritious and
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The whole subject is treated in detail, minutely and plainly, as only a
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Allen’s New American Farm Book.

The very best work on the subject ; comprising all that can be con-
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Henderson's Gardening for Profit.
By Peter Henderson. New edition. Entirely rewritten and greatly
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The successful experience of the author for more than thirty years,
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Fuller’s Practical Forestry.

A Treatise on the Propagation, Planting, and Cultivation, with a de-
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The Dairyman’s Manual.

Truck Farming at the South.
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Harris on the Pig.
New edition. Revised and enlarged by the author. The points of the
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Barry's Fruit Garden.
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The Propagation of Plants,
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White's Cranberry Culture,
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Herbert's Hints to Horse-Keepers,

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Harris's Talks on Manures,
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Heinrich’s Window Flower Garden.
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How to Plant and What to Do with the Crops.
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Husmann’s American Grape-Growing and Wine-Making.
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The Scientific Angler.
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Keeping Oxe Cow.
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Law's Veterinary Adviser
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Guenon’s Treatise on Milch Cows.
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Thos, J. Hand, Secretary of the American Jersey Cattle Club. With
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The Cider Maker’s Handbook.
A complete pales for making and keeping pure cider. By J. M. Trow-
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Long’s Ornamental Gardening for Americans.
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By Elias A. Long. Landscape Architect. Ilustrated. Cloth, cen

ook ever published. Cloth, 12mo. -........----.--------------- 2.00

Stewart's Feeding Animals,
By Elliot W. Stewart. A new and valuable practical work upon the
laws of animal growth, specially applied to the rearing and feeding
horses, cattle, diary cows, sheep and swine. Jilustrated. Cloth, as

How to Co-operate.
A Manual for Co-operators. By Herbert Myrick. This book describes
the how rather than the wherefore of co-operation. In other words it
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, * . ry Ly
Batty’s Practical Taxidermy and Home Decoration.
By Joseph H. Batty, taxidermist for the government surveys and
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, : 7

Stewart's Irrigation for the Farm, Garden, and Orchard.
New and Enlarged Edition. This work is offered to those American
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Cloth, 12mo 1.50

Johnson's How Crops Grow.
New Kuition, entirely rewritten. A Treatise on the Chemical Compo-
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their structure, and modes of development and growth ; of the com-
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soil. The book is an invaluable one to all real students of agricul-
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Samuel W. Johnson, of Yale College. Cloth, 12mo_.-..--..... » 2,00

|

Johnson's How Crops Feed. .
A treatise on the Atmosphere and the Soil, as related in the Nutrition
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Warington’s Chemistry of the Farm.
Treating with the utmost clearness and conciseness, and in the most
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and providing a welcome manual for those, who, while not having
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Warington, F. ©. 8. Cloth, 12mo.......-------.--------------+ 1.00

Hampshire. Cloth, 12mo.-..-..-.--.---------------------+----

Hunter and Trapper.
The best modes of Hunting and Trapping are fully explained, and
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The American Merino. For Wool or for Mutton.
A practical and most valuable work on the selection, care, breeding
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Armatage’s Every Man His Own Horse Doctor.
By Prof. George Armatage, M. R.C. V.S. A valuable and compre-
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Dadd’s Modern Horse Doctor.

Containing Practical Observations on the Causes, Nature, and Treat-
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ractice, for Preservation and Restoration of Health. Illustrated.
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The Family Horse.

WMO wc seme cinesceiccceagesoseescceosecce bets cuceseacteepseaicnts) 1.00

Sander’s Horse Breeding.
Being the general principles of Heredity applied to the Business of
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Foals. ‘The book embraces all that the breeder should know in regard
to the selection of stock, management of the stallion, brood mare, and
foal, and treatment of diseases peculiar to breeding animals. B “J.
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Coburn’s Swine Husbandry.
New, revised and enlarged edition. The Breeding, Rearing and
Management of Swine, and the Prevention and Treatment of their
Diseases. It is the fullest and freshest compendium relating to Swine
Breeding yet offered. By F. D. Coburn. Cloth, 12mo-........ 1%

Dadd’s American Cattle Doctor.
By freones H. Dadd, M. D., Veterinary Practitioner. To help every
man to be his own cattle-doctor; giving the necessary information
for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep,
and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable infor-
mation on farm and dairy management, Cloth, 12mo.....---... 1,50

Silos, Ensilage, and Silage.
A practical treatise on the Ensilage of Fodder Corn, Containing the
most recent and authentic information on this important subject, by
Manly Miles, M.D., F.R.M.8. Illustrated, Cloth 12mo----.-.- 50

Broom Corn and Brooms.
A Treatise on Raising Broom-Corn and Making Brooms on a small or
Large Scale. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth cover-..-.---- pecewes 50

American Bird Fancier.

’ Or how to breed, rear, and care for Song and Domestic Birds. This
valuable and important little work for all who are interested in the
keeping of Song Birds, has been revised and enlarged, and is now a
complete manual upon the subject. All who own valuable birds, or
wish to do so, will find the new Fancier indispensable. New, revised
and enlarged edition. By D. J. Browne, and Dr. Fuller Walker, Ilus-
trated, papery COVer--.--------- 2-22 n= conn enero eee e nee 50

RE Pe See Pd

STANDARD. BOOKS: 9

Armatage’s Every Man His Own Cattle Doctor.
The Veterinary ete i a 9 all the practical. information
of value heretofore published on the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, and
Swine, together with the latest and best information regarding all
known diseases up to the present time. Compiled and edited by that
eminent authority, Prof. George Armatage, M. R. C. V. 8. One
large octavo volume, 894 pages, with upwards of 350 practical illus-
trations, showing forms of disease and treatment, Half morocco. 7.50

Onions—How to Raise them Profitably.
Being the Practical Details, from Selection of Seed and Preparation
of Ground to Harvesting and Marketing the Crop, given very plainly:
by Seventeen Practical Onion Growers of long experience residing in
different parts of the country. No more valuable work of its size
was ever issued. Paper cover, 8vo....----.---.--------ee---, wan: 20

Tobacco Culture—Full Practical Details.
This useful-and valuable work contains full details of every process
fromthe Selection and Preparation of the Seed and Soil to the Harvest-
ing, Curing and Marketing the Crop, with illustrative engravings of
the operations. The work was prepared by Fourteen Experienced
Tobacco Growers, residing in different parts of the country. It also
contains notes on the Tobacco Worm, with illustrations, Laisa 25

Hop Culture.
Plain directions given by ten experienced cultivators. Revised, en-.
larged and edited by A. 8. Fuller. Forty engravings-.......--. 30

Flax Culture.
Avery valuable work, containing full directions, from selection of
ground and seed to preparation and marketing of crop, as given by
a number of experienced growers, 8yo___.--.----------------.-- 80

Potato Pests.
No Farmer can afford to be without this little book. It gives the
most complete account of the Colorado Beetle anywhere to be found,
and includes all the latest discoveries as to the habits of the insect
and the various means for its destruction. It is well illustrated, and
exhibits in a map the spread of the insect since it left its native home.
By Prof. C. V. Riley. Paper cover_-....-..--------.---2.------ 50

Home Fishing and Home Waters,

By Seth Green. The Utilization of Farm Streams; Management of
Fish in the Artificial Pond; Transportation of Eggs and Fry, etc.
Cloth, 120 nj s2sarnnns seeue ooceciere eee tensewnsteeeoesedewees nas 50

Reed’s House Plans for Everybody.

By 8. B. Reed. This useful volume meets the wants of persons of
moderate means, and gives a wide range of design, from a dwellin;

costing $250 up to $8,000, and adapted to farm, village and town resi-~
dences. Nearly all of these plans have been tested by practical wurk-
ings. One feature of the work imparts a value over any similar pub-
lication of the kind that we have seen. It gives an estimate of the
quantity of every article used in the construction, and the cost of each
article at the time the building was erected or the design made. Even
if prices vary from time to time, one can, from these data, ascertain
within a few dollars the probable cost of constructing any one of the
buildings here presented. Profusely illustrated. Cloth, black and
Old, 12M0 ects cnncsccme caacr i caccescceeusnecane aain Sominne seine 1.50

10 : STANDARD BOOKS.

Gregory on Cabbages—How to Grow Them.
A Practical Treatise on Cabbage Culture, giving full details on ae
peut, inclnding Keeping and Marketing the Crop. By James J. H.
regory. Paper cover, 12mo-_.....-.-2-..--2--es---eeeeeeen ones 30

Gregory on Carrots, Mangold-Wurtzels, etc.
How to raise them, how to keep them, and how to feed them. By
J. J. H. Gregory. Paper Cover, WMO sssswcsscscseesesccsesece 30

Gregory on Onion Raising.
What kinds to raise, and the way to raise them. By J.J. H. Gregory.
Paper cover, 12M6..- s2ssseccse sesteecssereesssscsseceaastes ce it)

Gregory on Squashes.
This Treatise, which no Farmer or Gardener ought to be without,
tells all about selecting the soil for squashes ; how much Manure is
necessary ; how to prepare and Plant ; about Hoeing and Cuitivating ;
Setting of the Fruit ; Ripening, Gathering, Storing, Care during Win-
ter, etc. By J.J. H. Gregory. Paper cover, 12mo----....------ .30

Hog-Raising and Pork-Making.
By Rufus Bacon Martin. The hog is reared for the money that is in
him, and he represents either a profit or loss to his owner according to
the treatment he receives. This pamphlet gives the personal research
and experience of the author, contains many valuable suggestions,
and answers many of the questions that arise in the business of hog.
Talsinig:. Papel: W2MG soh22 atiec ce ewmisisme cose smnassioscdc caine F

Fulton’s Peach Culture. .
This is the only practical guide to Peach Culture on the Delaware
Peninsula, and is the best work upon the subject of peach growing for
those who would be successful in that culture in any part of the
country. It has been thoroughly revised and a large portion of it re-
written, by Hon. J. Alexander Fulton, the author, bringing it down to
dite, Clot, APG ne sen anemn ganas ame mewpecyn cauam ene aia 1,50

Silk Culture.

A Handbook for Silk-Growers. By Mrs. C. E. Bamford. Con-
trnts.—Chapter I. The Mulberry.--[Il. Gathering the Leaves.— -
III. The Cocoonery.—IV. Eggs of the Silk Worm Moth.—V. Feed-
ing the Silk Worms.—VI. Moulting.—VII. Spinning.—VIII. The
Cocoons.—1X. The Moths of the Silk Worm.—xX. Varieties of Silk
Worms.—XI. Diseases of the Silk Worm.—XII. Reeling.—XTIII.
Chemistry of Silk.—XIV. Miscellaneous. Paper, 12mo. Price, pote
DACs 2 cance tease Moecuaicmouend sek oows eee ceeuaauewemsiiseaaes ‘

Treats’ Injurious Insects of the Farm and Garden. By

Mrs, Mary Treat.

An original investigator who has added much to our knowledge of both
Plants and insects, and those who are familiar with Darwin’s works
are aware that he gives her credit for important observation and dis-
coveries. New and Enlarged Edition. With an Illustrated Chapter
on Beneficial Insects. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo-_-_-_...-.- 2.00

Fuller's Small Fruit Culturist.
By Andrew 8. Fuller. Rewritten, enlarged, and brought fully up to
the present time. The book covers the whole ground of propagating
small fruits, their culture, varieties, packing for market, ete. It is
very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an admirable com-
panion to “The Grape Culturist,’’? by the same well known ay