a care). Have
tried and discarded Tompkins County King--the borers kill it on all
soils--and Willow Twig on account of blight. I prefer upland with a
black sandy or gravelly loam and a good limestone soil, with a porous
subsoil as a necessity, and a northeast slope. I prefer thrifty
one-year-old trees, set in plowed furrows and covered with a spade;
"hill up" rather than "dig down." I cultivate my orchard to corn or any
cultivated crop for eight years, using a plow and harrow, and cease
cropping at the end of this time, and plant nothing in a bearing
orchard; it does not pay. Windbreaks are essential, especially on
upland. I would make them of red cedar, soft maple, or Osage orange, by
planting in rows and cultivating four to six years. For rabbits I use
tarred paper, and wood ashes for borers. I prune my trees with a saw and
shears to produce fruit and shape; I think it pays, but the Ben Davis
and Jonathan grow into handsomer shapes if left alone. If a tree is
growing too rapidly to set fruit, prune in June. I thin the fruit while
on the trees by picking off the wormy and defective ones. I keep this up
until nearly grown; it pays. My trees are in mixed plantings, and
believe they are more fruitful.

I fertilize my orchard with barn-yard litter, ashes, salt, and lime, and
would advise it on all excepting rich soils, where it ought not to be
used until after the trees have fruited five to eight years. Probably
the cheapest and best fertilizer on upland is clover mowed and left to
decay where it fell. Weeds are also good if mowed when two feet high and
left on the ground. I pasture my orchard with pigs, calves, and horses,
but it does not pay. My trees are troubled with tent-caterpillars and
round-headed borers, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray with a
two-horse wagon sprayer, also a hand sprayer, when the blossom falls,
with Paris green, and think I have reduced the codling-moth. I burn
tent-caterpillars with a coal-oil lamp or torch. I pick my apples by
hand into half-bushel baskets, from ladders. I sell my apples in the
orchard. I sell, feed to the stock, and make cider of the culls. I do
not dry any, but think it would pay. I have stored apples in barrels,
and found the Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Stark
and Baldwin keep best. I am not always successful; will not store any
more until I build a fruit house. I do not irrigate, but intend to.
Prices have been from 75 cents to $1.75 per barre