ORCHARD TREATMENT.
A paper read before the Kansas Horticultural Society, by W. D.
CELLAR, of Edwardsville, Kan.
A wide difference of opinion prevails as to the proper distance apart for apple trees, some growers maintaining that forty feet is close enough, while others plant as close as fifteen feet. With varieties that come into bearing early, planting close in the row north and south, with the intention of cutting out every other tree when they are large enough to crowd, may be good husbandry. Two or three crops might be secured before it would be necessary to cut out the extra trees. The objections are, that the orchard cannot be so thoroughly cultivated, and the drain necessary to grow the extra trees might so debilitate the soil as to seriously affect succeeding crops. One grower says: "I am satisfied it will pay in the short run, but it remains to be seen whether it will pay in the long run." In this section, where we have so much wind and sunshine, twenty-five to thirty feet seems to be the proper distance for apple trees, fifteen feet for plums, and fifteen by twenty feet for peach and cherry, and twenty feet for pear trees. Upland is thought better than river bottom for orchards, and a north or east slope is chosen for apples.
A difference in location is required for different varieties of apples.
A vigorous-growing variety will do well on the thin soil of the hills, while a variety deficient in root vigor, which might be profitable in deep soil, would not thrive on the hilltops. I gathered this year from eight-year-old Missouri Pippin trees, planted in the deep soil of a creek bottom, five bushels of apples to the tree, while Missouri Pippins in the same orchard, on the hilltops, planted at the same time and having the same treatment, yielded scarcely a bushel to the tree. In the same orchard Jonathans yielded about as well on the hill as in the valley. I would not choose an exposed north or northwest slope for peaches or cherries. Better an east, or even a south slope. Professor Whitten, of the Missouri State Agricultural College, has recommended whitening peach trees in winter by spraying with lime to prevent premature swelling of the buds.
In my locality the best varieties of apples, from a commercial standpoint, are Ben Davis, Jonathan, and Missouri Pippin. More Kieffer and d.u.c.h.ess pears are planted than any other kind. The leading peaches are Elberta, Old Mixon Free, Stump, Champion, Smock, and Salway. The most profitable plum is the Wild Goose. Some of the j.a.pans, Abundance and Burbank promise well. Of cherries, Dyehouse, Early Richmond, Montmorency, English Morello and Ostheim make a succession in the order named, and are the best for either a family or commercial orchard.
Cultivation of the orchard for the first few years is deemed absolutely necessary to success, but it is a serious problem how to cultivate the hills, and at the same time keep them from washing into the hollows and so denuding the roots of the trees at the top. I know one orchard in which a back furrow has been thrown to each tree row in the same direction for several years, leaving a dead furrow (which has become a ditch) between the rows. It looks like a field of huge sweet-potato rows, with the trees standing on tripods or "quadrapeds" at the top of the ridges. Neither back furrow nor dead furrow should be made in the tree row. As few dead furrows as possible should be left. They should be frequently changed, and should never run up and down the hill. If ditches have started, they cannot be stopped by plowing them full of earth; the loose soil will wash out at the first rain. Fill them with old hay, straw, stalks, or brush. Old raspberry or blackberry canes are excellent for this purpose. Begin at the bottom and work up the hill, letting the forkfuls overlap like shingles. Drive a stake through at frequent intervals, and secure firmly at the top; else a hard freshet will wash it all out. Deep ditches may be filled by dams of loose stone a rod or two apart. On many farms these stones need to be gathered anyway, and one may "kill two birds with one stone" by filling a big ditch with a good many stones. "An ounce of prevention, however, is worth a pound of cure," and the best prevention from washing that I know of is clover. I would advise seeding a hill orchard as soon as the trees have had a year or two of vigorous growth. The orchard may be cultivated after the spring rains, and seeded again in time to prevent washing the next winter. After the orchard is seven or eight years old, I should leave it in clover and weeds, mowing two or three times a year to make a mulch and prevent tall growth of weeds.
"Hogs in the orchard" is generally condemned. I have seen old orchards, however, that were decidedly benefited by hogs. Hogs and plums go together. This is no theory, but an established fact. Let them rub the trees as much as they will; let them tramp the ground till it is as bare and as hard as the road. It will do no harm; it will do good. Hogs may not like green apples, but there is something specially delectable to a hog in a green, wormy plum. He will pick up every one that drops, and so diminish the crop of curculio. In my locality, pruning of apple and cherry orchards is practiced very sparingly. Cutting out broken, decayed and interlacing branches and the suckers at the base seems to be about all the pruning that is desirable. Peach and plum orchards are likewise neglected, though some growers practice heading in to make the trees grow more compact, and to thin the fruit. I think that, with tall and straggling apple trees, such as Missouri Pippin, Winesap, or Minkler, heading in might be profitably practiced.
The question as to the profit of spraying for insects and fungi, as far as my observation goes, is not settled yet. The theory is all right--indeed, it has become one of the strongest articles of faith in the horticulturist"s creed. When the subject comes up in the horticultural meeting all commend it. Very few growers, however, make a business of spraying. Most of the growers in my locality who used to spray have quit it. They deny that they have lost faith in it, but they don"t do it. My opinion, based not on my own experience, but the practice--or rather lack of practice--of others, is that, save in exceptional cases, it doesn"t pay; that the ravages of codling-moth and curculio are not appreciably lessened by spraying; that the loss from scab in this dry climate is so light as not to justify the cost of spraying; that, just as many of the doctrines of the churchmen would die out if the preachers should turn teachers, so the doctrine of spraying as a cure-all would die out if the pump men and experimenters should turn fruit-growers; that the average man believes in a perfunctory way many things which his experience forbids him to practice.
The damage from borers is a serious drawback to orcharding. There are various patent contrivances and washes that are recommended to prevent the work of borers, but all, so far as my observation goes, fall short of complete success. The only safe way is to hunt the borers out. This should be done twice a year, late in August, when the newly hatched ones are large enough to be easily seen, and in April or May, after they have come up out of the roots, to get the ones overlooked in the fall.
Rabbits the past year have been specially troublesome. In my locality they frequently attack large trees, six to ten inches in diameter, and, in some instances, entirely destroy them. Their mischief for the most part, however, is confined to young orchards, and may be prevented by wrapping the trees with gra.s.s, stalks, paper, or, better than anything else, wooden wrappers made especially for the purpose. These wrappers are now manufactured in Kansas City. They cost about one-third of a cent each, are easily put on, and last four or five years. They are said to protect the tree from sun-scald and borer also, but I would not rely on them as a protection from borers, but would remove them and hunt the borers at least once a year.
PICKING AND PACKING.
Description of sorting table used by D. S. HAINES, Edwardsville, Wyandotte county, Kansas.
Our packing-house is on hilly land, and it is considerable trouble to haul apples to it. My packer now sorts and packs right in the orchard, using a sorting table. This table stands say three feet high and ten feet long, and three and one-half feet wide, with a common six-inch board on edge on the side. The men in picking use a ladder twelve to eighteen feet long. We did wrong in making our ladders; we could have bought them already made that were lighter and just the right thing. We set this sorting table among the trees; the men fill their sacks, emptying them on this table, which is carpeted; they barrel the apples up beside this table by letting them through an opening into a barrel.
An ap.r.o.n is so arranged as to let the apples fall on it, and gently roll into the barrel without bruising. A man heads the barrels as soon as packed. In packing apples in the field we found that something solid was needed upon which to shake the barrels. The man who fills the barrels shakes them to make them more solid; then when pressed they bruise less.
Our man can head about 100 barrels a day. In our rough country it is a great advantage to sort and pack in the orchard. We move this table about in the orchard. The expense to pick and pack a barrel of apples is about twenty cents.
A PICKING SACK.
Description of one used by FRED WELLHOUSE.
We usually pick two rows of apples at a time, using gangs of twelve men with a foreman. We cannot use more to advantage. Each man has a common grain sack with a leather fastened to the bottom, as used in sowing grain. These picking sacks are made by taking a strong two-bushel grain sack. Sew a leather strap six inches long and four inches wide to a bottom corner of the sack. On the loose end of this strap fasten a strong metallic hook. To the upper corner on same side of sack fasten a strong metallic ring or link. Opposite this ring fasten with rivets a piece of iron six or eight inches long and about half an inch wide and one-eighth an inch thick, rounded, across the sack mouth at the edge to hold the sack open. This sack is worn under the left arm, the strap going over the right shoulder and hooking in front. We use ladders from twelve to sixteen feet long. The top of the ladder is made narrow so it can be put between the limbs, being just wide enough at top to set one foot on at a time. The apples are picked and put in bushel boxes on a platform on a wagon. The boxes are sixteen inches wide, twenty-four inches long, and eight inches deep, holding about a bushel, sixteen to a wagon.
A DISCUSSION ON PACKAGES.
Edwin Snyder, Jefferson county: I want to say something about marking packages. I had a nice crop of Jonathan apples; expert men barreled them for me, and put my address on the end of the barrel, outside. The commission man just took his little knife and raked it [the address]
off. It is policy to put your name on [packages] if going to a wholesaler, but not to a commission house. I know economy pays in handling fruits, from packing to marketing. I should think boxes better [than barrels]. We have had trouble with barrel hoops breaking. I do not believe it best to sort too closely. If you put first-cla.s.s apples on top, and second-cla.s.s on the bottom, your customers expect to find the best on top and worst on bottom.
B. F. Smith: I have been in Kansas City, and never saw a name scratched off a barrel yet. In grading strawberries, give each picker six boxes in a tray; have them fill three with large berries and three with medium size [impracticable]; allow no inferior or small ones put in.
A Member: About fifty per cent. of our fruit, especially apples, is not readily marketed. Can we possibly handle this fifty per cent. so as to make it pay the expense of handling the better part of the fruit?
Edwin Taylor: If the culls are fifty per cent. of the crop, it is not difficult to make them pay for handling the entire crop. This year the culls would readily sell at fifteen cents in the orchard. Last year there was no trouble to sell "down apples" for ten cents in the orchard.
The cost of packing is slightly more or less than fifteen cents a barrel. If your apples are scattered, more; if near together, less.
Dr. G. Bohrer: Would it not pay better to work them [the culls] into cider and vinegar?
Edwin Taylor: No, sir. I had rather they would rot on the ground than be made into cider.
A Member: Our second grade brought forty cents a crate; the best, sixty cents. It pays me best to mix them. I ship to Kansas City, and they handle my fruit with success.
H. L. Ferris: This year I sent a Minnesota man a car load of very small Winesap and Missouri Pippin apples, such as we use for making cider, in exchange for potatoes. I sold part of the potatoes at seventy-five cents and eighty cents, and some are in the cellar.
Geo. Van Houten: In our state [Iowa] we are most successful in handling apples in barrels. For a small trade, bushel boxes made of light material may serve better. Many car-loads are sent out in eight-pound baskets.
HOGS IN THE ORCHARD.
Question: _Does swine grazing injure orchards?_
J. W. Robison: Not if the hogs are kept out of it. It is death to an orchard to let hogs in. To let them rub against the trees closes the pores, and growth ceases. We notice in the newspapers that fish oil, axle grease, etc., keep off rabbits. I tried using axle grease two years. You could see the mark around where the oil had been, and note where growth had stopped below this mark. By washing this with soap, we were enabled to get the trees to grow again. Hogs, as I stated before, will, by rubbing, close the pores. The tramping hardens the soil and shuts out any percolation of water into it. As well plant a tree in the middle of the road as where hogs have been. They, of all animals, tramp the ground the hardest.
Samuel Reynolds: Would pigs injure the soil?
T. A. Stanley: I have had experience in this, yet, while I do not know anything about the gentleman"s land packing, I believe it benefits some orchards to run hogs in them. I tried it on an orchard that had ceased bearing. I inclosed the orchard and put hogs in for a year or more. New growth started on the trees, and they at once began to bear, and bore for several years after I took the hogs out. I could see no injury caused by their rubbing the trees. I do not think they will rub the trees if the orchard is large. I do not see what injury they do. After the apples grew large enough, if wormy they fell, and the hogs ate the apples and the worms also.
Edwin Taylor: I have had a little experience in that line. I fenced around a twenty-acre orchard, expecting to combine horticulture and agriculture right there. My hogs were lousy, and they did rub the trees, and whenever they rub they destroy. Anybody who tries it will find they will absolutely squeal for something to eat when there are bushels of apples on the ground. I was at large expense to fence, but was so disappointed with the hog business that I took the fence down.
COLD STORAGE.
By GEO. RICHARDSON, of Leavenworth, Kan.
It has been well said that "Necessity is the mother of invention." Cold storage of the present time is understood as "mechanical refrigeration,"
and in general, the preservation of perishable articles by means of low temperature, hence, the act of reducing the temperature of any body, or maintaining the same below the temperature of the atmosphere, is called refrigeration, or more familiarly known as cold storage, produced by the employment of machinery of various types. Of those mostly in use, are the compression system, using anhydrous ammonia as a refrigerant, by expanding the ammonia either directly through coils of pipe arranged in the storage rooms, or through coils of pipe that are submerged in salt brine, where the brine is reduced to a low temperature and then forced and circulated through pipes in the storage rooms, one being known as direct expansion, the other, brine circulation, but both accomplish same results.
To utilize anhydrous ammonia requires complicated and expensive machinery, and to those not acquainted with the subject it may seem strange that more units of heat are produced by the burning of coal, wood or oil than there are units of cold produced to reduce the temperature of storage rooms.
Of the uses and benefits of cold storage it can be truthfully stated, that nothing in recent years has been of more direct benefit to the farmer, stock-raiser, and fruit-grower. But a brief period has pa.s.sed since cellars, caves and underground grottos served as the best means, and in a limited way under certain conditions of weather, for the protection and preservation of perishable articles.
To-day machinery has made it possible to control temperature at any degree and in all climates. The burning heat under the equator would not be an impediment to secure a zero temperature in a cold-storage room.
The construction and successful operation of the mammoth packing-houses are the outgrowth of the success of the application of mechanical refrigeration, where any day of the year a market is made for live stock. But few years have elapsed since the vast herds of South American cattle had no value, except for their hides, horns, and tallow, and the great bands of Australian sheep for their wool. Now immense refrigerating plants are in operation, freezing the beef and mutton, with fleets of ocean steamers equipped with refrigerating machinery and storage rooms filled with frozen meat for European markets. From the United States the dressed-beef traffic is of large proportions. Storage speculators are always ready buyers at remunerative prices for b.u.t.ter and eggs, that in value exceed the great wheat crop of America.
To fruit-growers, especially those engaged in apple culture, cold storage is attracting more than common interest, as it has been demonstrated a grand success in the preservation of apples from three to six months longer, in good condition, than in natural storage that is subject to the changeable influences of the atmosphere. At the same time, the apples retain their original and individual flavor, color, and crispness.
Cold storage, or mechanical refrigeration, arrests fermentation and decay, or, better stated, prolongs the life and keeping qualities.
Of the advantages gained, it offers a place of safe-keeping for future market, and affords a protection for the grower if market conditions are not favorable; such as an overstocked market, consequently low prices, caused largely and influenced by many other varieties of fruit that are in season while the apple crop is being gathered.
Again, the fact of the existence of cold-storage houses has brought into the field speculators, which has a wholesome influence, and oftentimes strengthens the markets and lessens the quant.i.ty that would of necessity be forced on sale at an earlier period at a great sacrifice, which is the situation this year, where the enormous crops of New York, New England and Michigan apples are being sold at from fifty to seventy-five cents a barrel (including barrels) placed aboard cars, for the want of proper and sufficient storage facilities to relieve part of the burden.
No such condition or low price has yet been felt by the Western grower.