The Apple: The Kansas Apple, the Big Red Apple; the Luscious, Red-Cheeked First Love of the Farmer's Boy; the Healthful, Hearty Heart of the Darling Dumpling. What It Is; How to Grow It; Its Commercial and Economic Importance; How to Utilize It.
Science
The Apple: The Kansas Apple, the Big Red Apple; the Luscious, Red-Cheeked First Love of the Farmer's Boy; the Healthful, Hearty Heart of the Darling Dumpling. What It Is; How to Grow It; Its Commercial and Economic Importance; How to Utilize It.
Apples
I cultivate my orchard to corn for six to eight years. I plant twenty
feet each way, and take an oak plant sixteen feet long, and place one
section of a disc at each end of it, making it cut sixteen feet wide
from outside to outside, and running within two feet of the trees at
either end, leaving a space eight feet wide in the middle. Run another
disc on that ground with another team and you have the space between the
rows all clean of weeds if ground is in good condition when work is
done. Cultivate both ways as often as necessary. I grow no crop in a
bearing orchard. Windbreaks are not essential. For rabbits I tie coarse
grass around the trees with label wire, and leave it on two years. I
also use traps. I do not prune my trees; it is too injurious to the
trees. I do not thin my apples while on the trees; it is too expensive.
My trees are planted in blocks. I fertilize my orchard with stable
litter; think it beneficial and would advise its use on all soils. I do
not pasture my orchard. My apples are troubled with worms. I spray the
first of May with London purple for canker and apple worms.
I pick in baskets and sacks. Sort into two classes: marketable and
culls, using a sorting table. Sell my apples in the orchard to wagons
from the West. I evaporate the second- and third-grade apples when the
crop is large; make the culls into cider and vinegar. I tried distant
markets for two years and found they paid. When apples are abundant we
dry for market; use the same kind of driers as are used at Fairmount;
sell them in sacks to the stores, and find a ready market for them; but
it does not always pay. I do not store any for winter market if I can
sell them in the fall. I do not irrigate. Prices have been in 1896,
twenty-five cents per bushel; 1897, forty cents per bushel.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account