Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-07-14
The Orchard.

The Orchard.
VIM. Strong, of Kalamazoo coun-
ty, Mich. in the Country Gentleman
says: Many farmers do not place a
very high estimate upon the orchard.
10 them it has never been of much
account and they cannot see much
encouragement for the future. To
be sure, years ago they set out
several hundred apple trees, cropped
the ground with corn, oats and
wheat, for several years, and then
seeded the ground to clover and tim
othy, and have moved it ever since.
This they consider good treatment,
yet their trees yield but very light
crops Of very poor fruit. Indeed,
they never have but a few apples to
sell, and those so small and gnarly
that the price obtained hardly pays
for the time required to gather them.
This need not be the case. The or
chard may be made very prolita-
BILE part Of the farm. But it will
cost something to have an orchard
that the owner may well be proud
OF and that will pay a handsome in
terest on the time and means ex-
pended. Many labor under the mis-
taken notion that the orchard should
cost nothing except to harvest the
crop. This is a great mistake, but
very common one. AS a general
rule, if an orchard costs nothing
but harvesting, the crop will not be
worth harvesting.
Many farmers who have no or
chard make a mistake at the outset,
in this way. A nelghbor is har-
vesting and marketing splendid
crop Of apples, for which he obtain
ed a great price. The returns from
his orchard are so great that they
make up their minds there is more
money i'll large orchard than any
thing else. SO they send an order
to the nursery for trees enough to
set out five, ten, and sometimes
many more acres, without even once
taking Il thought of the labor ncs-
cessary to make such an orchard a
success. They do not seem to take
into consideration the fact that those
trees must be cultivated just as
carefully as any farm crop-that the
soil should be made richer, as gen
eral thing, and not robbed, year af-
ter year, by grain crops, and take
off the very material that the trees
ought to have. They do not think
that with all that trash about their
trunks, during the coming winter,
the mice will girdle half Of them
that next season when they are too
busy to attend to tie trees, the tent
caterpillar will strip the leaves from
the rest of them, thus giving them
such check that they will never
wholly recover They take no no
tee Of the borer that is slowly but
surely cutting out the life Of the
trees. If they had given these
things, and many more that might
be spoken OF, that consideration
which they deserve, their order on
the nursery would have been much
smaller, which would not only have
been good thing for them, but al
SO for the community, as there would
not be so many large orchards that
have proved failures, thus discour
aging many from setting even small
ones.
The foregoing discouraging pic
ture need deter no one from setting
an orchard-a large one they wish
and making it a success. The
proper attention given at the right
time, will be fully rewarded. 1t is
better to guard against girdling by
mice, by attention in the fall than
to repair their damage in the spring.
1t takes far less time to dig out the
oorer as soon as he is discovered in
4 tree, than it does to plant and
aaSse another in its place. 1t takes
far less time to destroy the tent cat
erpillar when in the eggs or Just
matched, than it does after it has
spread over half the tree and badly
damaged it. Though the caterpil-
ar moth may fly from one orchard
% another to lay its eggs, yet it is
not half so apt to as it is to lay its
eggs in the orchard where it came
to life; SO that if all the caterpillars
are destroyed this year in one or
chard, there will be far less next
year than in an orchard near to it
where they were not destroyed.
There is an orchard of several hun
bred trees in sight Of where | now
write, where they have always been
destroyed as soon as possible. This
season, thus far, there have been ,
but six nests found, while orchards
IN the vicinity, where they were al
lowed to go to seed, are very full of
them; more than six nests can fire.
Iuently be counted on a single tree.
Horses and cattle can destroy trees
much faster than the damage can be
repaired. Without proper attention
the orchard will prove failure;
with proper care, even small or
hard will furnish family with ex-
'ellent fruit the entire year, and
make handsome return in cash be- ,