The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-08-10
APPLE CULTURE.
BY A MEMBER OF TIE GRANGE.

The apple is entitled to the name of
the queen of fruits, because you can
have it fresh twelve months of the year,
without the extra care of canning that
you would have with other fruits. The |
specimens before you were simply gath
cred in dry weather and laid on shelves,
or kept in boxes containing not more
than bushel. They were picked from
the trees about the goth of October.
An orchard requires attention, bnt no
extra culture. Give the trees sufficient
distance to allow of the culture of other
crops between them. Mine are twenty
feet each way, but experience now tells
me that thirty feet would be better
Around the body OF the tree keep circle
of a couple of feet clean of weeds and
grass with the hoe. This is necessary, 50
that the insects will have no hiding place
1t is the numerous tribes of insects that
cause the sa2dest havoc in our orchards.
A little vigilance and care is the best
preventive. If the trees are properly
pruned at the first planting, they will
need scarcely any pruning for years after
wards
If you have old trees that you wish
TO rejuvenate, a severe pruning in au-
tumH will cause it to put out an abun-
dance OF young growth in the spring
If you have the common apple, and you
wish to improve it with finer varieties,
do it by top grating in the month of
March to the first week in April. Speci-
mems of gratis and graftings are before
you-examine them you will see at a
glance how it is done, quicker than if
you should read about it an hour. But
don neglect 10 read books and papers
that treat upon the subject. If you
once acquire a taste and desire for fruit
culture, you viii then seek and find
plenty of information that will lead you
onward, for "when you knock it shall be
open unto you" If you wish to raise
new Seeding varieties, for the Hst
method of procedure 1 refer you to the
very able and elaborate address delivered
before the Georgia State Horticultural
society by a very able horticulturist,
Mr.. Berckmans. Proceedings of the
Society have been distributed.) If ever
you let an orchard take care of itself a
few years, it will not then be worth any
care. The pleasure to be reaped from an
orchard will amply repay all labor.
The 'good book" tells us " it is more
blessed to give than to receive" 1t is a
real pleasure to have apples to give to
your friends when they drop in to spend
a social hour. Apples are great help
in the family, especially in winter when
vegetables are scarce; there are so many
ways in which they can be prepared for
the table-they are nice fried for break
fast, apple sauce and pies for dinner,
baked apples and cream for tea. OF all
the jellies that ara made from the va
rious fruits, none can surpass good apple
jelly.
Some of your temperance societies Fee
not so strict but that they allow opa
social glass of apple cider. An album
dance OF fruit in winter, as we'll as sum-
mer, exerts a great beneficial effect on
the health Of family. Every farmer
ought to have good apple orchard fol-
this consideration alone,
The study OF the habits of the differ.
ent varieties of apples affords pleasure.
1t is interesting to note the time
when the various varieties bloom. The
Lyberion crab, fine preserving apple
is always first to bloom. It wassin full
blossom this year about the 9th of March
The Walkers Red, Fall Pippin and the
Cheese, all September apples, were in
bloom the 18th of March, the Red As
trachan, shout tbroe days later. Tn,
Red June blooms two weeks later. Tn,
LIST of April found the majority of then
IN bloom, except five varieties which hao
not at this time budded out-the Hoover
Rawls Jannet, Faust Buncomb and La
nier. The last named is a Seeding orig
mated in Edgefeld, South Carolina
from seeds planted by Miss Lanier. 1t i
a large, fine apple, keeps till Christmas
1t took the premium at two of the Au
gusta fairs, held in 1870 and 1871. Th
tree is the very last to put out leaves an,
blooms-about four to five weeks late
than the early bloomers, therefore les
liable TO be killed by Iate spring frosts.
The culture OF the apple can be mad
even in this latitude. 1t is
we'll known fact, that the demand 70
fruits always increases as the supply /
furnished. | can remember when twent-
years ago, the Augusta market for straw
berries was supplied by one Mrs. Wake
from less than One-eighth of an acre
We have now in Richmond county abou
ninety acres OF strawberries, and price
are remuneratiYe. If we had five hund
red acres planted we would club together
charter a refrigerator cars, send our Der
ries to northern markets, and get bette
prices than We now do Six years ago
found it quite difficult to sell in tn
Augusta market ten pounds of grape
daily. Last summer 1 sold with cas-
seventy to a hundred pounds per day
The public have acquired a taste 70
them now, and they will buy grape
whenever offered at reasonable prices.
1t will be So with the apple and othe
fruits. Judge Noah Smith, of Jefferson
county, two years ago, realized from ont
wagon load of apples seventy-fve dollars
j know man in this county who rented
a hundred acre farm; it had five
acre apple orchard on Mt; from the
proceeds of that orchard, he paid the
whole of his rents and had several barrels
of cider left over to turn into good
vinegar.
The United States census reports for
1870 puts the number of farmsNin Geor-
gia at 1886. The commissioners ayri-
culture for the state, gives the num6.f of
trees as returned by the tax receivers, at
~, 200; putting los trees to the
each Naais number it requires at 20 feet
ssres Of 2, would give to each farm SO
fre -n 1ssre as,s cschard This is very
orc sa The sale ~hse eonsidarsd that os;d.
"'a '-ssssa' ! flve-acre apple
sss number Of