The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1877-09-01
Apple
BY A MEMBER OF The GRANGE,

"oItny p~IesluenC, 10 OHer a few suggeS
tions on apple culture. I do 60 wit
great timidity, knowing my inability
= having never enjoyed the advantages of
common English education.
The apple is entitled to the name O
the queen of fruits, because you cal
have it fresh twelve months of the year
without the extra care of canning tina
you would have with other fruits. Thu
specimens before you were simply gath
cred in dry weather and laid on shelves
or kept in boxes containing not more
than a bushel. They were picked from
the trees about the goth of October.
An orchard requires attention, bnt nc
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 a circle
OF a couple of feet clean of weeds anda
grass with the hoe. This is necessary, 50
that the insects will have no hiding place.
1t is the numerous tribes of insects that
aus the saddest 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.
1t you have old trees that you wish
to r~eJuvenate, a severe pruning in au-
tumn will cause it to put out an album
dance OF young growth in the spring.
Ii you have the common apple, and you
wish to improve it with finer varieties,
dc it by top grating in the month of
March to the first week in April. Speci-
mems of gratis and grafting are before
you-examipe them ; you will see at a
glance how it is done, quicker than if
you should read about it an hour. But
uon t neglect to read books and papers
that treat upon the subject. If you
once acquire a taste and desire for fruit
culture, you will then seek and find
plenty of information that will lead you
onward, fer "when you knock it shall be
open unto YOU" If you wish to raise
new Seeding varieties, for the best
method of procedure I refer you to the
very able and elaborate address delivered
before the Georgia State Horticultural
society by a very able horticulturist,
Mr.. Belckmans. proceedings of the
Society have been diHtributed.) If ever
you let an orchard take care of itself q
few years, will not then be worth any
care. The pleasure to be reaped from an
orchard wils 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 a 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 arrd pies for dinner.
TAXED apples and cream for tea. OF all
the iellies that arc made from the va
rious fruits, nome can surpass good apple
Jelly.
Some of your temperance societies are
not 80 strict but that theg allow of a
glass Of apple cider. An album
dance of fruit in winter, as well as sum-
aner, exerts q great beneficial effect on
the health of q family. Every farmer
ought to have q good apple orchard for
consideration alone.
The study Of the habits of the differ
varieties of apples affords pleasure.
IL is interesting to note the time9
when the various varieties bloom. The
L3berion crab, q fine preserving apple,
Is always first to bloom. It was.sin full
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, about throe days later. The
Red June blooms two weeks later. The
lst Of April found the majority of them
in bloom, except five varieties which had
not at this time buddedout-the Hoover,
Rawls Jannet, Faust Buncomb and La
nier. The last named is d seeding orig
mated in Edgefeld, South Carolina,
IRON seeds planted by Miss Lanier. 1t is
. large, fine apple, keeps till Christmas.
toek the premium at two Of the Au-
gusta fairs, held in 1870 and 1871. The
Tree is the very last to put out leaves and
blooms-about four to FIVE weeks later
than the early bloomers, therefore less
liable to be killed bylate spring frosts.
The culture Of the apple can be made
profitable even in this latitude. It is q
we'll known fact, that the demand for
fruits always increases as the supply is
furnished. can remember when twenty
years ago, the Augusta market for straw
berries was supplied BY one Mrs. Walker
rom less than one-eighth Of an acre.
We have now in Richmond county about
acres Of strawberries, and prices
Ire remunerative. If we had five humid
acres planted We would club together,
sharter 2 refrigerator caraepd our bere