The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-10-26
Orchard Observations.

Attractiveness to the eye is of the
first importance in market fruit There
fore, having selected the best kinds, we
must grow them so as to develop all of
this attractiveness possible. Good size
and bright color will sell otherwise very
inferior fruit. The larger part of all
our tree fruits is cooked before eaten;
so that high dessert quality is not es-
sential to success. Few of our most
productive and handsomest apples are
of very high quality, The apple pro-
duced in much the largest quantity in
our country, the Ben Davis, is of
very low quality for eating out of hand;
yet 1t is very profitable 10 grow, for it
is early bearing, large, high-colored and
productive. In country where the
people consume so much tobacco and
alcohol, delicate palate in the matter
of flavor in fruit counts for compare
lively little in the fruit market. Still,
as we all hope for better things, it is not
best to sacrifice quality entirely to show
and productiveness in planting COM
mercial orchard. The rows should not
be less than thirty-five feet; but by
planting alternately in the rows, early
bearing and short lived summer fruits
either apples, plums, cherries or dwarf
pears-the ground may be utilized, and
an income secured without so long
wait as would otherwise be required.
In eight or ten years, if the orchard
makes the growth it should, all these
supernumeraries must be removed.
Unless the planter is young man, or
plants for posterity, it is not advisable
to plant varieties slow in coming into
full bearing. Between the rows, while
the trees are small, low crops can be
cultivated with advantage. l prefer
potatoes or beans-the first until there
Is too much shade (Which favors rot)
the second until the trees are in pretty
full bearing.
There are those who believe that by
careful culture and selection of varie-
ties full crops of apples may be secured
every year. | am not one of them. |
look for profit in an orchard, no matter
how well cultivated and cared for, only
in alternate years, If l could secure it
(and am not sure that this would be less
practicable than thinning), should pre-
fer not to have an apple on my trees in
the off years. If this practice could be
followed, in an isolated orchard, the
insects that attack the fruit would be
so reduced in numbers as to give
much more perfect crop in the bearing
year. The bearing year" need not
be the same in all parts of the country.
Air and sunlight must have free access
to every part of the tree. Keeping
this in mind, with the courage to use
the knife freely, where needed, while
the tree is young, and yet with judy
ment and imaginative power to see in
the minds eye how the tree will look
hereafter, we can so work as to avoid
that ruinous thing, "bushy top"
Careless, incompetent, insufficient or
excessive pruning while the trees are
young can never be fully rectified af-
terward. Three main branches--avoid-
ing forks both in stem and leading
branches-are better than more Some
varieties are naturally much more open
headed than Others, and require only a
sort of suggestive pruning. Others
need good deal of work every year
but this is better than to let them get
ahead of you" A good primer need
rarely make cut that will not heal in
two seasons. 1t is a business which
cannot be put off, or be rightly carried
on by man who has not " good head
piece" 1t is oftener botched than any
other orchard work-and with more
fatal effect upon Interior success
Ne,0 York Voice.