The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-04-26
CROWD THE TREES.
If You Are OrchardinG For the Profit
There Is In Ii.

IL You Are OrchardinG For the Profit
There Is In Ii.
From what | have seen and learned
l am satisfied that apple trees of many
varieties may be brought into full bear,
ing at four years after being set into
the orchard. | have seen apple trees
the fourth year after planting out bear
one-half buShel of apples per tree. l
once saw an orchard here in which 90
trees bore, the eighth season after be-
ing set into the orchard, 2OG barrels of
picked apples. These 30 trees We're
composed of Baldwin, Rhode Island
Greening and RoXbury Russell and
were set 10 feet apart | am not an
advocate of large apple trees with tops
spreading 80 to % feet and going up
into the air % to 80 feet, requiring Il 50
foot ladder to gather the fruit. but pre-
fer to set my trees Is feet apart, using
80 trees per acre, and. when the trees
are years old and come into bearing.
stop all other cropping and let the trees
have all the ground to grow and ma
ture their fruit. l would, however,
fertiliZe and cultivate the orchard as |
would for any crop, says a Connecticut
man in Rural New Yorker.
BY setting the trees Is feet apart |
have 100 trees more to the acre to bear
from the time they are / years old
and on. This makes the orchard itself
pay good profit for the land, and
there is less reason or desire to crop
the land with some other crop, as would
be done with only 81 trees to the acre.
These trees would bear for Is years be-
fore crowding, when the top of every
other tree should be cut back to as near
the body of the tree as could be done
and not leave the limbs too large, the
same as would be done if the tree were
to be top grated. \ new top of young,
thrifty growth would start out, which,
of course, would need to be thnned
out properly, and in three years the
trees would be III full bearing again,
when the tops of those not cut back
may be served in like manner. BY this
method of treatment the top would be
kept young, the fruit be grown on
young and thrifty wood and the apples
easily picked and trees easily sprayed
over those low heads When the trees
crowd again, let the tops be cut back
as before, or take out every other tree
entirely.
AS money from the orchard is the OBJ
ject, thus planting the trees 135 to the
acre and keeping the tops within ra-
dius of about 1G feet, more apples will
be taken from the orchard in 20 or %
years. and at less expense per tree. than
would be from the same ground with
trees set 50 trees to the acre in 80 years.
for there are 100 more trees per acre to
bear fruit and on thrifty, vigorous
Young trees.
On many Of the stock farms of the
west the land has become too rich to
produce a profitable crop Of small
grain, the straw growing so heavy that
the crop is lodged by the wind and
never fills and ripens. The remedy for
this difficulty was the subject of dis
cussion at a farmers institute lately.
A crop of flax to precede the small
grain was agreed upon as a cure for
this trouble.
The manager of the largest creamery
in the west, operated on the farm sep
arator plan, told us recently that his
patrons place a value of 80 cents per
hundredweight on their skimmilk for
feeding calves. Ten cents per hun
dredweight would be a big price for
the skimmilk as usually returned to
the dairymen from the creamery sepa-
rators. There is a point here worth
thinking over.
The most beautiful bird in North
America is the male wood duck, its
plumage a combination of delicate
shading and penciling and brilliant col
oring not eXcelled in artistic beauty by
any bird Of any country. 1t seems a
pity that it Is never seen but to be
killed if possible. The Monaghan
pheasant, which has been acclimated in
Oregon and Washington, is the next
most richly plumaged bird we have.
A friend writes that he wishes we
would write some long articles once in
awhile on some interesting topics. Re-
plying. we say that life is short, and the
people are very busy and will not listen
TO any writer or speaker who is long
on words and short on ideas. Our
friend should go and hear a long wind.
ed parson or read some of the column
editorials in the daily papers, and for
that matter many of the articles in the
leading agricultural journals-either
Will make him sleepy enough. We do
not write to make men snooze but to
keep them wide awake and set them to
thinking.