The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1903-12-26
SHOULD RAISE APPLES.
Prot Cesmear Gives Some Pointers 70
Upper Pennsuars Farmers.

Prot celsmear Gives Some Pointers 10
Upper Pennisulars Farmers.
Leo. M. Geismar, superintendent Of
the Upper Peninsula Experiment
station at Chatham, while attending a
farmers institute at Manistique re-
Gently. in an address advocated the
raising of apples extensively in nor
thern Michigan. he said in part
"The apple is the most cosmopolitan
Of all orchard trees, yet while certain
varieties will grow within a wider
range Of latitude than almost any other
fruit, nearly everyone shows pre-
objection for certain kind Of soil and
environment. From the Sault Ste
Marie river on the east TO the Men
ominee river on the west we have a
soil tornado n indentical with that Of
the Champlain district and eastern
shore Of Lake Ontorio in New York,
noted for fine Baldwins and Northern
Spys, and with that Of the Ozark region
in Missouri where the Ben Davis isl
found at it best. Thus with the same
soil the benehcient influence Of the
great lakes and latitude more con-
genial to certain other varieties the
upper peninsula il bound to become
noted for choice apples, which no
where else can possibly grow to such
perfection. Here for instance is a
specimen Of Northwestern Greening
grown within four miles Of Manistique
and brough TO the institute this after
noon For size, shape, coloring. firm
ness Of texture and fine flavor it would
simply be useless to look for anything
more perfect in any orchard of any
other state.
'1hen there is Wealthy grown in
the same orchard and practically as
perfect specimen as those for which
L. Van Wrinkle Of Delta county receiv
ed first prize at the state fair two years
ago. Without mentioning list Of
other varieties equally well adapted to
this vast region. we may confidently
expect equally good results from the
Shlawasse Beauty an essentially
Michigan apple. The point | wish to
make is that the farmers should begin
today not tomorrow. Apples cannot
be planted in the spring and harvested
the same fall as is the case with
potatoes or turnips. 1t takes time,
and the man who begins today is the
one who will gather the richest har
vest, for it will take fully ten years
before even half enough apples are
raised in the upper peninsula for home
consumption, and this in the mean
time means fancy prices for the man
who will give an orchard the proper
care and treatment Why so many
farmers we'll situated for taking ad
vantage of these conditions should
persist in selling hay and oats is past
comprehension.
Let us do little figuring and be
conservative. A full grown apple tree
properly cared for should bear eight
or twelve bushels and sometimes more
but let us be on the safe side and call
it three bushels. Allowing only 20
trees per acre 20 as to make the orchard |
pay with other crops while the trees
are young, we have 225 bushels per
acre. do not know what price could |
be obtained for scabby, dwarfed or
wormy apples, but / do know that |
there is no necessity for growing that |
kind OF stuff and / know further more |
that apples properly cared for and such
as have here, would 6nd thousands
of buyers glad to pay dollar bushel
for them. Let us call it 75 cents and
we have $i6S, 75 per acre $i3, 500 from
an 80 acre, or not a very large farm.
Let us compare this with a hay |
farm. State statistics show that the
crop is trifle over ton per acre. Let |
us be conservative now In the direction,
and call IL ton and a half. In locali-
ties where hay is raised in large
quantities, it is worth 81. 80 TO $40. 90
per ton, but let as be liberal and call |
1t $1,000. We have sls 90 per acre
ti, IA 90 from an 80 acre farm. In
other words, the practical fruit grow
or Is sure to make just about ton times
as much as ten hay farmers. Without
giving all the odds 10 the hay farmer
as did in this example, and taking
the Agures as they actually could be
with proper work and management.
one will have no trouble to come TO the
conclusion that one intelligent fruit
grower Is worth atty hay farmers to
any community