The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-05

as the Land of the Big Red Apple" and one of the greatest fruit-growing sec
 tions of America, they grow Ben Davis apples for market but they pin their faith to the Winesap and Jeneton for home eating., Dave Craig of Dallas county, Missouri, is the prophet and apostle of the Winesap. He got religion once upon a time and would never eat another Wine sap He said: "I know the Winesap was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, for they ain't no other fruit like it for tasteiness and juice."
 Missouri has more apple trees than any other state, nearly thirty millions, while | fifteen years ago it had less than ten | millions Many of these trees are quite young, however, and consequently Mis- souris apple crop is smaller than that of New York, where the orchards are older. New York, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio are the greatest apple states. The Pied mont region of Virginia, the hilly por- tions of Tennessee and Kentucky, the northern part of Arkansas, all of the mid dle states and the Pacific northwestern states, Including Idaho, grow apples for commercial purposes. Every state in the Union has its apple orchards where fruit is grown for home consumption.
 The modern orchard is planted with young trees, whips" they are called, one or two years old, on land specially prepared according to scientific principles Apples will flourish on many kinds of soil, but each kind must be properly
 treated and prepared The trees are cultivated just as other crops like corn or potatoes, by frequent blowing, and grass is not allowed to grow in the or chard. Crops of corn or COW peas are often grown between the rows of young trees. When the trees get large the culti- vation is sometimes left off, but then ra1 r1O Ie fK, faa this is turned under with blows each al ternate year. Grass Is forever banished. The trees are kept pruned to uniform shapes, varying according to the require ments of climate. The trees are pruned to make them branch out a short distance from the ground generally only about two or three feet. This make a low tree more convenient for spraying, for gath ering the fruit, and capable of better re- slstng the wind. Apples must have air and sunlight to do their best, and the trees are kept so pruned that the sun may penetrate through and through, while ths air has good circulation.
 In the good old days" one of the boys climbed the tree and shook the limb and the others gathered up the apples which fell to the ground. Every apple was more or less bruised, and it's keeping qualities so much injured. Nowadays, apples are taken carefully from the trees as soon as there color is perfect and before they begin to gst mellow. The apple Is taken off with great care so that the stem Is not injured, is gently placed in the gath ering basket and then taken to be packed. The packing Is a delicate task but in orchards where the best methods are used the apples are so placed in boxes or barrels that practically none of them are bruised. Apples thus gathered and packed may be sent around the world, I. f,,a "a e.. and will then come out of package with out blemfsh.
 Carelessness on the part of the farmer orchardmen caused the apple buyers for the large domestic markets and the ex- port trade to inaugurate the custom of buying the apples on the trees and doing the gathering and packing themselves One Ozark mountain farmer who had a young orchard just coming into/full bear ing was astounded a few years since when an English buyer offered to pay him $6O,00O for his apples as they were. The offer was accepted, the Englishman's force of gatherers went into the orchard and gathered and packed the fruit, all of which went to London. Frost sometimes kills the apple crop in large section, and southwest Missouri has suffered much this spring. In fact, the apple crop will be quite short this fall and if the demand increases, the recent shipment from Aus tralia may be the beginning of many. Three brothers who have farms and orch ards near Fayetteville, Ark, have all ready sold their crop on the trees for SS0000. The Arkansas portion of the Ozark region escaped the blighting frosts.
 New York. New England and Virginia apple growers receive even higher prices for their product, being nearer to the great domestic markets, but the orchards are not so large in area as in the western and middle states. There was fear in some quarters that orchard planting might be overdone, and the fact that the market is often so glutted that the fruit is wasted seemed to be foundation Tor uneasiness. But those who have studied the question say that 1t Is not over production, but faulty distribution which caused thousands of bushels of apples to rot in the orchards last year. Railroads could motif urnish cars. cold storage houses had not sufficient capacity, and the fruit growers themselves were not prepared to husband their crop. Efforts are being made, of course, to correct these shortcomings and 1t Is safe to say that