The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-11-15
Edited by F. Walden

l did not take my typewriter with
me and did not order my mail sent
to The Ranch office forwarded to me,
so it just piled up for month. l had
prepared my copy for The Ranch a
month ahead. Some will wonder that
| have not answered their inquiries
sooner but everything will be attend
ed to in due time. I like to have
these inquiries come in, for they en-
able me to reach the very things that
the people want to know about. Don't
feel, my friends, that l am out of pa
tience. You may be, on account of
my long delay, but l am just as cool
as cucumber.
A goodly number have sent in fruit
apples mostly-to be named, or
those affected with some disease to
have the disease pointed out and the
remedy named. | want to make a sug-
gestion to those sending fruit to be
named or diseased fruit. Always de-
scribe the tree, the time of ripening
and the keeping qualities of the fruit.
1t may seem easy to many people to
looking at the fruit. With well-known
varieties that may be true. But it
must be borne in mind that there are
more than 1000 varieties of the apple
catalogued and three-fourths of them
| have never seen. Then, new varie-
ties are all the time being introduced
by the use of promising seedlings. No
man living can name all varieties of
apples. Seeing the tree sometimes
greatly helps in the naming. Where
the tree can not be seen, then a de-
scription will greatly aid.
Some strange things have been no
ticed this year in connection with the
apple crop. One of these strange
things is the irregularity of the crop.
A few trees would be loaded very
heavily and then the next trees in the
row or maybe in the next row, would
be found to be almost destitute of ap-
pies. Sometimes one variety would be
loaded, while another variety near by
and under similar conditions would
have but few apples. Some kinds OF
apples are classed as annual bearers
and some are bearing well every other
year. But it is mistake to say rnar
any variety of the apple bears equally
we'll every year. A very heavy crop
is almost sure to be followed by a
somewhat diminished crop even with
the annual bearers. A friend of mine
writes about visiting an orchard where
the trees were loaded with fruit. A
real estate man tried to make him be-
lieve that the trees would be equarry
full every year. That real estate man
was either ignorant about such things
or he was short on conscience.
This year we can tell some marvel
Gus stories about the yield OF apples.
From one-half acre of winesap trees
we picked 500 boxes of salable ap-
pies and sold them for $1,000. We
had other winesap trees on the ranch
but they were younger and did not
yield so many boxes to the acre but
all bore very well except two large
trees near the house and they did
not have a dozen apples on both OF
hem. From less than three-quarters
of a acre of Arkansas Black trees we
picked 73O boxes of very fine apples
and they brought us over 81 200. From
Jne acre of Mammoth Black Twi2s
,Arkansas) we packed 1000 boxes or
ine apples and they brought us over
p2,1OO. We had some top-worked
Rome Beauty trees two years old last
spring on old stocks that yielded over
Two boxes of salable apples to the
tree and they sold at $3.50 per box.
In size they were the largest Rome
Beauties | ever saw. Nearly all OF
them packed three and half and
some three tier.
When | give what our apples
brought us per acre it must be borne
La ..aind thnt the annie crOn WAS very