The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-10-14
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yERMO MI APPLES.

The Journal prints today very
Instructive and interesting article
on Grand Isle County Apples" from
the pen of Arthur II. Hill, of Isle La
Motto, which contains information of
great value to apple growers
throughout Vermont. In this article
he emphasizes the fact that success
full apple growing must be in ac-
cordance with scientific principles
and not with the -go-lucky
methods of earlier days. Nature, I'M
aided will grow apples If the seed
is planted or if the trees are set out,
but will not guarantee the quantity or
the quality. The farmer would get
some returns from potatoes or corn
planted if he did not hoe his corn or
paris green his potatoes, but he would
hardly expect profitable crops.
In the past too many farmers have
considered that there was little to
do after the trees were set out. The
ground has not been cultivated, the
trees have not been pruned or watch
ed for Dorers and other tree pests,
and the fruit has been below par in
amount and quality. In many cases
a considerable number of early var
ieties oil apples have been set out,
but little care has been taken of the
trees, and no systematic effort has
been made to market the fruit, con-
sequently many thousands of bushels
in the aggregate of good fruit have
rotted under the trees. These farm
ers have set out too many early APP
pies for their own use, and too few
to make it profitable to arrange, in
dividually for shipping them to
market.
Mr.. Hill emphasizes as the four
essential features of successful apple
growing, cultivation, fertilization,
pruning and spraying. These are not
difficult points to understand and
any man of ordinary intelligence
who really desires to go into the
business of apple growing can follow
these rules. If these directions are fol-
lowed apple growing in Vermont can
be made profitable, much more profit
able than much Of the farming con-
Quoted in Vermont today.
If New York business man con-
siders it a profitable investment to
purchase sixty acres of Vermont
land for apple growing, why isn't a
good business for Vermont natives
to engage in? Mr.. Hill asserts that
$50 an acre is the equal of or
chard land in the State of
Washington, which is held at
$1,000 an acre before a tree is plant
ed There is food for thought in
that statement. He also claims that
the Vermont apple growers can deliv-
er three barrels of fruit in the New
York markets for less money than
it costs to ship bushel box of ap-
pies from Washington or Oregon In
view Of these facts it is little short of
an economic crime for us to be buy
ing Western apples when we should
be underselling the Western fruit
growers in the big city markets and
reaping a handsome profit.
If Isle La Motto apple trees 70
years cid are still yielding good crops
of superior fruit it would seem that
the planting of apple orchards was
one of the most profitable invest
ments Vermont farmers could make
During the coming winter the sub
ject of apple growing should receive
serious attention in Grange meetings
and agricultural Institutes. We ought
to be ashamed, with the best apple
growing country in the world at our
doors, to let Western fruit growers
send their product 5000 miles across
the continent and command the
markets that should be ours.