The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1910-03-17
APPLE GROWING IN
MANIT0WOC COUNTY.
Second Paper

~
in the state. If one may judge by the
specimens of homegrown fruit offered
for sale by our city stores last season,
less than ten per cent of the whole
product can be rated as marketable.
A more disreputable appearing lot of
stuff never was offered for sale. Our
merchants bought it, not because they
wanted it, but as amatter of accomoda-
ton to customers. 1t was covered with
scab, filed with worms, drilled with
codling holes, brown with bruises and
bitter with rot. 1t was cheap, and
nasty. Apples were sold at from ID to
80 cents a bushel, retail. 1t was every
cent they were worth. Some good
sound fruit was brought in, but it
brought no fair or reasonable price,
because the market was glutted with
the inferior product.
What is the cause of such conditions
in our fruit growing? What is the
remedy? The writer came to Manito-
voc County fifty-eight years ago. The
early settlers had already begun to set
out apple orchards.
As the County settled up and trees
became more easy to obtain, the set
tiers persistently set out fruit trees
with comparatively little success.
Here and there tree survived and
there are a few apple trees in the
county that have stood for upwards of
sixty years. In those days and for a
long time after, little was known of
the habits of insect enemies Of the
apple, still less about the fungus dis
eases, and nothing at all of the meth
DDS of combating them. No one thought
of fruit growing as a business. The
only idea was to set out a few trees
for family use. The practice was and
is, so general that nearly every farm
and garden has few trees good, bad
and Indifferent, mostly bad No pains
were taken to cultivate the trees to
trim them or cut out dead or rotten
wood. They were set out and raised
on the same principle as the Arkansaw
Pike raised his family, ''if so be they
lives, they lives; an if so be they dies,
they dies; but we allus calkilate to have
a few to spare" 1t was easier to set a
new tree than to pvsrrer about cultivat-
ing, fertilizing and trimming an old
one.
The fact that some good fruit is
brought in every season demonstrates
that it is possible to grow it. If we can
successfully combat the apple fungus,
our apples will not be scabby. If we
can successfully combat the codlng
moth, our apples will not be wormy.
If we can successfully combat the bor-
ers and scale insects, our trees will
thrive; and if we cultivate our orchards
and furnish sufficient plant food, the
fruit will be large and of good quality.
Practically nothing, of the kind has
ever been done and for over sixty years
our County has been an undiSturbed
breeding ground for insect pests Of all
kinds.
1t is one of the objects of the HOrti-
cultural Society, to bring about a
change in this respect and wage an or
ganized campaign to eXterminate them
Our county is full of apple scab fungus
h.. h.,
rid of by spraying our trees. TO do
this is neither difficult nor expensive,
and if we want TO raise clean fruit in
stead of the scabby stuff we have had;
let us get spray pumps costing few
dollars and some old kerosene or vine
gar barrels, and 90 at our orchards.
The season is AT hand.
Spray at any time jctorc the leaf buds
open with
Copper sulphate ! pound
Water % gallons
After the blossoms have formed but
before they open spray with,
BORDEAUX MIXTURE.
Copper Sulphate pounds
Quick lime 4pounds
Dissolve each separately, pour into
40 to 80 gallons of water (one barrel,
before using stir in 4 ounces, Pari.
green.
Repeat within week after blossoms
have fallen. If the orchard has been
neglected repeat once more ten to four.
teen days later.
The above treatment will relieve
from Scab, Cooling Moth, Tent Moth
Canker Worm and all insects which act
directly on leaf and fruit.
If the trees are coverc with scale
that is a different proposition The
scale insects do not act directly on the
| fruit, except as few may get on an
apple. They are sucking insects which
pierce through the bark and suck out
the life of the tree For these use
spray of
KEROSENE EMULSION.
Kerosene coal oil) , gallons
Rain water boiling | gallon
| Brown soap I pound
| Dissolve the soap in the water, ado
it to the kerosene, churning some tim,
to mix thoroughly, add nine times tn,
quantity Of water 50 as to make abou
80 to 30 gallons. 1t is not best to ust
the kerosene emulsion for scale during