The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1911-07-27
Only a Few Varieties Should be
Grown so That Large Amount
Can be Marketed at Ole
Time.
alexander Wurtenberger)


S. which has developed to such an
enormous extent in the last 20 years
There we feel especially the Compel
ition of American apples. 1t is
true that Germany possesses many
very productive and we'll cultivated
apple orchards that yield hand
some profit. On the whole however
the German farmer is prevented, by
his conservative habits and his desire
to follow the example of his father
from me ting the growing COMPETE
tion of American fruits.
In many parts of Germany the eli
mate is favorable for the most i'm
portant of all fruits, the apple. The
trouble lies in the habit of people
of cultivating more than thousand
different varities of apple, many
of which are inferior in taste or APP
pearences, and some lacking in the
necessary keeping qualities. The
great variety of apples grown neal
only one. town ripenine at various
seasons make it impossible TO market
the crop to advantage in sufficient
quantities. Our investigation of
conditions In the United States has
led us TO the conclusion that the
methods employed in the western
states. of cultivating only few "a
rieties, that are superior i .eir
keeping qualities. and Of sing
these in large quantities. is log
zeal method.
In speaking of the superior Amer
lean models in fruit culture. | do
not mean as it is carried on here in
the northwestern part of Indiana.
With the exception of single very
praiseworthy case the orchards |
have seen in this district are not in
good condition, and show evidence
of poor management. On many of
the farms one finds no trees of new
planting. only old trees that have
been standing fer 80 or 60 years,
which may have been brought into
the district by the pioneers. The or
chard seems to be left to itseil with
out much care or attention and of
course can yield under such condi-
tions only small returns.
The Laporte County Fair Growers
association. however which has a
large membership, has started new
interest and many seem to be act,
lively at work in furthering this NOV
ment for more extensive fruit cul-
ture. which in my opinion, is crop
well suited to the climate and soil
conditions of this district.
One observation however, that I
made recently astonished me and
gave me the occasion to write this
short note as word of warning.
During this winter an orchard i'm the
vicinity of Laporte was pruned, but
the method followed is certainly not
the correct one. The trees were
cut DdCh HluCu W Hc oiCudIu
appeared much like a battlefield. On
the ground lie great piles OF branch
es that have been sawed off, and
the poor, seriously wounded trees
with their crowns almost entirely
DESTROYED, and truly pitiful sight.
This method of cutting back will
bring costly consequences. The
leaves are for the tree the organs
of growth, aud necessary to thrift
and rapid dev lopment. Removing
SO many of the smaller branches
at once reduces the vitality of tree
to low level, and places it at dis
advantage for years to come. If
such trees eventually do recover, it
stin requires additional time before
they can again bring their full crop
of fruit.
A very int resting example of the
harmfulness of this method of :prun-
ing recall from my own home, were
about so years ago our government
ordered that all of the fruit trees
Igrowing On public highways be treat
ed in this manner. 1t is the Gus
tom in many south German states to
plant fruit trees along all public high
ways and to auction off the crop
! zach year just before harvest time.
In this way the annual returns of
the trees are a matter of continuous
public record, and the results of this
pruning can be clearly traced in the
case in question. The returns had