Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-11-04
Capt. N. G. Toms Fruit Culture
ExtensIve Fruit Growing on Mountain Top may Clearly
psmonstrate That i isaP Business in Western
Sa1olna; Valuable Object Lesson to Prospective Fruit
Growers Information Concerning Bic. Enternrse
as seen by 4 Newspaper Man

and $50 cherry trees, all of which
lare IN good condition and some of
the apple trees last year bore ff-
teen bushels of fine fruit. The
orchard is comparatively young.
therefore there are no large trees
but they are In a healthy condi-
ton and well cared for and the
prospects are bright for an abund-
ance of fruit. The orchard has
just reachedthe stage where the
owner should realize on the invest
ment, which is a heavy one for
there is something doing all the
year round In this orchard. repre-
sent1ng during the last few years
an annual expense in the neighbor-
hood of $1,000.
Some Items of Expense.
An idea as to how this money,is
spent and for what may be had by
reading further. There is on an
average four laborers working
throughout the year and during
harvest time, if the crop is a gooG
zone, a small army of fruit gather
r is employed. With all the fruit
now in the house the average per
son would think that there would
be nothing to do until next spring,
but things are quite to the con-
trary for about 5000 fruit trees re-
quire attention. Last week over on
lone side of the orchard was a man
with two oxen and a moving ma
chine cutting down the weeds and
thousands of locust and sassafras
sprouts, followed by men with
scythes to cut over those places
not accessible to the machine. Over
on the other side of the orchard
was another man riding a big har-
row drawn by two oxen for the
purpose of keeping the top soil
even and scrathing under the
grass and weeds In order to pre-.
vent the spreading of fire In the
event one should start in the orcL.
ard. The whole orchard is cover
ell by these two machines, and it
requires several days to accomplish
the task.
No Idle Moments.
1t has become necessary in or
der to preserve the trees to dig
around the roots next to the body
and take out borers and worms and
: and this work has been going on
now since the gathering Of the
fruit. Young trees will have to be
painted to keep the rabbits from
cutting them down and later in the
season comes the work of pruning,
and the dormant spraying is done
in December, January or February
to prevent scales and insects unless
it is postponed until spring just
before blooming time. Captain
Toms insists upon four sprayings.
He wouldn' t object to five in the
following order: The first or dor
mant spray in winter, the second
when the bud is opening, third
when the bloom falls. the fourth
three weeks later and the fifth
when the fruit is about the size of a
guinea egg.
J During the spring comes the
task of grating. Captain Toms.
buys his trees from the nursery
but sometimes he changes his mind
about the kind of fruit he wants
and after a tree has gotten up to
the point it will bear half a dozen
or more bushels of fine fruit, he
doesn't hesitate to saw out about
half the limbs and insert gratis in
them. When these CRAFTS grow to
u suitable size after one or two
years he saws off the other limbs
.or the same tree, cuts a twig from
the new grated growth so as to
make sure of having only one kind
Of fruit on the tree.
Trees Don't Grow High.
While some orchardists prune
their trees so as to have the lowest
limbs high enough for a,horse to
walk under in eultivating the field,
Captain Toms prunes his trees so
as to have the main limbs about
Is inches from the ground. He
prunes the tree in such a manner
from year to year as to keep it
from growing high, making it
much more convenient for spray,
ing and gathering fruit. In the
spring the ground under the tree is
hoed and cleaned thoroughly of all
tt ash and it doesn' t break the Cap
tain's heart to see the limbs heavy