The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1916-01-07
A BETTER APPLE CROP
Pruning and Spraying Pay Well,
According to the Missouri
College Of Agriculture.

money than any other farm
crop in Missouri if properly
grown and marketed, according
to ]. G. Written, of the Missouri
College of Agriculture. Many
men are making little or nothing
out Of it because of their failure
to prune, spray, and care for
their trees. Such men have been
complaining that they could not
sell their apples, and enormous
quantities certainly were wasted
in Missouri orchards last fall. At
the same time, the growers who
had properly managed their or
chards, graded their fruit, and
put it into cold storage for high
er prices later in the winter are
making money out of their crops.
If the orchards are not well man
aged, so much of the fruit is
small, scabby, wormy, or other
wise so unfit for storage that a
satisfactory price cannot be Sc
cured for it; so it is dumped on
the market in poor shape for inn
mediate use, and in worse shape
for storage. Such fruit spoils
the market temporarily, but is
quickly consumed or lost, and
even this soon after Christmas
we are paying high prices again
for good apples.
The value of careful spraying
is well shown by a test in which
the College cooperated with
twenty-five orchardists and
sprayed each orchard four times
a year at a cost of $22.26 an acre.
The fruit on the unsprayed
trees sold for $18.05 an acre,
while that on the sprayed trees
sold for S187.19 an acre, or
more than ten times as much,
making the average net profit
from spraying $136.78 an acre,
or about 600 per cent on the in
vestment.
Pruning may be made to show
equally good results, both prun-
ing and spraying is necessary. F.
w. Faurot, of the Agricultural
Extension Service, says pruning
may be done any time during the
winter when the weather is
warm enough to make the work
comfortable. He proceeds to
give some brief simple directions
for getting good results by what
he calls renovation pruning of
apple trees. Most of the Mis-
souri, orchards are certainly in
need of a thoro renovation.
Avoid the common practice of
cutting off all the branches cas-
lily reached from the ground,
and leaving the tree looking like
a large feather buster. Begin at
the top and thin out branches
which shade the center Of the
tree too much. If the tops are
too high, lower them moderately
and gradually so as not to dis
Iturb the balance between TOP
and roots. If the root system
has been developed to take care
of a large top and much of this
is suddenly removed, the roots
will send up so much more ma
terial than the remaining tor
can use that there will be a big
growth of water sprouts. Most
people remove too little instead
of too much of the top, but It'll
often necessary to distribute the
work over two years and some
times over three years.
Trees planted too thickly may
eed thinning, but if the branch
es of neighboring trees overlap
the level ones may be cut back
| to some upright branch. Always
prune close to the trunk or mair
branch, and never leave a stul
to carry decay into the tree
i. Paint all cut surfaces with white
lead and raw oil. Cut out blister
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