Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-02-12
THE HORTICULTURAL CONVEN-
TION.
Winnesbiek County Society i'm Fine
Meeting Last Week.

tendance.
The opening address was made by
County Supt. H. E. Miller, who spoke
in place of Atty. E. w. Cutting, the
president, who was busy in court and
could not attend.
A number of prominent horticul-
turists were present and read papers
and gave addresses.
c. F. Gardner, of Usage gave pa
per on grapes and everbearing straw
berries; Isaac Johnson, of West
Union a paper on, "Three best
varieties Of apples for farmers or
chard for this locality and reasons
why"
John Harter Of DEBORAH read a pa
per on grapes and one on "Observa-
lions the past season." A. (. Bents
and John Kakas, of Cresco gave in
teresting talks also. Other papers
were by w. T. Symonds, on flowers;
Rev. A. r. Grant, vegetables and in
tensive gardening; Mr.. Addison, OF
Ames, on The Culture OF Bees"
! Isaac Johnson and N. O. Bue on
The Wintering Of Bees" County
Agent H. 0. Watrud was present and
gave the closing address.
A large display of apples, flowers
and house plants were on exhibition
and attracted no little attention.
A paper on spraying was read by
o. O. Lomen as follows:
You will note that Mr.. Harter
and myself are the only two on for
this subject, as l believe we are
about the only spraying cranks in
this county. Maybe Mr.. Seekatz is
one and Mr.. Cutting and Baker are
about as bad, as they both hired Mr..
! Harter to spray their respective or
chards the past season. We hope
f there will be many spraying cranks
around before long. About I or s
years ago | received some circulars
from the Horticultural department
at Ames advising me or anyone who
had an orchard to get a sprayer and
spray. After thinking the matter
over | decided to get a sprayer and !
sent to a firm in Minneapolis for one
and sprayed my orchard. In the fall
we had the first Winneshiek County
Horticultural Show, and Prof. Bliss
of Ames college, who was Judge of
fruits made a statement in one of
his addresses as follows: Last
spring our department sent out cir
cular letters advising fruit growers
to get sprayers and your secretary,
Mr.. Lomen, was one of these who
was induced to get sprayer and /
must say, he continued, in his large
exhibit on wonder tables it is hard to
find a wormy apple"
About five years ago | was sick all
spring. In May my friends Mr.. Har-
ter and Mr.. Symonds, came to visit
me. During the afternoon these
gentlemen took a walk through my
orchard. Returning to the house Mr..
Harter said, "Mr. Lomen you must
get well before your apples harvest
is due" What do you place my crop
at l asked. $50 per cent of a full
crop was his answer" l was not able
to take the sprayer out of the shed
that season and how did it turn out
with my so per cent CROP never
sold barrel of apples that year. I
would not put such apples on the
market. We gathered some 40 bush
els for our own use, made 40 or so
bushels into vinigar, the balance,
about 200 barrels, / let the hogs
take. Apples make good hog feed.
A year ago last spring the trees
in my eight acre orchard were white
with blossoms as if they had been
iS q
sight to see eight acres of trees
white, as if covered with snow, the
sun shining from above and the
green grass underneath. Right across
the road from my orchard there is
an orchard of about 40 trees in the
prime of life. Those 40 trees were
just as white with blossoms as mine.
There was no difference in that re-
spect. But here comes the Goblin
moth and he deposits an egg into
the CaylaX of nearly every blossom
of those 40 trees. At the same time
| thousands of moths are at work lay
ing eggs in nearly every blossom in
my orchard. In few days l came
along with my sprayer and deposit
ed a little poison in the Caylax of
nearly every blossom in my orchard.
The blossoms in both orchards closed
up and started to form the apples.
In the orchard across the road there
was no poison deposited in the bios
SONS, the eggs Matched out worm.
In my orchard the poison killed
about 90 per cent of the eggs. You
might ask this question, Would 1t
not be dangerous to eat an apple
after you put poison into the bios
soms?" No, because the poison goes
into the center of the core which is
never used, and in order to poison
your system you would have to eat
I13 bushels at one time, core, seeds
and all. But to return to the orchards
What was the result? In the 40
tree orchard across the road about
rs per cent of the apples that formed
dropped to the ground before the end
of June and one half of the balance
during July, the rest were wormy,
scrubby, scabby and deformed. l
went through that orchard the lat
ter part of August and examined 1t
thoroughly and came to the conclus'
ion that it would be impossible To
find one bushel of nice perfect ap-
pies. made a statement on having
visited that orchard that / would give
lany one a five dollar bill If he could
find me a bushel Of perfect apples on
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