The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1921-11-11

"oii'0 "IIci lidl spray, lUITV cover
spray about eighteen days later II
the first brood is entirely controlled
there won't be any second brood tc
come. Past season some ranchers
just sprayed calix, others sprayed ca
liX and waited until late in the sum
mer to spray first cover spray. In
these cases there were plenty of
worms. The ranches which had best
control of the worms and the smallest
per cent, were the ranchers who
sprayed the calix and then two cover
sprays on given dates, which is very
important.
Another grave mistake made by
some the past season was waiting un-
til after the lead spray was put on
before ditching the ground for irri-
cation. 1t is no JOY ride to go bump
ing over bitches riding on a spray
machine, but neither is it any fun try
ing to make bitches in a cover crop of
alfalfa two feet high. And that isn't
all, but in some cases the ground got
so dry before water was put on it that
it was almost impossible to get water
through to the ends of the rows, and
some trees dried up later in the sum-
mer just on this account. As there
was all kinds of water this past seas
on, and those who did not have their
ground wet made the mistake of not
starting to put the water on early
enough in the season. We can re-
member our trees are bearing size
now and take lots more water to de-
velop crops than it did just to produce
rev wood on young trees.
Ground should be well wet and then
the water should be taken off until
the ground warns up. This is what
makes trees and apples grow, heat
and moisture, and not cold wet
ground. Then the ground should not
be allowed to dry out before putting
the water back on again, as the hard
dry ground in hot weather of July
and August and no moisture for the
tree to take up, is about the worst
thing that can happen to our trees,
and also the crop on them, as it is of
ten the starter of dry spot on the fruit
and perhaps winter injury on the tree
the following season.
Thinning apples has got to be sci
ence. 1t, like pruning, can be over
done as well as under done. There is
q happy medium to all of it. Three
years ago if a rancher got little ap-
pies, it was pruning he thought he
lacked, so he went in and cut them all
to pieces to get the trees to bear big
apples. They did for one season, as
all the vitality went into about two
thirds of tree instead of a whole
tree. The second year he had little
apples again, so we found that We
did not have the right solution to get
big apples by cutting away one-third
Of the tree. So this idea was some
what abandoned and the latest idea
is to thin the small apples off very
heavy and some ranchers are already
threatening to annihilate whole
limbs of apples, this coming season
in order to get the size. There was
some heavy thinning and some good
thinning done up is this neck of the
woods, but still the apples did not get
So large but what you could still get
fortyeight of them into box, and the
missing link is, the KICK IN THE
SOIL. Without the plant food in the
soil for the tree to take up and pro-
duce crop, all the pruning and thin
ming will never make big apples grow
on a starving tree. You can't take
off without putting back, so we have
the same old story again. little apples.
Perhaps a little larger than last year
but just "a little because they got
all the water they wanted to drink
even if they did go hungry.
We should quit packing at PIG even
on Winesaps, and raise real North
western boxed apples. I believe il
can be done, and believe we are go
ing to have to do it.
Maturity.
Apples matured early this season
to what they mostly do here, and
where late picking has been done, es-
pecially on Romes. they are RIPE.
right now. Jonathons were left too
long on the trees in some
instances and interior breakdown has
been noticed. Taking everything inta
consideration, the good weather in
cluded, I think we have had the most
successful harvest that we have had
in years. The harvest has moved
along steadily with but very few
frosty mornings to delay the picking
Rain crack in the fruit is a rare
thing. where most seasons when we
have few fall rains we Gull. not 2
few, apples from a crack which
forms either at stem or caliX end OF