y to
the orchard, unless we restore the lost fertility in some way. Orchards
so exhaust the soil in about sixteen years' cropping that it is worth
little afterwards. "It is estimated that an acre of apples in good
bearing removes annually about forty-nine pounds of nitrogen,
thirty-eight pounds of phosphoric acid, and seventy-two pounds of
potash. If the fertility and productiveness of the orchard is to be kept
up, these fertilizing elements must be returned in some form." At the
market value of these fertilizing materials, it amounts annually to
about twelve dollars an acre. It is estimated that an orchard will be in
full bearing in about ten years. Then in six years of full bearing it
will have exhausted the soil to the amount of seventy-two dollars per
acre. Take in consideration the previous cropping of ten years, need we
wonder what is the matter with our orchard? Should we diminish the feed
of a vigorous horse annually for ten years, do you think he could pull
the same load, or be of much value? The nitrogen is the most expensive
element, representing about half of the whole, yet it can be restored to
the soil by crimson or red clover, peas, vetches, beans, cow-peas, or
turnips, which have the ability of converting the free nitrogen of the
air into available plant food. The best method of accomplishing this end
is to grow these crops on the land and plow them under in their green
state at about maturity. I do not pasture my orchard; it is not
advisable and does not pay. My apples are troubled with codling-moth. I
do not spray. For borers, I bank the trees, so that if they deposit
their eggs they can be gotten out easily.

I pick my apples in baskets and sacks from a ladder, and sort them into
three classes: first, second, and culls. I pack in baskets and barrels;
press them in barrels, and mark with name of variety. I wholesale my
apples in the orchard to dealers; market the best in baskets and
barrels, sell my second and third grades the best way I can, and throw
the culls away. My best market is at home. I never tried distant
markets, and do not dry any. I am successful in storing apples for
winter in boxes and barrels in a cellar, and find Ben Davis, Stayman,
Willow Twig and York Imperial keep best. In storing apples for winter,
they should be picked before they are too ripe and when the weather is
not too hot; when picked they should be taken at once to shade and
packed and stored away in the cool of the eveni