nker. We had quite a number of Wealthy so
affected, and we cut out the affected bark and wood and then covered the
wound with lead, and in almost every case it has proved a cure, that is,
stopped the spread of the canker.

The second year our orchard was set out we began to mulch the trees with
grass cut in the orchard, clover straw, pea straw--anything we could
get. We were unable to mulch the entire orchard that year, and before we
got the balance mulched you could tell as far as you could see the
orchard which trees were mulched and which were not. The former not only
made a better growth, but had a healthier look. Now I do not want you to
get the idea that I am advocating the sod system except in locations
similar to ours. Were our orchard on more level ground I not only should
have cultivated the first three years, as advocated by most authorities,
but would have continued the cultivation in some degree at least.

Nevertheless, on account probably of the very favorable location, I
think our orchard will compare favorably with any cultivated orchard of
the same age. Having the orchard set out, protected against mice and
rabbits and mulched, we found that the real work of raising an orchard
had just begun. First came the gray beetles the following June, and they
ate the new growth off several hundred trees before we discovered them.
At that time, not knowing what else to do, we hand picked every one we
could find and destroyed them. These beetles we found came from oak
groves on the south and west, and the next year we sprayed with arsenate
of lead six or eight rows of trees on that side of the orchard, and as
we have since then sprayed the entire orchard each year we have had no
further trouble.

Next came pocket gophers, and before we learned how to stop them we had
lost a number of trees by their chewing off the roots just beneath the
surface of the ground. By opening their runways and placing well down in
them a piece of carrot or potato in which has been placed a little
strychnine we succeeded in getting rid of them entirely. Next came the
woodchucks. They were very destructive with us, chewing the bark above
the protectors as well as the roots. Trapping is the most successful
method we have found, and by keeping a half dozen traps out all the time
we held them in check. Eternal vigilance must be the motto of the
successful orchardist.

In the year 1913 we picked our first crop of apples, that is, in
suffici