Chapter I: Preface

In the preparation of this book I have tried to keep constantly before me the conditions of the average farm in the Northeastern States with its small apple orchard. It has been my aim to set down only such facts as would be of practical value to an owner of such a farm and to state these facts in the plain language of experience. This book is in no sense intended as a final scientific treatment of the subject, and if it is of any value in helping to make the fruit department of the general farm more profitable the author will be entirely satisfied.

The facts herein set down were first learned in the school of practical experience on the writer's own farm in Western New York. They were afterwards supplemented by some theoretical training and by a rather wide observation of farm orchard conditions and methods in New York, Pennsylvania, the New England States and other contiguous territory. These facts were first put together in something like their present form in the winter of 1909-10, when the writer gave a series of lectures on Commercial Fruit Growing to the Short Courses in Horticulture at Cornell University. These lectures were revised and repeated in 1910-11 and are now put in their present form.

The author's sincere thanks are due to Professor C.S. Wilson, of the Department of Pomology at Cornell University, for many valuable facts and suggestions used in this book, and for a careful reading of the manuscript. He is also under obligations to Mr. Roy D. Anthony of the same Department for corrections and suggestions on the chapters on Insects and Diseases and on Spraying.

M.C. BURRITT.

Hilton, N.Y. February, 1912.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE OUTLOOK FOR THE GROWING OF APPLES 11

II. PLANNING FOR THE ORCHARD 18

III. PLANTING AND GROWING THE ORCHARD 30

IV. PRUNING THE TREES 48

V. CULTIVATION AND COVER CROPPING 62

VI. MANURING AND FERTILIZING 78

VII. INSECTS AND DISEASES AFFECTING THE APPLE 92

VIII. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF SPRAYING 108

IX. HARVESTING AND STORING 127

X. MARKETS AND MARKETING 142

XI. SOME HINTS ON RENOVATING OLD ORCHARDS 153

XII. THE COST OF GROWING APPLES 164

APPLE GROWING