Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Part 18

A. W. RICHARDSON, FRUIT GROWER, HOWARD LAKE, MINN.

It is now about eighteen years since I conceived the idea of fruit culture as a competency for old age, being then, as now, employed as representative for some concern and required to travel over this state, earning a livelihood for myself and family. The nature of my first work on the road necessitated my attendance (a large portion of the time) at Minnesota farmers' inst.i.tute meetings, where I came in contact with those gentlemen employed in that work, and among the number our friend Clarence Wedge, of Albert Lea, and other personal friends, such as O. C.

Gregg, the founder of the inst.i.tute work, Mr. Greely, Mr. Trow and others. It was among these gentlemen I got my first desire for a piece of land, and was advised by them several times to get a piece of land, and if I could not afford to buy a large piece, to buy a small piece, which latter course I was compelled to adopt. I became imbued with a desire to grow fruit and was particularly interested in the subject of horticulture, and eagerly devoured all the literature obtainable on the subject, and listened very attentively to all discussions on the subject at these meetings.

In 1897 I moved to Howard Lake and succeeded Mr. E. J. Cutts in the nursery and fruit growing business. Mr. Cutts was well known to a great many. He died just prior to my residence in Howard Lake, where I got in my first practical experience in the fruit-growing business. After conducting this business for about twelve months, I disposed of it and bought a home in another part of town and at once set out about 200 apple trees and other small fruit. Gradually I acquired more land and set out more trees, until today I have about 1,600 apple trees, about 1,000 of which are at bearing age. I made one grand mistake however, as a great many other growers have done and are still doing, I planted too many varieties. I used the list of tried and recommended sorts issued by the State Horticultural Society (long before I became a member) and planted accordingly and, like many other growers, have my quota of Hibernals, Minnesotas, Marthas and other sorts which experience has demonstrated are not nearly as desirable as other varieties.

I have demonstrated to my entire satisfaction that it is profitable and perfectly proper to grow also small fruits in a young orchard. In my second orchard, containing about 600 trees, I planted the trees 15x30 feet and later the same season set out raspberries 3x6 feet, occupying all the s.p.a.ce in the rows and between the rows, and for two successive seasons I grew a third crop between the raspberries, which plan works admirably. One mistake I made, however, was in planting a little too close to the apple trees, requiring more hoeing around the apple trees to keep the raspberries in subjection, which could have been obviated to a large extent by not planting so closely. I grew raspberries about seven years in this orchard. My returns after the second year brought me $500.00 to $700.00 annually, and I sold enough plants to more than pay me for all the labor expended on the orchard, to say nothing of corn, beans, cabbage, etc., raised the first two years between the raspberries. Now the trees are about ten years old and all bearing. I have discontinued the cultivation and have seeded to clover, which we usually mow and allow to lie and rot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of A. W. Richardson, at Howard Lake.]

I figure that outside the investment I have brought my orchard into bearing with practically no expense, having had a revenue every year since planting the trees, which are composed of Patten Greening, Hibernal, d.u.c.h.ess, Wealthy, Peerless, Minnesota, Virginia, Okabena and Whitney. My last orchard of 625 trees consists princ.i.p.ally of Wealthy, and trees are set 20x20, and I am following the same plan of growing a crop between. The year 1915 makes four crops taken from this young orchard, now four years old. About two more seasons will follow this year, and then about the time for bearing I will discontinue the planting of any crop and sow it to clover.

I plant one or two year old trees trimmed to a whip, digging a much larger and deeper hole than is really necessary to accommodate the roots, but I am sure this plan gives the roots a much better start than if they are crowded into a small hole, and particularly if the ground is hardpan or similar soil. Pinching off the buds the following year or two, when you commence shaping your trees to your liking, is good, thus eliminating severe pruning. I have endeavored to follow up this annual pruning when possible, often being compelled to hire additional help for this purpose, as the nature of my regular business keeps me from home when I should be pruning. I am sure you will agree with me so far that "fruit growing in Minnesota is successful."

Four years ago or more I decided that in order to receive the top price for the products off my place I must produce a first cla.s.s article, and so to that end I have worked. I bought a gasoline power sprayer, costing me about $300--by the way, the first one in Howard Lake, although two of us there each bought one the same spring, and now there are three power sprayers in our village. I have demonstrated that it is possible to get the top price of the market in more ways than one by furnishing a first cla.s.s article. You will ask me how it is possible for me to do this and be away from home so much. I have been ably a.s.sisted by my wife, who sees that my general directions are carried out as I have outlined.

This year we have marketed something over 300 barrels and have received the top market price, netting me about $500.00. I tried out a new plan this year, selling through a reliable commission firm. I have heretofore sold direct to the retailer with splendid results. 1913 was a b.u.mper year and the market flooded everywhere with poor unsprayed stuff. I sold about 250 barrels and received an average of $3.25 per barrel, F.O.B.

Howard Lake, and in 1914 about the same amount was realized. There is always a good demand for a good article, carefully picked and honestly packed, discarding all bruised and scabby or wormy apples, or those undersized or less than 2-1/2 inches in diameter.

This season I sprayed my trees three times, the first time early in April, using what is known as a dormant spray, using commercial lime-sulphur solution 32 degrees Baume, 20 gallons to a tank of 200 gallons of water, or four times as strong as the two subsequent sprayings, after the blossoms fall, at which later time I use in addition a.r.s.enate of lead, 10 pounds to a 200 gallon tank of water, and work under 200 pound pressure--and by doing thorough work can produce apples almost entirely free from any disease or worms. My last shipment of apples this year was October 2nd and consisted of 196 barrels, one-third each of Hibernals, Patten Greenings and Wealthys, which brought top prices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. A. W. Richardson, Howard Lake.]

I am a firm believer in co-operative marketing and think it is the only logical way to market any crop, but to conduct a successful marketing organization there should be stringent rules compelling all who join an a.s.sociation for marketing to spray thoroughly if nothing else, as I am firmly convinced that you cannot grow apples and compete with other localities without doing so, and doing so every year, whether a prospect for a good crop exists or not. I can prove this, as I only partly covered my entire orchard in 1913 with spraying. You could easily see which had been sprayed and which not. Excessive rain at the vital time prevented my completion of the work. I am convinced by experience, too, that the dormant spray, usually neglected by most growers, is very necessary and am sure better and healthier foliage is obtained by this practice, and by it the scale can be controlled in a large degree.

I had eight to ten Patten's Greening trees that had been attacked by a disease called by some "oyster scale." The trees abnormally lost their foliage early in the season, and I had about decided they were dead when, after a dormant spray the following spring, they entirely revived and are now as healthy as any trees on my place.

I have practiced top-working to some extent and for the past three or four years have been able to put down in my cellar, several bushels of Jonathan, Grimes Golden, Delicious and other varieties. Have now about 125 Jonathan trees top-worked on Hibernals, and except for some blight they have done splendidly.

There is no room for discussion, no room for argument in any way, why fruit-growing in Minnesota is not a very successful business to be engaged in. I have demonstrated, I am sure, that if I can bring an orchard into bearing and hold down a good, fairly lucrative position at the same time and do so with very little expense, and others can do the some thing.

Now I am going to criticise some one and let the criticism fall where it belongs. There has been a great injustice done the commercial fruit grower, or those trying to grow fruit commercially, by advising, urging, or anything else you choose to call it, the farmer or small homekeeper to buy more fruit trees and plants than this cla.s.s of individual needs for his own use. In order to receive some returns for this surplus, he rushes it into town and sells it to the best advantage, delivered in sacks, soap boxes, etc., carelessly handled and b.u.mped into town in a lumber wagon. The merchant is loaded up with a lot of unsalable stuff and often finds himself overloaded and barrels up some and sends it to the commission row and expects some returns, which vary from nothing to a very small amount. Why, last season I knew a large general merchandise concern in a town a little west of Howard Lake that thought they had struck a gold mine. They employed a packer or two, bought barrels, rented a building and bought this cla.s.s of stuff right and left, offered at any old price, $1.50 per barrel to anything they could get, and sold clear up to the Canadian line. I saw the stuff a great many times after it reached its destination, and it was hardly fit for sale at any price.

This indiscriminate selling of nursery stock by eager salesmen and nurserymen is doing more to hurt the commercial fruit growing industry than any one thing. The only salvation for the grower making his living out of the business is to produce a better article, better picked, better packed and marketed through the proper channels. This matter just referred to I have often discussed by the hour, and during the past winter my views were thoroughly endorsed by prominent men in the extension work of our state.

In conclusion will say, comparing the fruit industry in Minnesota with that greatest of all industry, raising grain, it is so much easier (if ordinary care be exercised) to produce a finer article, more attractive in appearance, better packed and marketed properly, than the other fellow does, while in growing grain this is not the case, as all the grain is dumped into the hopper and bin, and the individuality of the grower is forever lost. The demand for the apple has increased wonderfully the last few years, and it is quite likely to be further increased owing to the European demand for American apples, which for the next fifteen or twenty years will increase by leaps and bounds, owing to the devastating of so many of the great orchard sections in parts of Austria and northern France. This authentic information came through Mr. H. W. Collingwood, many years editor of the Rural New Yorker, and according to Mr. Collingwood's idea there has been no time in the history of the United States when the outlook for commercial orchards was so bright. He advises the widespread planting of commercial orchards to meet this new demand which has shown itself already in Europe and will greatly increase after the war is over.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A two-acre field of Dunlap strawberries on place of A. W.

Richardson, at Howard Lake.]

Mr. Ludlow: I would like to know what you advise for that commercial orchard, what varieties?

Mr. Richardson: Wealthys, all the time. (Applause.)

Mr. Ludlow: I would like to ask for the comparative prices you received for the three apples you mentioned, Wealthy, Greening and Hibernal.

Mr. Richardson: The Hibernal sold for around $3.00 a barrel and the Wealthy sold for three something. Mind you, I never sold apples at all until this year to Minneapolis markets. I can sell all the apples I can grow myself without any trouble if I have the proper men to pick them and pack them at home. I had a son that was doing that until a few years ago, and he followed my instructions and would place nothing but first cla.s.s stuff in the barrels and would sell my samples without any trouble and get the top market price. I run across down in my cellar some of last year's crop of Northwest Greenings, just two of them left, one of them partially decayed. Something I never had known to happen before.

They lay in the cellar just wrapped up.

Mr. Ludlow: It wasn't embalmed?

Mr. Richardson: No, sir. Gentlemen, you need not be afraid of growing fruit in Minnesota.

Mr. Ludlow: What peculiar method have you for keeping those apples?

Mr. Richardson: Just wrapped in paper only.

The President: What temperature do you keep in your cellar?

Mr. Richardson: 40 degrees about this time.

The President: You have a heater in your cellar?

Mr. Richardson: Yes, sir, but this is shut off from that, though the pipes run through.

A Member: Are your trees still as far apart as they were at first?

Mr. Richardson: No, sir. I neglected to say that I sent East and got some roots, and I was advised to set them out between. I have part of my orchard set 15x16, but that is too close together.

A Member: If you were going to do it again would you put them 30x30?

Mr. Richardson: 20x20, that is, Wealthys, particularly. Of course, for the Hibernals, you got to put them farther apart.

A Member: You mentioned the Delicious. What is your opinion of the Delicious?

Mr. Richardson: My experience has been so little with them. I have about 150 Jonathan trees coming on that will be all right.

MARBLE PILLAR TO FAMOUS MCINTOSH TREE.--Perhaps one of the most curious monuments in existence has recently been built in Ontario by Canadians. The farmers have just erected a marble pillar to mark the site on which grew a famous apple tree.

More than a century ago a settler in Canada named McIntosh, when clearing a s.p.a.ce in which to make a home in the wilderness, discovered among a number of wild apple trees one which bore fruit so well that he cultivated it and named it McIntosh Red.

The apple became famous, and seeds and cuttings were distributed to all parts of Canada, so that now the McIntosh Red flourishes wherever apples grow in the great dominion. In 1896 the original tree from which this enormous family sprang was injured by fire, but it continued to bear fruit until five years ago. Then, after 15 years, it died, and the grateful farmers have raised a marble pillar in honor of the tree which has done so much for the fruit growing industry of their land.

The story of this apple tree ill.u.s.trates the African proverb that though you can count the apples on one tree, you can never count the trees in one apple.--January Popular Science Monthly.

Report of Committee on Horticultural Building.

S. P. CROSBY, CHAIRMAN, ST. PAUL.

As you know, at the last legislature there was a bill prepared and introduced asking for an appropriation of $40,000 to build a new home for this society. It was provided, that that home should be located on the grounds of University Farm or upon the grounds of the State Agricultural Society, and that was to be left to the discretion of the executive board of this society. The bill is a very well drawn bill, and the committee appeared before the legislature some four or five times.

We went before the committee of the senate and before the committee of the house and senate, and as a matter of fact the result was that the bill never came out of the committee.