Fruit well grown and handled has ever been the most profitable of all crops; and certainly a better opportunity was never offered to any people than this one offers to the farmers of Tennessee and other Southern States. Knowing what has already been done and the success already achieved, it offers an opportunity to the man who has a taste for fruit growing and has the energy and capacity to properly care for an orchard, and the patience to wait for its fruiting, an assurance of success greater than that of almost any other business. And when his orchard has passed its fruitful age, and ceased to be profitable, it leaves the soil as rich as that of a virgin forest, as an inheritance for his children.
It must not be inferred that good results will be had in growing apples, or any kinds of fruit without up-to-date methods of culture; for fruits do not take kindly to careless and slovenly ways. There are many details necessary to success, and explicit directions cannot be given in an article of this kind that will be a sufficient guide to those who have no practical knowledge of fruit growing. There are some general rules, however, that apply in all cases, and that cannot be too strongly emphasized. No one should go into commercial fruit growing without first considering well their surroundings as to soil, location, shipping facilities and other matters of that kind, and more especially to their own fitness for the business. A man must have an adaptability to, and a taste for, any business to make a success of it, for each individual has, more or less, an adaptation for some calling; and many of the failures in life are the result of the individual’s failing to get into the right channel.
The right person with the proper surroundings, having settled the question of planting in the affirmative, there will come many matters of detail that will require the exercise of common sense and judgment, and for the practice of which no specific rules can be given. I do not know any better way to help beginners than to tell them some of the things they should not do, and thereby prevent their making some costly mistakes.
The most important question to be decided by a commercial planter is that of varieties, for they must be of the kinds to suit the market demands, must be regular bearers and barrel-fillers, and must ripen in succession. Don’t plant many varieties, for they must be shipped in carloads, and each variety should be ample for that purpose. Don’t plant novelties, the kinds that have all the good points and that never fail to bear, regardless of frosts and freezes, and are so often palmed off at fancy prices by smooth-talking salesmen who always have the perfect kinds; for when your “perfect kinds” begin to show up their crops of crabs and seedlings your smooth agent will be far away practicing his games upon other suckers. The perfect apple is yet a vision of the future, and need not be expected until the perfect man comes.
Confine your commercial planting to well tested kinds that have succeeded in locations similar to yours. Don’t buy inferior trees because they are cheap. You are planting for a lifetime, and your time and money will be worse than wasted trying to grow profitable orchards from inferior stock. Life is too short to waste it waiting for diseased trees to drag along for years and then die just as their fruitings should begin. Buy the best trees that you can get; for if you are not willing to pay a fair price for good stock, don’t go into the business; for that very fact is conclusive proof that you have missed your calling. Having made your selection of varieties, and bought good trees, don’t let them lie around exposed to sun and air until half dead and then blame the nurseryman if they fail to grow. A tree is a thing of life and loses vitality every hour it is exposed, and it will need all of its vitality in adapting itself to its new home, and to recover from its rude removal from where it grew. Don’t buy old trees, thinking you will gain a year’s time in growth and fruiting, for such will not be the case. All experienced planters agree that one-year apple trees will live better, grow better and bear fruit as early as older ones. They can be bought for less money, are easier to plant and can be pruned to grow the style of tree you want. Only the thrifty, healthy trees are large enough for planting at one year old, and in buying them you run no risk of getting inferior stock.
Don’t plant without a thorough preparation of the soil, for no after care will compensate for the bad effect of careless preparation. The first year is the crucial period in the life of a tree; it has lost in removal many of its roots, and practically all of those fine, fibrous feeders through which it drank life from the soil; and while nature has stored in its cells a reserve supply of vitality, yet it needs every aid that can be given to enable it to overcome the loss of roots and the shock of removal and to succeed in its efforts to become established in its new home. Do not forget that the success or failure of your orchard will be largely owing to the manner of planting and to the treatment that it gets during the first year.
Having planted first-class, one-year trees in well prepared soil, cut them down to stubs eighteen to twenty-four inches high and let them branch close to the ground, for if there is a single reason for growing a long-bodied tree I have never heard it. On the contrary, there are many reasons against it. Let every twig that starts grow the first year, for they will be needed to furnish leaves to assimilate the food taken up by the roots, and to return the solid part to increase the growth of trees and root. You have now only the question of cultivation, and that should be the best that you can give. Plant the orchard in some suitable crop, preferably a low growing one, that requires hoe work, but leave ample space next to the trees for continuous cultivation, and keep that space clear of grass and weeds, for the trees cannot compete in their new surroundings with these gross drinkers of the water that is in the soil, that will be so badly needed to start their growth. Should the summer be dry, keep a dust mulch by frequent cultivation with light harrows or sweeps until the fall rains come, and if your soil is reasonably fertile, the growth the trees will make will be a surprise and pleasure, and the hardest period in growing your orchard will be a thing of the past. Get all the information you can from practical fruit growers; study the bulletins of the National Agricultural Department and of the State Experimental Station; read the papers and magazines that treat of these subjects; seek every available source of information; and having digested the opinions and practices of others, formulate your own opinions, map out the course you believe most suitable to your surroundings and follow the dictates of your own judgment. Continue this line of action through the coming years, adapting your methods to suit the condition of your orchard from year to year, and if you have exercised good common sense success is as certain to reward your efforts as anything in this life can be certain that is dependent upon human effort and the vicissitudes of drouths, storms and frosts.