We have also used the lead and oil with splendid results in treating trees affected with canker.  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 sufficient quantity to be considered in a commercial way.  Our Duchess we sold in barrels at $2.00 net.  Wealthy we packed in bushel boxes, making two sizes, the larger, three inches and over, we called No. 1, and they sold for $1.25 per box net.  The balance or smaller ones were also sold in boxes and brought us $1.00 per box net.  Patten Greenings brought us 80 cents and Northwestern Greenings, 90 cents per box.  Our neighbors, who sold to the local and transient buyers in bulk and in barrels, received 75 cents to 90 cents per hundred pounds, or $2.00 per barrel.