week or two after the honey flow is over. Extracting should be done in
hot weather, during August or early part of September. A modern hand or
power extractor is an absolute necessity. There are still a few old
timers who "butcher" their bees late in the fall, and render the honey
by the "hand mash and sheet strain" method, but they are only relics of
a poetical past and going fast.
Honey to be extracted must be well capped over. If extracted too thin it
will ferment and get sour. If left with bees too long it will be too
thick and hard to extract. Extracting ought to be done in a bee-tight
room to keep out robber bees. Extracted supers may be returned to the
bees in the evening or piled up at a distance in a safe place for bees
to clean out. Extracted honey must be left to stand in a settling tank
for about a week, or until all air bubbles and wax particles have risen
to the top. It should be put up into five gallon cans or barrels for
wholesale trade. For retail trade it should be bottled when needed, else
it will candy in the glass. Bottling it hot or heating it after bottling
will delay crystallization for a considerable period. The bottles ought
to be white, clean and labeled with your name. Each kind of container
should be well packed in a wooden shipping case. Do not make it a
practice to sell a large amount to a customer at once, sell rather
smaller amounts at frequent intervals.
ORCHARD NOTES.
Conducted monthly by R. S. MACKINTOSH, Horticulturist, Extension
Division, University Farm, St. Paul.
Once in a while it is well to pause for a few moments to consider some
of the results of past efforts. We have been growing apples in Minnesota
in large quantities. Insects and diseases are causing more damage each
year, and this has lead us to pay more attention to the prevention of
these pests. A regular spraying program has been outlined, and many
persons have adopted it. What are the results? It seems to us that the
results of spraying at West Concord, Minn., should be made known to the
readers of the MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST. It indicates very
clearly the value of spraying and how someone in a community can take
charge and diligently push for better methods. In this case the
instructor in agriculture, with the aid of his superintendent and board
of education, secured a power sprayer and began to spray the orchards in
the vicinity. At first it was necessary to ask the owners if they might
spray their trees. After three years, however, the owners appealed to
Prof. Updegraff to have their trees sprayed. This year he had more work
than he could manage. Demonstrations of this kind show the value of the
work so vividly that the most skeptical gradually becomes convinced of
its value.
Several schools have purchased spraying outfits. We hope that we shall
hear from more of them in the future. In many cases the spraying outfit
is used for whitewashing the interior of barns and other buildings.
Reports that come to the Agricultural Extension Division indicate that
there will be a surplus of apples in some sections this year. We want to
assist in the distribution of the surplus and shall continue the Apple
Clearing House again this year. If you have more apples than you can
sell locally please let the division know what you have to sell. Address
the Agricultural Extension Division, University Farm, St. Paul.
Apples for market must be graded and packed properly if they are to be
sold through the regular trade routes. The barrel is the standard
package in most parts of the country. The bushel basket is being used
for early fruit in some markets. All fruit for sale should be _hand
picked from the tree_ (not from the ground) and allowed to cool. Grade
according to size and freedom from insect and other injuries. Pack
carefully so as to avoid bruising. When cover is put on press firmly in
place. Do not allow fruit to shake about while in transit. Pick early
maturing fruit while more or less green. Ripe fruit will not keep well
during hot weather. (See page 321 of this number.)
Late August and September is the time when practically all our county
fairs are held. It is hoped that the exhibits of fruits, vegetables and
flowers will be large and of good quality. Follow the premium list very
carefully. Put on the plate the right number of specimens. Pick apples
so as to leave stems attached. Quality means specimens of perfect shape
for the variety, free of insect or disease injuries, without bruises and
well colored. Vegetables should be well selected in every particular.
Select the specimens that you would like to use. The overgrown specimens
are not always the best.
[Illustration: A VALLEY LAWN WITH SHRUBBERY ON BORDER OF WOODS.
FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY HENHOUSE AND YARDS.
View on same grounds with garden pergola shown on page 331.]
While it is not the intention to publish anything in this
magazine that is misleading or unreliable, yet it must be
remembered that the articles published herein recite the
experience and opinions of their writers, and this fact must
always be noted In estimating their practical value.
THE MINNESOTA HORTICULTURIST
Vol. 44 SEPTEMBER, 1916 No. 9
The Pergola--Its Use and Misuse, Convenience and Expense.
CHAS. H. RAMSDELL, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, MINNEAPOLIS.
Let me take you by a brief word picture to Italy, the first home of the
pergola as we see it hereabouts today. On the hills and vineyards above
the sea, in that sunny land, I can see a beautiful home or villa,
seemingly about to tumble off the rocky point on which it rests. Indeed,
so scant is the space about the building that none is left for trees to
shade the white house from the heat of the tropic sun. But shade must be
had to break the glare of the noonday. The vine and the grape thrive
amazingly near the sea, and this necessity evolved the pergola. It was
compact, could be made straight or curving, short or long, usually
narrow but still supporting to some height the delicate leaves and fruit
of the grape. Thus, the Italian secured his shade and made an
interesting walk or approach. Because of its open work and light
proportions the views of the beautiful Italian sea and sunset were not
blocked but thereby improved, each view framed in by the pergola
pillars, with the picturesque tracery of the vine clinging to them.
Here was its home, and here it was perfect in its setting. We Americans,
in our zeal to secure all that's good, have brought it bodily to our
homes. But like much else that's transplanted, we do not always look
well to the new conditions as comparable to the old. The pergola is,
however, too valuable a garden feature to do without. Our greater care
should be to study our need, use the pergola when advisable for some
other feature, like one of those illustrated on this sheet, when more
appropriate.
In construction the pergola is usually made of materials to match the
house, sometimes masonry or stone pillars as well as those of wood. The
rafters and lighter beams should be made of the most durable wood,
preferably cypress, and carefully painted. The pillars may be of classic
design or of more modern lines, but if they are of a thickness greater
than one-seventh of their height, they are not proportionate to the
light load they carry. Preferably, the columns rest on and are anchored
to concrete or stone footings in the ground. The supporting rafters from
pillar to pillar are the heavier construction, the cross beams, etc.,
the lighter.
[Illustration: Pergola over garden gate, with planting to screen kitchen
garden, in Minneapolis.]
The surface of the ground beneath the pergola should be made of weather
proof brick or tile floors. They shed the surface water and make it
useable in damp weather, not possible with the turf.
The cost of these structures is largely optional with the builder. One
clever with carpenter's tools can build one at the cost of his time and
lumber. The other limit cannot be set. Masonry pillars, cypress lumber,
pavement of the floor, the size, cost of design, etc., will, upon
occasion, bring up this cost to that of a small house. I have found a
firm in Chicago who will ship one complete, ready to set up, following
one's own design, or, after submitting standard designs and photographs
of their work. They sell one 8 feet long, 7 feet 6 inches wide and 7
feet 6 inches high with 10-inch columns for $45.00, each additional
8-foot section $25.00, f.o.b., Chicago. The pictures shown of such a
pergola are highly attractive. From this figure the cost runs up to
$500.00 and even $1,000.00 for circular construction eight-four long and
correspondingly heavy. Of course, one can secure low figures from any
local millwork company if a good detailed design is available. In this
way good distinctive work is possible.
Its uses are infinite. It may serve to connect the architectural lines
of the house with garage or other smaller building. It may lead from
house to garden, or along an overlook walk along the river or lake. It
may encircle a garden pool or an important statue. It can be made an
approach to a band stand, or other park building. It will make part of
the garden background, but should not be depended upon without the
higher foliage so eminently desirable.
[Illustration: A garden pergola erected last summer on clients' grounds
south of Lake Harriet, Minneapolis--covering walk from house to garden,
sixty five feet long.]
Do not make the mistake of expecting a pergola to serve as a porch or
outdoor place to sit or sleep. One needs the roof of a tea house to keep
off the evening dews or occasional shower. It cannot be made a large
feature of the grounds like a garden. It is not important enough. It
will not, without trees and high shrubs behind it, make any background
as will a garden wall or lattice. It is no barrier along a street or of
any use as a fence or division line. And sometimes the lines of a house
or building may be better carried by a rose arch or vine arch without
the expense of a pergola. Thus you see it has its limited place, and its
use must be decided upon with good taste and judgment.
The pergola is almost incomplete without the growing vines on it. A four
years' growth of Beta or Janesville grapes (which we don't have to lay
down for winter), will give one a beautiful showing of the hanging fall
fruit. The bittersweet is also good with yellow fall fruit. The several
varieties of clematis are desirable if combined with the heavier growing
grape or woodbine. The woodbine is good for its fall color, although
weedy in growth.
The Minnesota honeysuckle should be mentioned, also the Dutchman's Pipe
and the Solanum, all good in a limited way. The climbing roses are all
right to use, although they lack foliage background and have to be laid
down every winter. However, I like to believe the man who designed the
first pergola had the grape vine in his mind in so doing, for the two
fit conditions like hand and glove.
It is a structure of charming possibilities. Its lines curve as well as
any other feature. Its proportions should be always light and graceful.
It adds much to almost any garden or home grounds when carefully used.
Its open work overhead typifies the freedom of the outdoors. It also
recalls the vine and its growth to the light. And if we temper our
enthusiasm with good sense, its use will be fortunate and the result a
happy one.
Packing and Marketing Apples.
H. M. DUNLAP, PRES. ILL. ORCHARD CO., SAVOY, ILLS.
The growing of apples is one problem, the marketing is another. The two
are intimately related but entirely different. It is essential in
obtaining the best results to first grow good apples for the market.
This, like the darkey's receipt for rabbit soup, comes first. The darkey
says, "first kotch your rabbit."
Many a grower who understands fairly well how to produce good fruit is
lost when it comes to selling it to an advantage to himself. You notice
that I said "to himself." It is often done to the advantage of the
buyer. Like most inventors the apple grower usually needs assistance in
selling what he has produced. The grower who connects up with the best
methods in this particular gets best results.
No one can long be successful whose methods are not careful and honest
in the packing of apples.
_Equipment for Harvesting the Apple Crop._--There are some who insist
that the only way to pick apples is to use a basket lined with cloth.
These insist that the use of the basket in picking is the most careful
method and that the bruising of the apples is reduced to a minimum. I
have, however, seen apples handled very roughly in baskets. The picker
hangs the basket on the tree, on the ladder rung, or sets it on the
ground and then proceeds to shoot the apples into the basket from
distances of one foot or six or eight feet away.
The bottomless picking sack, with broad straps across the shoulders, has
come into use within the past few years in many commercial orchards. My
experience is that either the basket or sack is good if rightly handled,
and either may be objectionable if care is not exercised.
My own experience after using both is in favor of the sack. If care is
used no more bruising will be done than with the basket, and it is far
more expeditious. Both hands are at liberty for use in the picking. The
sack should not be shifted about, and the picker should not be allowed
to lean against the rungs of the ladder with the filled sack between.
The sack should be lowered into the picking crate so that the apples
have no drop in emptying the sack. Pointed ladders are the best for tall
trees and less liable to injure the tree or turn turtle and upset the
picker.
A packing house is essential if best results are to be obtained, but
many growers use the canvas-covered table in the orchard, picking and
packing the product from sixteen to thirty-six trees at a sitting, and
then moving the table to the next center, and in this way the entire
orchard. In good weather this is not so bad as might seem, but at times
the sun is very hot, or sudden showers saturate everything, and in the
late fall the weather is too cold and frosty for comfort. On the whole,
therefore, a good sized packing house or shed built at a convenient
place in or near the orchard is the more desirable method of handling
the crop. This building must be large enough to give room for a sorting
table three feet wide by sixteen or more feet in length, or, better
still, room for an apple grading machine of best pattern, which will
occupy about three feet by twenty feet. There should be a space on one
side or end of the building for unloading the bushel crates with which
all well regulated orchards should be equipped, when they come from the
orchard. These crates can be stacked up four or five deep, and there
should be adequate room for these based on necessities. There should be
room for at least a day's supply of apple barrels and a place to cooper
them up by driving the hoops and nailing same. There should be enough
room to face and fill barrels and head them up and to stack up enough
for half a day's hauling ahead.
The size of this building will depend upon whether you are barreling 100
barrels per day or 1,000 barrels. For the former a building 28x20 feet
will answer very well. For the latter amount 60x100 feet would be none
too large. This building should have skylights in the roof. I build
these of ordinary greenhouse sash about 3x6 feet, usually putting in two
of these in each building on the north or east side of the roof,
according to the slope, and directly over the sorting end of the table.
This will give you light an average of thirty minutes more each day and
prolong the day's work that much, or at least make it possible to do
better work on cloudy days and in the evenings.
The building should be approachable on all four sides with the wagon,
and doors either sliding or hinged should open at least ten feet wide
for taking apples in and out. For example, I have my sheds arranged to
take the fruit as it comes from the orchard on one side of the building.
The number one apples go out one door, and in case I use a grader the
number two go out another side. The cider apples also take their route.
The fourth side is used for supplying empty barrels as needed. Thus you
see the necessity for getting to all four sides. On the side where the
filled barrels are loaded onto the wagon there should be a raised
platform so that the loading can be carefully and easily done. A bin for
the cider or vinegar apples should be built with a roof on same.
Low-wheeled, platform wagons are needed to haul fruit from the orchard
to the packing house.
_The standard barrel of three bushels_ capacity is used generally by the
commercial orchardist in preference to the box. Good hoops are growing
scarcer every year, and some, including myself, are using two or four of
the six hoops required of the twisted splice steel wire variety as being
both safer and more economical. In transit or in storage they hold
better and do not break and scatter the contents of the barrel over the
car floor or storage warehouse.
The best floor for the apple house is concrete. The next best is to
cover the ground with coal cinders and lay 2x4 flat on the cinders,
filling between them with cinders to a level and nailing the floor
boards to these 2x4. This gives a good solid floor at little expense.
The walls are of 4x4 uprights, about eight feet apart, resting on 8×8×12
concrete blocks with a half inch iron rod imbedded in the concrete and
countersunk in lower end of upright 4×4 to keep the latter in place.
Nail ties of 2×4 are used, and to these are nailed common lumber
surfaced. The roof consists of 2×4 or 2×6 rafters, usually three feet
apart, with 1×6 boards spaced about three feet apart as sheeting. The
covering in this case is of galvanized corrugated iron, suitable length,
of No. 26 gauge. The doors of this building should be on rollers, and
with two or more double doors on each of the four sides to give plenty
of light and easy access to and from the building. The roof and dry
floor are the important parts of such a building, and you only need the
walls as a support and occasionally to break off the wind when weather
becomes chilly. What you should avoid in a packing house is narrow
doors, dark interior and access from only one or two sides.
_Picking._--I have found it most satisfactory to pick by the bushel,
keeping a foreman in the orchard to see that crates are filled full,
ladders and apples carefully handled. Each picker is provided with
tickets of a certain number which corresponds to the one opposite his
name on the sheet tacked to a small board or clip carried by the
foreman. Each picker is assigned a tree, and his empty boxes are
distributed to him from the wagon. When filled the number is tabulated
by the foreman and loaded onto the wagon and hauled to the packing shed.
Here they are stacked up and afterwards emptied onto the sorting tables
or machine grader, and from thence into the barrels.
_Hauling to Market._--The barrels when filled are not allowed to lie
around, but are hauled immediately to the car or storage. Failure of
winter apples to keep in storage may often be traced to the packing
shed, where the apples stand in the crates or lie in the barrels for a
number of days, perhaps a week or two in warm weather, before they are
forwarded to storage. Sometimes delays occur at the storage owing to
rush, and apples remain sometimes for a week or ten days in cars before
they are unloaded. It behooves the grower not only to watch his own
packing house for delays, but the storage company also. In one instance
I lost $1,000 on five cars of apples that were without refrigeration
five weeks owing to the storage warehouse not being completed. I knew
nothing about this until two years afterwards.
Hauling to the station is done on wagons or motor trucks equipped with a
rack that permits the barrels being carried lying down, but supported at
each end of the barrel so that the weight of the barrel does not come
upon the bilge. They can be so racked up that one wagon will carry
fifty-five barrels. A three-ton truck will carry forty barrels of apples
and haul forty more on trailer. Such an outfit in one of my orchards
makes five trips in one day a distance of four miles, traversing forty
miles and carrying 400 barrels of apples. One and one-half miles of this
is over a well-graded dirt road, and two and one-half over brick and
concrete pavement. In our Clay County, Illinois, orchards we have two
12-25 gasoline tractors that are used for cultivating during the summer
and for hauling apples in the fall. These machines easily haul 110
barrels of apples on two wagons and make two trips a distance of five
miles from orchard to town.
_Loading Cars._--I am surprised at the lack of knowledge of how to
properly load barreled apples into cars. Over half the cars going to
market are improperly loaded. The best way is to place all the barrels
crosswise of the cars with lower tier to the right side of the car, and
the second tier the left of the car with the bilge lying in the hollows
of the lower tier. The third tier should be at the right side again
directly over the lower tier. If a fourth tier is added they should be
at the left and directly over the second tier. In this way your apples
are loaded to carry with the least injury to the apples. Being uniformly
loaded they are easily counted from the top after they are in the car,
and your loader can verify his wagon load count after the apples are all
in and thus prevent mistakes.
_Packing Apples._--The packing season is a busy one. Often the grower
finds himself short of help, and when this is hard to get he is sure up
against it if he wants to do a good job of packing.
First make your estimate of the crop you have to harvest. If
inexperienced, get an experienced man to help you. You need this
estimate for two reasons. You must determine the number of packages you
need, which must be contracted for in advance, and you need to know how
much labor you need to get the crop in within the time limit. You should
not begin harvesting too early, for immature fruit, poorly colored,
brings a lower price, and you do not want to be so late that the fruit
mellows up or drops from the trees before it is gathered or is caught by
a freeze.
I will relate a little experience of mine in the latter connection. In
the autumn of 1911 I had a heavy crop on a hundred and twenty acre
orchard. The season was rainy, and we lost six days during October,
which put us across the line into November with our picking. The last
days of October or first of November brought a severe freeze when the
mercury went to twenty, or twelve below freezing. This lasted two nights
and one day. The apples were frozen absolutely solid through and through
on the trees. As I had over 12,000 bushels, all Willow Twigs,
unharvested, it was an anxious time for me. The second day was cloudy
with the temperature at thirty-four degrees, just freezing, and the
following night it remained at the same point, for we were enough
interested to note the temperature. This continued up until noon of the
third day, when the frost was out of the apples and we proceeded with
our picking. These apples kept perfectly and were sold the next May at
$4.50 per barrel. There was no perceptible difference between the
apples picked before or after the freeze. Two years later my experience
was different. We were caught with 1,000 bushels on the trees by an
equally severe freeze. The sun came out bright the following morning,
and by noon the temperature was up to fifty degrees. The apples turned
brown and looked like they had been baked. They were good only for
vinegar. The variety in both cases was Willow.