THE ORCHARD.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15040, 7 April 1919, Page 2

THE ORCHARD.

s •'».-. — ■ —— - .A WONDERFUL APPLE TEIEE.'

Interesting particulars were, given in "The Argus".of January.24, setting out the ; yields and dimensions of an apple tree that probably constitutes a record for Australia. The tree, 'is growing on the property of Mr Charles Crisp, at Jimenbuan, Dalgety (N.S.W.). The diameter of -the trunk is Bft, the circumfereuce 25ft., and the whole. tree covers an area of 141 ft 4in. Its height is 30ft. Last season 900 dozen apples were taken off in one crop. This remarkable apple tree was planted by Mr Crisp's father 74 years ago. / On the basis of ,144 fruits to the case the yield would be 75 cases to the tree. At Cowwarr, in \ this State, over 70 cases of apples have been harvested from two comparatively young Jonathan trees, and this yield is believed to constitute a record for the State. Trees growing in the same orchard-have credited their owner, Mr Martin, with many fine performances, and among these is that of an npricot tree which yielded 35 cases, exclusive of windfalls and all fruit taken within reach of stock that were allowed to graze in the orchard. Other trees have also yielded phenomenally heavy crops of fruit, such, for instance, as a Munro apple that produced 51 cases of fruit and an Adams Perffiain which yielded 49 cases. Several others have borne 30 cases of fruit to the tree. It will thus he seen that Mr Crisp/is tree, has easily established a record, but the figures would be of decidedly more ininterest had the variety of the apple and the conditions under which the tree is growing been forthcoming. At Cowwarr the trees are growing in deep alluvial soil close to the river bank, and as they are probably not much, more than twenty years of age, there is the likelihood that the crops may be considerably increased as the trees mature with agej and favourable seasons occur. Inquiries will be made with a view to detaining further particulars regarding the Jimenbuan tree and when obtained will be set out in these columns. It Is, liowever, interesting to note that this tree, while it appears to have established an Aus-j tralian record, is far from reacnin'g performances credited to American trees.

An apple tree in Walla Walla Valley, Washington, .holds the fruit.record in America. it produced nearly two hundred bushels of apples during the 1912 season, thus breaking its own record of 126£ boxes harvested in 1907, the highest production, it is. said, for any tree in the "world. This tree bore 70 cases of fruit in 1906, 42 boxes in 1908, and 45 cases of apples were harvested from it during the 1909 season. More than 500 barrels of fruit have been picked from it since it came into bearing in the spring of 1871. The tree was 46 years of age at the time it produced what is believed to be the world's record yield of fruit. The'tree-was grown without irrigation from a seedling planted in-, 1866. At the time the crop was produced it was 42ft in height, 10ft.higher than the N.S.W. tree, and its branches spread 57ft from-tip to tip. The trunk was 7ft in circumference at the base, and measured 4ft 7in. At that time thetree "was sound and healthy despite the fact that it had .produced fruit every season for nearly 40 years. Inasmuch as the average apple orchard with just over 100 trees to the acre seldom yields j more than a 300-case crop of fruit, the! doings of these record-breakers are particularly worthy of note. There are numerous -other records of trees that have borne phenomenally heavy crops of fruit, but it needs to be remembered that apple yields are as a rule considerably less than the would-be orchardist is led to believe, from descriptions that appear at intervals of orchards'that have been particularly well cultivated antf pruned^ and where orchards are estab-; lished under unusually favourable conditions. ~ !

Mr Frank- Odell, writing in an American publication some years ago, gave several interesting accounts of apple trees that have yielded crops calculated to make the near-by orchardist green with envy. In one of these accounts it is mentioned that Mr F. H. Ballou, of the Ohio Experiment-Station, reported an acre, yield of 1429.5 bushels of apples from 40 Rome Beauty trees during the 1911 season, that were harvested in the 23-year-old orchard of Mr I. T. Lewis, Washington country, Ohio. Although the crop averaged 35 bushels and 3 pecks to the tree, 1,158 bushels of first grade were packed, the fruit being 2-£ in or more iii diameter. The Handy apple seedling near Stuart Patrick County, Virginia, is credited with a crop of 132 bushels of fruS in a single' season at which time it 'was approximately 100 years old. Another centenarian in Patrick County, the Hall tree, is said to have yielded 165 bushels of fruit in one year. Heathen goes on to say that on the other hand the last Government census shows less than one ,<bushel of fruit per tree for the bearing orchards found on 46.8 per cent of the farms in the United States. Statistics do not enable one to definitely determine the average per tree in Victoria, but it is safe to venture that the ortehards of this State do not average a yield of a case of fruit to the tree over any reasonable term. In Indiana, the State average for 1909 was less than a haH-bushel each for 5,765,000 bearing trees. Mr Odell says:—"During the last five years I have been interested to learn the average yields of most of the largest mature orchards in Indiana. The orchard's of more than 1,000 trees each have a total of 74,600 trees, bearing 244,100 bushels. This is an annual average of 4.61 bushels a tree, which very fairly represents the yield of the ordinary commercial orchard of the Middle West."