Just as the rose is spoken of as the "Queen of the Garden," the apple is thought of as the "King of the Orchard." It is our most important orchard crop. The United States leads all other countries in its production. In a favorable year, the crop is worth about $100,000,000. Our apple belt extends from New York southward to Virginia, and westward through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri. On the western coast Washington and Oregon are important growers. One-half of the crop is produced in the eastern states. New York raises twice as many apples as any other state. In 1914 it produced almost 50 million bushels. Pennsylvania ranks second, with 23 million bushels. The young trees are grown from seeds. On the roots of these seedlings are grafted cuttings from the trees. These grafts are set out and

when grown will bear the fruit, not of the kind the seedling bore, but the kind that the tree bore from which the graft was made. Grafts are also made on twigs. The young orchards are carefully tended. This consists largely in fertilizing or cultivating the soil, trimming the trees, and keeping them thoroughly sprayed. It is one of these spraying processes that is shown here. Spraying is a prevention, not a cure. Most of the diseases of plants are "catching." That is, the insects travel from the infected plants to the ones free from disease. The time to spray is before there are any signs of disease. In the case of apples, the trees are sprayed to prevent ripe-rot, cale, canker, leaf-spot, etc. Many kinds of chemicals are used. Powerful sprays, such as this one, make it easy to spray large orchards in a short while.