12 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



State Department of Agriculture were in the car, inspecting. 

 I am anxious to see what action the Department will take upon 

 this car. It seems strange, after all these years of education 

 and warning of the injury to Maine fruit that such packs cause, 

 that there are still packers who practice deception instead of 

 honesty as their motto. We are also interested in marketing 

 and trust the time is fast approaching when our state, like New 

 Brunswick, will make an attempt to solve this perplexing ques- 

 tion, that the farmer may secure a more equitable proportion 

 of the consumer's dollar. 



Again, I thank you, gentlemen, and through you the citizens 

 of Portland, for your hospitality. 



GROWING APPLES. 



Professor Samuel Fraser, Genesee, N. Y. 

 (Illustrated Lecture.) 



I believe that the first picture I show illustrates one of the 

 points which is fundamental to the fruit-growers of Maine, 

 and that is the mode in which the trees they plant are propa- 

 gated. In the past, the custom was to top-work a natural tree 

 which was found growing wild, or to move some wild tree into 

 the orchard and top-work it, or even to buy trees and work 

 these over to any desired variety. Years after, the fruit grow- 

 ers determined that they wanted the trunk of the tree to be of 

 the desired variety. But no attention has been paid to the root 

 system. The nurseryman is in the habit of securing his seed- 

 lings from France or some other place. 



These seedlings have been grown from seed which was col- 

 lected in various places, frequently in France, and the so-called 

 French crab are seedlings grown from seed gathered out of 

 the cider mills. Should these seedlings be allowed to reproduce 

 fruit, it is found that part of them. would produce red apples, 

 others yellow, and still others, green. Some of them are vigor- 

 ous growers and some are lacking in vigor. Some are more or 

 less subject to fire-blight and canker; others are resistant to 

 these diseases. So that on the whole, the nurseryman plants 



