46 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Mr. Taylor : We have been .told by Mr. Sanders that a 

 normal crop was what a tree was capable of producing. Now 

 there is not one tree in fifty in the town of Winthrop that pro- 

 duces thirty-three per cent of what it is capable of producing 

 or what it might produce under conditions favorable, if it were 

 treated right. How are we going to estimate on a neighbor's 

 tree what it might produce if he was doing what he should for 

 it? 



Mr. Sanders : I am glad you mentioned that because it 

 gives me a chance to explain a little. We tried it out last 

 season. It had been proposed to me by different people that 

 it might be possible to define this word "normal" apple crop 

 in such a way that everybody would have a uniform conception 

 of it, and to test that out I tried to write a hard and fast defi- 

 nition of what should be considered a normal crop and had a 

 number of apple men test it out. The results show clearly 

 that a hard and fast defined standard is entirely impracticable, 

 and for that reason that idea has been entirely abandoned. 

 That was carried on largely to show whether such a standard 

 could be used, and the returns that came in showed it was 

 entirely impracticable. I would like to make this announce- 

 ment to the men who participated in that experiment. Now 

 one final word in regard to this orchard survey which I pro- 

 pose. The plan I have in mind is to ask one or two men in 

 each town or township in the state, where any farming at all 

 is carried on, to make up such a list as I have indicated. Last 

 season, when I sent out this inquiry in the same way to towns 

 or to people in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, 

 I got back very satisfactory lists from better than seventy per 

 cent of all the towns in those three states, in response to the 

 first request, and I am sure that the apple growers in Maine 

 will not fall below that. You cannot afTord to. It showed the 

 keen interest that there is among the people, generally, in this 

 crop of apples, and I want to ask you, and to urge you, if you 

 receive these requests for the lists for your town, to make them 

 out as fully as you can and help us get this information 

 together. It will enable us when we get this inventory together, 

 to plan some sort of service for getting at your apple crop more 

 satisfactorily. We are doing everything in our power to give 

 you reliable information about your apple crop and the crop 



