104 AGRICULTURE Ot" MAINE. 



small trees, has not reached more than one-third of its possible 

 bearing ability. 



Quite remarkable was the contrast in size of- fruit on the 

 sod and cultivated plots. Apples of high color from the latter 

 averaged for many trees 370 to 400 fruits per barrel, and many 

 times was a half bushel basket filled by the pickers with 65 to 

 75 fruits. On the other hand, there was scarcely a bushel of 

 all the fruit from the sod plot, excepting here the outside row 

 before mentioned, that was large enough to pass for No. i grade; 

 and many of them could have successfully passed for a new 

 variety of Crab. The trees in sod, moreover, were strikingly 

 unthrifty; the bark had an unhealthy reddish color; the leaves 

 were small, scant and of a very pale yellow-green. 



No one factor can be rightfully regarded as of greatest im- 

 portance in orchard renovation. We must spray annually and 

 thoroughly to control the parasites of the apple. We must 

 practice orchard sanitation in all its forms. We must fei-tilize 

 in some form or other, although this is an individual problem 

 for every orchardist, depending upon his local soil types and 

 conditions : but the soil must not be robbed of plant food without 

 a return. We must prune judiciously, keeping our trees within 

 bounds and in convenient and economical shape, giving them 

 sanitary conditions of light and aeration, opening the tops that 

 the fruit may have all the advantage of the sun's rays. 



And, finally, we must cultivate. We must plow and harrow, 

 and having plowed and harrowed, we must keep on harrowing. 

 If I were asked to name one factor that I regard as contributing 

 more than any other to the renewal of vigor in our orchards at 

 Highmoor I would name cultivation. 



I realize that in this uncompromising advocacy of cultivation 

 I shall meet the opposition of some of you men whose trees,, re- 

 ceiving good treatment in every other way, stand in grass from 

 year to year. They are thrifty, they bear good crops of well- 

 colored, fair-sized fruit. Owners of such trees see no force in 

 the argimient for cultivation. 



We would admit as much. When a man can say "I do thus 

 and so and the results have always been good," there is no argu- 

 ment to the contrary. — in his particular case. But the fact still 

 remains, based on decades of experience in all regions, that an 

 apple tree when grown for profit must in 99 cases out of 100 



