STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



REPORT OF SECRETARY. 

 W. J. RiCKER, Turner. 



The apple situation of today presents itself in a very different 

 form from that of a year ago. 



East year we were overburdened with a very large crop of 

 not very fancy fruit; however, many sold at a remunerative 

 figure, others shipped and failed to get returns and still others 

 held for higher prices which never materialized. This year, on 

 the other hand, we have but few apples which we can at any 

 time throw on a market that is constantly growing stronger. 

 The apples throughout this state so far as your secretary could 

 ascertain, have been of a very superior quality, free from scab 

 and in many localities, from the work of the codling moth. 



Eet us see why this small crop, for many trees blossomed well 

 but produced only a few apples at harvest. We will go back 

 a little. Did not these same trees bear heavily last year ? This, 

 together with the forming of fruit buds, left the tree with but 

 little food stored up in its roots, trunk and branches, so this 

 spring after leaving and blossoming it finds its food supply 

 exhausted and gives up the attempt at fruiting for this season, 

 but sets about making a new growth and laying by a supply of 

 food for another year. This year above all other years to my 

 knowledge, has been a year of. droughts which together with 

 the continued heat have caused a large per cent of our 

 necessarily small crop to drop during the summer. It would 

 thus seem that if we were more careful that our trees did not 

 overbear in any one year and if we preserved a little more 

 moisture in the soil, our hopes of a bountiful harvest would not 

 be nipped in the bud so frequently. 



It has been very gratifying to note that in many sections there 

 has been more spraying done this season than for many years 

 past. It is, however, too often the case that after a season of 

 fungous invasion like that of a year ago, many take up spraying 

 for a year or two and then, these years not being favorable to 

 the development of the fungus and not seeing any marked 

 advantage over neighbors who do not spray, the practice is given 

 lip and they fall victims to another bad year. There are never- 



