28 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Our appropriation of this increased fund for this particular 

 year was $ii,ooo, next year it will be $13,000 from this new 

 fund, the year after $15,000, that being the maximum. As this 

 money has come to us we have arranged for the expenditure of 

 it. 'We have already planned for the expenditure of this 

 $11,000 in the work of the Experiment Station. After we have 

 laid out a plan we cannot very well change without a large 

 amount of loss. A farm given to us at this time will have at 

 least $4,000 that we can turn towards running it. Two years 

 hence if the state should choose to give us a farm, if we were 

 going to take it up to carry any experiments out we should need 

 an annual appropriation from the state to go along with it. It 

 is important if we are going to have it, to ask for it now. The 

 Station itself does not need the farm. We have plenty of lines 

 of work that we can take up that don't require a farm. But if 

 the fruit interests want us to do work along their line it is nec- 

 essary that we have this farm upon which we can work. 



OUR PRESENT ORCHARD CONDITIONS AND A 

 REMEDY APPLIED. 



Professor E. F. PIitchings, State Entomologist. 



The subject as announced is "Our Present Orchard Condi- 

 tions" and I have changed it somewhat and taken the liberty to 

 apply a little remedy occasionally. The orchards of Maine are 

 as a rule in a very serious condition as the result of the extreme 

 winter of 1906-7. 



The very unusual weather conditions that prevailed over the 

 greater part of the apple belt were never recorded before in the 

 state. The climatic conditions of that winter were responsible 

 for the general break-up of many of the most prosperous 

 orchards in central Maine. The blow came when least expected 

 and laid waste so many of the then thrifty trees that many of 

 our orchardists gave up in despair, especially those who had 

 good paying orchards established, upon which they depended 

 for their life support. It was an especially hard blow to such 

 parties who were well along in years and had planned and 

 worked on what they supposed to be their stock in trade. 



