STATE POMOLOGICAIv SOCIETY. 8/ 



winters are trying, and one of the great problems they have, 

 especially in young orchards, is to prevent the winter-killing 

 of the trees. They find that where they grow their potatoes 

 in the orchard, in the first place it means the application of a 

 large amount of fertilizer so that the trees get an unusual 

 growth, and in the second place the cultivation of the potato is 

 continued late in the season, and the digging amounts to another 

 cultivation, and that is almost sure to prolong the growth oi 

 their young trees so far that the trees are winter-killed. I 

 should have been interested to have heard a discussion, to see 

 how it stands with men here in ]\Iaine. We are planning to 

 take the potato up as a side crop, but not in the orchard. For 

 money crops we grew the beans and also about eighteen acres 

 of squash, which we considered one of the best crops we could 

 grow. It comes along fairly well, gives you plenty of time for 

 cultivation, and then pretty nearly takes charge of the land so 

 that there is very little chance for the weeds to grow. We 

 found that an ideal crop and shall use it notwithstanding the 

 price of squash has ruled very low this year. Then we found 

 that an exceedingly good crop was cabbage. With this crop 

 you do not disturb the land in harvesting as you do in the case 

 of potatoes. Those have been the crops we have used this year, 

 and practically all of them we found satisfactory. 



Question. With the trees i6 1-2 feet apart, I should like to 

 ask Prof. Sears if he plans to keep his trees headed in, or plans 

 to take them out. 



Prof. Skars. We put our trees sixteen and a half feet or 

 one rod apart. Our plan is this, but I wouldn't recommend it 

 to the general grower, as I believe more orchards are hurt by 

 putting the trees too near together than from most causes : We 

 plan to keep them headed in, low headed and headed back from 

 growing out at the sides as long as we can, and then go through 

 and cut out every other tree. Probably what we will do is to 

 tell the foreman to cut out every other tree, and then we will 

 go ofif and take a vacation while this is being done, so as not to 

 see it going on ; because it hurts a man's feelings after he has 

 been taking a fine crop of fruit ofif a tree to have it cut down 

 in that way. I think it will be a good many years, with the 

 style of pruning we plan to use, before our trees begin to crowd 



