46 AGRICUIvTURE OF MAINli. 



for such advice and the end is not yet. On the other hand if 

 advice is in order, we would say consult the best Alaine fruit 

 growers and follow their advice. 



GROW LARGER AND BETTER ERUIT. 

 The past season, as all are aware, the fruit generally was very 

 small. It is this perhaps more than anything else at this partic- 

 ular time that calls attention to the desirability of growing larger 

 and better fruit. In a season like this fruit does not grow as 

 large as in ordinary years. This is no fault of the grower. 

 The market calls for large fruit and it calls for perfect fruit, 

 and the secret of reaching the best results is to produce this 

 kind of fruit. One grower last year said to the writer, that he 

 purposed to let the Almighty do most of his orcharding, but we 

 are quite sure he was responsible for the disastrous results that 

 followed and not the Almighty. Too many growers feel the 

 same way. They plant the trees and give them a good start, 

 we will say, and then trust in Providence. During the summer 

 we saw a beautiful orchard of 300 trees that had been set and 

 well cared for a couple of years. The caterpillars and grass- 

 hoppers came and the man who trusted in Providence lost all 

 he had put into that orchard that" was so promising but a few 

 weeks before. The curse pronounced in the garden of Eden, 

 seems to come in here : "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 

 eat* bread." \^''e have sometimes called the ordinary inter- 

 pretation of this in question since the curse only seems a blessing 

 in disguise, as the good Father has given us all the conditions 

 to make our homes veritable paradises, and he who will may 

 read the lesson and enjoy the fruits thereof. 



MAKE THE ORCHARD MORE PRODUCTIVE. 



The making of the orchard more productive involves no more 

 than many of our fruit growers are now doing. It is interest- 

 ing to know just how to do this to the best advantage, when 

 labor and fertilizers are such expensive commodities. One of 

 the handsomest orchards we visited during the year had been 

 set ten years on a pasture hillside. No fertilizers at all had 

 been applied save the mulching of ferns and grass that the land 

 produced. The orchard was thrifty and beautiful and bore 

 about 700 barrels of fruit. 



