g6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



lief have it as a tree from Norway or Rumford or Dixfield. New 

 York trees have succeeded with me. I kuow there has been great 

 complaint with regard to them. The great difficulty with New 

 York trees is that men do not take care enough of them. Many 

 of them are bruised when they (?bme and many have frozen roots 

 and frequently after planting they are not cultivated nor enriched 

 properly. If we take a tree from rich suil and put it into poor 

 Boil without giving it proper care we ought not to expect it to 

 grow. 



Question. Will New York trees bear as well as ours when 

 they get to bearing ? 



Mr. Dunham. I should say that no grafted tree will bear equal 

 to a natural tree. So far as my experience goes, I think that 

 natural fruit trees that come from the native seed are likely to 

 produce more fruit than a grafted tree. The New York trees 

 with me bear as well as any other grafted fruit. The Northern 

 Spy bears profusely on my ground, though it was a good while 

 coming to maturity. 



Mr. Pierce. I have travelled through Maine considerably and 

 I have noticed that the best orchards generally slope to the south- 

 east. In Norway, Livermore and all through this region, that 

 cant is the best. In North Norway there are orchards sixty years 

 old that have'done well ; the southwest wind does not strike them. 

 With us the southwest winds often kill orchards, if they blow 

 two days. I have often noticed that orchards sheltered by pine 

 trees on a side hill with a southwest cant will be killed. You 

 will notice this fact, also, that the northeast side of a tree will 

 bear apples when the northwest side will not have any fruit. 



According to my experience, trees from New York will not do 

 well in Maine ; we should do well to bud them. You cannot get 

 apples from a tree put into a little piece of root, however hand- 

 some they may look when they are brought to you. 



Sec Goodale. In regard to the proper distance between trees 

 in an orchard much depends on the variety. With strong grow- 

 ing sorts on good soils forty feet is none too much. But it should 

 be bornp in mind that some parts of Maine are in the northern 

 limit of successful apple culture and that trees of some of the 

 kinds which succeed in the northern part of the State do not 

 grow nearly so large as the Baldwin, and others which succeed in 

 this vicinity, for instance the Duchess of Oldenburg the most 

 profitable apple in Aroostook county and the Fameuse, which is 



