ORCHARDS AND FRUIT CULTURE. (35 



jolting' in transportation to market, and that they may arrive in 

 the same order as they left your farm. But I refer especially to 

 the preservation of fruit for your own use as farmers. You can 

 just as well have your fruit keep if you will gather it carefully 

 from the trees. You save the labor of sorting during- the winter, 

 by putting- the picked fruit of one variety by itself in a barrel at 

 the time you take it from the trees ; it is all alike, fit for use at 

 one time, and there will be little if any loss from decay. 



With regard to the diseases and insects to which our fruit trees, 

 especially apples, are exposed. The cold, wet soil, in which too 

 manj r orchards have been planted is frequently the cause of the 

 curling of the leaf and the decay of the outer branches, so that 

 the tree very soon becomes, so far as the extreme branches 

 are concerned, dead ; and then it will be filled up with suckers 

 and water shoots, that produce nothing. A healthy growth that 

 will thoroughly mature the wood before winter is the great secret 

 of hardiness in fruit trees. If by your culture — if by your system 

 of manuring, 3 r ou can insure that, you will insure your trees 

 against winter killing- in any form, and your culture should look 

 towards that. Any system of culture which causes a vigorous 

 growth towards autumn, is bad for the trees. Well ripened 

 wood — and this is especially necessary in the pear — is of the ut- 

 most importance to the life and health of the tree. 



With regard to enemies, we have the canker worm, we have 

 the nesting caterpillar, we have the apple worm that bores into 

 the apples, and last of all we have the apple maggot, which is 

 perhaps unknown here, but which is a very serious drawback to 

 the culture of the apple. 



Question. Let me inquire if the apple mag-got attacks the apple 

 upon the tree, or after it is picked ? 



Mr. Golh. I have had no great experience with the apple mag- 

 got. I think its devastations are often not shown until after the 

 apples are gathered, although, they are found in the apples when 

 lying upon the ground under the tree. 



Mr. J. S. Gould. The eggs are always inserted when they are 

 upon the tree. 



Mr. Gold. It is a new pest. I do not know how far the can- 

 ker worm is known in this State. 



Mr. Perley. Not at all. 



Mr. Gold. A very happy exemption. You probably have the 

 apple borer which works at the root. Farmers look at their trees 

 5 



