354 STATE POMOLOaiCAL SOCIETY. 



warrant us in asserting that at no past period has it stood on so 

 stable a footing as now. 



By a careful comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of 

 Maine with other prominent fruit-growing States and territories, as 

 revealed in the re)jorls from diverse sections to the American 

 Pomological Society, two years ago, it is certain that we have fewer 

 of the obstacles to suc(;essriil fruit-culture in Maine than exist in 

 many States renowned for their fine climates and fertile soils. It 

 is a fact that in nearly every State south of the latitude of southern 

 Ohio, especially in those States near the Gulf of Mexico, disastrous 

 frosts nearly every year, in March and April, destroy every sign 

 and promise of fruit for tlie 3car. Tiie winters are far more severe 

 in Kentucky than in Maine in their effects on fruit trees. The 

 committee from that State report several disadvantages suffered by 

 orchardists there, as follows: "Chiefly among them are the 

 different species of insects that pre}' upon the fruit and tree ; climatic 

 influences, such as scalding by the piercing rays of the summer sun, 

 and the alternate freezing and thawing in winter." 



If we examine the statements of expert witnesses from the various 

 States west and south respecting obstacles to success in fruit-cul- 

 ture, we shall find that they have all the obstacles wiiich retard our 

 progress, and in some places, many besides. At Norfolk, Va., the 

 pear-blight and a generally- demoralized condition of the climate for 

 eight or ten years, was the complaint. Ohio reports an ordeal of 

 sudden and severe changes of weather — so cold, indeed, as to kill 

 the hardy Snyder blackl)erry, and by contrast, a week of heat in 

 midsummer recording 1)8° to 104°. The report further saj's : 

 " Disease and insect depredations are the chief causes of failure. 

 Climatic influences sometimes sweep awa}' the entire crop. Apples, 

 peaches, pears, cherries and plums, are all injured by the curculio. 



* * * The scab affects the peach, pear and apple, sometimes 

 so badl}' that the}' are entirely worthless." From Georgia, reports 

 of spring frosts, borers and fungoid diseases affecting peach culture, 

 phylloxera the grape, curculio the plum, with pear-blight, show that 

 in that famed sunny region no exemption is enjoyed from man}' of 

 the obstacles to success that afliict us. The reports from Arkansas 

 and Indian Territory show great damage by frosts, severe drought, 

 twig-blight of apple trees, and about a dozen varieties of depredating 

 insects. In Texas, April frosts sometimes destroy the peaches and 

 grape crops, while fungoid diseases of the apple and pear frequently 



