STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 129 



REPORTS FROM LINCOLN COUNTY. 



Waldoboro', January 15, 1817. 



There has been no general change in the interest manifested in 

 fruit culture in this county for the past season. Old orchards are 

 yearly dying out and giving place to young and thrifty trees. 

 The crop of fruit in this county, the past season, was not an aver- 

 age production for the bearing years, it being about one -third less 

 than the crop of 1874. The past winter (1875-6) was more severe 

 and damaging to fruit trees in this vicinity than any preceding 

 winter for the past twenty years. The sudden changes of weather, 

 alternating between hot and cold, nearly ruined all the plum trees 

 in this section ; plum orchards producing several bushels in 1874, 

 did not produce the same number of quarts the past season. A 

 large number of pear and apple trees of all sizes and ages were 

 also winter-killed. Mr. John Currier, proprietor of the Waldo- 

 boro' Nursery, informs me. that he lost hundreds of trees in his 

 nurseries last winter. I noticed that many of the fruit trees in 

 this vicinity looked unthrifty and sickly through the past season, 

 and saw but few orchards that appeared healthy and vigorous ;. 

 the fruit raised was smaller in size than that of previous years, 

 caused by the unthriftiness of the trees and by the long continued 

 drouth. Several varieties of pears were a failure in this town ; 

 the Flemish Beauty badly cracked, while the Beurre de Amalis 

 was woody and worthless. Grapes matured much better than on 

 previous years, and a number of native varieties ripened well in 

 open air. Our grape vines were badly injured in early summer, 

 when they were putting forth their leaves, by a small worm, about 

 the size of a cambric ueedle, of the color of the vine, and from 

 one-fourth to one -half inch in length. These insects devoured the 

 leaves with alarming rapidity. We could not devise any means, 

 of destroying them, neither could we obtain any information about 

 them. The apple-tree or tent-caterpillar and the forest-tree cater- 

 pillar appeared in immense quantities, and several orchards were 

 nearly stripped of their foliage. The depredations of the forest- 

 tree caterpillar continued about two weeks, in the month of June. 

 They fed at night or in early morning, and in the middle of the 

 day were collected together in large bunches upon the trunks of 

 the trees, when a pail of strong soap suds would put them horsdu 

 combat. The apple-tree or tent-caterpillar continued to ravage 

 the trees until harvest time. 

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