STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



After the meetino; bad been called to order bv the President, Mr. 

 S. R. Leland of Mt. Baldwin Farm, Farmington, was introduced, 

 who read the following paper : 



HOW I HAVE PROTECTED MY ORCHARD FROM THE RAV- 

 AGES OF MICE AND BORERS. 

 By S. R. Leland. 



I think poniologists agree that there are more fruit trees destroyed 

 by mice and borers in Maine than by all other causes combined, and 

 an}- methods that tend to prevent or even diminish the destruction 

 of our orchards by these pests, from whatever source obtained, is 

 perhaps worthy of a careful trial. In relating my experience in 

 protecting trees from mice and borers, and the marked success I 

 have met with, I by no means claim that the same methods would 

 be followed by the same results in all soils and situations, particu- 

 larly in relation to the borer. I shall be compelled to use the 

 personal pronoun in this paper oftener than I like, for which you will 

 please pardon me, as it is unavoidable in describing my own doings. 



M}' orchard is situated on a ridge running north and south, and 

 ' extends down to wet land to the west and through the easterly 

 part of it is a narrow swale that drains a muck swamp lying in the 

 N. E. corner of the orchard. These wet lands are just where mice 

 delight to live. When I commenced setting trees the land was 

 newly cleared, in grass, covered with decaying stumps, lots of 

 stones, uneven, with knolls and hollows, and seemingly a more in- 

 viting home for mice could not exist. I commenced my orchard in 

 the spring of 18lJ9 by setting one hundred trees. In the spring of 

 1870 I set more and in the last week in October of the same vears I 

 set eighty-five trees, of which I lo5t nearly all. In 1871 and 72, I 

 enlaiged m}' orchard to three hundred and fifty trees. Up to this 

 time I had done nothing to protect m}' trees from mice except an 

 application- of ashes once a 3'ear, as I will explain later on. The 

 year 1872 was what is known in this section as the "sorrel year.'* 

 M}^ land, having been newly cleared, bore an immense crop of 

 sorrel, with so little grass with it that I didn't esteem it worth 



