6o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



the season with the mowing machine, and the cHppings mulch 

 the ground. It stands another year, so that the orchard is two 

 years out of three in red clover. It is then plowed and comes 

 into tillage and soy beans again. For mature orchards — not 

 young orchards — on land which is reasonably moist and rea- 

 sonably strong in fertility, this plan works all right in Virginia. 

 You will have to ask your experts here whether it is practicable 

 in Maine. 



A word about the relation of cultivation to certain diseases 

 of apples. We have considerable trouble with the brown spot, 

 or punk spot, as we call it. especially on our Yorks and Jona- 

 thans. You have it on Baldwins. There is a distinct relation 

 in Virginia between the prevalence of those diseases and tillage. 

 In those orchards which are cultivated very thoroughly and 

 frequently, so that the trees make a luxuriant growth and heavy 

 leaf surface, as they will under high tillage, invariably, you will 

 find a larger proportion of the apples with the brown spot than 

 in orchards which are but little tilled and which make a some- 

 what slower growth. On trees which are bearing a light crop, 

 or which have been heavily fertilized so that the growth is 

 luxuriant and the amount of drain per tree by the crop is small, 

 we find the most brown spot. I have come to the conclusion 

 that a slow growth, secured by withholding tillage or fertilizer, 

 and by allowing the trees to set a comparatively heavy crop 

 alternate years, is the most practical way we now know of 

 reducing the amount of brown spot. 



Pruning. In the pruning of the orchard there are some prob- 

 lems that have a bearing upon the cost of production ; particu- 

 larly, the height ot the head. In the valley of Virginia apple 

 trees do not grow as high as they do here. But they can be 

 headed too low. The lower the better so long as it is not too 

 inconvenient in working around them. Nearly every apple 

 orchard has to be either plowed and harrowed or mowed with 

 the mowing machine. Some people, I think, have gone to the 

 extreme in low heading; they have trees headed so low that it 

 is extremely difficult to work around them with the teams. 1 

 head a little over two feet high, and after the second year do 

 not cut back at all unless the trees are getting up to about 

 twenty feet in height. 



