2G0 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



crease in the insect pests, which will drive out many fruit-grow- 

 ers, who will not be thorough in fighting the pests. But the pres- 

 ence of the pear-tree psylla, San Jos^ scale, scab, fungus and 

 blight, will so demoralize some growers as to cause them to let 

 their orchards go, and those who persist to the end will reap 

 good profits for their investment and work. Certainly, I would 

 if I wanted them, set pear trees now. 



What is the best preventive of borers in fruit trees? 



A Farmer.^Dig them out with a wire. 



Bt. Smead. — A bandage of wire gauze put around a tree will 

 keep them out. It should extend down under the surface of the 

 soil a trifle. 



What is the present outlooli for apple-growing? 



C. M. Hooker. — It is at present very encouraging. Three years 

 of remunerative prices, with fairly good crops, make the outlook 

 much better. Western New-York apples rank best everywhere. 

 We are learning every year how better to grow apples and how 

 to fight insects and fungus. Of varieties he said he has found 

 the old ones still the best, although he, at his age, would not plant 

 Baldwins; a young man should, however. Ben Davis is also a 

 good commercial variety. 



Mr. Wood. — I now have great confidence in the apple. It is 

 the king of all our native fruits and has saved my life financially. 

 Roxbury Russet with me is all right, so is the old black Gilli- 

 flower. 



A gentleman from Oswego said that several buyers of apples 

 were in his place last fall and paid fifty cents more per barrel for 

 Gilliflower than for any other variety in the market. It is rapidly 

 coming to the front as a market apple. 



Prof. Van Deman. — Western New York is the great apple-grow- 

 ing belt of the State and is going to grow millions and millions 

 of barrels of the fruit in the future, and so the question of the 

 most profitable varieties ought to be considered. To-day, Ben 

 Davis is the business apple for our markets. People may talk 

 about Ben Davis just as they have done and do about the Kieffer 

 pear, but, so long as these fruits sell at good prices, and the people 

 demand them, we should grow them. If I were going to plant an 



