No. e. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 741 



MR. MOON: lu advocating the dwarliiig of trees for intensive 

 culture, I can see bow dwarf pear can be kept in tbis babit, but 

 witb peacbes it seems to me tbe severe pruning would result in 

 reduced crops of fruit. 



PROF. JOHNSON: Not necessarily, because so many more trees 

 can be grown on same space. We simply take tbe terminal buds 

 and branches off, and grow tbe fruit spurs on or near tbe trunk 

 of tbe tree. Mr. Morrell, of Michigan, is tbe most successful in- 

 tensive peacb grower in tbe country, and be goes to Texas to inten- 

 sify 10,000 acres. I saw in bis orchard seven year old trees from 

 which 1 could pick a bushel of peaches each sitting on the ground, 



MR. WERTZ: In my experience the best and finest colored 

 peaches always grow on the extremities of the branches. Those on 

 the lower limbs are pale and green and of inferior quality. 



MR. SNAVELY: Are apples on Doucain stocks as long-lived as 

 on their own roots? 



PROF, JOHNSON: I cannot see why they are not nearly as 

 long-lived as ordinary trees, though the question has not yet been 

 fully tested, and the point is well taken. When we dwarf any 

 plant we necessarily impoverish its physical condition. 



The following paper was then read : 



THE FRUIT GROWERS' GREATEST ENEMY. 



Bt W. U. Stout, Pinegrove, Pa. 



(Suggested by Experience and Observation.) 



Although it may be true that the enemies of tbe fruit grower are 

 blessings in disguise, the successful orcbardist pays dearly for 

 the same in trouble, annoyance and hard labor. The smaller and 

 more numerous insects are often tbe most difficult to combat. 

 While laws have been enacted to protect the fruit grower against 

 some of the most dangerous and destructive foes, there yet remains 

 one to whom reference is seldom made, the largest and most de- 

 structive of all. Of vegetable origin, bacteria, fungoids, mildews, 

 spores of various kinds, microscopic objects disseminated all around, 

 wafted in all directions on summer breezes producing blights, smuts 

 and decay upon fruit and foliage, are constant dangers and every- 



