456 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



We must leani the methods of handling and culture, and I can only 

 give you this morning points from a very limited experience. The 

 general opinion is that there is uo profit in them. We talk with 

 nurserymen who say, "There is no profit in this class of trees, they 

 are merely playthings. The man who makes money don't wan^ to 

 have anything to do with the dwarf trees." There has been no one 

 to go ahead and demonstrate their value commercially. As I look 

 forward to the future with the San Jose Scale sweeping over the 

 whole country, I see that the future of the apple culture of this 

 country will have to be placed on a diiferent basis from that which 

 it has occcupied in the past. The old orchards are steadily passing 

 out. I can mention instances in New York State where whole terri- 

 tories are practically ruined by the scale. In portions of West 

 Chester county I think I am safe in saying that 75 per cent, of 

 old orchards are useless and practically dead at the present time. 

 On Long Island the same conditions exist, and the old orchards have 

 largely passed away. We shall see the old trees going out steadily 

 before whole communities wake up to the fact that they are losing 

 them. A>'e are by no means at the end of insect troubles. We have 

 the Gypsy and Brown Tail moths threatening all of New England. 

 Our international trade interests have become so great that we are 

 constantly in danger of importing new pests to our shores. I have 

 been over thousands of acres annually for the past three or four 

 years around the surrounding districts of Boston, to see the work 

 of these destructive moths. They are extending into the State of 

 New Hampshire. They are being held at bay, but they may sweep 

 over the country in time just as the potato bugs came to us from the 

 West. It is a law with these insects that they extend and spread 

 rapidly in a new environment and we have a right to look for this. 

 This has given me special interest inthis low typ(.' of trees because 

 when we can bring them down to a height of about twelve or sixteen 

 feet we have something that we can absolutely control. My judg- 

 ment is to-day that if I were to start again the planting of 100 acres 

 of land, I should consider seriously throwing out the standard trees. 

 Dwarfing the standard trees is done by a system of summer pruning, 

 producing in effect standard dwarf trees. I have one block of 

 standard trees that has b(^en jdauted with reference to this system 

 of dwarfing. These trees were planted at a distance of forty feet 

 apart each way. We then interplanted with trees at twenty f,eet. 

 The entire block is being pruned so as to repress the growth. Some 

 very important questions arise here as to how far the system should 

 be carried. We must have sufficient room for bearing capacity. 

 This is an entirely new and different kind of work and the only 

 thing we can do is to be our own experimenters and arrive at the 

 correct methods as soon as we can. Hence, I can only give you 

 suggestions along this line. Now let me give you a few points of 

 illustration on the blackboard in regard to these dwarf trees. In 

 the first place the question arises, where can we get them? We can 

 get the stock through nurserymen. They will import them or you 

 can get them through importers of trees and plants. My first trees. 

 I started from the imported stocks sent from England and France. 



