CHANGE THE BEARING YEAR. 207 



my manures as late as June. Any one who has had any expe- 

 rience in this matter of fertilizing trees will know without my 

 telling him that manures applied at that season of the year 

 will not produce any immediate effect upon growth. If you 

 apply manures in the fall, you will see the effect upon growth 

 the earliest day in the spring ; but if you apply manure in 

 May or June, or the first part of the season, you will see no 

 effect of it at all that year. I saw no effect from that manure 

 until the time Avhen the trees would ordinarily commence 

 their second growth. Then I could see the effect of the 

 manure and cultivation ; but the season was so far advanced 

 that they only made a small growth. The next year happened 

 to be the odd year, and then I got a good crop from the 

 Baldwins. 



With regard to the Colorado beetle, one plan that has been 

 recommended for getting rid of them is, by picking them off 

 with the fingers. If anybody has nothing better to do they 

 can attend to that ; but I prefer the form I have suggested. 



Pres. Chaubourne. I have experimented for three years, 

 with all the means at my command, in various ways, and I 

 found that picking by hand was the cheapest way of conquer- 

 ing the Colorado potato-beetle. You can do it for five dollars 

 an acre, out in Wisconsin, where there are millions and 

 millions of them. So that it is not always safe to argue 

 theoretically. 



Now, I want to inquire in reference to this matter of the 

 alteration of the year of bearing. I see there are a good 

 many gentlemen here who have studied apples carefully, and 

 I hope they will be able to enlighten me in regard to some- 

 thins: which I do not understand. I used to think that the 

 bearing year might be changed by some of those processes 

 which have been described, before I observed this fact, that 

 the effect of the " odd year," as we call it, is universal. That 

 is what troubles me. Take last year, for instance. All the 

 apple-trees, wherever I went in New England, all through 

 our region, no matter when they were set out, or how 

 cultivated, were loaded down with apples. This year, those 

 same orchards, no matter when they were set out, or how 

 cultivated, were almost entirely barren of fruit. What I 

 want to inquire is, if there is not something in the year itself 



