570 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Eochesler to draw huyers from all parts of the country. The first 

 apple show and market will be held the last week of November 

 and first week of Decendjer, 1911. 



I believe we ought to begin to lay plans for a similar show and 

 sale in ITarrisburg. You may think I am a little premature in this 

 matter, but I find it is well to have a definite plan to work on — a plan 

 that will provide for conditions that are bound to arise in the future. 

 In less than five years we will be in a position to hold right here in 

 Harrisburg as fine an apple show and market with as many barrels 

 and boxes offered, as they can hold in Kochester next fall. I would 

 suggest that our Executive Committee carefully note the progress 

 of New York along this line, as well as the marketing methods of 

 the far western states, and the peach growers of the South, so that 

 we may be prepared to formulate a plan suited to our own condi- 

 tions when our young orchards come into profitable bearing. 



The importance of working together is being more . forcibly illus- 

 trated each year. We have found it of advantage in our township 

 and county associations. We have found it of advantage in our 

 State xVssociation. On the 21st of December the Eastern Fruit 

 Growers' Association w^as formed, which is designed to take in all 

 the states and county associations of the Eastern coast states. Our 

 association is invited to join. I will ask our Secretary to bring the 

 matter up for action at the proper time. 



In the matter of securing uniform legislation as to size of fruit 

 packages and the grading of fruit we are invited to co-operate with 

 New Y^ork, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia; this is a 

 subject which concerns us all and I will ask the Secretary to make 

 it an item of new business at one of our sessions. 



We should keep in closer touch with the State Department of 

 Agriculture and our State Experiment Station, they are all operated 

 for our benefit and if we do not get as much from them as we think 

 we are entitled to it is largely our own fault. 



We find some very interesting results showing up in the orchard 

 experiments of Professor Stewart; one especially attracted my at- 

 tention. I referred to it in my report as Pomologist of the State 

 P»oard of Agriculture, and consider it of sufficient importance to 

 mention it here. Professor Stewart reports that nitrogen applied 

 in the form of nitrate of soda to bearing apple trees in June after 

 the fruit has formed, will increase the size of the fruit as well as 

 the growth of the tree, but this increase in size is attended by loss 

 of color in red apples; this loss of color Professor Stewart attributes 

 to delayed ripening, and his opinion is that in those sections hav- 

 ing a longer season — notably southern Pennsylvania — the fruit will 

 regain most of its color. We all know if w^e spray our apple trees 

 with a fungicide under proper weather conditions the foil age may 

 be kept green and healthy until killed by frost, and when such is 

 the case the fruit hangs on the tree much longer. This may mean 

 a great deal to the orchardists in the Y^ork Imperial belt. If by 

 the judicious use of nitrogen as a fertilizer and a proper fungicide 

 as a summer spray we can hold our Baldwin, Spy, King and Smoke- 

 house on the tree until the middle of October, by which time the 

 sun will certainly have painted them the proper color, we can double 



