WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 469 



college has been canvassing the section with a small bottle of muriatic acid. He cam& 

 into the fields to find at what depth lime could be found. We found, particularly in 

 clay, that lime was not present above almost on average of eighteen inches. It was so 

 marked that in the case of a railroad cut, where the land was rolling, the lime wa» 

 almost uniform at the top and bottom. 



Has anything been done to prevent strawberry rust or blight 9 



Mr. Taber: I am not troubled much with rust, and have had no occasion to do 

 other than leave out varieties troubled in that way. 



Mr. Hooker said Bordeaux mixture had been recommended. 



Mr. TiCE (Oswego): It troubles us directly after planting, the first year. We always 

 plow under the second season. 



Mr. Farmer: The best way is to plant on new ground every time. We planted some 

 on ground on which three crops had been raised, and they rusted. It cannot be held 

 wholly in check by Bordeaux mixture. 



Mr. Tice: I have a piece that has not had strawberries on for thirty years, and it 

 rusted just as bad as anywhere else. 



Wonld thorough cultivation and manuring have a tendency to make grapes crach 

 under any condition? 



Mr. Snow: Why should it cause them to crack? 



Pres. Barry: They do sometimes. 



Mr. S>ow: There might be some cause aside from the fruit having a thin skin, such 

 as hard weather striking them when nearly ripe. It is a defect in a variety to have 

 too thin a skin. 



How long should young pears and peach trees be allowed to limb, or how lour 

 should the limbs be allowed to branch 9 



Mr. Willard: My ideas are at variance with some. I do not believe it a wise thing 

 in planting a tree to diveest it of every limb and bud. Would takeoff a few of the lower 

 limbs six or eight inches high, if a peach, and " spur " it, leaving an opportunity for the 

 bud to develop; think that will help the root system. But the second year I believe- 

 the tree is greatly benefited by trimming it up three feet high and allowing it to branch 

 out. Our methods of pruning are so diverse that the system has to be varied to meet 

 the views in regard to it. Would treat pears pretty much the same way. 



Mr. Pierce said that trimming at transplanting was a matter in which judgment 

 should be employed. If the ground was very rich and the tree quite thrifty, it would 

 not not do to prune very closely, or the result would be some very strong shoots diffi- 

 cult to manage the second year. Some of the large peach growers of Georgia had 

 allowed but three or four buds to grow at planting, and the result was enormous shoots 

 eight feet or more long and necessitated very severe cutting back the second year. Had 

 the growth been distributed through a dozen buds it would doubtless have resulted in 

 a shapely tree the first season. 



Mr. Hale: Our system of late years both in our orchards in Georgia and our ten or 

 fifteen thousand trees in Connecticut, is to take quite small trees, medium, or lower 

 grade; cut down to whips eighteen to twenty inches high. They will sprout all the way 

 up, and after getting about an inch in length we rub them all off except three or four 

 buds on different sides; let them grow freely. Formerly, in the second year, we 

 sheared close, but now shorten in but very little, just enough to make a well-balanced 

 head. Then, in after years, we shear off one-half to two-thirds of new growth each 

 season as well as thinoiDg out crowding branches. We can also thin the fruit more 

 economically, and pick better. Am thoroughly in favor of low headed trees. 



Mr. Henry Lutts: I infer that Mr. Willard wants a tree three or four feet. That 

 is the way we have done; the'' spur " system of pruning in my experience is correct. Let 

 the growth come out from the spur, and the following season you have a chance ta 

 make a head that you cannot get any other way. 



Mr. Atwood: I have found we made a mistake in heading standard pears too high; 

 three feet is high enough. 



A Member: Is not there some truth that the shading of the bark of a tree will pre- 

 vent blight? 



Pres. Barry: The natural way for a tree to grow is to branch, but we have to- 

 remove some. The fewer you remove the better, I think, for the tree. Trimming 

 things high up is a mistake. Where the side branches are removed the outer bark 

 becomes rough and dry; but with the opposite plan of trimming, it remains smooth and 

 healthy. 



Mr. W. H. Hart advocated low prunning, and planting the best trees you can get. 



