164 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be readily understood that, especially in the case of the tree fruits, the pro- 

 cess of testing must necessarily be a very slow one, and that few if any of 

 these are yet in bearing sufficiently to afford a proper test of value. 



There is perhaps no more effective way of giving an idea of the work of 

 the station than by reviewing, hastily, the operations of the past season. 



The extreme and long-continued wet weather of the spring and early 

 summer of 1892 had occasioned more or less enfeeblement, and even per- 

 manent injury, especially to strawberries and other small fruits, accom- 

 panied by a severe attack of anthracnose upon raspberries and blackberries; 

 leaf spot {sphoerella fragarce) on strawberries, and more or less anthrac- 

 nose and mildew on grapes, with apple-scab and various other fungi. 



For the purpose of destroying the spores of these fungi, after the 

 pruning of the grapes and the cutting out and burning of the old canes 

 and other debris, the entire plantation received a spray of Bordeaux 

 mixture. 



Early in the following April the spray was repeated upon the plat of 

 small fruits, with the apparent effect that anthracnose almost entirely dis- 

 appeared upon raspberries and blackberries, as did also the leaf-spot of the 

 strawberries. 



After a spray of Bordeaux given currants and gooseberries, early in 

 April, these were treated with a preparation of liver of sulphur, about 

 once in three weeks, with the addition of a little Paris green or buhach, 

 when needful to suppress the currant worm, the effect being absence of 

 mildew and a very satisfactory persistence of the foliage. 



Peaches and plums were sprayed, April 10, with the apparent result of 

 almost wholly preventing the leaf-curl of the former, while a later spray 

 apparently suppressed the fungus usually fatal to the growth of serrate 

 varieties of peach in this climate, their growth continuing healthy, with 

 slight exception, through the season. It should be stated, however, that 

 the effect of the use of copper and arsenical preparations is apparently 

 cumulative, since a later spray with the same mixture, of less than half 

 the usual strength, occasioned a very considerable loss of the older foliage 

 of both peaches and plums. 



Apples, pears, and quinces were sprayed repeatedly with reference to 

 the double purpose of destroying the larvse of the codlin moth, the scab 

 of the apple, and the leaf-spot of the pear and quince. 



The moth of the peach tree borer, while its eggs are usually deposited 

 near the surface of the ground, manifests a preference for a position above 

 a branch, when quite near the ground. For this reason it is the practice 

 to branch the peach not lower than one and a half or two feet above the 

 surface. In the case of other fruit trees, the preference is to branch very 

 low, varying somewhat to accomodate the habit of the variety, whether 

 spreading or upright. 



Except in the case of small fruits, including the grape, by preference all 

 pruning is done in early spring, before any movement of the sap, although 

 pinching is often done during summer to stop the growth of misplaced 

 shoots, or to check such as may be outgrowing their neighbors. Except 

 in the cases of the grape and peach, with which pinching and thinning 

 are already necessary, the. time has scarcely yet arrived when these 

 processes are needful to control fruitfulness, with the exception of perhaps 

 a single variety of apple, the Keswick, which entirely escaped last year's 

 injury of foliage and has required severe thinning this season, and has set 

 a fine crop of fruit buds for the coming season's crop. 



