PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. t>l 



Mr. 3Iorrin : No, I don't know anything about your kind of cut-worm. 

 Either there is more enterprise among them here, or something, but 

 J know they will not go over wool on my farm. 



Mr. : The only remedy I haye found is the thumb and fore- 

 finger. 



Mr. Morrill: That is a tedious waj-. 



Mr. Reid: Haye you ever tried spreading poisoned foliage around, 

 Paris green on dock leaves? 



A. Yes, but the wind blows it all away, and you have to replace it 

 next morning. Another good remedy is to take common turnips, cut 

 them into slices and soak them in a strong solution of Paris green. 

 They will remain fresh for three days, and will rid the land of. cut-worms. 

 I tried it and saved a large corn crop. 



Q. What about sowing buckwheat — will it keep away the borer? I 

 thought it did, in my orchard, once. 



Mr. Morrill: It seems to be an objectionable plant to some insects. 



A Member: I find the borer as much where I sow^ buckwheat as 

 where I don't. 



A Member: Last year I set 500 peach trees and sowed buckwheat 

 on all that ground w'ith the exception of three fourths of an acre. On 

 the buckwheat ground I scarcely found a cut-w^orm, but on the small 

 patch where I had potatoes I found any quantity of them. Had to fight 

 I hem. 



Judge Russell: There is one thing that has not been referred to, 

 today, and which, it seems to me, is of a good deal of importance. The 

 question of pruning. I would like to have Mr. Morrill give us some 

 statements with reference to the pruning of a peach tree, commencing 

 with a small tree. It is a matter we don't claim to know much about, 

 and I believe it is important. 



,Mr. Morrill: Many of you have had more experience than I. I have 

 no objection to detailing my method, although I have told it so many 

 times, that it seems ''a chestnut." My practice is, after setting a tree, 

 and allowing the young growth to start, the same season to take off all 

 the limbs except those that I wish to form the top, to give the tree from 

 twenty inches to two feet of clear body, then select from three to five 

 strong limbs within the next twelve to sixteen inches of body, and the 

 top, in setting, is cut off at that point. At one year old, we cut back the 

 growths that are excessively strong. With most trees, when they start, 

 some grow^ths will be stronger than others. At the same time, if I 

 find a limb that ought not to have been left, I take it off. The following 

 year I calculate to have them pretty evenly balanced, so far as growth 

 is concerned. I keep cutting back the strong and encouraging the 

 weaker. The following year I cut back the annual growth one half, and 

 where I had cut back the year before, I thin out. 



Judge Russell: In starting your top, do 3^ou pay any attention to 

 the number of branches you start? A. Yes, from three to five, depending 

 on what I want to get. 



Mr. Morrill : Let me say right here, that a man who trims a tree and 

 forms it right must have an ideal in his head. He must have a plan 

 according to which he is going to build that tree, and that plan ^"an 



