116 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



talked about a good manj' times. I have always had a suspicion that it 

 may be something connected with the robbing of the roots of the old peach 

 trees; that the fungi that are attacking the decaying roots of the old 

 trees may get after the roots of the newly planted trees. There is another 

 thing that might be mentioned also, and that is that on newly cleared 

 land in Maryland, planting peaches is a questionable proceeding. A great 

 mauj trees fail on such land. After they take off the timber they like to 

 cultivate the land about three years, if possible, before they plant peach 

 trees. Pears and apples will do a great deal better on newly cleared land 

 that has had only one year's cultivation to put it in order than the peach 

 .will. 



Prof. Taft: In his talk Mr. Graham mentioned several varieties of 

 strawberry and of apple that had been found practical failures as commer- 

 cial sorts, and it seems to me there is a possible reason for the failure of 

 those kinds. Years ago we had the Wilson strawberry and it became 

 seriousl}^ injured b}' leaf blight; and it seems to me that that weakness 

 it had accounts for the giving out of the kind. Since that time we have 

 had many new^ kinds, and the growers are picking out those which they 

 find least injured by this leaf trouble. The same is true of the apple. 

 Many of the older kinds have been, or should be at least, entirely dropped 

 out of our list, because they are so subject to the apple-scab fungus upon 

 both leaf and fruit. The same is true of the pear in some cases. Years ago 

 they grew the White Doyenne in many sections with great success, but 

 now it is a total failure everywhere, so far as I know, except where they 

 spray the trees and keep dow'n this fungus. Regarding Mr. Graham's 

 orchard, it appears to me that possibly there might be some other reason 

 in the orchard where he has replanted. As I understand, the first orchard 

 was destroyed; at least, he found on the trees that died large numbers 

 of the black peach aphis, and it is possible, of course, that they may 

 have been in that soil, coming from the older trees; or that possibly they 

 were brought in on some of those nursery trees, although, as he explains 

 it, that on the other farms there was no trouble, it would seem to indicate 

 that the aphis must have been there previous to the planting of the new 

 trees. That w^ould, of course, account for the loss of that orchard and the 

 success of the others. 



Mr. Slayton: I wish to know% in Mr. Graham's estimate of Greening, 

 Early Harvest, etc., of twenty-five years ago, if his younger appetite did 

 not havie something to do with the taste of the apples as compared with 

 their taste today, and I wonder if the boys of today, twenty-five years 

 hence, will not estimate our Oldenburgh, Northern Spy, etc. — if their mem- 

 ories will not turn back to them with the same ideas of lusciousness that 

 mine and Mr. Graham's do to the apples that w^e had twenty-five and 

 thirty or forty years ago. I think lack of teeth and lack of appetite, or 

 something, has much to do with our estimate of fruit. I believe there is 

 no way to produce a new fruit of any kind except by a new birth, and 

 that is only produced by a seed. No budding or grafting, in my opinion, 

 p>roduces a new tree or a new plant. It is only the propagation of an old 

 plant that was produced years ago. The. old Greening trees that are 

 bearing today are only parts of the original tree that grew in Rhode 

 Island 150 years ago, and sooner or later they must fail, as every animal, 

 including mankind, has a certain natural life. Some of our plants grow 

 up in the morning and die before night; some of our animals are born at 



