PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING l"! 



Q : Dead ou the tree? 



Prof. Waite: Sometimes, if it is a strong, thrifty tree in which you can 

 say there is no other means of accounting for it, it would be pretty good 

 presum])tion that there was a case of blight. 



Q: I have a pear tree that has shed its foliage three successive years, 

 about the last of August; but it comes on and looks all right in the 

 spring; about the last of August it sheds its foliage, dies off, and the 

 leaves all drop. 



Prof. Waite: Well, that is probably scab or leaf-blight, not pear-blight. 

 Pear-blight leaves never shed off, and that is a peculiarity about them, 

 for the reason that these germs go at it the other way. You know the 

 cutting olT of a leaf is a noniinl process of a tree. It is all done in a 

 little part that exists in the joint where the leaf joins the stem; but pear 

 blight kills that joint the first thing, before it kills the leaf, so the leaf has 

 to stick on. It is one of the good symptoms, that the leaves stick on. 



Q: Spraying will not help blight? 



Prof. Waite : It will not help it, neither will Bordeaux mixture. 



QUESTIONS. 



WOOD ASHES FOR THE PEACH ORCHARD. 



Would it be profitable to haul ashes, a mile and a half to put on a peach 

 orchard? 



Mr. Morrill: Certainly, I would, on light soil. 



Q : On sandy gravelh' soil ? 



Mr. Morrill: O yes, I would haul them further than that. I would 

 haul them three times that, or four times, and I would put them on 

 liberally, too. Leaching takes a large percentage of the potash out, but 

 carbonate of lime is still left and some phosphoric acid is still there. 

 It is worth hauling. The mechanical action of leached ashes is excellent. 



Mr. Chase : You speak of using hardwood ashes. Is there a difference 

 between hardwood ashes and softwood? 



Mr. Morrill: O, a great difference, yes. Pine does not make much 

 ash, and it is very poor what you do get; but what we know as hard- 

 wood includes elm, bassw'ood, poplar. Elm is very rich in potash. 



SIZE OF PEACH TREES FOR SETTING, 



Q: I would like to ask, in a fair-size orchard what size of tree you 

 prefer to set, of peach tree? 



Mr. Morrill: Well, I do not care very much what the size of the tree 

 is. I will get size afterward. What I am after is the vitality of the tree 

 and the knowledge that it is true to name and has not been injured and 

 is reasonably thrift^'. I am not hunting for the biggest trees. I am a 

 little peculiar about that. I get just as nice results from those little 

 trees as I do from a great big tree, six or seven feet through. The princi- 

 pal thing is to get a tree that has not been injured in the nursery or in 

 handling from the nursery. 



