V 



124 State Horticultural Society. 



open, and those not in prime condition killed outright. Of course 

 we had no fruit in "99, but the season beins^ a reasonably good grow- 

 ing- one, many trees partially recovered, fruit buds were formed and our 

 1900 crop was fairly good. 



But what shall I say of 190T, '2 and '3? Borrowing an idea from 

 the arithmetical genius who, finding no difficulty in saying '98, '99 and 

 even 1900, did not like to say nineteen hundred and one every time, but 

 cut it short by saying "naughty one," I can truly say 1901, '2 and '3 have 

 been naughty one, naughty two and naughty three to the fruit growers 

 of nearly the whole country. The favorable spring of 190 1 was followed 

 by our almost unprecedented drouth. ]\Iany trees that had not fully 

 recovered from the freezes of October and February preceding suc- 

 cumbed. They set some fruit, but could not mature it and live. The 

 summer was very unfavorable for setting fruit buds for 1902. The re- 

 covery of many trees from former disasters was checked. But 1902 in 

 itself, will be remembered as a favorable year for fruit raising for all 

 whose trees had reasonably recovered. Those trees, then, that had borne 

 little or no fruit in 1901 did fairly well in 1902. It was a growing sea- 

 son and our orchards did reasonabh- well. Fruit buds were set, the 

 winter of 1902 and '3 was quite favorable, and our orchards started well 

 for 1903. More people made adequate arrangements for spraying than 

 ever before. The spraying for scab was well done, and that for the 

 canker worm was successful. True, it was a little muddy. A good horse 

 wovdd sometimes stick with only a light spring wagon, a Cyclone Dust 

 Sprayer and an extra bushel of dust. But the leaves were growing, the 

 blossom buds were changing color, and soon a fine bloom delighted our 

 vision. The blossoms had not been sweeter in years. We were happy 

 and began to talk about barrels and boxes, and cold storage, and to see 

 visions of bank accounts with a good credit balance. Over the country 

 telephone came the oft repeated query, "How's your orchard?" and 

 cheering replies went back, congratulations followed. The country 

 groceryman congratulated us on our happy prospect, and the local con- 

 sumer who thinks 25 cents high for a bushel of apples and will postpone 

 buying till they drop to 15, said, "I do hope we will have a full apple 

 crop this year. I am really hungry for apples," and was glad when told 

 of the prospect. 



Thus passed most of April, 1903. We had new moon at 8:30 a. m. 

 on the 27th, but she set at 10:05 the night of the 30th, hence we really 

 had "the dark of the moon" that night, and according to our moon-eyed 

 friends, a frost on such a night will surely hurt. Any way it did hurt. 

 A large portion of the apples fell to the ground. The cold rain that 



