Winter Meeting. 143 



little trouble to keep the aphis in check. 1 know from inspecting the 

 nurseries of the Staie for seven years, that the nurseryman is very par- 

 ticular about sending aphis trees. I would not, of course, plant a badly 

 infested tree. It is just as impossible for the nurseryman to raise trees 

 without some aphis or other pest as for you to raise a family of children 

 without having some of the common diseases of childhood. I do not 

 mean it is absolutely necessary for all of you to be continually fighting 

 aphis. When you pass through your orchard and see a tree infested with 

 aphis, or other pest, treat that tree. When you find you have the aphis, 

 don't neglect it. In the northern part of the State it does but little harm. 

 In the southern part of the State you will have to fight it vigorously. 



K. B. Wilkerson. — :I once dreaded aphis, but now I fear it very little. 

 I once sold 120,000 apple trees for $2,000, because they were covered 

 with aphis. I sold them as damaged trees at a low price. Some of them 

 were literally white from top to bottom. At a certain time the aphis 

 began to leave and in forty-eight hours it was all gone. I do not fear 

 aphis as I once did. 



H. N. Wild. — Mr. Bagby did not begin with the apple seedling. 

 That is where we get the aphis first. You can get all the aphis you want 

 even on the best grown apple seedlings. If they appear to be free from 

 it when dug it will develop upon them later as the season advances. The 

 seedlings carry them into the nursery. I would like for the station to 

 get some seedlings free from aphis and see if they do not develop upon 

 them. 



FORMATION OF FRUIT BUDS. 



(J. C. Evans, Harlem, Missouri.) 



I feel incompetent to do justice to this subject, and so have noi 

 prepared a paper upon it. These distinguished scientists here shouM 

 know far more of it than I do. The more I study the less I seem to 

 know — the darker the subject gets. If I should tell you fruit buds are 

 formed in August perhaps most of you would agree, but they do not 

 form always in August. Their formation is governed by circumstances. 

 They may be formed in any growing month of the year. I have known 

 fruit buds to form in the month of May, when the first crop of fruit buds 

 had perished. None of us can tell when the fruit buds are formed. Tho 

 time is governed by conditions of the soil and season. I have known 

 peaches to bear the second time after the first crop had formed. I think 

 the subject is too big for any one except some one high up in the sciences. 

 What I have said applies to apples. 



