LA CRESCENT TRIAL STATION. 47 



keeping the wolf from the door, while his was a labor of love and 

 his desire to benefit mankind. 



Another serious drawback is found in the fact that no one thor- 

 oughly understands his plans, and much of his work is lost and will 

 have to be done again by others. 



Trusting the members will pardon these explanations, I will 

 proceed to report briefly the work accomplished during the past 

 season. 



The past winter (1900-1901) being an exceptionally mild one 

 but little if any damage was sustained in the orchard. Small fruit, 

 notably raspberries, were severely injured and this, too, without 

 regard to protection, so that I am convinced the damage was caused 

 by a late fall growth and immature canes. 



A few sickly trees died during the drouth and will be replaced 

 with standard varieties the coming spring. It was not a "bearing 

 year," but little fruit was expected and — right here — a serious mis- 

 take was made by not continuing the thorough spraying of all bear- 

 ing trees. The improvement in quality of fruit on trees so treated 

 the previous year was so marked that there can be no question as 

 to results, and at the comparatively high prices of fruit caused by 

 a general scarcity the labor would have been well rewarded, besides 

 helping to exterminate the "bugs" for next year's benefit. 



A good many of the trees in the new trial orchard, mentioned 

 in the last report of this station, fruited for the first time, but ow- 

 ing to poor quality the merits of but few varieties could be de- 

 termined without further trial. Destructive wind and hail storms 

 also shook off more than half the crop, but in spite of these draw- 

 backs some 200 bushels of apples were harvested and sold at re- 

 munerative prices. 



The plum crop was better than expected; quality fair but size 

 small. Many of the newer varieties fruited, and a number of them 

 have merit, but I neglected to keep the record. The peach trees 

 mentioned in the mid-summer report matured three bushels of 

 superior fruit and that, too, without winter protection. Several 

 pear trees also bore fruit, but the "small boy" harvested most of 

 it before thoroughly ripened. 



As the small fruit was reported upon at summer meeting I will 

 only add that theWarfield strawberry sustained its reputation as the 

 most profitable market variety but was injured considerably by 

 drouth. The Loudon raspberry also jumped to the front again, 

 both as a shipper and table berry with me, but with others, includ- 

 ing my nearest neighbor, they were voted a failure. I conclude 

 that they are all right except during wet weather and on heavy soil. 



