36 STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Q. What time would you prune ? You told us not to prune 

 in June. 



A. Any time after the leaves fall. I hear some parties advo- 

 cate trimming in the fall and letting the limbs lie beneath the 

 trees as a preventive to the mice; possibly there is something 

 in that. 



FERTILIZATION. 



Chas. S. Pope — Our president stated this forenoon that three- 

 fourths or seven-eights — I have forgotten the fraction — of the 

 trees in the State of Maine were dying of starvation, and there 

 is too much truth in this. And even those which are not dying of 

 starvation are simply existing and giving a crop only when, — 

 well, the school-boy said the hitching-posts were bearing this 

 year — and that is just the year when there is no profit in fruit. 



Now, I can remember when Mother Nature was so kindly that 

 all that was necessary was for us to set a good tree in good soil in 

 the pastures where it still retained its fertility from the forests 

 that had not been exhausted. All that was necessary when I 

 was a boy was for us to set a good tree and keep away the insects 

 and we would raise good crops of apples year after year. But 

 as time goes on and the fertility of the soil is exhausted, it now 

 becomes necessary for successful fruit-growing to keep the con- 

 dition of the soil up more in the condition that it was in fifty or 

 seventy-five years ago. And the soil we don't want simply to 

 maintain that growth, as we could easily in any soil that was fit 

 to raise a crop, but what we wish is to grow fruit in larger quan- 

 tities and of better quality and every year, so that when fruit is 

 worth something we will have a crop of fruit to sell. What 

 seems to be lacking in our soil now is the lack in the physical 

 condition as much as anything to grow good trees. The soil 

 seems to be hard and dense. It is lacking in vegetable fibre, the 

 humus of the soil ; the decaying organic matter that we ought to 

 have there for the successful growth of the tree is lacking. 

 Therefore we must look first to the condition of the soil before 

 we begin to fertilize ; have our soil in that condition where the 

 trees can take hold of the fertilizing material before anything 

 else. If we are putting this fertilizer into the soil, we want to 

 put it in in such shape that the trees can get it out and improve 

 on it. Therefore it behooves us not only to add this fertilizing 



