69 



there was a nice blossom, but they didn't seem to set very 

 well. We had some pretty nice pears, but now they are 

 looking as though we are going' to get a pretty good crop 

 for next year. 



The pear psylla came about twenty years ago, and they 

 went right across, starting in Watertown and out through 

 Belmont and over through Arlington along the low ground. 

 They didn't touch the trees on the hills; in fact, half of the 

 orchards were free from them quite a while. After the 

 psylla came around the pears were not worth picking. They 

 were all black and the leaves fell from the trees. When the 

 men went in to pick the fruit they came out of the tree so 

 black you couldn't tell whether they were black men or 

 white men. We found the only thing that checked the 

 psylla was spraying twice in one season, early in the fall and 

 again in the spring. We used oil and I have been spraying 

 with it ever since. I have heard a good deal of discussion 

 that spraying with oil kills trees but I haven't seen any bad 

 effects from its use, and I don't know whether to try the 

 lime-sulfur or not. Lime-sulfur is nasty stuff to use. A 

 man doesn't like to use it, so I am in a quandrary, and that is 

 what I want to find out today ; whether it is policy to use the 

 lime-sulfur or keep on with the oil. 



I don't know that there is anything I can add to this. 

 Thank you. (Applause.) 



THE PRESIDENT : Have you any questions or any dis- 

 cussion ? 



QUESTION : I would like to ask the speaker if he raises 

 apples on the same line as pears, whether they will grow on 

 the sanije kind of soil and in the same location? 



MR. HITTINGER : Well, we have apples, pears, peaches 

 and everything on the same ground, all mixed in. and they 

 seem to grow all right and thrive. 



QUESTION: I have apples growing and doing well, and 

 I have rows of pear trees between, and there seems to be 

 room enough, but they don't seem to do anything. They 

 don't grow. 



