18 



MR. CONANT: On account of its being a dry soil. I 

 have used a light cover crop, buckwheat, and let that go 

 down in the Fall and hold the foliage that drops off from 

 the tree, the leaves, which make a splendid fertilizer aay- 

 Avay, and creates humus in the soil, turning it in early the 

 following Spring. I might say that we have ahvays prac- 

 tised Spring plowing in j\Iaine on account of the severe win- 

 ters, we have never felt it was a safe business proposition 

 10 do our orchard plowing in the Fall. 



ME. MAINLAND: Where you have some trees that 

 maintain normal growth, 35 or 40 inches in a season, that 

 have been pruned regularly 5 or 6 years, from year to year, 

 cut back to about four buds of the previous season's prun- 

 ing, how would you check excessive growth? 



MR. CONANT: Well, that is an abnormal condition, I 

 should endeavor to sow oats in that case, and cut out tillage 

 entirely until I got those trees back. I would sow the oats 

 to take up the nitrogen that there must be in the soil ta 

 force a tree to that extent. Oats are the strongest nitrogen 

 l)uller you can get. and I would sow oats or anything that 

 is a strong nitrogen puller to get those trees back to a 

 reasonable growth. 



THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to ask :\Ir. Mainland 

 how old the trees are. 



MR. MAINLAND: Six and 7 years old. 



A MEMBER: How do you account, in a Baldwin or- 

 chard, for different trees under the same cultivation, some 

 being annual bearing and some not, under exactly the same 

 cultivation ? 



MR. CONANT: In answer to that question, I want to 

 say that I have the same problem on my own place, to some 

 extent, and have never known how to solve that question, 

 f^inee they tell us there is nothing in bud selection ; we seem 

 to have some trees which inherit a tendency or a disposition 

 that way, 



A MEMBER: I would suggest that the terminal bad 

 seems to make a great deal of difference; the one that bears 



