18 



meeting two weeks ago that it would help to control blossom 

 blight caused by the brown rot in early spring, but I do not 

 believe it would help at all. It won't help in the control of 

 curculio, and if it doesn't help in the case of brown rot, why 

 do it? No, I can't see any advantage in spraying at full bloom, 

 and I wouldn't advise it. 



Chairman Munson. We generally go to New York State to 

 get an authority on apple-grading laws. We have done it in 

 this case, and the subject is a very important one to Massa- 

 chusetts growers, and I thought we ought to have some one 

 here who had had a little experience in demonstrating apple- 

 grading laws, so we have Mr. B. D. Van Buren, assistant director. 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture of New 

 York, to discuss this important subject with us. 



Mr. Van Buren. Just before I start my paper, T would 

 like to say a word in regard to the question of pruning, which 

 was raised in Mr. Blake's talk. I think that where you have 

 peach trees eight to twelve years old, which have been very 

 badly injured by the winters, — I believe that severe pruning 

 would seriously injure the tree and might kill it, and that really 

 moderately heavy pruning would give better results than the 

 severe pruning along dehorning lines. 



Mr. Blake. I tried to make it clear that we did not believe 

 in dehorning trees in good bearing condition, and that we did 

 not alter our pruning very much on young trees, but when an 

 orchard gets to the point that it is very, very weak, and is 

 about ready to go out, our idea is if it isn't pruned back, you 

 might as well pull it out, whether it is winter injured or not, 

 but that would mean orchards that are about ten years old. 

 On those orchards you would either try to renew them or take 

 them out if they were severely injured. 



Mr. Van Buren. If they were severely winter injured, and 

 I calculated to pull through, instead of giving severe pruning, 

 give them a moderately heavy pruning and give moderate 

 thinning out. 



Mr. Blake. It is one of the points that might interest you. 

 We believe it is a mistake to let an orchard go in pruning until 

 about the tenth, or any renewal pruning until about the tenth 

 year, so that if you want to renew it you have to dehorn it. 



