1878.] TRANSACTIONS. 19 



Mr. Draper would give trees wood ashes and bone : if stable manure is 

 used it should be applied in the fall. 



Mr. A. B. Lovell said he had raised corn on his sand orchard eight 

 years running, besides gathering the apples. 



Mr. Marble reiterated his statement that good land will not give good 

 returns in apples ; in twenty-five years experience he feels sure it would 

 have been cheaper to let the land alone and pay the taxes ; he could get 

 no crops under the trees, and the bother and expense of pruning, bug 

 killing and harvesting cost more than the income during this period. 



Mr. Sears favored setting trees about the margin of fields ; the roots 

 were under the walls, utilizing all the ground, and the trees thrive better 

 than in a fully set orchard. 



Mr. Newell Wood, of Millbury. said Mr. JSIarble's trouble was that his 

 soil needed underdraining. He thought it poor economy to set apples 

 about the walls ; they do better in an orchard where they can be tended. 

 He considered a sheltered site for an orchard important ; after trees come 

 into bearing, ploughing In of clover is one of the best fertilizers ; he 

 spoke heartily in favor of this method of fertilizing for general crojis ; he 

 had observed that his orchard bore excellent sized fruit, even in the 

 dryest season, which he thought due to the clover. For pears he applied 

 manure from the barn cellar, ploughing it in the fall ; he would prune 

 whenever he saw a place to prune ; the knife should always be within 

 reach. Peach trees need heavy pruning late in the fall. He would cut 

 otf large limbs in the fall, as there is less liability to decay. 



Mr. Joseph Lovell said if Mr. Wood's practice of pruning was in ues 

 there would be no occasion to cut off large limbs. 



Mr. Sears had had good results from November and December trim- 

 ming. To trim in the summer would spoil the grass under the trees ; he 

 had seen no important difference between winter and summer pruning if 

 large wounds are protected with shellac. 



Mr. Wood insisted on mulching young trees after setting, as of the 

 greatest importance. 



Mr. Thomas Harlow, of West Boylslun, said he knew of two or three 

 orchards where the bearing year has been changed by the canker worm. 

 He suggested that if trees are taken from a heavily manured nursery, it 

 will be important to give them rich food afterwards or they will make a 

 bad showing. 



Mr. Kinney spoke of a case when in a six or eight acre orchard, on a 

 steep side hill, the owner picked every blossom for the first two years, 

 and the result was full crops in the odd years, nnd the owner had o^ot 

 rich on one orchard, which an ordinary farmer would lefuse at any price. 



Mr. Sears intimated that experience has been that trees so treated after 

 a few years get back to the general habit of bearing on the even year, 



