16 



Mr. Drew. 'Ro. I would not spray in freezing weather, 

 but it is an excellent time now to spraj to kill scale, provided 

 you can have at least six or eight hours without freezing. 



Mr. H. A. Turner. If you had part of an orchard bearing 

 the Ben Davis apple would you advise keeping the trees 

 along, or grafting them ? 



Mr. Drew. That is a matter for an individual to decide 

 for himself. The Ben Davis, from the practical point of 

 view, possibly has a certain function. It will keep better 

 than any other apple, and may be taken out of storage as 

 late as July for culinary use, when you can't get any other 

 apples. I wouldn't recommend an3'^body's planting the Ben 

 Davis in New England, as they grow apples enough of poor 

 quality in the western States without our doing it here. 



Question. Do you spray a limb without any blossoms 

 just as thoroughly as those with blossoms ? 



Mr. Drew. I would take the precaution of treating it just 

 the same, even if the tree did not show any indication of 

 bearing fruit, just as I would thoroughly fertilize the tree, 

 or a whole orchard, that wasn't going to bear that year, I 

 would not fertilize it just the same, but I would fertilize it. 



Mr. Reed. How do you fertilize apples, peaches and pears 

 in both young and bearing orchards ? 



Mr. Drew. I would fertilize in connection with cultiva- 

 tion, so that trees would make, say from eight to ten inches' 

 growth a year, and produce good colored, sound fruit that 

 would stand up. There is nothing better than hard wood 

 ashes to give these results. Manure is all right in giving 

 growth, but in a bearing orchard it should be used with cau- 

 tion. Among chemical elements I would depend on nitrate 

 of soda, but would use it only in small amounts, because it 

 will produce great foliage, but fruit that will not stand up in 

 transportation. For potash, I would use high-grade sulfate 

 of potash as an annual dressing, at the rate of 100 to 250 

 pounds to an acre. For phosphoric acid, I generally plan on 

 giving my orchards an annual dressing of somewhere from 

 400 to 600 pounds per acre, and a lot of our best growers of 

 peaches and apples in Connecticut are using it as heavy as 

 1,000 pounds per acre. 



