23 



very productive tree last year, a very profitable tree. lie won 

 the prize that was offered by the Board of Agriculture last 

 year for the most productive tree. There is no reason why 

 you all should not have just such trees, — 30 to the acre. 



Mr. F. A. Russell. This tree was a natural fruit tree. 

 About twelve years ago we grafted it to the Gravenstein. 

 The tree bore only a few bushels each year until last year, 

 when we picked 60 bushels of fruit and sold the crop for $56 

 out of the field. I did not thin the apples and this year got 

 about 3 bushels, but there is another year coming^ when I 

 hope to get 60. The tree must be thirty-five or forty years 

 old. 



Prof. W. P. Brooks. There are one or two facts concern- 

 ing the questions that have been asked about which I have 

 made a discovery or two. The experimental orchard at Am- 

 herst has been managed in a sort of modified grass mulch 

 method ; that is, the growth of mixed grass and clover has 

 been cut twice each year and allowed to lie where it has 

 fallen. Until the last year or two the results have been very 

 satisfactory; but last year, in particular, three-quarters of 

 the fruit at least was almost worthless, because it was stung 

 by the curculio. When the fruit is stung it stops growth at 

 that point, a dark-colored or greenish spot is formed, and 

 when ripe the surface is uneven and the interior gnarly. If 

 the grass mulch creates conditions favorable to the hiberna- 

 tion of this insect, as it is believed, it is going to condemn 

 this method absolutely. 



My own orchard of forty old apple trees, located not far 

 from the experimental orchard, has, under tillage, fertiliza- 

 tion and spraying, increased its product from 10 barrels of 

 miserable fruit in 1908, when I bought it, to 90 barrels of 

 fine fruit this fall. 



The question as to bearing every year has been brought in. 

 I presume that many of you personally have Baldwin trees in 

 your orchards which bear a quarter or a third of the tree one 

 year, and the balance the next year. I am satisfied that the 

 character of the season has nothing to do with it. My own 

 explanation is that some time back in the past a certain sec- 

 tion of the tree was defoliated, and the part that was not de- 



