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THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of feeding. Without any question, when we grow a large- 

 orchard it takes a good deal from the land, and you have got 

 to put it back, but I do not think that any particular system 

 has very much to do with it, as long as you do something that 

 is going to help the growth of the trees and produce good, 

 healthy stock. It means cultivation. It means feeding in 

 some shape. It is simply a question of getting at the best 

 way. 



Mr. Staples: Most of my trees in Maine are not par- 

 ticularly old, but they have always been carefully trimmed 

 and cultivated, and have had care always. I do not think I 

 can add anything particularly to this discussion. I have an 

 orchard in West Hartford, and wdien I first bought the place 

 it was in about as bad condition as it could be. We have 

 been using considerable wood out of that orchard every year, 

 and it still has a larg"e quantity of wood in it. We have 

 trimmed it a good deal and we have fertilized it. That is a 

 thing v/hich has to be done ; if you are going to get a good 

 crop, you have got to trim, feed, spray and fertilize. 



A Member : What fertilizer did you use on that or- 

 chard? You seem to have got a pretty heavy wood growth 

 there. I think it would be interesting to know what fertiliz- 

 er you put on. 



Mr. Staples : We have used a little of everything, (-)ne 

 of the best things that we used in our Maine orchards was 

 hogs. I do not suppose it will hardly do for me to say so 

 here, but that treatment has given me excellent results. Peo- 

 ple here, so far as I have observed, do not use hogs so much 

 as they do in other places, but I have used hogs in my orchard 

 there, and I have gotten pretty good results. Of course, in 

 addition to that, we have mulched it and cultivated it. Any- 

 one of those things I suppose is good, but the use of hogs has 

 worked particularly well with us. 



Mr. Fuller: I ha-ve got about ten acres of ground in 

 New London on' which is an old orchard forty-five years old. 

 That has not been plowed in a great many years, and the 



