166 



rod apart at a cost of 82 cents a rod, put up. One of our 

 good assessors told one of the men, "We can assess him mor-; 

 for that field next year for putting that fence around it." 

 That is the way we fruit men have to take it. The State pro- 

 tects the deer. We try to protect our trees from the deer, 

 and the assessor comes along and gives us a whack for doing 

 it. 



In our own locality it looks as though we were going to 

 have, or rather already have a pest much worse than the 

 deer and harder to fence, the pheasant. -In the spring oC 

 3911 there were many buds eaten in the writer's orchard. 

 He was satisfied in his own mind that it was pheasant 's work, 

 for they were often seen in the orchard, but never caught 

 budding. However, one of my neighbors saw one budding 

 in his orchard a few days ago. This bird is getting to be 

 very plenty in this section. Twenty-two were seen in an 

 cpen field a few weeks ago. The writer has an orchard 

 where there was about 550 peach trees set 10 years ago this 

 spring there are less than 200 left. In another orchard of 

 about 750 peach trees set 7 years ago this spring there are 

 360 left. Yellows are to blame for nearly all of these trees 

 being pulled out. The best stump i)uller that ever came into 

 this section is a four horse team combined weight about 

 6000 pounds. I hope that each one may get some idea from 

 iLis session that will help him in his business, and that thi;j 

 will be a prosperous year for all. 



The Round Table Talks on Small Fruits by F. A. Smith 

 of Ipswich and on Pears by Richard Hittinger of Belmont 

 were not written out so they are not printed in the proceed- 

 mgs. 



A special vote of thanks is due President Farquhar, of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the decorative 

 plants so freely furnished. 



