STATE POMOLOGICAI. SOCIETY, 



OUR ORCHARD MEETING. 



THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS HELD AND WHAT ITS 

 PROPRIETOR HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 



John W. True, New Gloucester. 



" The orchard meeting — where it was held." To say that it 

 was held at my house, my farm in New Gloucester, I think will 

 answer that part of the question. There was quite a sharp rain 

 in the morning which hindered a great many people from com- 

 ing, but then it cleared ofif and we had a beautiful day. But not 

 so many were present as there would have been had it been 

 pleasant in the early morning. 



I began farming in October, 1874, and in looking the situa- 

 tion over and getting advice from older people concluded that 

 I had all the orchard that I could take care of. It consisted of 

 four little orchards enclosed by stone walls and about sixty-five 

 trees around the fields, most of those being small trees not in 

 bearing. The two largest orchards were nearly all natural fruit, 

 and the ground was full of boulders and entirely unfit for culti- 

 vation. I tried cutting the brush around the trunks and prun- 

 ing, but I got no profit as I had no use for cider and did not 

 care to zvork up a trade in the article. For the first five years 

 I raised from ten to twenty-five barrels of grafted fruit. I was 

 at about that time prevailed upon by a tree agent to buy ten 

 Northern Spy trees, and I have had one or two good crops from 

 them. They grew well and I got interested. I looked the farm 

 over and I could see no place that I wanted to put into an 

 orchard. At last I decided that the smaller cider-apple orchard 

 could be used. I cut the trees down, took out the rocks and 

 bought 50 trees, — 25 Red Astrachans, 15 Ben Davis and 10 

 Baldwins, the intention being to graft the Astrachan to Baldwin. 

 The Ben Davis came Walbridge and have proved valueless, both 

 as they were and also as a stock for grafting. The Astrachans 

 top worked to Baldwin have given the best results, making a 

 fine tree, better than the Baldwin set from the nursery. In my 

 work since I have never been able to take a good field for 



