lOO STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



an annual spraying with one of these two mixtures. It is good 

 for the San Jose scale ; it is good for the oyster-shell scale, 

 which I know you have. It is good for every scale. It is good 

 for all forms of disfigurement and discoloration on a tree. It 

 makes the trees look healthy and vigorous. After you have 

 done it once, if you have got an interest in the business you 

 will not omit it. It adds much to the vigor of the tree, besides 

 insuring the control of all these insect pests. We have an 

 immense number of insect and fungous pests, and we should 

 get right after them from the start. 



I want to say just a word about the borer, because that is an 

 insect that begins to trouble us after the first two years, and 

 probably does more injury to the young apple orchard in New 

 England than any other one thing. The best way, in my opin- 

 ion, to get the best of the borer is just to keep after him all the 

 time. Make periodical rounds through your orchard and among 

 your trees, and just the minute you see any signs of the borer 

 working, which is manifest by the throwing out of little chips, 

 simply take your pruning knife or pen knife and cut into that 

 tree, and if you are there quick enough you can very easily 

 remove the borer. While there are a great many proprietary 

 remedies suggested for applying to trees, do not experiment 

 with any of them. Get busy with your knife and dig out the 

 insects, if you have any. And if you give your trees clean 

 cultivation you are not going to have very much trouble with 

 them. 



Young trees should have, in my opinion, three years at least 

 of cultivation. Then if you desire to make a quick rotation of 

 oats and grass, oats the first year and grass the second, and 

 then back to some hoed crop, I don't know as your orchard 

 will be materially injured or the growth stopped. But remem- 

 ber always to learn to read your tree. See what those trees are 

 saying to you every day in the year. There is no absolute rule 

 in horticulture. It is the man behind the method that brings 

 success. I will not quarrel with any man, whatever his method 

 is, if he will show me results. All I am trying to do here today 

 is to make suggestions along certain lines. If they do not 

 appeal to you, do not accept them. But do something. Do 

 not plant your trees and go away and forget them. You will 

 never get profitable returns in that way. You will never get 



