36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



do make good bearing trees, but I think such orchards are 

 rather the exception than the rule. 



Another point that I was thinking of in connection with 

 orchard management is the matter of pruning, to which the 

 Professor alluded, and in regard to which I agree with him. 

 I think that sometimes trees are over-pruned and sometimes 

 neglected in pruning. But I think, from my own experi- 

 ence, that the true way of treating an apple orchard is to 

 prune the trees just as we want them when we plant them, 

 leaving but very few leading branches, and no branches that 

 we shall have to saw off afterwards. It is seldom that we 

 do that, but I think we ought to do it ; then we shall have 

 beautiful, symmetrical trees. Of course, we must do a little 

 pruning every year, as may be needed. In that way we 

 shall get a very satisfactory orchard, and have no scars to 

 heal over, and shall not have to resort to the various mixtures 

 for covering large wounds. 



In regard to the peach, I should feel disposed to make 

 rather more of the disease often denominated " the yellows." 

 I would not say that it is incurable, but I have had a consid- 

 erable number of trees that I have not been able to cure. I 

 have watched with a great deal of interest the investigations 

 at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, an institution to 

 which the whole country is indebted — [applause] — and I 

 have hoped that Professor Penhallow's, Dr. Goessmann's and 

 Professor Maynard's theories would prove to be correct. 

 At the meeting of the American Pomological Society in 

 Boston, knowing that the matter of the peach yellows was 

 coming up for discussion, I took along some samples of 

 diseased wood. President Lyon of Michigan said there 

 was jao question but what that was the specific disease, so 

 we did not have any controversy about that. But what I 

 was going to say was this : We have been believers in the 

 use of potash. We have sometimes used eight or ten tons 

 a year, largely in our peach orchard ; and we have also 

 used the nmriates and different grades of potash salts. I 

 have been hoping, — in fact, I have believed, — that a liberal 

 use of potash would remedy the difficulty. But I am sorry 

 to say we have not been able to report complete exemption 

 from the disease. I sometimes think that a tree may have 



