50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Thompson of Thompsonville, Conn. Yv'Iiat time of 

 the year do you commence picking your apples? This 

 year the Baldwins dropped unusually early. If there is any 

 remedy for early dropping i would like to know it. 



Mr. Van Deusen. I think that is an important thing. 

 Where a man has a good many apples he will have to pick 

 some of them a little before the proper time for doing it. 

 About the first of October a party came to me and said, " I 

 don't want you to pick those apples until about the middle 

 of October." I said, " Some of them must take harm ; some 

 must be picked a little bit too quick, and others a little bit 

 too late. If you will leave this to me I will do just as I am 

 a mind to. I am not going to leave them so ; they will drop 

 on the ground, and you don't want dropped apples, you 

 want picked ones." So I went to work and picked them, 

 put them into barrels, left one head out and put them into 

 the barn. This party found that I was picking the apples, 

 and he wrote me, " Methinks you are picking your apples 

 too early." I sat dowm and wrote back, "Methinks I ain't ; 

 methinks I know my business." I went on picking and 

 after a time there came a gale, and a good many of the 

 apples of our neighbors, and some of ours, went to the 

 ground. \Yc ought to be careful not to delay picking our 

 fruit too long. When an apple is ripe it has reached its 

 best ; from that time forward it goes the other way. If you 

 w^ant it to keep well, pick it a little before it is ripe. It is 

 a great deal better than to wait until it begins to decay. 



Prof. Clakk. I have found that apples this year have 

 ripened a good deal earlier than usual. It is a great deal 

 better to pick them a little earl)^ rather than to i)ick them a 

 little late. I think this is a good rule that any of you can 

 follow. Take an apple from the ground, cut it open, and 

 if you do not find a worm inside, it is time to pick your 

 apples. 



Adjourned to two o'clock. 



