1911-12] FRUIT GROWING IN THE WEST 45 



effect, but the object lessons of the effect of fertihzing and 

 spraying, shown by sample exhibits from treated and untreated 

 trees, must have been even more striking. Then there was 

 about the exhibitors and the apple men present, the up-to-date 

 apple men, an air of prosperity that was itself a testimonial to 

 the business, and the constant repetition of prices received and 

 offered for the best of the fruit had its additional effect upon 

 those who came to learn and sent them away to practice. 

 As a result there have been more farmers who have pruned and 

 sprayed their apple trees this year than ever before. In our 

 crop report for September we said ''More spraying has been 

 done this year than ever before, with the result that the crop is 

 generally more valuable, as a whole, than many of the larger 

 crops secured in previous years." This conclusion has been 

 fully sustained by the reports which have come to me since it 

 was written, and by what I have seen in my visits to the apple 

 producing sections of the State. 



This interest in spraying and in the general care of apple 

 trees has been well repaid, sufficiently so that those who have 

 followed the practice this year will do even more spraying 

 another year, and their neighbors will have seen what it means 

 and will also take it up. That this means great things for the 

 apple crop of Massachusetts admits of no doubt. 



A few concrete examples of what care and spraying have done 

 will not be amiss. In October I visited the farms of a Boston 

 man, located in the town of Hopkinton. These farms showed 

 every evidence of neglect prior to their purchase by their 

 present owner, but on them were several hundred apple trees 

 from twenty to thirty years old. These had been neglected and 

 had never borne a creditable crop of fruit. Taking them in 

 hand, he procured expert advice and assistance, and began 

 a course of fertilizing, pruning and spraying, which resulted 

 this year in a crop of splendid fruit. Part of the crop has been 

 marketed and it is estimated that he will secure at least 1,000 

 bushels. Prices so far received have averaged approximately 

 four dollars per barrel, and with equal prices for the crop re- 

 maining unsold he will take in a gross amount which cannot be 



