f) WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



they will be better oft' in every way. It is well known that 

 during the prevalence of the epizootic among horses a number 

 of years ago, apples were recommended as the antidote, and 

 that the horses fed large quantities of apples were the ones that 

 generally pulled through. 



That apples are cheap does not seem to increase the consump- 

 tion. Indeed, dealers tell me that they do not sell so many 

 apples when they are so ruinously cheap as when they are higher. 

 We have never seen a season before when there was not some 

 outlet for the big apple crop. But this year the enormous bear- 

 ing of the trees has been universal throughout the apple-bearing 

 belt. It is only by a rise of price that the market will have a 

 tendency to be stimulated. 



The market demands quality rather than quantity and to 

 supply this many of our apple growers have enlightened them- 

 selves regarding the best methods of ijrowth, with a resulting 

 increase in results. There are many conditions which contribute 

 to the best growth of the fruit. Judicious pruning will tend to 

 increase the quality and decrease the quantity. Then the picking, 

 handling and storing of apples require good judgment. They 

 should be picked by hand, carried in boxes or barrels into the 

 cellar immediately and kept at a nearly uniform temperature. 

 It should be remembered that apples that are grown under a 

 higher state of cultivation require the most care in successful 

 keeping. 



There is no vegetable or fruit produced any more readily or 

 cheaply than the apple, a fact which accounts for the market being 

 glutted with it at times. A well-trained, properly cultivated 

 apple tree is capable of producing ten barrels, and there is noth- 

 ing else that will yield the same quantity if grown on the same 

 patch of land. 



