66 P:XPERIMEXT station. [Jan. 



CONDITION OF FRUIT TREES IN GENERAL. 



BY G. E. STONE. 



Any one who has been acquainted for any length of time with 

 the fruit inchistry of this State ninst have noticed its condition 

 the past few years. ^Massachusetts has never been noted as an 

 extensive fruit-growing State, and very few large orchard enter- 

 prises have ever been developed. There have also been com- 

 paratively few orchards which have been kept in first-class 

 condition ; in fact, the condition of fruit trees has never been so 

 bad in the history of the Commonwealth as during the past four 

 or five years. The severe and erratic climatic conditions to 

 which our fruit trees, in particular, have been subject, together 

 with the San Jose scale, have been the means of killing thou- 

 sands of our fruit trees, and greatly lessening their productive- 

 ness and the quality of the fruit. All this, combined with 

 wholesale neglect, has placed the fruit industry at a very low 

 level, and it is not at all surprising that apples bring at times a 

 very low price. The severe winter of 1903-04 was not confined 

 to our State, as its work may be seen throughout the whole north- 

 eastern section of the United States, and in many instances 

 large orchards were wiped out entirely. 



From observations made in oth^r States it would appear that 

 our trees do not suffer so severely as in some other places, but 

 the fruit has been of exceptionally poor quality. A large part 

 of the injury to apple trees was confined to the roots, although 

 a large amount of sun scald, which was subsequently associated 

 with canker, was noticeable on the branches. Good systematic 

 pruning, feeding and cultivation would have remedied much 

 of this injurv, but mitil the past year or so, when there has been 

 a renewed interest in orcharding, no attempt has been made to 

 renovate these n(>glected orchards. The remarkable pi"ice which 



