60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



'Mr. F. A. Rrssf:LL. This tree was a natural fruit tree-. 

 About twelve vears ago we grafted it to the Graveustein, The 

 tree bore only a few bushels each year until last year, when we 

 l)icked GO bushels of fruit and sold the crop for $50 out of 

 the field. I did not thin the apples and this year got about 3 

 bushels, but there is another year coming, when I hope to get 

 GO. The tree must be thirty-five or forty years old. I would 

 like to ask Mr. Drew how much he considered that tree worth ? 



Mr. Drp:w. I should figure it at G per cent and get at it 

 that way. 



Prof. W. P. Brooks. There are one or two facts concern- 

 ing the questions that have been asked about which I have 

 made a discovery or two. The experimental orchard at Am- 

 herst has been managed in a sort of modified grass mulch 

 method ; that is, the growth of mixed grass and clover has 

 been cut twice each year and allowed to lie where it has fallen. 

 Until the last year or two the results have been very satisfac- 

 tory; but last year, in particular, three-quarters of the fruit 

 at least was almost worthless, because it was stung by the 

 curculio. When the fruit is stung it stops growth at that 

 point, a dark-colored or greenish spot is formed, and when 

 ripe the surface is uneven and the interior gnarly. If the 

 grass mulch creates conditions favorable to the hil)ernation 

 of this insect, as it is believed, it is going to condemn this 

 •method absolutely. 



My own orchard of forty old apple trees, located not far 

 from the experimental orchard, has, undec tillage, fertiliza- 

 tion and spraying, increased its product from 10 barrels of 

 miserable fruit in 1908, when I bought it, to 90 barrels of 

 fine fruit this fall. 



The question as to bearing every year has been brought in. 

 I presume that many of you personally have Baldwin trees in 

 your orchards which bear a quarter or a third of the tree one 

 year, and the balance the next year. I am satisfied that the 

 character of the season has nothing to do with it. My own 

 explanation is that some time back in the past a certain sec- 

 tion of the tree was defoliated, and the part that was not de- 

 foliated matured its fruit. And then later, the defoliation 

 having occurred early, that part of the tree had a chance to 



