SECRETARY'S REPORT. 183 



would be well. If I kill the worms on my place they may come 

 on again from the lands of another person. I think tlrc birds 

 should be protected, for they do a great deal of good. 



Col. P. W. Taft, of Worcester. — I am a great friend to the 

 birds, and love to see justice done them. While in the State of 

 New York, a few years' since, I spent some time in a place 

 where there was milch good fruit. I noticed many woodpeckers 

 there putting their long bills into the apple-trees. I saw men 

 and boys shooting the birds, and I asked the cause. They said 

 the birds were destroying the trees. I told them they were 

 doing the birds great injustice ; that there were no perforations 

 made by the birds where there was not a worm. When we took 

 pains to examine we found it so. 



When I was a boy I was taught to shoot them. Science had 

 not developed the fact that they were searching for the enemies 

 of the tree. Now the woodpeckers have nearly all deserted us. 

 I am sorry, for I think they are a great benefit to the orchards. 

 When they were plenty, and were not molested, the orchards 

 were almost entirely free from caterpillars and canker-worms. 

 I remember one orchard of about ten acres that had but few old 

 trees in it, and only a few without lioles made in the bark by 

 the woodpeckers. These trees had the largest and finest fruit I 

 ever saw. All we ever did to those trees was to dig around 

 them a little and throw down a few twigs and some pumice from 

 the cider-mill, for mulching. 



There has been much said about the best time for transplant- 

 ing trees. A few years ago I had about seventy-five or a hun- 

 dred fruit trees in bearing which I wished to remove. I was 

 obliged to remove them in the month of October. A neighbor 

 also had some trees to remove. Ho decided that he would remove 

 his permanently in the fall. I decided that I would remove 

 mine, dig a trench and heal them in. I did so, and the next 

 May I set them out. Many of the trees had blossomed before I 

 set them. Bu.t the fruit ripened the same year. My ueighbor 

 lost nearly every tree which he set out in autumn. Still, I am 

 not prepared to say whether the spring or autumn is the better 

 time for transplanting. 



Mr. Earle. — I wish to say a word or two with regard to the 

 raising of seedlings. I believe we have yet to raise the best 

 grape. The Concord is a good stretch towards it. But we want 



