130 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Borers. — The gentlemen at Foxborough have generally 

 adopted the plan of plugging the holes of the borer with pine 

 plugs or with hard soap. Others have used successfully coal 

 ashes heaped around the trunk of the tree, a few inches above 

 the surface. The only safe course is the knife, the gouge and 

 the wire ; with these the tree can be kept clean, provided the 

 borer works where it can be reached. 



L. W. Babcock, Esq., of Milton, for many years has kept a 

 large orchard free from the borer in the following manner : 

 Learning that the borer enters the tree just at its junction with 

 the soil, he raises the soil around the tree from four to six inches 

 above the natural surface, and leaves it thus raised through the 

 year. In June he removes the little mound from around the 

 tree, and has all the work of the borer six inches above the 

 ground, where he can easily work. With the knife and wire, 

 guided by the exuding sap, the work of extermination is rapid 

 and sure. After the operation, the soil is raised around the tree 

 as before, and is left for the October work, when it is again 

 removed, the examination made, and the soil returned. In this 

 way, with perseverance, every orchard in the country can be 

 saved from the ravages of the borer. 



Varieties. — Success in the apple orchard depends in no small 

 degree upon the variety chosen. In selecting the Baldwin, 

 Greening and Russet, for New England, one cannot mistake ; 

 after this the way is not quite so clear. 



A member of this Committee, Cheever Newell, Esq., of Dor- 

 chester, when sixty years of age, set out an orchard of forty 

 trees, about twenty of the Williams and twenty of the Graven- 

 stein. This autumn the fruit of the above orchard, now twenty 

 years old, sold for about 1500. 



The Gravenstein begins to ripen early in September, and con- 

 tinues through October. The fruit should not be picked ; it is 

 in the best condition for market when it falls from the tree. 

 The custom is to cover the ground with salt hay or litter to 

 protect the fruit, and pick the apples from the ground as they 

 fall from day to day. The duration of the fruit is thus pro- 

 longed for a period of ten weeks. 



The Committee have the honor to present the following list 

 for general cultivation, prepared for them by the President of 

 the Norfolk Agricultural Society, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder:— 



