RESULT OF CHANGE. 49 



Mr. Cheever of Boston. I want to reply, in part, to Mr. 

 Hersey's story of the apple-trees, from which the blossoms 

 were picked off. I don't know that I can explain it, but, if 

 not, I may give a parallel case, which I explain in my own 

 mind. In 1874, we had a full crop of apples. I had a 

 Graveustein tree that bloomed with the others, full. For 

 experiment's sake, I had the blossoms all picked from that 

 tree, expecting to get a full crop the next year. But the 

 next year I did not get any. I will state this as the explana- 

 tion, in part: that tree blossomed in 1875 as fully as it did 

 the year before ; the fruit set well, and the little apples grew 

 for a time. But the year before, with our great crop of 

 apples, we also matured a great crop of insects ; and the next 

 year, there being more blossoms on that tree than on any 

 other one on the farm, all the insects that matured the year 

 before went to that tree, as the only place they could go ; 

 and I could count twenty-five punctures to an apple. Of 

 course the}^ fell off. I think it is quite possible that other 

 gentlemen have had similar experience. 



Now, we may possibly change the bearing year of one tree, 

 if there are no other trees in its vicinity ; but, if we have 

 orchards all around us that bore fruit the last year, and 

 matured insects that lie in the ground, in the bark, or wher- 

 ever it is their nature to lie, they will come out the next 

 spring and attack this one tree, and we shall lose the fruit. 

 There is the point of difficulty. If we are going to change 

 the bearing year, we must take care of the insects matured the 

 year before, and keep them out of the way of the crop on 

 the odd year. We owe to the insects, more than to anything 

 else, our large crops one year and small crops another, — to 

 the insects, and to the habit of over-bearing that certain of 

 our varieties have. 



Mr. Moore of Concord. What did your tree do this year? 



Mr. Cheever. That tree bore a fair crop again, as usual. 



Mr. Moore. Perhaps there are no pear-orchards so good 

 in Massachusetts as you will find in the little town of Revere, 

 a town set off from Chelsea, close to the ocean ; and those 

 pear-orchards are, some of them, on reclaimed marsh-land. 

 This marsh-land is almost a clay soil. I visited the orchard 

 of Mr. Fenno of Revere, — which consists of some nine or ten 

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