NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 57 



When we inquire how the apple orchards of a generation 

 or more ago were generally managed, we learn that often 

 they were pastured with sheep or hogs, or possibly with 

 other stock. If the ground was too rough to be cultivated, 

 this was all that was done to them, except that in some cases 

 they were given a little stable manure or straw mulch occa- 

 sionally. If the ground could be cultivated it was usually 

 treated like other farm land, either being devoted to farm 

 crops or pastured, as suited the convenience of the owner. 

 The prevalent idea seemed to be that it was good economy 

 to get as much as possible out of the land in the way of 

 pasturage or of farm crops. If in addition, a crop of apples 

 were secured it was looked upon as so much clear gain. 

 Very often the trees were planted too closely to permit of 

 the best results, and the mistake was sometimes made of 

 including too many kinds of apples in the commercial 

 orchard. 



As years passed by and the soil lost some of its virgin 

 fertility, the crops of fruit appeared to come with less regu- 

 larity than formerly, and questions arose in the minds of 

 many thoughtful fruit growers as to what was the best and 

 most economical course to pursue in order to supply the 

 trees with needed fertility and keep up their productive- 

 ness. Naturally, the methods which were adopted varied 

 with the local conditions and the ideas of the owners. 

 Probably no one line of treatment was advanced more vig- 

 orously and persistently than the keeping of the orchard in 

 permanent sod and pasturing it very closely with sheep. 

 It was advised that more sheep should be put into the 

 orchard than the pasture could sustain, and then by feed- 

 ing the sheep well the fertility of the land would be uni- 

 formly increased because the manure would be distributed 

 very evenly over all the orchard. In addition to this, the 

 sheep, b)- devouring all of the wormy apples which fell to 

 the ground, would assist materially in lessening the num- 

 ber of the codlin moth. 



The theory was good, but in too many cases the prac- 

 tice, in the hands of the ordinary orchardist, failed to 

 secure the most satisfactory results. The codling moth still 

 preyed upon the fruit so that some method other than feed- 



