64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



In the discussion that followed the question was asked : 

 Is it necessary to thin an apple tree every year, and when 

 is the best time to do it? 



Professor Beach answered: Of course it is necessary to 

 trim the trees, yet I look upon severe trimming as some- 

 thing to be avoided if possible. It is always a disadvantage 

 to wound a tree, but we want the trees for business and 

 they must be annually pruned to keep them in the form we 

 require. In trimming, we should also bear in mind the 

 spraying we are to do and to keep the trees sufficiently 

 open so we can reach the interior of the tree with the 

 spray; also so that the sunlight can get through to the 

 inner and under leaves of the tree. The best time for 

 trimming is probably in June, the latter part of June, if we 

 consider the subject only from the standpoint of having 

 the wound heal as rapidly as possible. The new wood is 

 then forming most rapidly and the wound heals most rap- 

 idly. Of course this is at a season when we have many 

 other demands upon our time, and so we have gotten into 

 the habit of trimming in the winter, although the wound 

 may not heal as rapidly. 



Question — Mr. Innis: Why do you use the Bordeaux 

 Mixture as the first spray, rather than the copper sulphate.!* 



Answer: Not because it is more effective as a poison, 

 but simply because it sticks better and shows how well the 

 work is being done. The copper sulphate solution washes 

 off more readily, I believe, than does the Bordeaux 

 Mixture. 



Question — Dr. Leroy A. Smith : What will be the 

 effect on the soil, say after fifteen or twenty years, when 

 the trees are sprayed as recommended for the New Apple 

 Culture by all these arsenical poisons? Would it not have 

 the effect of poisoning the soil and making it sterile? 



Prof. Beach: That is a question which has occurred to 

 several people and has been discussed by several papers. I 

 have made some experiments bearing on this question. 

 The result of that work shows that using Bordeaux Mixture 

 at the old strength of six pounds of copper sulphate to 

 twenty-four gallons, that with three or four annual appli- 

 cations it will take eleven or twelve hundred years for 



