52 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



ing until later. How, rather than when, is the important 

 thing in all pruning. 



Q. What is the best commercial sour apple between 

 Baldwin and Roxbury Russet? 



Mr. Platt : Can recommend nothing. Baldwin still 

 heads the list for keeping qualities. We are not yet sure 

 of the newer varieties. Rome Beauty, Stark, Ben Davis 

 and Gano might be named. 



Mr. Whitehead and Professor Gulley both spoke in favor 

 of Rome Beauty. This apple does best on high lands. 



Q. Does the use of stable manure on peach trees tend to 

 cause the yellows ? 



President Hale : I think so, decidedly. The yellows 

 is most prevalent in orchards where highly nitrogenous 

 fertilizers are used and the trees are forced to make too 

 rapid growth. 



Mr. Wakeman : Stable manure will produce fruit of 

 extra size, but at the expense of quality. 



Q. Does the hornbeam, or an}^ other wild tree, serve as a 

 host for the peach borer ? 



N. S. Platt : I have frequently found borers in horn- 

 beam trees near peach orchards. 



Professor Gulley : In New York state it is claimed 

 that the borer spends the winter in the mass of gum and 

 sawdust near the base of the tree, and that it can easily be 

 found and destroyed at that season. This valuable point 

 was attested to by several observers. 



Q. What is the best wash to prevent borers from enter- 

 ing trees ? 



Professor Gulley : No wash will be entirely success- 

 ful in keeping out the peach borer. A surer preventive is 

 to bank around the trees in the fall. 



President Hale called attention to the advice of Prof. 

 Erwin Smith, the well-known experimenter, who gives the 

 following recipe for a wash : One pint coal-tar and one 

 pound whale-oil soap to two-thirds of a pail of whitewash ; 

 add clay to thicken. This wash has been successfully used 

 by many large growers. 



(For more recent information on the peach borer, see 



