Notes and Gleanings, 185 



assistant geologists, suggests tliat " it is worthy of inquiry, whether the custard- 

 apple, pawpaw {Asunitia triloba) miglit not be made to break into rich and pala- 

 table varieties by artificial means." That report was dated Dec. 2, 1837, though 

 misprinted 1839. 



Apple-Orchards ix Maine. — That the apple-orchards in our State have 

 ')een decreasing both in number and fruitfulness during the past ten years is a 

 tact we are more fully made aware of as each succeeding summer and harvest 

 passes by. Years ago, nearly every farm in the older-settled portions of the 

 State boasted its apple-orchard, which, thrifty and vigorous, produced its annual 

 crop, with rarely a failure. But now it is very different. Perhaps nine-tenths 

 of the trees are dead, dying, or of no value. Occasionally a young orchard is 

 found which bears well, and repays its owner many-fold. Why this state of 

 things ? Lei us look into the subject a little, and see if we ran see any reason 

 for the fact. 



During the severe winter of 1855-6, large numbers of apple-trees were killed 

 outright, and many more so badly injured that they never fully recovered. In 

 certain exposed situalions, the wliole of the previous year's growth on tlie ends 

 of the limbs of young trees were killed, and the tree thus stunted and dwarfed 

 in its growth. We have not experienced such a season since, and it is to be 

 hoped we never shall. Another cause has been the ravages of insects, especially 

 the borer {Saperda Candida) and two caterpillars {Clisiocainpa Americana and 

 C. silvatica). The borer does a great deal more damage than he gets credit for; 

 and the two varieties of caterpillars in many sections, last year and year before, 

 stripped whole orchards bare of their leaves. I have seen large orchards of 

 hundreds of trees almost as naked in midsummer as they were in December. 

 Not satisfied with desjDoiling the orchards, they ravaged the forests, eating the 

 leaves of most kinds of deciduous trees, though poplar and ash seemed to be 

 their favorites. I saw forest-trees last summer from which a bushel of the full- 

 grown larvae could be easily scraped as they lay gathered in masses up and 

 down the trunk. Another cause of the failure of our apple-orchards is the lack 

 of proper cultivation. We are just beginning to learn, that, to raise a crop of 

 apples, we must cultivate and feed the plant just the same as in growing any other 

 farm product. Years ago, the rich, virgin soil, aided by other attendant circum- 

 stances, was sufficient to produce heavy crops, without especial care in cultivation 

 and the need of fertilizers. But those times have gone past, and our farmers 

 find they must continue to return the constituent elements of plants to the soil 

 in the form of manure, else they will have impoverished fields. And a few also, 

 comparatively, have found by experiment, that, if they give their apple-trees care 

 and food, they will make good returns ; and further, that a field or soil will not 

 produce a heavy crop of apples and a heavy crop of grass the same season. 



There are other minor causes, such as exposure and climatic changes, caused 

 by removing the sheltering forests, the introduction of Western trees, and the 

 grafting of less hardy varieties. A good many Western-grown nursery- trees 

 have been planted out during the past ten years ; but the people are now fully 

 aware of the error, and, in future, only home-grown stocks will be set out to any 



VOL. II. 24 



