6o THE COXXECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



orchard on land that is too wet. Of course after you get your 

 orchard going and in good shape, it will drain oflf some every 

 year; but that is an important matter, to get land where you 

 can keep the proper amount of moisture in the soil to the best 

 advantage. 



Now I have preferred to describe the methods that I follow. 

 I have brought some apples here which will show you how 

 the size and color run, and give you a general idea of the results 

 that I can get by this system. I claim that by this system you 

 can produce as finely colored apples as there are grown. 

 These apples that I have here were kept in cold storage. 

 They were put in cold storage as soon as they w^ere picked, and 

 kept there until the 20th of December and then taken out and 

 kept in an ordinarv^ cellar until now. And that is a point I 

 want to bring up. If we can put our apples into cold storage 

 it will be a good point for us. You can keep the apples better, 

 and save more of the crop so that it will be cheaper, and it 

 enables us to keep the apples in better condition until we can 

 find the right kind of a market. I have brought some of the 

 Wealthy, Spitzenberg, and the Northern Spy, and I shall be 

 glad to have some of you people test them. 



The President: I presume that there are a good many who 

 wall be glad to ask Mr. Hitchings some questions now. 



Mr. Hitchings : I should be glad to answer any questions, 

 if I can. 



Mr. Kelsev: I would like to ask the speaker if he would 

 advise any man to allow water to run in the holes when he is 

 setting trees? In other words, is it a good plan to set the trees 

 in where you have got water in the bottom of the hole? 



Mr. Hitchings : I have set trees in that condition, where 

 we had to take the tree and put it right into the muddy water 

 and soil at the bottom of the hole and it did just as well. 



Mr. Kelsey: Well, do you advise taking that kind of soil 

 for an apple orchard, or would you advise that it should be 

 drained off? 



Mr. Hitchings : Certainly. I should say to let it drain out 

 if you can. As I said in my talk, an excess of water is about 

 as harmful as a deficiency. 



The President: What was the temperature of the cold 

 storage where these apples were kept ? ( The President referred 

 to samples exhibited by ]\Ir. Hitchings.) 



