64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



quality you can set your own price. There are not many apples 

 grown right around Syracuse and so there is no trouble in 

 getting a good market. That is why T spoke of the Mcintosh. 

 They begged me to bring them in by the dozen if I did not have 

 them by the bushel. 



A Member: Would those keep as readily for cold storage? 

 I mean those that you have been describing that you picked up 

 and took to market? 



Mr. Hitchings : No, sir. There is a certain stage at which 

 the apples should be picked for cold storage. If you let them 

 go beyond that stage they do not keep so well. If you pick 

 them at the right point you will have apples that wall keep 

 perfectly. There is a point in the way you take care of them 

 when you are picking. If you place them out in the sun they 

 are not apt to keep so well in cold storage. If you pick them 

 right, then you can keep them well. Of course that is some- 

 thing everybody has got to learn by experience. 



Mr. Morgan : I should like to inquire of the gentleman if 

 this land of his that is under sod culture is mellow land? 



Mr. Hitchings : Some parts of it would be as hard as rock 

 and you know what that means. Sometimes when there has 

 been no rain it will get quite hard, but where the mulch is put 

 round it conserves the moisture and there is no chance for it 

 to dry up. 



Mr. J. H. Hale : I think we have all been highly entertained 

 by the address of our friend Hitchings and by what he has 

 said about his apple orchard and the results that he has got 

 from them. However much we may differ with him in ideas, 

 or as to what has been the cause that has brought about the 

 desirable results that he has evidently got, I think we can feel 

 sure of one thing and that is that his enthusiasm in the cause 

 and his faith in his methods of work have had something to 

 do with the results. I should have to differ with him very 

 sharply on the general principles that he has laid down. He 

 has made about as good an argument perhaps as can be made 

 for sod culture, but a large share of that success he has had — 

 and he certainly has had marked success — has its basis in 

 the man himself. He believes in himself; he believes in his 

 methods, and a man with his enthusiasm will be successful 

 anvwhere. 



