156 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



know whether it is in the treatment ; they have had the same- 

 treatment every year, and they have had the same fertihzing, 

 and the trees are in vigorous condition ; thev have not been 

 sprayed with bordeaux mixture, simply Paris green and water. 

 A\'e had some large Baldwin trees on which we thought there 

 was not enough fruit, but we should have got a fine crop from 

 those six year old trees if we had sprayed them so that the 

 apples would have stayed on until they matured. We must 

 spray every year. 



]\Ir. Sperry: Have you had any trouble with the blight 

 on your apple trees? 



Mr. Barnes : Not at Yalesville. We have an orchard in 

 Cheshire that is not in so good a condition for some reason. 



Mr. Sperry : I should like to ask ]\Ir. Derby if blight is 

 the cause of the Gravenstein apples maturing early and falling 

 to the ground before they are ripe. We have that trouble 

 here and can't raise them successfully. 



Mr. Derby : I don't see any connection between the two. 



Mr. Sperry: What about the foliage falling? 



Mr. Derby : You mean leaf blight ? 



Mr. Sperry : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Derby : Anv man who raises leaf blight, and tries 

 to raise apples at the same time has got a big job on his 

 hands. You understand that the leaves of the trees are prac- 

 tically the lungs of the trees, and if you are going to keep- 

 the lungs of the trees so they can work, it has got to be kept 

 healthy. They must be kept free from fungus troubles, and 

 as long as we have bordeaux mixture that ^can be put on 

 easily, we can keep the leaves healthy. I don't care what 

 kind of fruit you are growing, if the leaves of the trees are 

 not healthy and are destroyed, the fruit will fall off. 



Mr. Sperry : I should like to speak for a moment in 

 regard to turning under r}e. When I was quite a young' 

 farmer I got it into my head that rye was a renovator of 

 the soil, and I ploughed in a few acres of the heaviest rye 

 I ever grew. I think it was about the last of May ; I didn't 

 dare wait any longer because I was afraid it would all fall 

 down. We ploughed that under, and I think it was a great 

 injury to the soil. The succeeding crops did not respond as 



