FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MJiETlNU. 159 



don't get ready to take them in until it docs freeze a little, and 

 in that case we generally cover them up with old blankets, or 

 straw, or anything that is handy to cover them with. Then 

 I have prepared a cave which is 60 feet wide and eight feet 

 deep, and the roof is made of chestnut poles covered with 

 eighteen inches of dirt. I have read it was a good plan to 

 box or barrel apples when you pick them, and one season I 

 had a nice lot of Baldwins, and when I picked those apples I 

 put them into boxes and stacked them up in the shed and kept 

 them there until the last of October, or the first of November, 

 and then we moved them to a cellar under the house. When 

 I took those apples out in the winter we didn't g'et but four 

 quarts of good fruit out of some boxes ; there was black rot 

 all the way throug"h, and from that we arrived at the con- 

 clusion that we had better keep them out of the box as long 

 as we could. Now, my method is to take the boxes and 

 fill them with apples and set them along each side of this 

 narrow cave, and those boxes are all about two feet high, 

 and I fill in between them and round them up four or five 

 feet deep, and that cave, 60 feet long and eight feet wide, will 

 hold a thousand bushels, and those apples will keep there until 

 the next June, and they are perfectly firm and crisp. 



A Member : I would like to inquire what town you are 

 from? 



Mr. Cooke: From Branford. 



President Eddy : If there is nothing further on the apple 

 question, we will next take up peaches, and the discussion 

 will be opened by Mr. Charles E. Lyman of Middlefield, who, 

 as you know, is a large and successful grower. 



Peaches. 



]\Ir. Lyman : This subject of how to realize the greatest 

 profit from peaches, is a pretty big subject. It means first 

 the selection of the location for your orchard, then the plant- 

 ing of your trees and the general culture until you get the 

 trees grown ready to bear a crop, and then you have just 

 begun to get into the business, and the man that has never 

 handled a peach crop will have his eyes opened before he 



