34 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thing. He had come to the meeting with several questions to 

 ask: 



First : Are we following the best method in packing fruit in 

 barrels ? 



Second : in regard to the cultivation of an orchard on a hillside, 

 What can be done to prevent the humus from being gradually 

 washed down to the low^er levels, if cultivation is practised ? 



Third : We are told in grafting to get the very best scions pos- 

 sible, but hoAv shall we obtain them? 



' Fourth : I would like to ask if it would do to set out a new 

 orchard on the site of one seventy-five years old. If so, is it 

 better to plant at once or wait a year or tAvo : to use the same 

 holes or make new ones ? 



In partial answer to these queries Mr. Wood said that at the 

 Agricultural College at Amherst there Avas an orchard situated 

 upon a rather steep hillside. It was cultivated crosswise and a 

 cover crop of grass or cow peas soaati Avhich preAented Avashing 

 in the spring, after A\'hich it was plowed in. 



Varnura Frost said that it was not well to grow neAv trees in 

 an old orchard. 



Aaron Low said in regard to the question of planting new 

 trees in an old orchard that it was the height of folly to do it. 

 The old orchard had- sapped the vitality of the land. Regarding 

 the packing of fruit and vegetables he had found in his experi- 

 ence that it paid to pack them correctly. He had made a prac- 

 tice of packing a few apples of extra quality for which he readily 

 obtained the price he asked for them. Their quality made them 

 Avorth it. Last year he had lost the greater part of his crop of 

 peaches and plums on account of the scA^erity of the winter, and 

 it Avill be necessary to spray our trees a number of times during 

 the season to protect them from insects and fungi. 



Benjamin P. Ware gave an account of his method of keeping 

 apples in his cellar until June without artificial refrigeration. He 

 placed them in open barrels or large boxes and Avas careful to 

 handle them as little as possible and to keep the cellar cool by 

 closing the windows during the day and opening them at night 

 until freezing Aveather approached. He had no difficulty in 

 keeping aj^ples for the June market by these means. He had 



