52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



lutelj prove that you can increase it, unless possibly by the 

 use of potash. 



Mr. George Packard. On the question of filler trees, I 

 would like to ask why peach trees couldn't be used, wbich 

 live but a few years naturally, anyway, instead of apple 

 trees, which are valuable. I think it is almost a crime to 

 kill a Wealthy tree. 



Professor Sears, Yes, peach trees will die in several 

 years, and if it will ease your conscience any, that might be 

 better for you, Mr. Packard. Still, I don't think it is any 

 more of a crime to cut out a Mcintosh tree than it is to go 

 into that Mcintosh tree and then cut whatever limbs are 

 necessary. The two stand right together. I know a man 

 feels a little worse about cutting out a tree than he would 

 about cutting out some limbs. 



To answer the other question about peach fillers, that is 

 a legitimate practice, and a good many people do it. We 

 have done it ourselves, but I have two objections to it, and 

 I think they are legitimate objections. The first is that you 

 quite frequently come to a point where you want to handle 

 the soil differently for the peaches than for the apples, par- 

 ticularly in the matter of the fertilizers which contain con- 

 siderable nitrogen. Here is a good illustration which comes 

 to my mind now. The college has a block of apples, inter- 

 planted with peaches, trees about eighteen years old. In 

 1906, I think it was, the peaches were much damaged by a 

 hard winter ; and after a severe pruning in the spring it was 

 desired to push the peaches along, and so they were given a 

 good application of nitrate of soda, which the peaches 

 wanted, and some of the trees are still in good shape in the 

 orchard now. The apples, however, which include Mcin- 

 tosh and Wealthy and Baldwins and various standard sorts, 

 were just coming into bearing nicely, and they didn't want 

 any nitrogen ; it was just what they didn't want. Well, the 

 result was that they started off to a big wood growth, and 

 have been trying to get over that ever since. That was six 

 years ago, and they are just getting sobered down where 

 they would have been if it hadn't been for that nitrate of 

 soda. So I think that it is an objection ; that you frequently 



