332 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



apples into a cool, even temperature as quickly as possible 

 after they are picked. 



Sixth question : Pruning orchards, — is it jjractised as 

 generally and as thorouglihj as it shoidd he ') — This question 

 was passed over rapidly, but it was generally agreed that 

 trees need some pruning, that many prune too much and 

 some too little, and that the time to prune trees is while they 

 are young. 



Afternoon Session. 



Wni. R. Sessions, secretary State Board of Agriculture, 

 in the chair. 



Seventh question : Wliat is the best winter sweet apple? — 

 Among the winter sweet apples mentioned were the Honey 

 Sweet, Tolman's Sweet, Danvers Sweet, Green Sweet, 

 Ladies' Sweet. 



Eighth question : Best treatment for old apple orchards 

 that have been in sod many years? If ploughed, how deep? — 

 Mr. Hinds pastures colts in orchards ; he thinks pigs eat off 

 the librous feeding roots. Mr. Eames could see no injury 

 from swine in an apple orchard pastured with them for forty 

 years. Mr. Cruickshanks explained Dr. Fisher's method, 

 he not having ploughed his orchard for fifteen years. No 

 grass is carried away, and a liberal dressing of fertilizer, 

 about eighteen dollars' worth per acre, is applied every year. 

 Captain Palmer would treat the land as any other meadow, 

 plough when the sod was run out, manure enougli to get a 

 crop of grass and put it in the barn. His best apples grow 

 in his pasture. Many others advocated constant cultivation. 

 Prof. L. F. Kinney suggested a compromise of a strip of 

 turf along the line of the trees, and the central portion 

 ploughed, cultivated and fertilized. Mr. Hinds, whose 

 peach orchard was awarded the first prize by the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society in 1895, practises the latter 

 method. 



Ninth question : What is the best way to exterminate the 

 canker worm? — Paris green applied at the rate of one pound 

 to 100 gallons of the Bordeaux mixture is the cheapest and 

 best remedy. Application should be made just as they are 



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