STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 69 



from four to six feet high, and in diameter at the top of the ground, 

 from one inch to one and a half inches, well rooted and the head low- 

 down. Give me such a tree as this, and a good, rich, strong, rocky 

 soil to set it in, and when well set out in its proper position, I 

 believe the fight is well begun and the battle half won. I remem- 

 ber last season I was passing by a newly set orchard, and the trees 

 looked so much different fiom most of the newly set trees that I 

 took the liberty to go and examine them ; and while so doing, the 

 owner put in an appearance, and in conversation with him I found 

 that those trees were selected according to his own peculiar ideas of 

 a tree fit to set in the orchard. They were from six to eight years 

 old in the nursery, the bases oi the trees were from one and one-half 

 to two and one-half inches in diameter, and the tops were six feet 

 from the ground. The tops had been cut off from ^-ear to year, and 

 new shoots starting out, the trees had made from twelve to sixteen 

 inches of new wood the last year they stood in the nursery. I 

 asked him win- he purchased that style of trees. He said he be- 

 lieved in starting right, and that it was cheaper to set trees of a 

 bearing size and age, even if ^-ou had to pay from five to ten cents 

 more for them than you did for these little three-year-old shoots. 

 Now, I believe that that man committed a grave error at the start. 



I want to say a few words about those insects injurious to the 

 young ti'ees, of which there are manA-. Among the most destruc- 

 tive, I will mention the borer, the louse, and the different species of 

 caterpillar, against which we have got to keep an ever-watchful eye, 

 or the error will cost us our orchards in the end. I think the worst 

 of all the insects I have mentioned, the one that has cost the 

 orchardist more than all the rest put together, is the borer, and how 

 best to dispose of him is a conundrum not j-et fully solved. Some 

 recommend a solution of barn manure and water with a liberal 

 sprinkling of Paris Green, made of the consistency of a thin paste, 

 and with an old broom paint tlie butt of the trees from the ground 

 up a foot or more. While this ma\- act as a preventive to a certain 

 extent, it is not safe to depend wholly upon this remedy, as a heavy 

 shower or two will wash the most of it off. The best remedy I have 

 found 3ot is the knife and wire. 



Again, what is the best method of thinning the fruit on too heav- 

 ily bearing trees? We often hear the complaint of trees over-bear- 

 ing, and the fruit being small and poor. Now to such I would sav, 

 go and give your orchards something to eat, something from which 



