42 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



theories for their amelioration and propagation should be well 

 understood. 



If as much attention were paid to the cultivation of fruits in 

 Maine as there is to the rearing of horses, the State would soon 

 obtain an enviable reputation for the products of its orchards. 

 But so long as it is merely an incidental industry, as egg-raising 

 is, we must not look for much credit to the State in this direction. 



Knowledge and skill are as requisite to the advantageous raising 

 of fruits, as they are to success in any other business. Any per- 

 son can set out a fruit tree, and the probability is that it will bear 

 fruit if left to itself; but the greater probability is that the char- 

 acter of the fruit will not be satisfactory. There are in many 

 towns in this State what are called orcliards. Trees have been 

 planted and left to take care of themselves. They bear fruit, but 

 it is hardly deserving the name. 



The person who assumes to be a pomologist, should be able to 

 do something more than to plant a tree. He should understand 

 enough of agricultural chemistry to be able to select the kinds of 

 soil adapted to the raising of the different kinds of fruit. He 

 should know how to select the proper site for his trees ; to deter- 

 mine the depth of the soil, the manner of its preparation, the 

 under-draining, and the kind of fertilizers it requires ; how to 

 make a proper selection of trees, and understand the manner in 

 which they should be planted, and how they should be treated 

 afterward ; how to graft and bud and prune ; how to shape the 

 tree ; how to avoid the black knot, the curculio, the caterpillar, 

 'the borer, and the insects that are dangerous to the fruit, and make 

 himself acquainted with the proper times for transplanting and for 

 pruning. 



Then he should be able to determine whether it would not really 

 be an object to raise his own trees, or at least to obtain for his 

 purpose seedlings and grafted trees from his neighborhood, in 

 preference to those raised at a great distance, especially in other 

 States, and brought hither by hawkers who have no other object 

 than to obtain his money. 



It would seem that our people could retain the thousands of 

 dollars that are annually expended for trees brought from New 

 York and elsewhere, many of which are worthless, and the rest 

 not so well adapted to our soil and climate as those of our owfi 

 raising ; and it should be one of the duties of this Society to im- 

 press upon our people the advantage of raising trees obtained 



