64 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



no further care ; perhaps set them out in grass or pasture land 

 where they have been neglected, and that is the cause of their 

 failure. In other towns I have noticed New York trees, and have 

 observed particularly the manner of their setting out and their 

 cultivation, and I must say that wherever I have seen New York 

 trees fail, it is from want of proper care and cultivation. 



Hon. Washington Gilbert, of Bath. It has seemed to me while 

 the discussion has been going on, that there were certain matters 

 which might be properly considered, and I beg a few moments 

 indulgence. I do not understand the question to be wlu-ther we 

 had better buy trees abroad, or can get enough at home, but 

 " shall we grow our own trees ?" and that seems to me to divide 

 itself into two questions : First, whether we can grow our own 

 nursery trees ; because if we cannot, if that is an impossibility, or 

 if the difficulties are so great that we cannot produce the trees at 

 a cost which would leave a profit, we must stop there. And 

 therefore, I had hoped to hear something in relation to the diffi- 

 culties which are encountered by nurserymen. 



The gentleman who opened the discussion has given us a gen- 

 eral view with which I was much pleased, and has presented 

 certain subjects suggestive of these matters of detail of which I 

 expected we should hear something in the discussion which fol- 

 lowed. Now I want to know whether there is anything besides 

 witch-grass that constitutes an obstacle to the growth of good 

 apple trees in the nursery in Maine ? I think the gentleman who 

 referred to that difficulty on his farm might have made his state- 

 ment a little broader, and said that witch-grass is the greatest 

 enemy that farmers encounter ; and I would like to hear of some 

 of the difficulties in regard to the borer in the nursery, and the 

 breaking of trees by deep snows in the winter, and the depreda- 

 tions of mice. 



Mr. Goodale, (and I understood our friend from Belgrade to 

 entertain the same view), made some remarks tending to i\\c con- 

 clusion that seedling trunks are superior to those grafted at the 

 crown, and more likely to make perfect trees. That is to say, let 

 the tree grow up and form a top, and then gra^t into the branches. 

 I would like a little explanation on that point ; also, whether there 

 is not some difficulty in training up straight and good trunks from 

 the seedling tree ; because we see that when we plant an apple 

 seed, the tree grows up a foot or more, or less, the first year, and 

 sometimes there will be a soft spongy point at the top, which is 



