STATE POMOLOaiCAL SOCIETY. 3y 



coura^ments of the year, the fruit growers, especially those con- 

 nected with this Society, are not losing heart in the business, but 

 have full faith that perseverance will be richly rewarded in the end. 

 The short crop of apples was due in a great measure to the ex- 

 haustive effects upon the trees of the bountiful crop of 1874, for 

 very few varieties, even with the exercise of the highest skill and 

 the best cultivation, can be made to produce even a medium crop 

 following a bountiful one. The trees have not the vital power to 

 produce a bountiful crop of fruit, and at the same time perfect a 

 full crop of fruit buds preparatory for the fruit of another year. 

 So we may ever look for a comparatively light crop of fruit fol- 

 lowing a bountiful one. This does not at all conflict with the 

 statements frequently made, that these matters are largelj'^ under 

 the control of the skilful culturist. In addition to the above rea- 

 son, a large section in the western part of the State was com- 

 pletely overrun with the tent caterpillar of the forest ( Clisiocampa 

 sylvatica, lia,rris). In Oxford, Androscoggin and Franklin counties, 

 nearly all the apple trees were completely stripped of their foliage 

 by these insects, and kept naked and bare by their continued feed- 

 ing till they attained their growth, which was about June 25th, 

 The extent of the damage done in that section of the State was 

 fearful to contemplate. Of the numerous extensive orchards in 

 Androscoggin county, where the owners rely upon the apple crop 

 as their chief income, only two succeeded in saving their fruit 

 from destruction. Some who have annually in the past sold their 

 fruit by the hundred barrels, have been dependent upon the market 

 for their table supply. Space will allow only an allusion to this 

 matter here, yet its importance demands a more extended notice. 

 The Society should, therefore, at this meeting take measures to 

 have the history of this wholesale destruction carefully written 

 out, together with the remedies applied — especially those which 

 proved successful — that it may go as a record upon our next 

 report, for future reference and for a guide to those seeking the 

 destruction of the insects. We have not done with it yet, and the 

 subject is commended to the Society as one too important, especi- 

 ally at this time, to be passed by with the allusion given to it here. 

 It has become a serious question in fruit growing, whether man in 

 all his wisdom shall succumb to an insignificant insect? Man, 

 whose engineering skill has overcome the barriers of the Alps, 

 has sent the locomotive with its long trains of cars freighted with 

 the wealth of nations down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, 



