44 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



some of them weighing' nine ounces — and have, for the last three 

 consecutive years, been awarded the premium of the Pomological 

 Society for the best dish of this variety, at Bangor in 1873, and at 

 Portland in 1874 and 1875. 



We should study nature in tlic forests. She mulches with a 

 liberal hand, and lets no grass grow, to get the first share in spring. 

 Fruit trees, though large, cannot care for themselves near as well 

 as the grass that grows under them, starting as it does the first of 

 May and getting the first share of all the elements necessary for 

 growth and early maturity of the wood, bark, and fruit. Conse- 

 quently but little organizable matter is stored up in the bark and 

 buds for fruit the next year. It should ever be remembered that 

 fruit trees, like animals, consist of two essentially distinct parts : 

 one, the organized material of their structure, the other the or- 

 ganizable matter out of which additions are to be made to that 

 structure, and that under no circumstances whatever can growth 

 take place except in the presence of the latter. This law is not 

 only one of the foundations of vegetable physiology, but one of 

 the most important of all facts for us as culturists to remember, 

 explaining as it does the sources of success or failure in many of 

 the operations in which we as agriculturists and pomologists are 

 more or less engaged. 



It is said by chemists, that the coarse soils of Maine, Massachu- 

 setts and New Hampshire, are as rich in all the elements that are 

 necessary to grow trees and plants, as are the deep, soluble soils 

 of the West; that the only difference is, that they are locked up, 

 and only a small per cent, is set free or rendered available as plant 

 food yearly, by water, the great solvent in nature. Consequently 

 the soil of Massachusetts is in no better condition to grow apples 

 and peai's than is the soil of Maine. My experience is, that we 

 can raise pears in Maine as abundantly as Massachusetts can, if 

 we feed as high and as constantly. They need the best of culture, 

 and will bear it as well as do our apple trees, and are not subject 

 to as many enemies. The borer and caterpillar do not trouble 

 them ; they will fruit much sooner than the apple tree, and will 

 pay all expenses, four fold, before the apple tree will fruit. 

 Therefore, every man that has land, and especially every farmer, 

 should plant out a few pear trees. They will keep our sons from 

 being tempted to rob those that do raise them. Also plant a bed 

 of strawberries, it will keep us out of the tall grans ; and a few 

 black cap raspberries, they may be grown as easily as pigweeds, 



