50 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



were not injured, but blossomed, and many fine peaches were 

 grown in Maine last summer. 



The greatest fault I find with the Baldwin, is its tendency to 

 winter kill once in six or seven years, and its habit of over bearing 

 alternate years, when fruit is so abundant as to render it almost 

 unprofitable for barreling. Its symmetrical form and brilliant color- 

 ing are its only good qualities. A majority of the fruit has a bit- 

 ter, disagreeable taste. Notwithstanding this, so long as people 

 blindly associate something good with red and yellow, so long 

 must we grow red and yellow fruit, even at the expense of quality, 

 and our markets do and must make color paramount to quality. 

 Consequently we must seek for hardy, annual bearers that will 

 bear high culture, and combining as many desirable qualities as 

 possible. In my opinion, the Northern Spy should take the place 

 of the Baldwin in jNIuine. It is a hardy, annual bearer — as large 

 and symmetrical in form as the Baldwin, the color and quality as 

 good, a vigorous, upright grower, but a little tardy in fruiting, as 

 are all trees of upright habit. This fault can be easily remedied 

 by root-pruning, thinning and cutting back and bending down and 

 hanging weights on the branches in the growing season. 



The limited demand for the crab apple will undoubtedly render 

 it unprofitable, other than as a hardy stock to graft upon, and 

 tthere are other hardy Maine varieties quite as good for that pur- 

 pose. 



Perhaps I ought to modify the above remarks, as I am well 

 • aware the locality and conditions of soil very much modify the 

 • quantity of fruit, as well as the quality, of many varieties ; es- 

 •pecially is it so with the Roxbury Russet, Baldwin, Nodhead and 

 Ribstone Pippin. They succeed the best under good culture, and 

 will bear it well on high " rock maple " ridges of land ; but will 

 prove unprofitable on flat lands (as Northern Maine and the flat 

 lands of Penobscot county). The R. I. Greening, Yellow Bell- 

 iflower, and all other varieties possessing hardy qualities, will 

 prove profitable under good and constant culture, and will adapt 

 themselves to a wider range of locality and soil in Maine than do 

 the more tender sorts. Some varieties require a relatively large 

 amount of potash. The Roxbury Russet undoubtedly requires a 

 large amount of sulphate of iron to cause it to produce large, fair 

 and well developed fruit abundantly. Perhaps it is so with the 

 Ribston Pippin and other capricious bearers. Others require phos- 

 phoric acid or some other element. No general fertilizer will suit 



