STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 57 



I have tlie Glout Morceau ; there are a few on the table. It is a 

 late keeper, but they have not done well with us yet ; I don't 

 know what they may be by and by. Besides these, I have per- 

 haps 15 or 20 different varieties, but I cultivate more generally the 

 Bartlett and the Lawrence. The Lawrence I consider a very ex- 

 cellent pear, but with me it does not fruit very well. It will blos- 

 som exceedingly full, but the fruit does not set well on my trees, 

 I don't know what the cause is, as I manure and mulch them well 

 and cultivate under the trees. I have planted potatoes and corn. 



I want to say something about planting potatoes in an orchard. 

 I don't think it is so good a crop to grow there as those crops 

 which grow above the ground. It seems to me that the potato 

 takes more from the soil than any other vegetable. I would rather 

 plant corn. I have an idea, too, that the corn has a tendency to 

 keep off insects which, if they had free access to the trunk, would 

 fatten on it, 



Mr. Henry McLaughlin of Bangor, I have some objections to 

 the ground taken in the paper of Mr. Smith, as to the time of 

 pruning. I think the general feeling among orchardists would be 

 very much against pruning at all seasons, which would be the 

 rule if we may prune whenever the saw or knife is sharp, for these 

 should be sharp all the time, I think a tree of any size will bear 

 the pruning of its small twigs at any time of year without material 

 injury, I think, too, that the time to prune is when the twigs are 

 small ; but if you cut off large limbs in the spring of the year, in 

 March, April, May or June, there will be a serious wound that 

 will not heal. I remember some years -ago, when spring pruning 

 was more thought of than now, that my father was obliged to cut 

 a large limb from one of his trees. He took it off about a foot 

 from the trunk of the tree, and in the fall cut it up close to the 

 trunk, so that it healed over. Sometimes one is obliged to cut off 

 a limb in the spring, and when that is the case I would recommend 

 that it be done in that way, I prune a good deal. At one time 

 the trees rather got the better of me, and when I had them pruned 

 in some cases I had a third of the tree cut away in the month of 

 November. I had a good crop of apples and had no trouble with 

 the trees. I think very favorably of cutting out the center of the 

 tree and leaving it so that the raj'S of the sun can penetrate among 

 the branches. 



In regard to distance of planting, I think the idea is gaining 

 ground in other States, that with a fear of getting our trees too 



