418 Transactions of the American Institute. 



decay, and the effect has been, and now is, disastrous on the produc- 

 tiveness of those orchards. If farmers will plant their trees in as 

 fertile soil as they were accustomed to do when the country was new, 

 and will apply wood ashes, apple trees will ba loaded with fine 

 fruit. 



Mr. A. M. Powell. — I know a successful orchard in Columbia 

 count}', which my father and myself cured, for we exterminated the 

 borers and the caterpillars ; cultivated and seeded down in alternate 

 years, and manured well. In one part raspberries were grown, and 

 as the cultivation was better here, more manure was applied than on 

 the other part ; this portion ^yielded more fruit, and showed more 

 thrifty trees. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — As regards pruning. I will say that I have 

 an apple tree which for fifty years has not been pruned, and during 

 ten years it has not borne ten bushels of apples. 



Mr, P. T. Quinn. — When apple trees have had their just dues, six 

 times out of ten they will succeed. If the same attention is given 

 them as to corn, potatoes, and cabbage, they will bear. As to prun- 

 ing, it is conceded by all fruit growers that it is absolutely necessary ; 

 'but I grant that indiscriminate pruning does more harm than good. 

 To know how to prune properly is one of the first steps in horticul- 

 ture, and the leading idea is to give to a tree an open top. 



Dr. Ilalleck. — The apple tree, as we now know it, is artificial, and 

 its fruit is artificial. In its natural state it bears fruit the same as 

 the oak bears acorns. Having taken it from its natural state it is subject 

 to conditions and influences, which we do not clearly understand. 

 Epidemics sweep over our country and we have agues, the cause of 

 wdiicli we know nothing, Tliere is certainly a decrease in the apple 

 crop of the Hudson river country. Even hickory trees which have 

 borne many years are becoming barren. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — I can raise trees thrifty and vigorous ; in this 

 there is no trouble, but insects are so numerous it will require a man 

 constantly to keep one tree clean. These are at work now on the 

 hickory and other_ trees. There is now a grape cui-culio peculiar to 

 this fruit ; and I have received a sample of grapes froui Canada sent 

 by a man engaged in raising seedlings, and the seeds of every grape 

 ■were infected with a worm. 



Mr, John Crane, Union, N, J. — I have an orchard which my 

 grandfather planted 100 years ago, and in this and in other trees of 

 my planting the leaves are afl'ected. I have an orchard planted 



