BULLETIN No. 155 



ORCHARD NOTES, 1907. 

 W. M. Munson. 



In Bulletin 139 of this Station records of the Station work 

 in Kennebec County orchards were brought down to date, and 

 suggestions were made as to further investigations. The 

 almost unprecedented winter of 1906-7, however, with its 

 destructive effects upon the orchards, was followed by the 

 removal of the writer, who has been in charge of the work from 

 its inception, to a distant state. This combination of circum- 

 stances brings to an inevitable close a work which has been full 

 of interest and which promised much for the future of Maine 

 orcharding. Though many trees were killed outright, and 

 others seriously and permanently injured, by the effects of the 

 winter of 1906-7, there was a fair crop of fruit in most sections 

 of the state, and never in the history of the Station work has the 

 fruit been larger or fairer than it was in 1907. Records of the 

 season were made, as in former years, and a general summary 

 of the investigations is presented in the present bulletin. 



Studies of physiological and practical problems in orchard 

 pruning were inaugurated, and will be continued, though in 

 another state. The general principles involved are the same, 

 whether the details be worked out is Maine or in California; 

 and the lessons taught, if of any value, should be as applicable 

 in the management of Maine orchards as elsewhere. 



CULTURE AND FERTILIZATION — A SUMMARY.* 



At the end of ten years, a remarkable change is presented in 

 the condition and appearance of the two lots of trees discussed 

 under the above heading in several bulletins of this Station. 

 Unfortunately the Gravensteins included in the study, like all 

 trees of this variety, proved unreliable as to hardiness, and many 

 of them have been lost. The Tolmans, however, have made a 

 very satisfactory growth and at present form the basis of a 

 vigorous, productive orchard, just in its prime. 



* For previous discussions of this subject see Bulletins of this Station 

 as follows: 89, pp. 1-12; 122 pp. 182-190; and 139, pp. 51-52. 



