30 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



injury on each individual tree, simply as a matter of record. 

 Up to the time of making this record he had only a very gen- 

 eral knowledge of the dynamiting experiment and knew nothing 

 of the plan followed with reference to the distribution of the 

 dynamited and non-dynamited trees in the orchard. 



In taking the record it was very evident that there was r.o 

 1 elation between the location of individual trees in the orchard 

 and the amount of winter injury observed, but some striking 

 results were obtained when the observations were tabulated 

 in comparison with method used in setting the trees. Out of 

 126 trees in holes previously dynamited 49 or nearly 39 per 

 cent were either killed or badly injured. In the case of the 

 52 trees set in shovel dug holes only 4, or less than 8 per cent 

 suffered in like manner. 



No attempt was made or should be made to draw general 

 conclusions from these figures obtained in this single orchard. 

 What happened here might not occur under different soil condi- 

 tions. Nevertheless, it is quite evident that the method of 

 dynamiting followed is not adapted to setting trees in the soil 

 on this individual farm. The use of dynamite the preceding 

 fall in no way decreased the cost of setting the trees in the 

 following spring. There was no greater growth where dyna- 

 mite was used than where it was not. The losses from winter 

 injury were 5 times greater where dynamite was used. Based 

 on the results where the trees were set in shovel-dug holes the 

 - probable loss from winter injury among the entire 178 would 

 be approximately 14 trees. Similarly had all the trees been 

 set in dynamited holes, the expected loss would be about 69. 



Are Sheep Proeitable in Maine? 

 The Station Council at its meeting in April, 1914, authorized 

 the purchase of grade sheep sufficient to stock Highmoor Farm 

 for the purpose of studying the question as to whether sheep 

 can or cannot be profitably raised in Maine. The sheep were 

 not to be pure bred or of fancy type. This was to preclude 

 their being sold at high price because of breeding. Nor were 

 they to be early bred to produce "hot house" lambs for the 

 high price of the early market. They were to be just plain 

 sheep such as any ordinary farmer could carry. They were 

 to be good grade stock, bred for wool and lambs. The income 



