144 [ ASSEMBLY 
THE ORCHARD. 
There are on the Station farm at present 695 apple, ninety-six peach, 
seventy-four pear, thirty-seven cherry and twenty-three plum trees. 
The apple orchard contains spaces for 737 trees, but forty-two of 
these are vacant. Three hundred and eighty-one of the apple trees 
bore more or less fruit the past season. A heavy storm of wind about 
the middle of September blew off about half of the whole amount, 
and a large proportion of those left on the trees were small and de- 
formed. Thirty barrels of merchantable apples were harvested, and 
100 barrels of windfalls and culls were sold as cider apples. The va- 
rieties are chiefly Rhode Island Greening, Northern Spy and Baldwin. 
As has already been stated, the trees were thoroughly pruned in the 
spring. In the latter part of April they were examined for the pur- 
pose of finding and destroying the apple-tree borer, Saperda bivittata, 
Say. The trees seemed to be suffering but little from this enemy. 
Of 286 trees examined April 24 but three seemed infested with borers, 
and but one of these was seriously injured. The young trees that had 
been set out to fill vacancies in the older orchard contained more 
borers than the trees in the younger orchard. In the latter part of 
June many of the trees were infested with great numbers of Aphides 
(plant-lice), causing the foliage to curl, and, in some cases, to die. 
Our experience in destroying this insect, as well as the Codling Moth, 
Carpocapsa pomonella, L. and the Tent Caterpillar, Clisiocampa 
Americana, is given under the subject of insecticides. 
The trees were labeled, so far as the varieties could be identified, 
with labels cut from sheet zinc, and immersed for a few minutes in 
dilute hydrochloric acid to roughen their surfaces for writing with a 
lead pencil. ‘They were tacked to the trunks of the trees, at a con- 
venient height, with a small box-nail driven in half its length: 
The fruit-buds of the peach trees were frozen in the spring, and not 
a blossom appeared. In the latter part of May the foliage was at- 
tacked by a disease which gave the leaves a whitish, blistered appear- 
ance, causing them to curl, and finally to assume a brown color, die 
and drop off. About the first of July many of the larger trees which 
suffered most were almost destitute of leaves, but about the middle of 
the month the foliage began to look fresher, and shortly after a new 
crop of leaves appeared. We regret that a busy season offered no op- 
portunity to study this interesting disease. Should it appear in the 
future, we hope to gather as much information on the subject as care- 
ful observation and the microscope will reveal. 
July 6 the trees were examined in search of the peach borer, 
Aegeria exitiosa, Say, but only a few trees were found to be infested. 
Thirty-three of the pear trees bore fruit, chiefly of the Bartlett and 
Buffum varieties. Late in the summer the pear blight appeared, but 
was confined to a few trees. All branches dving from this cause were 
promptly removed and burned. : 
All of the cherry trees bore a moderate crop of fruit. 
The plum trees are, with a single exception, in the poultry yard. 
The effect of poultry about the trees seemed very beneficial, by hinder- 
ing the work of the Curiculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar. June 17 we 
examined 100 specimens of fruit at random on different trees in the 
