=The: of the .P LIBRARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE NO._i^Ll^O_jL_ DATE Arl^_,ljLl.? Source CjOT\r\. PoTYl. ^OC SB 354 C8 /9O5--0t REPORT OF THE Connecticut Pomological Societ3r Tor the Year 1905 With Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting t906 published by The Connecticut Pomological Society. 1906. ^ 3 4 , Z 6 ^ CHA?BL Press of Ryder's Printing House, Ntvv Haven Cc The Connecticut Pomological Society OFFICERS FOR 1906 President. JOHN C EDDY, Simsbury. Vice-President. JOSEPH H. PUTNAM, Litchfield. Secretary. HENRY C. C. MILES, Milford. Treasurer. ORRIN GILBERT. Middletown. County Vice-Presidents. Hartford— J. T. MOLUMPHY, Berlin. New Haven— J. R. BARNES, Yalesville. Fairfield— STEPHEN HOYT, New Canaan. Litchfield— CHARLES L. GOLD, West Cornwall. Middlesex— CHARLES E. LYMAN, Middlefield. New London— W. S. THOMAS, Groton. Windham— H. B. BUELL, Eastford. Tolland— ANDREW KINGSBURY, Rockville. Standing Committees. Legislation. Injurious Insects. J. H. Hale. South Glastonbury. Dr. W. E. Britton, New Haven. G. A. HopsoN, Wallingford. F- N. Platt, Milford. C. B. Atwood, Watertown. E. M. Ives. Meriden. Finance. Fungous Diseases. Prof. A. G. Gully Storrs. Dr. G. P. Clinton, New Haven. X. 5. Platt, New Haven. J. C. Jackson, Norwalk. J. M. Hubbard, Middletown. G. G. Tillinghast, Vernon. Membership. Nezu Fruits. Stancliff Hale, South Glastonbury Charles I. Allen, lerryville. Orrin Gilbert, Middletown. S. W. Eddy, Simsbury. A. B. Cook, Farmington. R. H. Gardner, Cromwell. ExJiibitions. Markets and Transportation. L. C Root. Farmington. J. Norris Barnes, Yalesville. Geo. H. Hale, South Glastonbury. Charles E. Lyman, Middlefield. A. G. GuLLEY, Storrs. W. E. Waller, Bridgeport. Auditors. G. W. Staples, Hartford. Andrew Kingsbury, Rockville. 3925 v^rr CONTENTS, Proceedings : ^'''^'■'^ President's Address 2 Secretary's Report 6 Treasurer's Report i*3 Report of Committee on Membership 20 Report of Committee on Exhibitions 20 Report of the Committee on Markets and Transportation .... 22 Report of Committee on Legislation 25 Experiences of a Hudson River Pear Grower. J. R. CorncU . . 27 Report of Committee on New Fruits 3^^ Report on Fungous Diseases for 1905. Dr. G. P. Clinton 41 Spraying Methods and Machinery. Samuel H. Derby 45 Report'on Injurious Insects of the Past Season. W. E. Britton, 57 Recent Experiments with Oils and Other Sprays to Control the San Jose Scale. Prof. M. V. Slingerland 63 A New Jersey Fruit Grower's Successful Fight with the San Jose Scale. William H. Skillman 71 The Street Shade Tree Problem. Hon. James Draper 84 Trees on State Highways J. H. Macdonald 87 The Legal Side of the Matter. Judge Charles G. Root 89 A New Man at the Work. John N. Brooks 94 What Results May Be Expected. Prof. A. G. Gulley 95 The Practicability of Roadside Embellishment. Edwin Hoyt. . 96 Signs. L. W. Ripley 99 The Need of a Better Understanding of Our Rights. C. I. Allen loi Macadam Roads and Tree Planting. A. C. Sternberg 103 Insect Enemies of Shade Trees 105 A New England Grower's Methods of Growing and Market- ing the Apple Crop. T. L. Kinney 119 The Need of Better Nursery Stock for Orchard Plantings. Prof. A. G. Gulley 134 The "Pedigree Idea" in Nursery Stock. Edwin Hoyt 138 vi CONTENTS PAGE The Election of Officers i43 The Fertility Problem in Fruit Culture. S. H. Derby 145 How to Realize the Greatest Prolit from our Fruit Crops .... 152 Report of Committee on Change in Membership Rules 175 Amendments to Constitution and By-Laws 178 Resolutions •. . 45- 1 18, 179 Report of the Special Committee on Fruit Exhibits with List of Awards 182 Report of Committee on Implement Display with List of Ex- hibitors 184 A Brief Record of Field Meetings, Exhibitions and Institute Work of 1905. Summer Field Meetings 186 Field Meeting at Hamden, June 24. 1905 188 Field Meeting at Wallingford, August 18, 1905 190 The Eighth Annual Exhibition of Fruits, 1905 192 Report of Institute Work for 1905 197 Necrology 202 List of Members 206 (constitution and I3y-Laws of the Oociety,* THE CONSTITUTION. Article I. — The name of this Association sliall be The Connecticut PoMoi.oGicAL Society. Article 1L — Its object shall be the advancement of the science and art of pomology, and the mutual improvement and business advantage of its members. Article III. — Any person may become a member of this Society by paying into the treasury the sum of one dollar, and the member- ship shall cease at the end of the current year. Any person may become a life member of this society by the payment of the sum of ten dollars at one time. All moneys from life memberships to form a permanent investment fund of the Society. Article IV. — Its officers shall consist of a President. First Vice- President, one Vice-President from each county in the State, a Secretary and a Treasurer, to be elected annually by ballot, to hold office for one year, or until their successors are duly elected. The President, First Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer shall constitute the Executive Committee of the Society. Article V. — The Society shall hold its annual meeting during the month of February, the time and place to be decided by the E.xecutive Committee, at which time the annual election of officers shall be held, various reports submitted and an exhibition and discussion of fruits take place ; also other necessary business be transacted. Other meetings- for special purposes may be arranged for and called by the Executive Committee whenever it is deemed advisable. Printed notice of each meeting to be sent to every member of this Society. Article VI. — The following Standing Committees of three members each, on the following subjects, shall be appointed by the President, to hold during his term of office ; the appointments to be announced at the annual meeting of the Society. Business and Legislation, Fungous Diseases, Injurious Insects, New Fruits, Exhibitions, Markets and Transportation, Membership, Tzvo Auditors, Article VII.— This Constitution may be amended by a vote of two- thirds of the members present at any annual meeting. BY-LAWS. Article I. — The President, Secretary, Treasurer and the chairman of each standing committee shall each present a report at the annual meet- ing of the Society. Article II. — The President shall appoint annually two members to audit the accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer. •Including revisions of 1906. viii BY-LA J VS. Article III. — The Treasurer shall pay out no money except on the written order of the President, countersigned by the Secretary. Article IV. — All members whose memberships have not been re- newed before the end of the current year, shall be notified of the fact previous to the removal of their names from the roll. Article V. — It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to arrange the .programs for the meeting of the Society, to fill all vacancies which may occur in its officers between the annual meetings, and to have general management of the affairs of the Society. Article VI. — The Committee on Legislation shall inform themselves in regard to such laws as relate to the horticultural interests of the state, and bring the same to the attention of the Society and also the need of further legislation. And when so directed by the Society, shall cause to be introduced into the General Assembly such bills as may be deemed necessary, and to aid or oppose any bills introduced by others, which directly or indirectly affect the interests of the fruit- grower. Article VII. — The Committee on Membership, with the cooperation of the County Vice-Presidents, shall bring the work of the Society to the attention of fruit-growers throughout the state, and, by such means as they deem best, strive to increase the membership. Article VIII. — The Committee on Exhibitions shall suggest from time to time such methods and improvements as may seem to them desirable in the conduct of the exhibitions of the Society, as well as fruit exhibitions throughout the state ; and with the assistance of the Executive Committee shall arrange the premium lists, and have charge of all Exhibitions given by this Society. Article IX. — It shall be the duty of the Committees on Insects and Diseases to investigate in regard to the ravages of these enemies of fruit culture ; and to suggest how best to combat them and prevent their spread ; to answer all inquiries addressed to them by the members as far as possible, and. when necessary, promptly lay before the Society timelj' information on these subjects. Article X. — The Committee on New Fruits shall investigate and col- lect such information in relation to newly-introduced varieties of fruits as is possible, and report the same to the Society, with suggestions as to the value of the varieties for general cultivation. Article XI. — The Committee on Markets and Transportation shall inform themselves as to the best methods of placing fruit products upon the market, and bring to the attention of the members of the Society this and any other information concerning profitable marketing. Article XII. — The Society will adopt the nomenclature of the Ameri- can Pomological Society. Article XIII. — These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the members present at any regular meeting. c THE onnecticut Po mo logical Society Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting ACCORDING to arrangements made by the Executive Com- mittee, and in compliance with provisions of the Consti- tution, the fifteenth annual meeting of the Society was held at Hartford, in Unity Hall, h\^bruary 7 and 8, 1906. The opening session was called to order at 10.45 o'clock Wednesday morning, February 7th, by the President. J. C. Eddy of Simsbury. A goodly number of fruit growers were present at the opening and later arrivals increased the attendance, which at some sessions reached the point of between five and six hundred, making this meeting probably the largest in the history of the Society. In the Exhibition Hall below was displayed a very choice exhibit of fruits, while the display of implements and horti- cultural supplies was, as usual, a large and varied one. The stage presented a very attractive and beautiful appear- ance, the decorations being distinctly of a pomological nature. The background of palms and flowering plants served to show to best advantage the choice specimens of Connecticut apples, pears and other fruits, which were arranged in pyramid, baskets and boxes, while over all was hung a large banner bearing- the suggestive legend: "Faith in the fruitful possibil- 2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ities of the Connecticut soil ; that's what the Pomological Soci- ety is striving- to teach." In opening the meeting, President Eddy said : Gentlemen, the time has come for calling this meeting to order ; so, if you will all be seated, we will commence our proceedings. The first thing on the program is, I suppose, the annual address of the president. President's Address. Members and Friends of the Connecticut Pomological Society: In accordance with our usual custom, I respectfully submit a short report of the special features of the past year's work as fruit growers. I am glad to welcome so large a number of enthusiastic fruit growers here to-day, and I am sure that from the addresses of the different speakers, and from prompt discussion of the points brought out, much that will be of value to our fruit-growing interests will be learned. Through the office of our Secretary the Society has endeavored to g-et full reports of the probable amount of the diff'erent fruit crops to be marketed, and to give out this information in time to be of use, We are not entirely satisfied with the results, owing largely to the lack of prompt and accurate response from the growers. We hope to perfect our system of crop reporting, in the future, so that the reports may be as nearly accurate as possible ; this is especially neces- sary with the peach and apple crops. Last season there was every prospect of a large peach crop, necessitating large shipments out of the state. The matter of transportation was taken up with the ofii- cials of the New York, New Haven and Hartford road, who met us in a very friendly way, showing a willingness to afford us every facility possible, providing large numbers of shelf cars, at considerable expense. Owing to the unfavorable weather cutting oft' shipments so much, it is doubtful if the road received any direct profit from the venture ; but I am sure their efforts to serve the peach growers were appreciated. The peach crop was a large one, but by reason of the bad THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 3 weather for picking and handling just at the height of the season, thousands of baskets of what would have been good fruit were lost, causing a corresponding loss in the profits of the season's work. Losses from lack of cutlivation, fertilizing, spraying and general care can be guarded against ; losses from dry weather can be largely overcome by constant shallow cultivation, making a dust mulch ; but wet weather in the height of the picking season is beyond our control. It seemed at early blossoming time that there would be a full crop of apples, but. owing to several days of wet weather, the work of insect pests and fungus diseases, the final outcome of good fruit was much under an average crop. The price of good to fancy apples in our markets at the present time shows that care and skill in growing, storing and marketing apples, will be liberally rewarded. There are great opportunities for fruit growing in this state, if managed in the right way ; opportu- nities for disappointment are also plentiful. The large grow- ers like Mr. Hale, with orchards in Glastonbury and Seymour, and the host of large growers in Wallingford, JMiddlefield, Southington and other places, are showing what can be done on a large scale in peach-growing, but the number of small orchards is very much less than they were a few years ago. There is an opportunity in many towns to grow peaches to supply the home trade that is now supplied from the city dealers, or from large orchards at a distance. To make a success of this, high and well-drained ground must be selected, and the same grade of care given that our best large growers give ; then, if the fruit is first-class, profit- able prices will be received. It is surprising to find the number of baskets of peaches that can be sold right at home in some of the towns outside of the large peach districts. In riding through the country we often see from fifty to five hundred good thrifty looking young peach trees on a good rich piece of comparatively low ground, perhaps near the homestead, where the owner expects to go out in a few years and pick luscious peaches, but anyone of experience can tell him he is destined to disappointment ; for if there is any one 4 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. thing- settled in fruit growing-, it is that peaches can only be successfully grown on hig-h ground — the higher the land, other things being equal, the greater the chances of success. The unseasonably warm weather during the past month of January was bad for peaches in sheltered places, as it started the buds more than we like to see, but as it has not been followed by extreme cold, we hope for a full crop in most varieties. If we have a full crop, let us hope that the experience of last season in regard to lack of baskets will not be repeated. Baskets enough to handle the crop were ordered in time for shipment, but strikes at the factories caused delays that were very annoying- and much loss resulted. The annual meetings and exhibitions of this Society, with the many institutes held in different parts of the state, are having a great influence in raising- the standard of fruits grown in Connecticut. The enthusiastic support and lively interest of our mem- bers make our meetings successful and of great value to fruit growers, and fruit consumers. Quality rather than quantit}' has been our watchword in fruits. "Ben Davis" type of fruits has but few friends at our meeting's. Let us each and all strive to make this meeting one of great value, by paying- strict attention to what each speaker has to oft'er and then trying to bring out, by questions prompt and to the point, anything that is not perfectly clear to us. Of necessity, all we can do is to present old questions in the light of new experiences, but we find that there are many new points being brought out, especially in relation to combating diseases and insect pests. It is a remarkable fact that all our successful fruit-growers are perfectly willing to give away the results of experiments and methods of work that will help others to grow better fruit and perhaps conqjete with them. There are two points to which I would like to call atten- tion, which perhaps our legislative committee will consider: — First — Many of our members who grow fruit near cities, villages and trolley lines, are troubled by fruit stealing. The average city man or boy thinks it a joke to steal apples of THE CONNECriCUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 5 peaches ; this joke idea sometimes extends to the judge on the bench, but where a fruit-grower has some choice fruit that he is watching till it reaches just the proper stage for picking, it is annoying, to say the least, to wake up some morning to find his trees stripped. Often, if these thieves are caught in the act, they are let off with a mild reprimand from the court. The government free distribution of seeds will probably be kept up, but I would like to see our Society go on record as not favoring it. If only new and choice seeds and plants were distributed, there might be some excuse for it ; but as it is, with the most common varieties sent out and often not true to name, those who plant seeds for profit will not risk a crop by planting the seeds sent. I suspect that more of the seed goes for poultry feed than for growing vegetables. If our law makers could be made to realize how much more the people would be benefited by the parcels post, they would vote to turn the money now wasted in this useless seed business into that channel. Our annual fruit exhibition held last fall with the Rock- ville Fair Association was a complete success. Through the revision of our premium list, I think there was a slight decrease in the number of exhibits, but there has been a constant improvement in the quality of the fruit exhibited from year to year. The exhibit of the Connecticut Agricultural College was an exceptionally fine one, both in quality and quantit}'. The policy of accepting the invitation of some other strong society to hold our exhibition in connection with theirs, is thought by your officers to be a good one, as more people will see the exhibit, and thereby be educated to know what good fruit should be, than if we were to exhibit by ourselves. There have been some slight drawbacks that will probably be elimi- nated in tlie future. The interest in our Society can only be kept up by a live and large membership. The calls on our officers for institutes and other work in different parts of the state are taking more and more money every year. This expense is met by money received from the state, but a large part of other expenses must be paid for from our membership funds. We have now an enthusiastic membership of something 6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. over 500, and we hope it will be a matter of duty and prifie to each present member to renew for 1906, and at the same time persuade some fruit growing- friend to join the Society. We hope to reach the 1,000 mark in 1906. Active interest by each of our present members will give us this result. Let us have your enthusiastic help. The report of the Secretary, H. C. C. Miles, was next in order. Secretary's Report. Mr. President and Members of the Society: For the fifteenth time the fruit growers of Connecticut come together in annual session as an organized body. This large and enthusiastic gathering is significant of the progress of Horticulture in our State, and the widespread interest that is being manifested in everything pertaining to the subject of fruits. What rapid changes have taken place in our Connecticut fruit growing since this Society was organized in 1891 ! Then the culture of peaches for market was still in its infancy and only a few orchards of any size were to be found in the State. Noiv scores of farmers make this their leading crop ; thou- sands of trees have been planted on what was once abandoned land and the crop in seasons of plenty reaches over a half million baskets. Tlieii the Connecticut apple was grown in an indifferent and haphazard way and as a side issue. Noiv, with the help of spraying and better methods of culture, the crop has become a very important one, and Connecticut apples are recognized in the markets as being of the very highest quality. Large orchards are constantly being planted and we have come to understand that no fruit crop oft'ers surer returns on our soil than does the apple. And yet, after all, we must admit that commercial apple growing in this State has but just started. Fifteen years ago but few strawberries were shipped out of the State as compared witli what reaches the market to-day, THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7 and the acreage devoted to all the small fruits is increasing year by year, while the demand for them grows still faster. Formerly the "yellows" was the dreaded scourge of our peach orchards, but that disease seems to have run its course to a certain extent, and now it is the San Jose scale that works havoc with our trees, yet with the help of science and by organized effort the control of this and other pests is within our reach. Then, only a few fruit men had the insight and foresight to realize the great opportunities and possi- bilities for profitable fruit culture on our rough Con- necticut lands. Noiv, however, we are all beginning to open our eyes and on every side we see evidences of faith in the Connecticut soil. The demand for land for fruit pur- poses is growing, hundreds of old farms are being cleared of brush and rocks and set to fruit trees, companies are formed to carry on the business, and farms devoted wholly, or in part, to special fruit crops are becoming more common every year. And, best of all, our people are continually eating more fruit, and the desire to plant trees and vines about our rural homes for both utility and beauty is a most encouraging sign of our horticultural development. In all this fifteen years of progression the Connecticut Pomological Society has taken a prominent part, and without doubt its work and influence has done very much to bring about the results we see to-day. As fruit growers we have just closed a year of generally satisfactory crops and prices, with the exception of apples, which were a light crop, and we should feel encouraged to go forward with greater energy. The record of this Society's work for the year 1905 is one of progressive and energetic effort along the lines for which it was organized. We have grown stronger, reached out into wider fields of activity, and have the satisfaction of knowing that, as an organization, we enjoy the respect and confidence of the Connecticut public. This was plainly shown when we appeared before the Legislature last winter, in our success- ful effort to secure an increased appropriation. We heard nothing but praise and good words for the valuable work 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. done by the Society and the excellent use made of the money granted by the State. Our work has been planned with the idea of making it of the greatest practical help to every fruit grower in the State and especially to every member of the Society. The wisdom of this course has been shown in many ways, but especially in the case of the 1905 peach crop; when it became necessary to find markets for a very heavy crop, this help was plainly needed and appreciated. It therefore behooves every member to support t'le organization in all its efforts and reap the ben- efits that come from mutual cooperation. . First in importance among the items I am required to report to you on is — The Membership. The figures stand as follows: February ist, 1905, our total membership was 581. During- the year, 86 new mem- bers have been added, which makes a total number of names on our roll for the year of 667. But unfortunately there have been some losses. Four members have been lost by death, 4 have withdrawn, and 85 have not renew^ed their membership for the past two years, and according to our by-laws must be dropped from the roll. This makes our actual number of members February ist, 1906, 575. This is practically the same figure as reported one year ago and does not show the increase we have been hoping for. Reduced to a plain statement, it means that we have not more than held our own in membership, and that the losses have been as heavy as the gains in new members. This is far from gratifying, especially considering all the work and expense that has been put forth to increase the membership. While it may be truthfully said that we have a remarkably good membership for the size of our State, yet that does not solve the problem of how to maintain this large membership without undue losses, and at the same time make a steady increase from vear to vear. THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOCICAL SOCIETY. 9 This is a question lor your serious consideration at this time, and I suggest that a committee be raised to look into this matter, and bring forward any changes in our present by-laws, or methods of handling this membership question, that will result in putting it on a stronger basis. We have always made a strong point of our membership — believing that the life and usefulness of the organization depended largely on the number of persons actually enrolled and interested in carrying on the work. Surely it is not the time now for any lowering of our standard in this respect. Our Finances. From February ist, 1905, to February ist, 1906, I have received and paid over to the Treasurer : From membership fees $513.00 From sales exhibition fruit 23.05 Total $536.05 I have drawn orders for the payment of bills to the amount of $2,166.49. The expenditures in the different departments of work are classified as follows : Annual meeting of 1905 $297.37 Annual report 628.85 Crop reporting 31. 6H Annual exhibition — Running expenses $198.42 Premiums paid 351-75— 550.I7 Institute work (paid out to date) 239.14 Field meetings 46.76 Secretary's office — Office expenses and supplies $105.39 Salary on account 75-00 — 180.39 Miscellaneous printing 81.47 Sundry expenses 63.06 lO THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Our Meetings. In addition to the annual meeting last February, the Society held two summer field meetnigs, the annual fall meeting and exhibition at Rockville, besides numerous institutes scattered throughout the spring, fall and winter. Only two invitations for field meetings were sent in. The first summer gathering was a very successful field day, June 24th, at Hamden, the center of extensive strawberry and mar- ket garden farms. Over 100 members were in attendance and made a tour of the farms of Messrs. Flight, Thomas and Ure. As this was in the height of the strawberry season, when a car or more is loaded daily for Boston, as well as supplying the nearby local markets, the visitors were afforded an excellent chance to see the handling of a great berry crop in one of the leading fruit sections of the State. This very profitable and enjoyable day was rounded out with a visit to A. N. Farnham's mammoth market gardening establishment nearb}; at Westville. The promise of an abundant peach crop in the State last summer suggested the advisability of holding a gathering of the peach growers, for the purposes of both business and pleasure. Accordingly, arrangements were made with some of the largest growers in the town of Wallingford, where more acres are devoted to peaches than in any other one town in the State, and, on August i8th, was held the largest "peach field meeting" in the history of the Society. Over three hun- dred were present and spent tlie day in a tour of most of the large orchards, stopping for a rest at noon to enjoy lunch at the Grange Hall and a discussion of ways and means of hand- ling the coming peach crop to best advantage. Besides grow- ers, there were many commission men and fruit buyers in attendance, representing all the large markets of the East, thus bringing together the grower and the buyer and affording an opportunity to become acquainted and arrange for business. Officials of the railroad lines were also present and the situ- ation was- discussed from the transportation standpoint as well. This splendid meeting did much to assist the growers in marketing their crop to advantage and to attract the atten- tion of and interest buvers and markets in Connecticut peaches ; THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. n in short, to advertise the "Connecticut peach," "than which tlicro is none lictter p^rown." A strong: effort was made to carry out further field meet- ings, but as invitations were not forthcoming, and the peach harvest near at liand. it became necessary to change our plans, and thought and interest naturally centered on the eighth annual fruit exhibition in September. Again this event was held with the Rockville Fair, accepting a very urgent invitation and most liberal offer from that Association. And on Sep- tember 26, 27 and 28, we held a remarkably successful show of fruits, considering the unfavorable season, especially for ■good apples. As usual, our exhibition was the finest of the kind in the State, if not in all New England; the tables were well filled with specimens so nearly perfect that it required most careful work on the part of the expert judges to place the awards. By means of this annual exhibition our Society is certainly gaining the favorable attention of the people of the State, edu- cating the growers, and the public as well, as to what consti- tutes perfect fruit, and is exerting a powerful influence for improvement on the fairs of the State. It costs a good deal to carr}- on these shows, but no one will say but what they are worth all they cost. I believe, however, that we should distribute these benefits as much as possible, by holding the exhibit in a new section of the State each year. The number of exhibitors last year was about 60 and pre- miums amounting to $363.25 were awarded to 51 exhibitors. Crop Reports. A line of work which was planned for early in the year, and carried out with more or less success, was the collecting of figures for fruit crop reports. This subject increases in importance every year and we should not overlook its value, especially in a year of heavy crops, as was the case with peaches in 1905. Then reliable figures as to size, yield and location of orchards, is absolutely essential to the most profit- able marketing of the crop. We began the work in early June by gathering figures on the strawberry yield and the outlook 12 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. for other fruits at blooming- time. This was followed later with a request to each grower for exact figures on the peach and apple crops, which was pretty generally complied with, and which enabled us to issue an accurate estimate of the peach crop. In addition, the Committee on Markets and Transpor- tation arranged a conference with the railroad people, resulting in a satisfactory agreement as to shipping facilities, rates, etc. By means of the figures gathered for the crop report we were able to furnish the railroad, commission houses and buyers generally with reliable information, that was of the greatest help in handling the crop. I believe no one will deny that all this was of direct benefit to everyone concerned, and but for the bad weather conditions that prevailed during a part of the peach harvest, even better results would have been accom- plished. This is only one more instance of what may be accomplished by organization. Institute Work. The Connecticut Pomological Society has always put a broad interpretation on the scope of its work, and especialh' in the matter of institutes has it aimed to supply the real needs of the farmers of the State, rather than confine its efforts entirely to one branch of the work, believing that by so doing the best possible use is made of the funds given it by the State. The institute continues to offer the very best medium for carrying instruction, information and inspiration directly to the farmers of the State, and the past year has been an active one along institute lines. Following the annual meeting last February, nine institutes were held in the towns of Hig- ganum, Whigville, Wilton, Milford, Wethersfield, Bristol East Canaan, Fairfield and East Haddam, the local grange in each case cooperating. These were all very profitable and well attended meeting-s. In addition, the Society cooperated with the State Dairymen's Association to the extent of furnish- ing speakers at several institutes held by them, eand in a num- ber of instances the dairymen reciprocated at our institutes. The last General Assembly having granted us an increase THE CONNHCriCUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 13 of $500 ill oiir ajipropriatioii. it was early decided to devote most of this increase to extending- the institute work. Accord- ing^ly, a special committee consisting- of Vice-President Putnam, Treasurer Gilbert and Secretary Miles was appointed, with instructi(Mis to lay out a plan of work for the season of 1905-06. Early in the fall this committee prepared a schedule of pro- posed institutes, covering- every county in the State, and out- lined a plan for carrying out these meetings. This was sub- mitted to the granges and other local org^anizations in the various towns, and their cooperation invited; with the result that some thirty ai)plications for institutes have been received, and more are coming in constantly. Realizing the importance of starting the work early, we began to hold meetings under this plan in Noveiiiber. and, up to February ist, twelve insti- tutes have so far been held ; the schedule calling for eight or ten more before the end of the winter. The work has been carefully systematized and planned in advance. Institutes are as far as possible arranged in series of three or four each week in towns near together, thoroughly advertised, with a con- ductor from the Society, and for speakers the best men from our State College and Experiment Stations, as well as prac- tical fruit growers, poultry men, etc. Under this arrangement all the meetings have been very successful and conducted eco- nomically. The attendance in almost every case has been good, the interest in the subjects under discussion lively, and every indication that the work is appreciated as being- of great value to the people of the State. While our farmers' institute work is still far from what it should be, and some may question the propriety of the Pomo- logical Society engaging in this field of work at all, yet under present conditions here in Connecticut we are strongly of the opinion that we can do no better than to continue this depart- ment of our work and make it as attractive and helpful as the means at our command will permit. Your Secretary attended the National Convention of Insti- tute Workers in Washington last November, as one of the delegates from this State, and is more firmly convinced than ever that Connecticut has much to learn from her sister states in institute work. P>etter system, a closer union of the organ- 14 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. izations at present engaged in the work, and more funds for its extension, are some of the pressing needs, as we see them. I may add that the plan now successfully followed by this Society is very closely patterned after the best features recom- mended by the National Association, and without doubt the time is not far distant when our State must adopt a plan of institute work similar to that in use in the other states and in Canada. The Society's annual report was issued in two parts. The addresses and discussion at the last annual meeting, on the subject of the "San Jose Scale Problem," were by vote of the Society printed separately and issued to the members in time to be of use for the spring spraying season. Later, the com- plete report, a volume of some 267 pages, was published, and like its predecessors made a book of the greatest practical value and interest to every fruit grower in the State. We have always aimed to issue a creditable report, using care in its preparation, and apparently the work is appreciated as a source of reliable and up-to-date information about Con- necticut horticulture. We believe this is a wise expenditure of a part of our State money. In conclusion, what may be said of the Society's future work as your Secretary sees it? First, we should study carefully our fruit conditions and the needs of our growers, the difficulties confronting them and the protection of their rights, and then meet these needs in the work of the organization. In no other way can the Society earn the right to live and grow ; in no other way can we hope to attain the objects for which we were organized. Let us keep before us constantly this important question : Are we faithfully representing the fruit grozving interests of the State? This is a time when all branches of business are thoroughly organized, and every Connecticut fruit grower should under- stand that it is for his own personal and business interests to support his State organization and help on the work it is trying to do. It is clearly our duty to encourage the planting of fruits in the home gardens, and educate the people to a more extensive use of fresh fruit in their daily diet; to awaken our farmers to the golden opportunities lying all about them for THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 15 the planting of commercial orchards and vineyards as a profit- able investment, and to help on the great movement towards the country, and the possibility of a home amid all the beautiful and refining things of Nature. We are only just beginning to realize what a wealth of pleasure and profit is to be found in our Connecticut soil ! If we accomplish this, Connecticut will owe a lasting debt of gratitude to her Pomological Society. Perfect harmony exists — as it ever has — among our work- ers. We are fortunate in having the advice and counsel of many veteran horticulturalists in our work, and this is most deeply appreciated by the younger members of the Society who are just beginning their life work of fruit growing; our good name and reputation is known abroad, and, all in all, we have much to be thankful for and take pride in. To our sister organizations in Connecticut we present our best wishes, assuring them of our loyalty to Connecticut agri- culture and oui desire to work hand and hand with them in furthering the interests of the good old State. Your Secretar}' washes to thank all who have assisted him in his labors through the year and to express the hope that the Society may live long and prosper, continually adding to its membership new life and a host of walling workers, for let us remember "we have not done our best yet." Respectfully submitted, H. C. C. MILES, Secretarv. l6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Treasurer's Report. For the Year Ending February i, 1906. ORRIN GILBERT, Treasurer, In Account i^'ith The Connecticut Pomological Society. 1905- Dr. Feb. 2. To Balance from ex-Treasurer Moore $ 78.19 Cash from Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 284.00 23. balance from Comptroller, balance State Appropriation year ending Sept. 30, 1905, 47.79 March 7. from Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 35-00 16. Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 23.00 June 13. Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 23.00 24. Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 9.00 Cash from Conn. Agr. College (Premium ret'd), 5.00 Aug. 18. Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 26.00 'Bus Fares at Wallingford Meeting 21.25 Cash (Contributed) 23.47 Sept. 8. Cash from Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 26.00 26. Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 10.00 28. The Rockville Fair Association 50.00 Sec'y Miles, Membership Fees 24.00 Sec'y Miles, Sales of Exhibition Fruit, 23.05 Oct. 13. Comptroller, acc't State Appropriation, 1064.98 1906. Jan. II. Comptroller, acc't State Appropriation, 200.00 26. Sec'y Miles, Mem.bership Fees 44-00 30. State Board Agriculture 148.21 Cash (Contributed) for Advertising Banners .... 19.00 31. from H. C. C. Miles. Sec'y, Membership Fees, 9.00 ^ $2,193-94 1905. Cr. Feb. 2. By Cash . to S. L. Lupton, Expenses at Annual Meeting 37.15 Ralph S. Eaton, Expenses at Annual Meeting 36.20 T. E. Cross, Expenses at Annual Meeting 4. 75 George C. Comstock, Expenses Annual Meeting 7-00 Adams Express Companj' 6.70 The Whitehead & Hoag Co.. Members' Badges 16.40 9. Check to H. C. C. Miles, Sec'y. Office Expenses. etc 4124 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. \y Feb. 20. By Cash to Prof. C. P. Close, Expenses at Annual Meeting $1311 Dr. E. P. Felt, Expense at Annual Meet- ing 8.36 Check to New Dom Hotel 4500 Wm. H. Honiss, rent Unity Hall 60.00 Harvey & Lewis 13-00 E. R. Bennett, Expenses Annual Meeting, 3.07 Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co 6.75 22. N. P. Daniels, Programs and Printing, 23.10 23. Joseph R. Clark, Printing and Supplies, 22.08 Milford Post Office 5-00 Mch. 10. Cash to John Jeannin, Jr., Institute Expenses .... 41.00 16. Milford Post Office 5-00 22. Check to H. C. C. Miles, Sec'y. Office Expenses. . 38.12 Apr. 7. Conn. Printing Co.. Programs for In- tutes 16.25 Joseph R. Clark, Printing for Institutes.. 11.25 June 17. Premiums Awarded. Annual Meeting 22.50 July 7. Check to N. P. Daniels. Printing and Stationery, 9.00 A. R. Newell. Photographs 3-50 H. C. C. Miles, Sec'y. Office Expenses and Supplies 20.27 N. S. Piatt, Expenses Field Day 8.19 31. Chas. F. Roberts, Stenographic Report Annual Meeting 50.00 Conn. Printing Co 2.25 H. C. C. Miles, Salary on account 25.00 Aug. 15. Milford Post Office 29.34 18. Kilborn Bros., Stationery 4.72 30. The Williams M'f'g Co., Supplies for Secretary's Office 40.00 Sept. 6. Stoddard-Brown Co.. Cuts for Annual Report 32.40 8. Joseph R. Clark, Printing 1 1.66 18. Marcus E. Cooke 44-72 26. Milford Post Office 8.00 27. Cash to T. E. Cross, Services and Expenses Judge Eighth Annual Fruit Exhibition 18.00 28. George C. Comstock 6.00 The Rockville House 38.00 J. W. Kemp 5.34 Adams Express Co 12.86 Oct. 9. Vredenburg & Co 5.00 18. The Fair Publishing House 3.00 Check to W. E. Waller 5.50 1 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Oct. 19. 'Qy Check to E. C. Powell, Expenses and Services Judge at Fruit Exhibit $6-57 23. E. Manchester 10.57 E. R. Bennett 8.10 E. R. Bennett, Institute Expenses .... 7.26 H. C. C. Mlies, Office Expenses, etc.... 35-34 penses 13-64 H. C. C. Miles, Office Expenses, etc. .. . 35-34 H. C. C. Miles, Salary on account 50.00 Union Tea Co 7.5S Prof. A. G. Gulley. Institute Expenses 16.26 Prof. A. G. Gulley, Exhibition Expenses 4.48 Prof. A. G. Gulley ' 10..40 G. G. Tillinghast, Institute Expenses... 6.59 The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., Printing 5.25 25. C. H. Ryder, Printing Premium Lists, 15.50 C. H. Ryder, Publishing 750 copies An- nual Report 503-69 Joseph R. Clark, Printing and Supplies, 43-67 H. H. Corbin & Son 2.70 Prof. L. A. Clinton, Expenses Attend- ing Institutes 23.74 J. H. Putnam. Expenses Attending In- stitutes 16.49 T. F. Rady & Co., Printing 5.50 Kilborn Bros., Envelopes and Stationery, 5.46 Prof. Fred W. Card, Expenses as Judge at Exhibition 6.77 Dec. 5. Milford Post Office 5.60 H. C. C. Miles, Expenses as Delegate, Farmers' Institute Convention 10.75 H. C. C. Miles, Sec'y, Institute Ex- penses 10.00 Charles E. Steele, Expenses as Judge. . 4.00 The Milford Citizen, Printing 200 1906. Jan. 12. Amount Premiums Paid. Eighth Annual Exhibi- tion 351-75 26. Cash to H. C. C. Miles. Sec'y? Office Expenses and Supplies 2S.42 27. Check to The Conn. Printing Co., Programs for Institutes 13-25 30. Prof. A. G. Gulley 6.66 The Best M'f'g Co., Advertising Calen- dars 11.07 Cash to J. W. Trantum, Advertising Banners 19.00 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 19 Jan. 31. Check to Clarence H. Ryder, Printing Circular, $7.00 The Farmer Publishing? and Printing Co., List of Exhibition Awards .... 6.90 Joseph R. Clark, Printing and Supplies for In.stitntes 18.15 Balance 27.45 $2,193-94 Summary. Receipts $2,193.94 Expenditures. Premiums 374-25 Miscellaneous Expenses 1,792.24 Balance in Treasury 27.45 $2,193.94 Available Assets. Balance on hand $ 27.45 Due on account State Appropriation for year ending September 30th 235.02 Invested Funds in Berlin Savings Bank, January ist, 1906, 56.84 AUDITORS' CERTIFICATE. Hartforp, Conn., Februai-y 7, 1906. Wc have examined the accounts and vouchers of the Treasurer, Mr. Orrin Gilbert, and find them correct. GEORGE W. STAPLES, A. B. PLANT, Auditing Committee. A Member: I move that these reports of our officers be accepted and ordered printed in the proceedings. Motion seconded and passed. President Eddy: The next thing on our program is the reports of the different standing committees. The first is that of the membership committee, which will be given by Mr. Stancliff Hale. 20 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Report of Committee on Membership. ^NIr. Hale: Mr. President and fellow members: The sec- retary in his report covered all the ground to be covered on this subject, and has showed that we as a membership com- mittee have been a little delinquent perhaps. We aimed to get a thousand members last year, but we didn't succeed owing to a combination of circumstances ; but we are going to start in to-day and see if we can't do something to make up for this membership. I have passed envelopes around, and I am going to have badges in my pocket, and I am going to see if at this meeting we can't overcome some of our losses and get in a lot of new members, so that we won't have to drop out the Report or any other part of our work, and I hope every one will help us out. Last year was a successful one for all of us fruit-growers and let us this year make it a successful one for the Society. President Eddy : I hope you will all endorse that report and help out the committee. The next thing on our program is the report of the committee on exhibitions. Report of Committee on Exhibitions. The Report was presented by Prof. E. R. Bennett, for. the committee, as follows : The annual exhibition of the Connecticut Pomological Society for 1905, held at Rockville September 26, 27 and 28, does not require any extended report at this time ; the condi- tions under which it was held in man}- ways being similar to that of 1904, occupying the same ground and under the same canvass. Our annual exhibit this past year was somewhat smaller than the year before, the apples not totaling up as much, but we had more pears and as many peaches, ^\'e found the same trouble this year as before in judging, there being a good many inferior plates of fruit. The real trouble is in the exhibitors themselves not giving careful attention enough when they are picking out their fruit. Don't put apples on a plate to FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 21 compete at a fair that have any scale, and co(l(llin_^- nKitli, any scab or blemish of that kind, because the very first thing- that a judge does is to go around and pick out those plates and lay them one side, unless they are all that way ; but generally \ye can find one or two plates that are free from those things. and those are the ones that get the premiums. One person said: "I will never bring fruit here ag^ain ; I haye got the best plate of apples on that list." We went to him and showed him where we had found evidences of coddling moth and apple mag-got, and his plate had been thrown out and put one side. We are in this business as an education, and when we send fruit to an exhibition we must pick out the best speci- mens possible. We used for the first time the metal plates now owned by the Society, which added considerably to the general appear- ance of our tables. It is our hope that the finances of the Societ}- ma\' be such that a few hundred more can be pur- chased, so that it would not be necessary to rent any. In many sections of our state the apple crop was a failure, or nearly so, and there was general complaint of the poor quality of this fruit all over the state. Probably owing to this, some of those who had made larg^e exhibits in former years made none at our last fair, yet in certain sections good apples were grown and found their way to the exhibition. The peach crop of 1905 was a large one. In former years our fairs have been held so late in the season that the peach crop was nearly g-one, and only those having cold storage could successfully compete ; but this year, owing to late ripen- ing of the crop, many were able to exhibit directly from the orchard, so that we had upon our tables a larger and better display of this fruit than ever before. The pears exhibited were abundant and of superior qual- ity. The expert who did the judging, I understood, said of some of the varieties exhibited that they were the best he had ever seen. The exhibit of grapes was large and in quality was fully up to the standard. The canned fruits, jellies and pickles covered a large space and were very attractive. 22 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I should fail of my duty if I did not speak of the exhibit of our Connecticut Agricultural College, which completely filled one of the long tables with choice fruit and novelties, showing what strange freaks may be brought about by bud- ding and grafting. I can truthfully say we were proud of our exhibit. The number of plates exhibited in the various classes was as follows : Pears — Collections, 12; single plates, 118. Total plates, 160. Apples — Collections, 9; single plates, 279. Total, 357. General collections of fruits, 85 plates. Peaches — Collections, 6, 12 plates ; single plates, 63. Total, 75. Peaches — Baskets, 6. Quinces — Single plates, 10. Grapes — Collections, 52; single plates, 85. Total, 141. Plums — Single plates, 32. College collection — Miscellaneous, 201 plates. Nuts — Collection, 40 plates. Total plates, on exhibition, 1,101. Canned Fruits, Pickles and Jellies — Collections and single cans, 194. Cranberries — Four pails. Fruit Pieces — Two. Report of the Committee on Markets and Transpor- tation. Mr. J. N. Barnes : The committee on markets and trans- portation would report that their principal work had to do with making arrang-ements ealy in July of last year for the handling of the prospective peach crop by arranging with the officials of the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co. for cars and for moving same. After some preliminary work of estimating the size of the peach crop through the Society's Secretary, Mr. Miles, a date was arranged with the traffic officials of the railroad company for a meeting of all the parties interested in the shipping of peaches. At the time arranged for, nearly all the peach growers of the state, interested as probable shippers, were present, and again an estimate was made of the probable yield of peaches from each town or shipping point. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 23 The ag-gregate seemed to indicate a crop of large volume, equal in size to any previously produced, and notwithstanding that in the past two or three years large numbers of trees had been ruined by the severe winter weather, the effects of the scale, this loss had evidently been made up for by younger orchards reaching bearing age. Owing to the failure of the Delaware peach crop no refrig- erator cars were easily available with shelving suitable for our form of fruit package — the one-half bushel stave basket, Avhich is similar in form to those used by the Delaware orchard men. The peaches from further south are shipped mostly in crates or carriers which require no shelving, so that the only refrigerator cars available were these cars, and the car owners refused to do any shelving, simply offering the car for the same rental as they received the season before. The officials of the railroad company finally proposed that they would shelve the cars themselves and increase the rental price per trip to $20.00 per car, which plan was carried out; also a full supply of ventilated house cars, well equipped with shelving, was provided, so that the peach shippers were well supplied with cars to move- their fruit. While the increased price of the refrigerator car service cut so much out of the returns to the grower, which he could ill afford to spare, as later fruit sales emphasized, still at that we are informed that the rail- road company lost hundreds of dollars in their contract with the refrigerator car people, and in shelving cars not used, owing to the shrinkage in the volume of the crop from the estimates made by the growers, due largely to unfavorable weather conditions which caused severe losses in the orchards. I believe that on the part of the committee, as well as the shippers, there is the feeling that the handling of the trans- portation part of the shipping business w-as very well cared for by the railroad company. However, the transportation com- pany cannot be charged with a desire to do business at a loss, and so some growers are guessing what the next shipping season will have in store for us, for conditions, especially if the refrigerator cars are for various reasons hard to get. These questions of car service as well as train service (so dependent upon labor) are of vital importance to the fruit- 24 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. grower and shipper, especially if he is entirely dependent upon one shipping outlet for his fruit. The grower and shipper does not need many moments of thought to realize that disaster would overtake him if by reason of a labor strike or other hindrance his freighting ser- vice and his outlet to markets was interrupted. How manv localities have highways good enough to permit, on emer- gency, moving our fruit quickly, by means of heavv and rap- idly moving trucks or otherwise, to points where it might be possible to sell or get it shipped? I believe that on this side of the transportation question the members of this Society should take a strong stand as favoring the rapid construction of trunk or main roads of a permanent character, and espec- ially to such points as Hartford. Xew Haven, Aliddletown. Bridgeport, Conn., or such points as will give water freight- ing service as well as railroad connections. It is usually wise to have hold of more than one string, and in this matter of getting to market it is certainly the part wisdom to have hold of two, for it is a matter that vitally efifects our prosperity as fruit-growers. Another matter, wdiile perhaps not directly coming under the head of this Report, is that of buying our supplies, which I will term "syndicate buying." It was to a certain extent practiced last winter in obtaining materials for orchard work, and is again, at least in my locality, being made use of. Briefly speaking, it enables the different interested growers in a locality convenient to a central unloading point to obtain their supplies in part carload lots at carload prices, with the agreement on, the part of all members of the syndicate to take a certain part of such carload, to assume their proportional part of any surplus that for any reason may exist, and to pay spot cash for goods, any member refusing to pay promptly to be dropped from future syndicates. Many of us cannot use a full carload of a sriven material, and one cannot reason- ably object to paying a profit to a person who takes the risk of buying a car and dividing it up with a chance of a surplus left on hand to be held over. Hence the advantage of syndi- cate buying. For instance, sulphur, of which a minimum car- load is 30,000 lbs. The orchard men of Wallingford and PIFTIlliSril ANNUAL MEETING. 25 vicinity have purchased ahout 50,000 lbs. of sulphur, which if purchased in individual lots would have made an increased cost of close on to $200.00, a sum well worth keeping- in the orchard men's pockets. Let us look into this matter more carefully in future. Report of Committee on Legislation. Mr. J. H. Halk : I will make a very brief report. The only work of the committee on legislation was to present to the General Assembly our claim for an appropriation of $1,500.00 a year instead of a $r, 000.00, and we had no trouble in getting it as far as that is concerned. The legislation was satisfactory, but I judge from our treasurer's report we may need some more legislation later on. The suggestion in our worthy president's address that there was work for the com- mittee on legislation i.n doing- something further to guard the interests of fruit-growers in our towns, cities and villages, was noted by your committee, Mr. President, but it seems to me that the trespass law of the State of Connecticut is stronger than almost any other state in the union. Every tree owner and every land owner is his own policeman, and every man in his employ is his own policeman, and may arrest at any time persons found trespassing on his property. You can't g-et any stronger law than that. Many people think it is alto- gether too strong. Connecticut has law enough, but the law is only backed up by public sentiment, and the public senti- ment is, God's good fruit really belongs to everybody, and the small boy thinks it belongs to him as well as anybody else, and he always has and always will, and I think it is up to the members of the Pomological Society to plant more trees, and give the little boys a better chance rather than stopping them. [Applause.] (Some of the old fellows sympathize with that; they have been there, too.) Mr. President, I don't want to let the good report of my friend Barnes pass without saying something further. We all recognize P)rother Barnes as one of the shrewdest and wisest of business men in the fruit interests of Connecticut. 26 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and that report was a report of a sound and sane business man talking to his fellow business men on the proposition of transportation. This is going to be in the future the most important question for the fruit-growers of Connecticut : the transportation of our fruit to market. Not many years ago, at the time of the organization of this Pomo- logical Society, all the fruit that was grown in the state of Connecticut was practically grown by those who expected to and actually did market it from their own wagons, and there was practically no shipping out of the state. But the encour- agement that has been given to fruit growing through the work of this Society and its members, there has been planted hundreds and thousands of trees in this state, and we have discovered we have the best fruit land in America, and the transportation problem is going to be a big one, and what I want to touch upon at this time is our public highways as a means of reaching the market. We are within one hundred miles of the best markets of the world, Boston and New York. Now you have read about these automobiles going a mile in 28 seconds, but I don't think the fruit wagon is going as fast as that, but the wagon for business purposes is coming very soon. It is coming within five years, and we'll see before then motor wagons capable of carrying five tons easily over ary and looking a good ways ahead, but it is coming pretty charge, and what does that mean for the fruit-grower? It means it is possible that the fruit from Barnes' orchard at Yalesville in a few years' time may be put on their own truck and brought into the city markets of New York or Boston the morning after they are picked. That is a little bit vision- arv and looking a good ways ahead, but it is coming pretty soon, and lie is going to be able to reach the markets of Springfield, Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport easily. Now it is up to us to see that more money is put into the country roads, and that we have our own roads instead of having to buv the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. President Eddy: I believe that completes the committee reports that are ready at this time. Our next speaker is a very FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 27 large pear grower on the Hudson river, and we are very glad to welcome him and other growers from other states, on account of the new thoughts and ideas they are able to give to us. Experiences of a Hudson River Pear Grower. By J. R. Cornell of Newburg, N. Y. Mr. President, and members of the Connecticut Pomo- logical Society, ladies and gentlemen : A few days ago I received a letter from Secretary Miles inviting me to be pres- ent, and it stated that Mr. Hale had met a Mr. Cornell at Lockport who said he was going to be present, but I seem to be a little bit mixed, and I am going to ask Mr. Hale to iden- tify me. Mr. Hale: I think you don't look so well as he did; he was a prett}- good looking fellow. Mr. Cornell: I of course w-ould not dare take up the question of peach growing here in Connecticut, or even of apples, when you have such noted growers like Mr. Hale and Mr. Barnes, and other gentlemen that I am not acquainted with, and so I decided to talk a little on the pear question. Now I have attended a good many horticultural meetings, and it is very rarely I have ever heard anybody talk on pears, and I have often wondered the reason why — whether it was because we didn't know much about it, or whether what little we did know we were not sure of; but I wall speak a little while to you this morning entirely from my personal experi- ences, that run back over quite a good many years. When we consider the wonderful increase of acreage in orchard, fruits, particularly in case of the apple and the peach, it would seem to the ordinary observer that the pear has to a certain extent failed to keep pace, or rather has fallen behind in this orchard development. This would naturally lead us to inquire as to the reasons why. Surely not from lack of demand or low prices, in our great markets. At no period in my experience in the growing of this fruit have I ever known a better demand than we had this past season for high quality pears. 28 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. My thoug-hts shall be along the line of this type of fruit. I shall not touch on the Orientals, they are in a class by them- selves. I have no quarrel with the man who grows the Kielfer ; if it suits him, and he is satisfied, why should not I be also? I have never grown the Kieffer, except in an experimental way, and know very little about its requirements. Now it would seem that we must look farther than lack of demand in the solution of this question. In my judgment the two great underlying causes that have checked pear orcharding in eastern Xew York, and I judge your conditions are nearly identical with ours, is blight and pear psylla. Many an orchardist's hopes have been wrecked by the blight. I recall a few years ago, in a discussion of this ques- tion, a gentleman said to me, after relating his woes of the destruction of a thrifty young Bartlett pear orchard with the blight: "I will never plant another pear orchard." There was a man thoroughly discouraged, and a good fruit grower at that. Mr. George T. Powell wrote me some two or three years ago that he had torn out about two thousand pear trees, as they were practically past their usefulness, owing to the rav- ages of the Psylla. So it would seem as though these two problems act in many instances as a deterrent to the extension of the planting" of this noble fruit. Now the question arises, can we control these troubles? While I would not in any way minimize the gravity of them, still I am free to say that I believe we have it in our power to practically control them. This opinion is formed from many years' experience in combatting them. We will look at the blight question first, which to my mind is the far greater one of the two. Science has exploded the old theories as to the cause of this trouble and we now know the disease to be a bacterial one. There is an old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this is very applicable in the mat- ter of blight with the pear. Not that we can entirely prevent attacks of this malady, as it is almost impossible to destroy FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 29 all sources of infection, althoug-h a careful attention to the removal of blighted limbs p^oes a lonjr ways in this direction. But what seems to me a most important step is to so handle the orchard that it is fortified in a larg-e degree against this disease. We all recognize that some varieties are much more resistant than others ; notably, for instance, Tyson, Bufifum, Duchess, and Seckel ; while others, such as Clapp's Favorite, Flemish Beauty, Onondaga, Bartlett. Bosc, are much more liable to serious injury during a virulent attack of this trouble. This shows us that varieties that are inclined to make a soft, succulent growth are the greatest sufferers. Now in the handling of a young orchard (for we find this is its most vulnerable period), we pursue a course to prevent a too luxuriant growth and have the wood well matured in the fall ; this same course is also followed in the older orchards, but in so large a degree as the production of fruit tends to check excessive wood growth. On young orchards use nitrogenous fertilizers in very sparing quantities, especially if the ground is moderately fertile, depending more on phosphoric acid and potash, and stop cultivation early ; the period to be determined somewhat by the season. Cultivate a little later, if the season should prove to be a dry one ; with me. the first of July to August 1st I find about right. I use cover crops and on the older orchards I use crimson clover; this mig-nt not be safe practice on young ones except occasionall}'. If I feared an excess of wood growth, I would sow oats ; this crop takes up moisture more rapidly and checks tree growth quicker than any crop I am familiar with. I am a strong advocate of summer cutting out of blighted limbs and persist in it as long as any is to be found. Since I have followed this system I speak of, I rarely ever lose a tree from this trouble. In the case of the i'sylla our entomologists have given specific instructions for their control. I consider a thorough spraying on the hatching of the first brood very important ; it is often sufficient to subdue them for the season. When they are particularb,- abundant, several sprayings, about ten days apart, are generally necessary. My choice of remedies 30 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. is a good quality of whale oil soap at the rate of one pound to seven gallons of water. For control of leaf spot and the coddling moth, we use the Bordeaux and arsenical poisons. For the pear, I do not want over four pounds of copper sulphate to the fifty gallons of water ; some varieties, particularly Manning's and Bartlett, having rather tender foliage. Arsenate of lead I esteem very highly on account of its staying quality. For commercial purposes, we need few varieties. I am giving my attention principally to three varieties named, in order of ripening: Bartlett, Seckel, and Bosc. Have planted some of the Worden Seckel and have worked over some unde- sirable varieties with it, have had it in bearing three or four years, and so far am well pleased with it. I believe it has a good future as a commercial sort. Anjou we have grown quite largely in the past, but am grafting over to other varie- ties, as they have not proved to be desirable. Where we have the ideal soil and location, the Seckel has been the greatest money maker in the list. I am inclined to place the Bosc second in value with me, although I esteem the Bartlett very highly. For the New York market, which is my dependence, I do not care for any variety that matures before the Bartlett. I am a firm believer in cultivation and plenty of it, of course to follow later with cover crops. Others may be able to get satisfactory results under vari- ous mulch methods that are being advocated, but I am free to confess that I am unable to produce a high grade pear under any system of mulch culture, and I think I have given them a good trial. In mature bearing orchards I use fertil- isers quite liberally. On old Seckel trees, say fifteen years and upward of age, I do not hesitate to use nitrogenous fer- tilizers in large quantities. I find aged trees of this variety practically immune to the ravages of blight, and gives fine results to generous treatment. To get the best financial results I find it necessary to pro- vide cold storage facilities, being enabled thereby to place the product on the market when conditions are the most favorable. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 For the best g^rades of fruit we use the bushel box exclu- sively, and for the lower grades the half barrel basket; prac- tically using no barrels at the present time. In concluding- these brief notes I would like to call your attention to what I consider the most promising field for the New York and New England pomologist, and that is the commercial growing- of the finer type of pears. While the apple and the peach are grown successfully over the greater portion of this great country of ours, the terri- tory for the successful production of choice pears is circum- scribed. Prof. Waite, who is high authority on this fruit, recognizes this fact and in his fruit notes makes mention of this fact; characterizing southern New England, the Lake region, and other portions of New York as particularly favor- able locations. California has been a great factor in the pro- duction of pears for the eastern markets, and it has been the hardest competition we have had to meet, the attractive appearance of their fruit making them popular with the con- sumer. But, unless they are able to stay the scourge of blight that is sweeping the commercial orchards of that state, the industry is doomed. I saw Prof. Waite, who, a short time since, had just returned from there. In their distress the growers appealed to the Department of Agriculture and the professor went there to advise and assist them. I learned from him, that owing to peculiar conditions this disease assumes a virulence and destructiveness unknown to the eastern grower, and so far all efforts to control it have met with little success. The alluvial soils of the west are not to be considered, as the grow- ing of this fruit has been virtually abandoned there. So it would seem that to New York and New England exceptional advantages are vouchsafed. The market prospects for the future are all that can be desired, and that there will be a surplus for many years to come does not seem possible. An orchard of this fruit properly located and intelligently handled seems to me one of the best investments that the eastern fruit grower can make. A Member: Are you able to control the blight? ^2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ]\Ir. Cornell: A few years ago I had a Bartlett orchard that was developing blight quite rapidly, and for almost every day for tvvo weeks constantly I was in that orchard cutting out that blight as it developed, and by that means controlled it without any very serious damage to the orchard, while many orchards in that section were pretty nearly destroyed by it. You take some varieties of the pear, particulariv the ^Manning's Elizabeth and the Bartlett. and you will find they are very tender in foliage. A few years ago I killed the foliage on some Manning's Elizabeth trees with copper sul- phate five pounds to fifty gallons water, showing the tender- ness of that foliage, and I don't at the present time use over four pounds, and quite a good many of the growers at Lock- port are saying that we shouldn't use so much as that. Arse- nate of lead I have a very high opinion of. especially for use on pears. I never was able to control the coddling moth until I used lead, and I used arsenate of lead one year six pounds to fifty gallons of Bordeaux mixture. That is pretty heavy, but still there is no danger from the use of the arse- nate, as it will not burn the foliage, and by that means I was able to control the coddling moth, and so for the pear I would recommend the use of arsenate of lead — it has great sticking qualities, and that is what we want. A Member: What can }Ou tell us about the Worden- Seckel pear? Mr. Cornell: I will say. three or four years ago I met Air. Hale one day on the train and he called my attention to the Worden-Seckel and spoke very highly of it. He said : "Mr. Cornell, you are niterested in pears, and this Worden- Seckel is going- to have a good market;" and on his judgment I worked over some trees. I believe it has a good future, and the commission men told me afterwards. "I have only one fault to find with them, and that is you didn't have enough of them." They were highl}- pleased with the fruit, and it is a pear of fine (piality, and the pear improves with the age of the trees. A Member: How about its susceptibility to blight? Mr. Cornell : It has been free with me ; so far. I have had no blight on the Worden-Seckel. Of course my experi- ence only goes back a few years, not enough to form a definite FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 33 opinion, bnt. so far. it looks extremely favorable. It is a gcK)d grower and prolific ami very beautiful; it is tlie hand- somest pear I know of, more so than even the Clapp's Favorite imder its most favorable conditions. There is one strong- point in the Bosc pear 1 want to men- tion. The IJosc pear is always thinned on the tree, almost always ; once in a while we have to thin a little, but the fruit will be tmiversally number one. My crop of Bosc this year was graded as fancy, and the number ones brought within jiftv cents a box of what the fancy pears did, and that is quite 3. consideration. We get a croj) every year of the Fiosc variety. If I had a local market, there is one early pear that I think pretty well of ; it is the variety I spoke of a little while ago as being weak in the foliage, and that is the Manning's Eliza- beth. A few years ago that pear sold very good in the New York market, but of late there has not seemed to be an espe- cial demand for early pears, there are so many pears coming in from other places. But for the local market the Manning's is a good pear to grow. The old Scckel pear is the only pear that I would not hesitate to use lots of any kind of manure on, and if the tree is bearing it will stand a wonderful amount of food. I have used both stable manure and commercial fertilizers, and I liave some trees I put on a high grade of fertilizer at the rate of a ton to the acre, and all those trees grow heavy crops of fruit, and I don't have any blight under those conditions. ' Speaking about Bartlett pears: If we ship them to the market when they are ripe ; it is before the people have returned from their summer vacations; and so we don't want to place those Bartlett pears on the market until they get back, and we find the markets then are very much better, and for that reason we use cold storage, retarding the ripening of the Bartlett for four or five weeks, and the Seckel the same way. Mr. Haij:: I want to ask Mr. Cornell if he knows whether his soil is full of lime? Mr. Cornell: Xo, sir; we have something of a limestone soil ; there is a good deal of limestone soil in our section, but I don't know as the land on which I am growing pears can l)e called verv rich in lime. There is considerable slate in 34 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. some of it. and some of our land carries quite a larg-e per- centage of iron in the soil ; that is, the granite rock from the mountain above seems to have a good deal of iron in it so that the rock is rusty, and sometimes I think that has some- thing to do in helping us in the matter of color. But you can hardly class our soil as a limestone, though we have apparently lime enough so that it doesn't seem to be neces- sary to apply any lime to our soil. Mr. Tyler : How long will it take to get a pear orchard going? Mr. Cornell: For the Bartletts we will have to wait five or six years. We older men wouldn't think that long, but the younger men would have to plant something that would come ahead a little quicker. Now the Seckel with me v.ill commence to bear quite freely in from seven to eight years,^ that is about the period for the average pear tree. The Bart- lett is a little earlier, and we have to guard against that for it may produce in two or three years. I have not grown any- thing ripening later than the Bosc, for the simple reason that the use of cold storage extends the season as long as we care for it. We find after the middle of November, or the latter part of November, there is no improvement in the market ; in fact, the demand falls off. I have grown the Josephine and some others. If I was going to plant a later pear, I would prefer the Nellis. Mr. Root : Do you do any other pruning except what you prune for blight? Mr. Cornell: In the matter of pruning I use simplv good judgment. I think Mr. Hale will say and agree with me fully, that we don't want a tree away up in the air, and we are all coming down to keeping the heads cut low. There are some varieties like the Bartlett and the Clairgeau that have a tendency to go away up, and we simply cut them back so as to make the tree we want. Mr. Platt : Do you find the Bosc a good grower? Mr. Cornell: It is a good grower after it becomes estab- lished ; it is a poor grower out of the nursery ; it takes some little time, but after it becomes thoroughly established it is a good strong grower. It will make a large tree, and it is a FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 longf-lived tree. It is quite susceptible to blight in its growing period, and I don't know but what I would rather plant some other strong variety like the Anjou or the Lawrence, and top work to Bosc ; I find the Lawrence is a splendid pear to work over with the Eosc, and in that way you get an ideal tree. Mr. Tillinghast: What distance do you plant your trees apart ? Mr. CoknivLl: It would depend somewhat on the variety. I think in planting the Seckel tree, having the idea they were going to stay a long time, I would plant them not closer than 22 feet each way, or else 20 by 25; on the Bartlett, 18 feet; the Lawrence and the Bosc will want more room. I have some Seckels to-day that are standing too close together ; I did not plant the trees myself, but J would never think of planting a Seckel without leaving 20 feet on each side, and I would rather have a little more room. Mr. Bennett: From your conclusions in regard to the pear blight, do you think the bacillus gets into the buds or the blossoms? Mr. Cornell : Oh, I think there is no question of that ; I think Prof. Waite has demonstrated that fact conclusively, that in the transmitting of the blight you can infect even the ends of twigs. Mr. Bennett : You don't think the bacillus will go through the bark into the tree ; it has got to go through a wound, or a blossom, or a bud, has it not? ]\Ir. Cornell : Yes. The bacterial trouble can enter any wound, either on the trunk, or on the end of a limb, or in any way. Now, for instance, we have the trunk blight. Now the only way it can be accounted for is through some abra- sion of some kind, and it may be carried either by the bee or it may be carried by the wind. Now they have proved very clearly that you can take an infected twig and transfer the virus right into a healthy one and develop the disease verv quickly. Mr. Bennett: It doesn't go through the bark? Mr. Cornell: No, I think not; it has got to go through at some broken point. This interesting discussion closed the morning session and at 12.15 ^ recess was taken for dinner. 36 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. AFTERNOON SESSION. The second session of the meeting opened at 1.30 with an increased attendance, nearly every seat in the hall being occu- pied. A lively interest was shown in the various features of the excellent program. After calling the meeting to order, President Eddy said: The first thing on our program this afternoon is one of the reports which was not given this forenoon. We will now have the report of the committee on new fruits, by Mr. Harvey Jewell, chairman. Report of Committee on New Fruits. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a matter of regret that your committee on new fruits has l^een able to test but few new varieties during the past season, and these in but two classes, viz : strawberries and plums : and these perhaps not strictly new, but of varieties which I believe have not yet been reported upon to this Societ}-. The few notes I have to present are mainly the results of my limited observation, aided by some information from out- side sources. Among the strawberries of recent introduction, and which I saw last season on spring-set plants, are Springdale, Gibson. Marie, and Superior. While one cannot judge as to real value from these few scattering specimens, a little idea may iDe formed regarding the color, firmness, and flavor. Springdale seems to be the earliest of these, a shapely berry of good color and flavor, and promising. Gibson is the one which, if predictions concerning it are fulfilled, is to displace the Marshall, as it is claimed to be equal to that fine variety in all respects, and far more pro- ductive. It is shapely and attractive in appearance, lighter in color than Marshall, and truly of very fine flavor. Marie is one of the more recent introductions which is to FIFTEIINTII ANNUAL MliliTING. 37 take its turn in superseding all others, on account of its great productiveness and fine quality. It seems like a nice berry, good color and shape. All these varieties have grown well the past season, and another summer should reveal more con- cerning their characteristics and real value. Cobden Queen has been longer tried by one of our large growers, who reports it as early, large at first, but soon run- ning small and tapering off to nothing. Klondike is a rather late berry, rather dark in color, large size but a trifle soft, somewhat irregular in shape and not equal in quality to some others, but productive. Pokonokc seems a good mate for Sample, being perfect flowering and similar in color, perhaps a little darker, more flatly conical, of better flavor and productive. Moi'cJiousc is a late berry of the Parker Earle type, which has not been much advertised by its originator, whose name it bears ; but on the rather light soil where the Parker Earle and Arnaut do not succeed well, this variety grows and yields far better than either. Otherwise it has the same general characteristics. Su/^crior seen on spring-set plant only, cannot well be judged, but is an exceedingly firm berry, good color I should say, and I think promising. .Among the newer and little known plums a few may be worth keeping, while many are not worth planting; varieties having been multiplied and introduced beyond reason, so far 'as the soil and climate of this state is concerned. Shiro belongs in the first class, being a large transparent yellow plum (Japanese), ripening about with Abundance, or even with Red June, and ccjutinuing as long as Abundance ; thus having a longer season and being a better keeper than most early plums. Tree a good healthy grower, quality good, and valuable where a yellow plum is desired. A large number of American varieties in the various groups of Americana, Chickasaw, Miner. Wild Goose, Way- land, etc., are being tested by Bro. G. S. Butler of Cromwell. They are products of various crosses, with each other and with Japanese. These seem to be remarkable mostly on 38 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. account of their varying degrees of badness, sourness and astringency, though some are passably good. Among these is Best-of-All, America, American Eagle, Chalco, Cyclone, Eagle, Juicy, Mackland, Mrs. Cleveland, Nelly Blanch, Nona, Pendant, Reel, Rolling Stone, Saphie, Stella, and Weir Large Red ; to describe which in detail would take too much time, but none of which compare with the better European or Japanese varieties we already have ; beau- tiful to look upon perhaps, and in some sections of the country where better ones cannot be grown, possibly of some value, but not in Connecticut. Gonzales, a hybrid of unknown origin, is more promising, and has been previously reported on. Nearly round, of good size, one to one and a half inches in diameter, yellow some- what overspread with red, and of quite good quality. Not yet extensively fruited, I think. BartJctt, one of I5urbank's hybrids, is small, has a slight suggestion of Bartlett pear flavor, but of quite indifferent quality. Tree nearly as upright as a Lombardy poplar, poor grower and shy bearer. Sultan is one of the Satsuma type, and by some is thought to be more promising, and may displace it. Red fleshed, and one of the finest for eating out of hand as for canning ; as reported by Bro. C. I. Allen. Tree similar in habit to Bur- bank, fruit ripens about with that kind. Earliest has also fruited with Bro. x^llen^ and is a small red plum of fair quality, ripening about two weeks ahead of Abundance, prolific, but valuable simply because early. October Purple is not fulfilling the hopes entertained for it with me. The tree is a poor grower, one-sided, and dies out badly, and is a shy bearer, and fruit much subject to rot; but of good size, appearance and quality, when it can be secured at its best. Lutts and Maru (Japanese) are little known, but have fruited abundantly with me for several years. The two are quite similar in appearance and may be marketed together, though Lutts is slightly larger and a trifle better. About three-fourths inch in size, red with white bloom; trees healthy FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 and prolitio, but on acci^unt of the small size not particularly profitable. Quality fair, but of value only because early. Tlio coming- sensation in plums may be one originated by F. L. I'crr}-, tbe well known nurseryman of Bridgeport, and wliicli 1 understand he is to introduce this spring, and to which he has g"iven the name of Perry's Oriental, as it is a seedling of Satsuma, and of the same type. He will doubtless tell us all about it, and if it proves as good as he hopes and seems to expect, it will be a decided acquisition. A sample of the fruit I have tasted was fine. Let us hope we may not be disappointed in it. The tendency to multiply varieties still continues in all classes of fruit. It would be impossible for one to test them all. I l:ielieve that conservatism should take the place of some of the egotism and avarice displayed by introducers, that the disgust and distrust with which they are regarded by planters who have suffered loss of time, money and hopes, may be avoided. It is true that a certain variety may be excellent at home ; let it be well tested elsewhere before loading it with high praise, and unloading it upon the public, discarding it unless it proves to have striking- merit not possessed by varieties already in cultivation, and the plant breeder will gain credit and honor which his patient and careful labor deserves. AIr. Perry : I notice the committee spoke about plums •not amounting to anything. Now I have made more money on plums than any other kind of fruit, and I have been exper- imenting in plums from year to year, and have finally got one that is a cross between the Burbank and the Satsuma, and it lias two or three marvelous good qualities. It hangs to the branches three or four weeks after it is in perfect eating- con- dition. It commences to ripen at the pit, and when perfectly g-reen on the outside it will be a dark crimson around the pit, which begins to sweeten as soon as it begins to color, and when ripe it has none of the bitter taste about the pit that most of this class of plums have. Xow, gentlemen, that is one of its good points, and another one is the flavor ; it is a flavor 40 THE COXXECriCUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. that people seem to like. It is prolific and marvelous in its bearing qualities. I\Ir. Hoyt is here and I think he sold some of this fruit last year. He had some to take home. It is the Oriental plum. Mr. Hoyt: I saw the plum growing on trees at Mr. Perry's alongside of other varieties he had there, the Satsuma and Abundance, Chabot, and other varieties. One of his varieties had not any plums at all on the trees that amounted to anything, but these trees of this variety were certainly full and very fine looking. They impressed me very favorably indeed ; the trees seemed to hang full, and the fruit had not rotted like the others had, and they were of fair size and very red like tiie Satsuma. He gave me some to take home, which my wife canned, and we were eating them the other day and we all pronounced them the best plums we ever had eaten, and they are a good plum — there is no mistake about that — but we want to see them growing somewhere outside of Mr. Perr}'s nursery. Xow the gentleman was speaking" of the October Purple as being a poor grower ; I can't understand that, because it has always been with me a very strong grower, and the question came to my mind whether he had got the true October Purple, and I would like to ask the gentleman where he got his trees ? Mr. Je\\'ell: I got them from Mr. Butler, our nearest neighbor, and I think he got the stock from you. Mr. Hoyt : I don't know about that, but the October Purple is a strong growing tree; it is stronger than the P)Urbank an 1 nearly as strong as the Hale. Mr. Jewell: I think there is a difference in the soil. Mr. SkillmAxX : \\'hen does this Oriental plum of yours ripen, Mr. Perry? Mr. Perry : It commences to ripen about the tenth of August, and I think they lasted this year until the second day of November, election day. Mr. Skillman: What is the color? Mr. Perry : Red. President Eddy: We will now take up the main subject of the afternoon, "Fighting Insects and Diseases." and first FIFTHRNTU aw UAL MEETING. 41 we will liave the Report on Fiino;oiis Diseases for 1905. by Dr. G. r. Clinton of the C'onn.ecticut Experiment Station. Report on Fungous Diseases for 1905. By Dr. G. p. Clinton. New Haven. The past vear, on the whole, was unusually exempt fronT fung-QUS diseases of economic plants. This was due to the comparatively dry growing- season up to the first part of .\ugust. After the middle of August a few serious troubles developed because of the more frequent rains of this montl-. and September. It is my purpose in this report to mention one or two of the serious troubles of the year and to call briefly to your attention a few new troubles that have not been mentioned in our previous discussions of the fruit diseases in this state. Fruit speck (Finigiis iiiidcf.) is a disease of stored apples apparently of fungous origin. It was first called to the writer's attention, last February, as a serious trouble by Afr. Ives of our committee on fungous diseases. During the pres- ent winter it has also been observed on the poorer grades of apples offered for sale in the New Haven market. According to Mr. Ives, this trouble showed somewhat on unsprayed apples at harvest time, but became much more conspicuous after home Storage during the winter. With him Talman Sweet was badly infected ; Northern Spy was also injured, but not so severely , while Pjaldwin sufiPered little. The disease shows as small black spots or specks scattered more or less thickly over the apple and gives it an unsightly appearance. The dry rot of these spots extends only slightly beneath the skin, appearing in many cases to have had a starting point at an insect punc- ture or possibly from a lenticel. Presumably these spots are the starting points of later more deeply seated rots. No otlier complaint has been received of this trouble, but it is desirable to learn through such complaints how general and serious it is in the state. This year Mr. Ives reports spraving prevented the trouble, or perhaps, stated more accurately, the trouble did 42 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. not appear on apples sprayed this year, but did last >ear when not sprayed. Nectarines are not commonly raised in this state, but those that are seem to be troubled seriously by fungi. Scab { Clad- osporiiun carpophihuii) , apparently, is the worst of these ene- mies. It greatly mars the appearance of the fruit by its vig- orous development in the epidermis, causing more or less cracking of this and the formation of a corky growth of tissue. According to Mr. Thompson of Thompson, Conn., little of the diseased fruit matures. The fungus evidently carries over the winter on the twigs. While this is the first record in this state for the scab on nectarines, it is the same fungus that is so common on our peaches. The writer is very much inter- ested in a life history study of this fungus which has been under special observation for two years. So far it has been found in Connecticut on the peach, nectarine, apricot, common wild plum and the beach plum, and elsewhere in the United States it has also been reported on different varieties of the cultivated American plum, on cherry and on the almond. Infor- mation concerning injury to any of these hosts and specimens are especially desired the coming season. Bacterial Black Spot {Pscudomonas Primi) is a new trou- ble of Japanese plums that was first described a few years ago by Dr. Erwin F. Smith of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, from Michigan. The writer first received specimens of this disease during the summer of 1904 from Mr. F. L. Perry of Bridge- port, Conn., and during the past summer specimens were sent from Rhode Island. Apparently, Dr. Smith is the only writer who has discussed this trouble. He found it on both the leaves and fruit. So far in this state it has been reported only on the fruit, but presumably it also occurs on the leaves. Speci- mens sent from Pomfret in 1903 on peach leaves, and referred to m a previous report, may possibly prove to be the same as this disease. On the leaves the bacteria produce numerous small water-soaked areas from which the tissue may eventually fall out, givmg a shot hole eflfect. On the half-grown green fruit black purple, eventually somewhat sunken, spots appear, but the disease does not penetrate very deeply into the fiesh. One to several of these spots may develop on a plum, and the FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 43 diseased specimens are usually scattered over the tree. Com- ing on the green fruit and appearing prominently causes one to think that later it will develop very seriously, but this is not the case. The disease does not spread to the maturing fruit and gradually comes to a standstill. This course of development is quite different from the usual run of diseases. There is no telling, however, whether the disease will or will not take a more serious hold if in time it spreads to other varieties. The trouble is quite distinct from the bacterial twig blight that has occasionally been reported on the plum and which is often so injurious to pears, etc. The most serious fungous outbreak of the year was that of the brown rot of peach {Sclcrotinia fructigena). This fungus is always injurious to a limited degree. Serious injury from it largely depends upon weather conditions at harvest time. This year these conditions were quite favorable for the development of the fungus, for the moist weather came on just as the peach crop was beginning to ripen and largely pre- vailed until the crop was gone. The result was that the brown rot very seriously interfered with what had given promise of being a moderately fair crop. So far as preventive measures go, we now know, from the various experiments that have been carried on in the United States, about what are the most effective measures in preventing this and the two other most serious fungus troubles (scab and leaf curl) of the peach. What we do not know exactly is how efificient and practical ihese measures would prove as a general practice in peach orcharding, or, in other words, whether the extra trouble and -cost would give adequate financial returns. After a year's rest the leaf blight (Alternaria Brassicae var. nigresccns) and the downy mildew {Peronoplasinopara Cubciisis) last year again interfered seriously with the musk- melon industry. Mr. Warncke, a member of the^ committee on fungous diseases, however, reports a good crop from a field that was sprayed three times with Bordeaux mixture. Powdery mildew of the strawberry {Sphacrotheca Humnli) is a disease not reported before for the state. Dr. Britton collected specimens in a field in which it was limited and doing no evident injury. 44 ^^HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Another trouble of the strawberry, which possibly showed' elsewhere in the state, was called to Dr. Britton's and the writer's attention by Mr. Mansfield of West Hartford. In June, the plants began to dry up and die and Mr. Mansfield thought possibly some insect or fungus was responsible. A careful examination revealed no special pest that could be responsible for so widespread injury in the field. The writer- came to the conclusion that the injury was largely the result of the unusually dry weather through which the plants had passed, coupled, possibly, with some winter injury to the roots, or possibly aggravated by the method of culture — the matted row system — ^which was difi:'erent from that Mr. ^lansfield ordinarily used. Mr. Platt : Was that speck on the apples anything that has been common — it is not the same as the "Baldwin spot," that has been prevalent for years? Dr. Clinton: No; it is a dififerent thing from the "Bald- win spot." The "Baldwin spot" is more conspicuous, but this one starts like a speck about the size of a pinhead. The "Bald- win spot" is known not to be of the fungous bacterial origin, it is a physiological trouble. Secretary Miles : Before we take up the next topic, there is a subject which I would like to speak of briefly, which was referred to more or less this morning', — that is our member- ship. It is not a very pleasant topic to keep popping up at our meetings, yet it is an important one, and one on which the success of our Society largely depends. Xow if you gen- tlemen don't renew your membership, we have nothing to fall back on through the year, and for fear that some may not have been sufficiently invited to join our Society, I want to throw out a hint now that you should be prompt to come into the Society and join hands with us in the work we are trying to do ; even if you are not all commercial fruit growers and depending on that kind of work for your bread and butter. Give us a little help and I am sure it will return to you in many ways which you do not realize at the present time. The committee on memliersliip have suggested that they will FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 45 pass the nionihcrshii) envelopes aniong^st the audience, and I hope you will take advantaj^e of it. We have on hand a good many of the back reports of the Societv, and those members who have not the full set of our reports can complete their sets, so far as the number on hand will permit, if you will come to me or write to me about them. We have any number of these stowed away, and if they are not used they are so much dead matter. Prof. Gullev : I attended a Pomological convention out west at one time, and when I arrived at the door they sug- gested to me they had a good thing inside, and if I put in a dollar T could go in. The members were obliged to pay before they got inside the door, and they took in hundreds of them, and that is the way the western Horticultural societies are getting ahead, and if every member of this Society would pay one dollar before he comes inside the door, it would be a good thing for the Society. Secretary Miles: I have a resolution hefe on this subject Avhich I wish to ofifer for your consideration. It is as follows : Resolved — That a special committee be appointed by the Chair to take into consideration the subject of membership in this Society and recommend such changes in our by-laws or present methods of conducting this work as will put it on a stronger basis. Secretary ^Iiles: I move the adoption of this resolution. Seconded and carried unanimously. President Eddy : I will appoint the coiumittee a little later. We have with us a gentleman from Delaware, who. I am told, has had a great deal of experience both in spraying methods and machinery, and we will call upon him now to give us the results of some of his work along those lines. Mr. S. H. Derby, of Woodside. Delaware. Spraying Methods and Machinery. By Samuei, H. Derby. Woodside, Del. I am delighted to be here in Connecticut to-day, and in fact, if I had not expected to reap more benefit from being here 46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. than I can possibly give you, I should not have come. I have a few photographs here of some scenes in my orchard, and some of spraying machinery, that I am going to ask } ou to look at now. I am here to-day I believe under very peculiar circumstances. In the first place I come from a state that has only within the last few years begun to grow apples on a com- mercial scale. Coming here to Connecticut, where you have been growing apples on a commercial scale for a great many years, where you have the origin of a number of varieties to your credit, coming here to a state that has sent out gentlemen to speak on agriculture all over the United States, it seems to me that I am placed in a very peculiar position, especially when I am to talk about spraying. There is always something to talk about, but it is like threshing over old straw ; in fact, I hardly know of a new thing to tell. To go without spraying would be like a man going without an insurance policy on his barn until it was afire. You have got to do the work before- hand. There are seasons undoubtedly when weather conditions are such, such as this winter, when we have had mild weather, and the insects will come out, and in such a stage of growth that the winter kills them ; then, perhaps, we may be without some of our pests that otherwise would trouble us ; we may have a season in which fungus will not develop. When we have such a season, spraying then in small orchards does not pay, but who can tell whether that will be so or not, so that we have to spray. Perhaps one of the greatest blessings that has struck the fruit growing interest in the United States is his majesty, the San Jose scale ; that is a good deal to say. but I believe it to be a fact. Not one man in a hundred was spraying before the San Jose scale came that is spraying to-day, and yet the San Jose scale, with all it has done, has not done a tithe of the injury that leaf blight and scab have done to the apple in- dustry of the United States. It has done but a very small fraction of the injury the coddling moth has done all over the United States and is doing to-day, and yet these difficulties I have mentioned are as easy of control as anything we do in the farm line. Will it be too much, will it be taxing you to go back a little, and just consider a moment what we are spraying for. and FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 47 what we are spraying with? I am sure it will be old chaff to some of you, but perhaps here, as in Delaware, some inexpe- rienced ones pop up every year. The spraying- as we know it is done with liquid; the liquid of course the main part is water, which is simply a carrier for poisons, so that we may convert that liquid containing the poisons into a mist, and with that mist cover vines, shrubs and trees with poisons — poison for insects and poison for fungus. The biting insects we can kill with some form of arsenic; it is very easy to handle in a way, and such are represented by the coddling moth. But the insects that suck, we can no more reach with arsenic than we can reach the mosquito with arsenic, and for practically the same reason. The sucking insect puts his bill into the bark of the tree and sucks the sap from it the same as the mosquito puts his bill under our skin and sucks the blood. Those insects must have something external to kill them, and are represented by the rose beetle and by the San Jose scale. We have a sovereign remedy, however, for fungi in the bordeaux mixture, as we have got to make it of late years, that is, four pounds of sulphate of copper, six pounds of lime to fifty gallons of water. The arsenic we use has come to be a standard of about one-half pound of Paris green or its equivalent to fifty gallons of water or bordeaux. Now, when shall we apply these substances? The first spraying in Delaware comes, say two or three weeks before w^e expect blossoming to begin; that is when the buds begin to swell, and 'that is of plain bordeaux. You have been told probably a good many times, and advised to use sulphate of copper alone in water, that is. two pounds to a gallon of water, but we don't think best to do that. We think we can see the bordeaux clearer on the trees, and it stays on there a good deal longer ; in fact, we know if it is well put on, you will find it there in the fall. Our second spraying is still plain bordeaux, and comes after the buds have begun to open just so you can see the color inside. This spraying should be just as carefully done as the later sprayings. I think a great many full crops have been lost by scab getting into the blossom or bud very early in the season, so if we use bordeaux and spray carefully we pre- vent the scab getting in there. The third spraying is just 48 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. after the blossoms fall, and that is bordeaux with a half- pound of Paris green added. Right here I may say that most of us use white arsenic, because it is a great deal cheaper, year after year. White arsenic has cost four cents a pound, and Paris green thirteen, and this year I don't know where Paris green is going to ; the manufacturers will not make a price at present. We dissolve that arsenic of course in order to render it soluble ; we dissolve it first in washing soda, and when it comes into the bordeaux it becomes a soluble compound, unit- ing with the lime. We use that white arsenic in preference to to Paris green, most because it is cheaper. Remember, I am speaking of Delaware, and not of Connecticut. I don't know your conditions here in Connecticut, but with us the coddling moths are there practically all the season, and the}- do damage through the season, and we found that out in Oregon they practically sprayed the season through. When they showed lis some of the nice fruit, we could see where they rubbed the Paris green and the bordeaux off ; we could see it in the stem €nd of the fruit, and they had beautiful fruit to show us, and I may say that the best fruit grown in Delaware this year was practicallv so sprayed. Now, if you have scab badly in your orchard, and if you are growing Jonathan, you will iind that the Jonathan has scab very bad, and you want about five sprayings. If you have bitter rot in your orchard, you may find that you want six sprayings, or seven and eight spra}ings. We find we have got to spray if we want the pear free from blight and free from rust, and keep the tree growing nicely. A good many of our growers in Delaware haven't iDcen spraying their pear orchards, and in consequence in July and August the leaves fall ofif, and the next year the crop is practically ruined, for the reason that there is no foliage on the tree to provide buds for the succeeding crop. We can- not grow good Bartlett pears ; we cannot grow any fruit, or plums or peaches, or pears, or apples without spraying. But we cannot spray them all alike, nor can we spray them all with the same strength of the bordeaux. On our peaches we found we could not use over two pounds of bluestone to fifty gallons of water without injuring the leaves, so most of us liave dropped th.at part of it. but we try to get two sprayings FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 49 on the peaches before tlie leaves come out, that is to cor.trol as iiuich as we can the rot that is on the tree, and the leaf •curl that is so injtirious in our peach orchards in Delaware, and I presinne you also have it here. With our pear-trees, ■we do not find we are oblip^ed to spray before the blossom ap- pears, but the sprayings may be generally afterwards. With our plums, the Japanese and the American, we find we have to •spra\- Ijoth before and after to get good results. We cannot spray the plums, all of them, with full strength bordeaux, but with three pounds of sulphate of copper to fifty gallons of water very little injury will be done, if that is carefully worked out. In growing currants in Delaware, if we want to grow a good crop, we find we have got to protect the leaves of the currant with bordeaux. Take our nut trees, our chestnuts, we can keep them in perfect foliage all through the season until the wind whips them ofif in the fall by three sprayings of bordeaux after the foliage is out. We have gone into nut culture, some of us around there, and for filberts and English walnuts they must have the bordeaux on the leaves to keep the foliage. I want to impress upon you, if I have not, that no tree can bear fruit the next year, and do the best it can, that sheds its foliage anv time tmtil the fall frost or the da\' that they should be shed. X"ow% as to spraying for the San Jose scale, something that "bobs up in every agricultural society at their meetings. Wdiy, three or four farmers cannot get together in any store without it bobs up. \\'e have remedies, quite a good many of them, and I can say that the sulphur mixture as usually used is a preventive ; it will hold the scale in check ; that has been clearly shown. An inspector in the state of Delaware told me this fall that he knows orchards that were badly infected with scale that were sprayed with such sulphur mixture, that are not only holding their own, Init there is less scale th.an there was a year ago. I have been told by the same inspector that where crude petroleum was used the same conditions are to be found. T have a ncighl)or who s])rayed with 150 test kerosene who says the same thing, and from my knowdedge of his trees T say that he says the truth. There are instances in Delaware where the lime and kerosene have been used with the verv 50 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. best results. All of this brings us to the fact that probably intelligent men were behind the use of these things. Xow. for my own part, I wouldn't send my man out with the very best of mechanical pumps, those made for the mixing of kerosene and water, and the reasons are, that the first thing I know, if I send a man out with a mixture to spray trees he will prob- ably spray the first row of trees with water, and the next with kerosene. Those mechanical pumps are not yet so perfected that they will positively and surely give us the mixture we ask for, and I know numbers of trees that have been killed outright with the kerosene used in those pumps. I don't want to run down anybody's make of pumps, and I don't propose to do it. and yet I must tell of the facts I know. By the way, I don't know of any one that has killed trees with the lime-salt sulphur mixture, and I do know of my own experience that one ap- plication of sulphur mixture has actually freed certain trees of the scale. I want to say a little about the K-L mixture that perhaps is not known and might be known. As we get the limoid, the commercial article, it is rather too gross; it also carries with it a great deal of silica and it is very sharp, in- deed, and cuts out the pistons of our pumps, and cuts the ori- fice in our nozzles, so that perhaps a few days will entirely ruin a pump and a set of nozzles. But if you will note in some of the writings of scientists who have tested limoid, they will say, use superfine limoid. Now that is a different article, as I understand it, from the ordinary commercial article that we use. The superfine is got in this way. Where the limoid is ground, the dust that comes from that mill is wafted over part way into the lumber and settles, and that constitutes super- fine limoid, and the experiments that have been made by the scientists, I understand from very good authority, are made with that product. You can see that will give you much better results than the domestic article that has been furnished to the country at large. I might say a word about the making of a sulphur mixture. and how I make my bordeaux. By the side of the building is a tank, ten feet from the ground. That tank holds 450 gal- lons, with three divisions in it. each division holding 150 gal- lons. The main thing to know is exactly how much sulphur FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 51 to \-d\ out. and how inucli lime to i)iit in there, and the water runs in itself by turning- a tap, and the steam the same way by turning a tap. Now, by the way, some people make lime- salt and sulphur mixture bv simply ]nunpin,L;- through a straight pipe right down into the tank ; that is the wrong way. You want a coil of pipe all around the outside of vour tank, per- forated with small holes not over a thirty-second of an inch, so that the steam will jet all around, and impunge on every particle of the lime and sulphur, and in that way you get a good mixture, and your boiler pressure ought to be up to sixty pounds. We find we get a mixture such as your scien- tists describe you should have — that clear amber mixture — in about an hour's boiling. We make our bordeaux in just that same tank. We have a platform above that tank, so every- thing is dumped into it, and when we want to get the mix- ture out of that tank all we have to do is to open a valve and let it run out. I use a strainer 18 inches square, made of hard brass wire, 24 and 30 meshes to the inch, one above the other. I had full grown apple trees, a few that were 100 years old, good high trees. Well, to get up in an ordinary wagon and hold a pump rod up to reach them is what our men in Delaware wouldn't do ; I couldn't do it myself, and you can't do it here. So if you will note, I built a platform. That platform is twelve feet from the ground, and two men stand up in that cage and spray. If you will note another thing, there are .only two standards holding that cage up there, four inches square : those standards are built that way so you can go through the orchards wdiere the limbs almost touch, and still not mar the trees and break the branches as you go through with your spraying wagon. The first one I built sideways with an ordinary wagon, and I soon found I was tearing my orchards to pieces. A gentleman asked me last spring what spraying outfit I used. I said, the pump I bought in Seneca Falls, New York, and the engine I am using I bought in Stamford, Connecticut, and the tank I bought in Lakeville, Connecticut, and the hose came from Philadel- phia, and the wheels that I use came from Columbia, Penn., and the blacksmith made the tower and the jilatform of the 52 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. wagon, so that I have had to build up to suit my own needs a wagon that suits nie, and I doubt to-day very much whether any one engaged in spraying will be able to buy a rig just to suit them. When you have done two or three years' spray- ing, you will probably be able to evolve in your own mind just the rig, just the pump, and just the engine that will suit you. Xow for small growers with ten acres of orchards there are plenty of pumps that are the very best kinds of pumps. And \et I want to warn you of one thing — don't take a pump that has to suck, that has a plunger in there to draw the water up. Take a pump where the cylinder is submerged and the work is done, not by sucking the material up through the piston, but that is forced out by the blow of the piston as it goes down ; get a pump that has a mechanical mixer on it, and I may say the larger the better. No one wants to spray to-day without a spraying rod. Probably the vermorel nozzles that we have are the best, or as good as we need ; there are several makes of those, mostlv alike, but with some pistons it makes a difiference whether we get a nozzle that clogs up and cannot be easily cleaned, or whether we have one that is easily cleaned. \\'e find that for spraying machin- ery for small orchards, there are plenty of good ones made, but when we come to power-s])raying machines I believe there is room for improvement. To-day I am using a triplex engine — that is. three cylinders with an oil engine. We are ■doing very creditable work, but still, usually it is put into the hands of green farm hands that are not used to delicate machinery, and it is something that recjuires constant atten- tion, and requires a good deal more knowledge of machinery than he has, but I may say it is part of the farmer or orchard- ist's work to educate his workmen. We always feel that when we are educating a man who is working for us as though we were doing something for that man, because the dull routine of a farm laborer who has nothing but his day's work to sell, we must all agree is a very barren life, so it is up to the men who are spraying not only to put some enthusiasm into his work himself, but also some enthusiasm into his men. I have men to-day who have been at work for years spraying, and all I liave to do is to say, go and spray. Of course we are FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 53 going' to look after it and kcc]) track of it, bnt the man who is going into commercial orcharding must, of necessity, have trained men. First he must train himself and when he has done that he must train others. The hrst thing I would do when T get a pump or one of your tanks, would be to tear it all to pieces and put it together again, and that is what you want to do with a gasolene engine, and that is what you are obliged to do ; sooner or later you have got to know how it works, and study it. The watchword for the orchardists in the country to-day then, is, "watch and spray." \\'e had at our agricultural society on the peninsula some exhibits of apples from Connecticut, some from New Jersey, and some from Maryland, and a number from our own state of Delaware, and one man's product stood far and above anything else that was there, and that fruit had been sprayed from early in the spring until late in the fall, so late he was obliged to wipe the specimens after picking, and T never saw such polish except on Oregon or Colorado fruit, or at the exhibit at St. Louis Exposition. To reach that result meant more than spraying, of course ; I don't want to leave that in your minds as though spraying was everything, but some one else will take up the cutltivation and the pruning and all that goes with making of a perfect apple. With that, ladies and gentlemen, T will close. I thank you. Discussion. A Mi:.\i i!i:r : Just a word about the value of K-L and the lime-salt and sulphur mixture. Your professor down there in Delaware has been quite an advocate of the K-L, and he still believes it is the thing. Do you w'ish to draw a comparison ? Mr. Derby : Yes, sir. I wish to. Personally I am going to use the sulphur mixture, because I can get results from it. and my men don't object to it. Personally I am not going to use any oil at all as long as I can avoid it. In the first place I don't like to pay tribute to Rockefeller ; in the second place it is a dangerous thing to handle around a tree in any form, but I do think that it is a remedy that can be used and used with safety in intelligent hands. T gave an explana- 54 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAE SOCIETY. tion in regard to the ordinary limoid and the superfine Hmoid, to please my friend, Mr. SkiHman from New Jersey. He wanted that point brought up, and while I don't know posi- tively that to be the fact, yet I understood the superfine was made in the way I have stated. A Member: Have you ever used any of this "Scalecide" that is advertised quite largely? Mr. Derby : No ; I understood a day or two ago that the strength of "scalecide" that is ordinarily recommended has been almost, but not quite a failure, but double that strength has given good results, and that makes it quite expensive. A Member: Laying aside any prejudice we have for oil and petroleum, will not oil carry the sulphur where the lime and sulphur will not, on the bark of an apple tree ; the con- ditions are different than on a peach tree, and it will not penetrate on an apple tree where it does on a peach tree. Mr. Derby : There is no question but what the oil penetrates and spreads as nothing else does, and the union of the oil and sulphur mixture has seemed to us to be ideal. Secretary Miles: There is a question on our list of ques- tions— number 12 — which Mr. Derby would be a good one to answer, "Can we afford not to spray for apple scab and coddling moth?" Mr. Derby : I had a little row of Winesap applies, and I had a few Strawberry apples, eight trees, that were taken eleven years ago as a basis of some experiment work that the Delaware experiment station were going to do, for the rea- son that for two years we had those trees covered with a crop, and yet we didn't market one single apple from either the Winesap or the Strawberry. Now, the first season we gave those trees five sprayings with bordeaux and arsenic, reserving two trees unsprayed. For six years that work was carried out. We divided all the apples that came oft" of these trees, whether picked off or fallen oft', into three classes — so scabby as to be worthless, scabby enough so they would do, and those entirely free from scab. I have the figures out home, and I intended to put 'them in my pocket, but I have forgotten them. In six years oft" the Winesaps, the five trees that were sprayed for scab only, we picked six crops FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 from those trees of salable apples, and we haven't over four per cent, scab apples in the whole lot. either from those that fell off or were picked off. and the same is true of the Straw- berry, with this dift'erence, that we had four crops of Straw- berrys in the six years instead of the six. Now take the non- sprayed trees of the Winesaps, and we had two crops in the six years, and of those over fifty per cent, were scabby ; off the Strawberry, we didn't take one single crop off. Mind you now, those trees were paying us too at the rate of $10.00 a tree. Now the outcome of all this is that I have had eleven consecutive crops off of those Winesaps, and I am going to take another one next year. A ^Member : I would like to ask Mr. Derby if he has had any experience, or what his observation is, with the gas sprayer. I saw one working in a commercial orchard last 3'ear and was much impressed with it. Mr. Derby : Well, the gas sprayer is used, and it does magnificent work, as fine work as you need to ask. We know that the material they use in those iron receptacles will keep on eating ; they claim they coat them with something that won't eat, but I don't know about that. One of these days when those cylinders get weakened, and with a hundred pounds pressure on it, and you sit on top of it, you will go heaven- ward. Then again there is the difference in cost ; with oil and an engine it will cost about $1.25 to $1.50 a day. but with gas it will cost you over five dollars for gas with a gas engine, and I can't afford it. By the way, in my belief, very soon we will be running our sprayers through our commercial orchards by electric power, not only pumping the material by power, but we will run the machine itself ; we are going to take the horse right off. There is no question about that in my mind. It is very close to it to-day. I have been looking the subject over very carefully for two or three years, and 1 keep taking an automobile paper, and when I see one I go to the bottom of it, and see how it is made, and all about it, aiifl I tell you we are going to run the whole business with- out any horses. Just exact!}- how tlie power will be rigged, I don't know, but here is something that appeals to me — if we can use gas. why not use compressed air? We can get 56 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the air under the same pressure as the gas, and the chem- ists tell me there is nothing gained in using the gas, so we might have our little plant and use the air in our cylinder. I do believe the tank might be lined with copper or hard brass, and be strong enough, so we w^ould be sure for all time that there would be no accident, but we are not sure to-day that those tanks put out by the gas companies are so lined. Mr. Fenn : What make of Paris green do you use, that you only have to use half a pound to fifty gallons? I use a pound. Mr. Derby: The only way I can answer that is that we buy that which is half adulterated, and you probably buy the one that is wholly adulterated. There is one little test given us by the chemist that seems to be very good. You add am- monia to your Paris green and shake it up and let it settle, and it should turn a nice indigo blue, and whatever sediments there are in the bottom is the adulteration. That is only a crude way of testing, and I am no chemist, but that has been given to me as a crude way of testing. A Member: I would like to ask why the Strawberry apple and vVinesaps were attacked in preference to any other trees in the orchard ; what makes the difiference in the variety ? I know it is so, for I have had Strawberry apple trees for the last five years, and they have not amounted to anything, and the others have given a pretty fair crop of apples. Mr. Derby : That is entirely beyond me, but we know that some varieties of apples are much more liable to be scabby than others — such as the Winesaps, the Strawberry and the Jonathan. We find the same thing all the way through. You know about the apple rust. Now the Winesap is perfectly immune from that disease, but if we have Grime's Golden any- where near we can't get good fruit. We know that the Fa- meuse apple is very subject to scab, and the Alclntosh, too. Vice-President Putnam in the chair. Mr. Putnam : The next number on the program is the report on injurious insects of the past season. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL ^MEETING. 57 Report on Injurious Insects of the Past Season. By \V. E. Bkitton, State Entomologist. In its aiiiittal report, this ciminiittee is not always able to chronicle the outbreak of new fruit pests, for which we are thankful, not can it always record the unusual prevalence or absence oi the old and familiar ones. The season of 1905 was not very ditTerent from other seasons as regards the attacks of fruit insects. Though the preceding winter was a severe one, it was marked by a long period of steady cold rather than bv excessively low temperatures. When very hard freezes occur directly after warm periods, the result is usually far more destructive to both insect and plant life than during a steady cold winter. Scale insects are received from correspondents oftener than other kinds of insects. San Jose scale leads all other species in this respect, three times as many samples being received in 1905 as of either the oyster shell or scurfy scales, which are about equally frequent. Thirty-five per cent, of the San Jose scales were killed during the winter. Spraying in the orchards was quite gen- eral throughout the State, the lime-sulphur washes being the most satisfactory spray mixtures. In our experiments over 6,000 orchard or bearing trees were sprayed in INIarch and April. These are located in Westville, West Haven, Middle- town, Southington and Westport, and v.'cre mostly peach, but •included pear and apple. Five different mixtures of lime and sulphur were tested, including the ordinary boiled mixtures, prepared with caustic soda, sal soda and sodium sulphide respectively, were given a trial, and all were fairly effective. The best results from a self-boiled mixture were obtained with 20 lbs. Lime. 10 lbs. Suli)hur. 10 lbs. Sodium sulphide. 40 gallons Water. The figures resulting from our enumeration of the scales show this to have been slightly more effective than the boiled mixture, though there was very little difference, and we can 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. scarcely call it better, because it is somewbat more expensive. Tbe kerosene-limoid mixture was unsatisfactory, because it did not prove as destructive to the scales as the lime and sulphur washes. Large peach trees badly infested were sprayed, a portion v\'ith kerosene-limoid and the remainder adjoining- with the boiled lime-sulphur wash. Our examination of the sprayed trees showed that the kerosene-limoid mixture had destroyed about 88 per cent., of the scales, while the lime- sulphur wash had killed about 95 per cent. This does not seem like a very great difference, but late in October, at the final examination, we found the kerosene-limoid trees just about as thoroughly infested with living scales as when we sprayed them. The lime-sulphur trees, on the other hand, though adjoining, were comparatively free from scale, only a few living ones being found, though plenty of dead ones. Where a tree is well sprayed with lime and sulphur the scales do not again become so readily established upon it, according to my observations. Others have noted similar results. Salt is not beneficial. Reckoning lime at $2.00 per barrel, sulphur at $2.85 per 100 lbs., hay salt at 60 cts. per 100 lbs., caustic soda (74 per cent.) in 25 lb. pails at 6 cts. per pound, sal soda at 2 cts. per pound, sodium sulphide in no lb. drums at 3^ cts, per pound, limoid at $2.50 per barrel of 150 lbs., and kerosene at 10 cts. per gallon, tlicsc being retail prices, forty gallons, or a barrel, of each of the several spray mixtures costs : — Lime-Sulphur Mixture $ .54 to $ .84 Kerosene-Limoid Mixture (25% kerosene).. 1.66 A brief summary of the results of the spraying experiments was published in a four-page bulletin and mailed to the Con- necticut members of the Pomological Society in October. You have doubtless heard of the so-called soluble petroleum compounds on the market sold under the name of "Scale-cide," "Kill-o-scale" and "Surekill." We have not experimented with all of these in Connecticut, but Prof. J. B. Smith finds them quite satisfactory in New Jersey, and I have known of their being used in a small way by several different persons. I scarcely expect these preparations to replace the lime and sulphur washes for orchard treatment on account of expense. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 59 but they may be far more convenient for s])raying' a few trees in tlie g-arden. and seem to be especiall}- adapted for spraying in ornamental plantings, where the lime-sulphnr washes are objectionable because they show white on the trees and shrubs. We should not lose siglit of the fact that the lime-sulphur wash possesses fungicidal properties not found in any oil mixtures. Orchardists will doubtless practice fall spraying more and more in the years to come. It is true that an occasional bud is killed, but there are usually plenty left, and there is a possi- bility of destroying a much larger proportion of the scales if applied while the young are crawling. The breeding season of the San Jose scale ends about December ist in Connecticut. The leaves are usually off by November ist, so that the whole month of November is available for spraying dormant trees, and this is probably the most favorable time in the whole year for doing the work. Your committee believes that there is no better remedy for the pear psylla {Psylla pyricola Forst) than to spray the dor- mant trees with a lime-sulphur wash, as for the destruction of the San Jose scale. During the season following such treat- ment pear trees have been found to be comparatively free from psylla wherever I have examined them. Considerable injury was done to young peaches by the rose beetle or chafer {Macrodactylus subspinosns Fabr.) in June. This beetle was very abundant, and eats holes into the young fruits, rendering them imperfect and causing them to shrivel and sometimes to drop. As summer spraying generally results in a serious injury to peach foliage in Connecticut, there is no ]:)racticable remedy. The coddling-moth (Carpocapsa ponioncUa Linn.) was fairly abundant, but this is not much to be feared by the orchardist who sprays with arsenical poisons. Where spraying- is not practiced, the insect is more conspicuous, and injures a larger proportion of the fruit in a season where there is a light croj) of fruit than in the case of a heavy crop. Hence there was greater need of spraying in a season like 1905, than in 19(34. The apple maggot {RhagoJetis pomonclla Walsh) is not disappearing, but seems to be increasing in Connecticut 6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. orchards. It is unquestionably one of our very worst apple- pests, and cannot be controlled by spraying, though there is. some evidence to show that thorough spraying with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green may act as a slight check or possibly as a repellant to the apple maggot. The best remedy seems io be pasturing the orchard with hogs or sheep. All falling fruit will thus be destroyed. The Connecticut insect pest law has not been changed since the last annual meeting of this Society. Respectfully submitted, W. E. BRITTON, New Haven, Chairman, CLARENCE H. SAVAGE, Stores, GEORGE F. PLATT, Milford, Discussiox. A Member : The pest which seems to have troubled us the most is the curculio. \Miat can you tell us about it? Prof. Britton : This curculio was discussed at the meet- ing last year, and it can be held in check on the apples by spraying and by late cultivation of the orchard, because many of them go in the g-round and are transformed and can be killed by cultivation. But on the peaches I don't believe it is advisable to spray with anything when in foliage, and the same is true of Japanese plums. I have seen the foliage all taken off a number of times by just spraying with ordinary bordeaux mixture, and with whale oil soap and water, or even common soap ; in fact, most any spray will cause the foliage to drop. With the European plum you can spray well enough, but I think with the Japanese plum and peaches it is well to rely on the jarring method. A Member : How are we going to compete with the cur- culio stinging small apples. I had some apples that were so thoroughly punctured that you could hardl}' put a pin on an apple, and thosa that grew showed those marks later on. You can't spray early enough to catch the fellows then, because they have not attained size enough so that you can get the spray onto them. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 6l Prof. Rritton : There shouldn't he very much (Hffioulty if vou s]M-ay soon after the lilossonis fall, ahout the first time vou spray for the coddling- moth. Vice-Pkksidknt Putnam: The next topic is "Results of Work Against the Scale in Some Connecticut Orchards," by Prof. E. R. Bennett. Storrs Experiment Station. Prof. Bennett : What I have to say is not of much value to us, because it is all negative. A year or so ago, when they began to talk about the kerosene-limoid, it struck me there was a good point to it. so last spring, when I found a man who was going to use it, I volunteered to help him, and get some notes on it, but our work did not prove successful. Possibly, as Mr. Derby told us, the general fault with the spraying is that people don't do careful enough work, and I presume that is more or less true, and may be true in this case, but 1 think we did as careful work as the ordinary grower. I went on to this place, and we started in in April on an apple orchard that was pretty "scaly," and it had been sprayed the year before with sulphur and lime and been im- proved, but it had not killed all the scale, and they were getting pretty thick again. So we made our K-L mixture twenty per cent, strength, and applied it as thoroughly as we could. We didn't like the material ; in fact, the thing is \Yorse to use than the lime-sulphur mixture, but it worked fairly well. It bothered our nozzles. We had mixed forty pounds of limoid in a barrel, and it made it pretty thick, and after using a barrel or two of it the bottom had a thick mass we had to empty out and throw away in order to get along at all. We got over the orchard, and when we came to look for results there were none. I am sorry to say that I think most of the scale seemed to be doing first rate. Along in the summer we thought we would try it again, and sprayed some of the trees pretty thoroughly, as long as our material would work, and I fail to see that it did any good ; of course it killed some scale, but not enough to be satisfactory. We had one other chance to see what it would do. Mr. Ives had one small tree, only three or four years old, badly in- fested, that he found in a new orchard. It was after the 62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. leaves came out. He used twenty per cent, strength and satur- ated the trees, and shortly after that I looked it over, and it was just as scaly as in the first place. I was very sorrv the results were of that kind, because it is practically the only thing we can use in the summer time, so I should recommend we stick to our sulphur and lime until we get something better in a practical way. There is only one point in the whole scale business that we can bring up as new, and that is the oldest point in the whole lot, that is to know the scale better. Lots of people keep coming to me, and seem surprised to find the scale is such a small and insignificant little thing, and think it cannot do any damage. The only thing we can do it to know the scale better and attack it on the start. Of course it is not being eradicated, but is being- kept under control in lots of orchards in the state, but I don't think we need to fear it if we will study the trouble carefully and do better work. A Member : I would like to ask Mr. Bennett if he thinks it makes any difference with the lime and sulphur wash whether it is cooked an hour or an hour and a half. I cooked some an hour and a half to see if I could dissolve all the sul- phur. Prof. Bennett: You won't be able to dissolve all the sulphur if there is any of it in lumps ; sometimes it will stay there forever, but if you g"et the lumps out and have good lime, you ought to dissolve it in an hour. A Member: I bought the best lime I could buy, and made a paste of the sulphur before I put it in. Prof. Bennett: 1 don't believe there is any advantage in boiling it over an hour. Most of us boil 65 or 70 minutes. I would like to say this in regard to the limoid. Mr. Derby stated that this supefine product was sent to my men that were experimenting with it, and I would like to say we had the superfine product to use in our experiments, and the results were not as satisfactory as the lime-sulphur mixture. Mr. Derby : In regard to making the sulphur mixture, we have been dropping off all the salt, and using simply sul- phur and lime, and we get just as good results leaving the FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 63 salt out. And in preparing this \vc put the sulphur throuiiii the screen dry. Vice-President Putnam : Man is particularly blessed in having more than one sense, and impressions made on the mind are oftentimes greater than those made on the ear, but when we hear and see at the same time, it ought to make a lasting impression on the mind. Our next address is to be an illustrated one, and the speaker is an acknowledged authority on insects. I take great pleasure in introducing to you. Prof. AI. V. Slingerland of Cornell University. Recent Experiments with Oils and Other Sprays to Control the San Jose Scale. By Prof M. V^ Slingerland, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : What is the San Jose scale that is being talked about so much at all our horti- cultural meetings? About 35 years ago a Californian got some shrubs or trees; we thought he got them from Italy, but they probably came from China, because we know the San Jose scale's native home is in China. In two or three years it was a pest in the vicinity of San Jose, California, and about 25 years ago, Prof. Comstock of Cornell saw this bug and gave it a name, and it was so destructive he called it the most pernicious scale he had ever seen. It was not until about twelve years ago that the San Jose scale was in the eastern part of the country, and we soon found it scattered over thirteen states. That was in 1893. *^t the present time there is hardly a state in the union that has not got the San Jose scale, and we are getting it more and more every day; it is turning up in New York state almost every day in more and more places. When it was first discovered in the east, everybody said, exterminate it! let us kill every blessed one of them, and many states thought that could be done, and they worked along that line to some extent. They soon dis- covered that extermination was practically impossible, and it 64 ^'HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. is now a question of control. Now abong the first things we used against the San Jose scale was one of these mechan- ically-made kerosene and water mixtures. They were very unsatisfactory, and we soon discovered that the sprays they threw out were sometimes water and sometimes oil. Over in our state they have practically been discarded. Then came whale oil soap, and for a time that was the principal thing; it was found that two pounds to a gallon must be used, and that was applied late in winter or early spring, but whale oil soap at two pounds to the gallon is expensive. Four cents is a pretty cheap price for whale oil soap, and eight cents a gallon makes a very expensive spray. Then we came to the oil sprays and crude petroleums. They raged for some time, and are still used largely in the neighboring" state of New Jersey. I saw a large apple tree sprayed with crude petroleum, and it killed all the buds ; the trees are still alive, but it killed the fruit for that year. It could be done by careful men with very fine nozzles, but the question is, will not the accumulative effect be very destructive, and that is the gen- eral impression in New York state. After the oil sprays, then came the lime and sulphur wash, which was tried very soon in the east after the scale came, but conditions were unfavorable, I have been told, but fruit growers began to take it up and have got good results, and at the present time it is tJic spray for the San Jose scale, and I think very justly so. Then the later sprays were K-L mixture or "limoid." I have had a little experience with those, and that experience was very disagreeable. I was not able to make a good mixture, one that was satisfactory in the way of being able to put it on the trees in good shape. I found it did not spread, and I had to use two or three times as much as you did with some of the other sprays such as lime and sulphur. It was unsatisfactory as to results. Now the later things on the market are the missible or soluble oils. As was mentioned here this afternoon, there is no question but what oil sprays will spread better than any other sprays over rough bark ; it will drive into the cracks and crevices better. But the question of crude oil used through mechanical pumps is of verv doubtful success, and liable to great injury, so if FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 65 we find an oil we can mix with water that will not do injury to the trees, we have got something; that is g'oing to help a good deal in the fight against the San Jose scale. There are sev- eral kinds of these soluble petroleums or missible oils on the market. I have brought along here samples of four dif- ferent kinds, and you will notice from a distance that one of them is entirely dififerent from the other three. One is "Scalecide," and one is "Sure-kill." and one "Kill-o-scale," and the other dark one is branded "Scale Destroyer." Those are the four kinds I have seen on the market and advertised for sale. And the expense is not very different in them all, about fifty cents a gallon in barrel lots, but the quality of the four kinds is quite different, showing at a glance in ap- pearance. Now the directions are 20 parts of water to one of oil, and that brings the cost down to less than three cents a gallon. Dr. Britton told you that the lime-sulphur costs a cent and a half a gallon for the material alone, and then you have got to make it. These soluble or missible oils, the back- ground of them, the basis, is some kind of petroleum, perhaps crude petroleum, and made up with something that will let them mix with water. I think I can show you in a moment here what I mean by mixing readily with water. Here is some water, and here is one of these preparations. Now notice what happens the moment it is poured into the water ; you get an emulsion immediately, and it requires very little stirring. Any of you who have tried to make kerosene emul- sion in the old way know what trouble it is to make it ; now here you have a perfect emulsion and it will stand there for weeks. So if these things work we have got a very simple thing to make. I will say we don't know how these oils are made, but we will find out sometime — the chemist will tell us. Now let us look at the comparison of these oils with the lime and sulphur wash, for instance. The evidence for the oils first. These oils have been on the market only a year and a half or two years, and we have not as much evidence as we ought to have before recommending them ; you will find very few are recommending these oils at tiie present time for general work and spraying. I should say, give them a test. You will find published results from some stations alreadv. 66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. Over in New Jersey, Prof. Smith is very favorably impressed with the sokible oils as a spray for the San Jose scale, and he recommends several of these brands. Prof. Phelps of Illinois says that they are just as effective as the lime- sulphur sprays, but cost a little more. Taft of Michigan has practically the same results to give us, although he still sticks to the lime and sulphur spray. I sprayed three last winter with one of the soluble oils ; sprayed plum trees. The as- sistants did the work, and we thought we did a pretty good good job. We sprayed in the winter and estimates of the scales counted later on showed about 90 per cent, killed. Last fall those trees were practically covered with San Jose scale. From that experience I would say that they were no good, because the trees w-ere about as badly covered this fall as last fall. I said last fall I unearthed the San Jose scale in w^estern New York ; one man had 600 pear trees, and about 150 of them were infected with San Jose scale. This man said to me the trees are no good to me as thev are, and I said, let us try some of these new washes ; if you are going to cut down the trees anyway, let us see if we cannot do some- thing with this new insecticide. The scale was found in late September or early in October, and I said we w'ill spray the trees before the leaves get ofif. So we sprayed the infected trees while the leaves were on, late in October, but remem- ber the leaves had done most of their work for the trees to develop the fruit buds, but the result was we took ofif very few leaves. We used one of these oils,- one to 15 in strength (the manufacturer recommends one to 20) ; then we waited until the leaves got off the first of December, and sprayed the trees again. It was much easier to spray after the leaves w^ere off; it didn't take near as much insecticide, and the result was that about 90 per cent, of the scale was killed. There is no question in my mind but what it will kill the scale, but you have got to hit the scale. W^e killed all the young scale ; the scale were hatching the day we were spraying; killed most of the mother scales that w'ere bearing young, and killed lots of half-grown scale. We did a very killing job — the first time, 90 per cent. The second spraying I hope we got five per cent, more. Now, if there is any scale left in Alarch we are going FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 67 to give another sj^rayiiig. The spray costs about three cents a gallon, and cnn- yoin^ pear tree took about a gallon and a half the first time, and a gallon the next time ; that is about ten cents for spraying one tree. Now in the third spraying in the spring, if 90 per cent, were killed with the first two, I hope to get the next two or three per cent, so that there won't be over one per cent, go into the summer. Now a few comparisons with the lime and suljjhur wash. The lime and sulphur si)ray is recognized as the most effec- tive and cheapest spray we have for the San Jose scale. All experiment stations have come to that conclusion ; it is the cheapest and most effective, and it costs from one to two or three cents per gallon. It is very effective. ' There is no question about that — 90 or 95 per cent, killed with one ap- plication of the lime and sulphur wash. It is safe to use ; you can use it on peach trees with practically no injury what- ever. It has lasting effects. I remember some results by Prof. Felt ; he put on the spray and thought it didn't kill many scale, but a few weeks later he found the scale still dying. When they began to hatch in the spring, they found the lime and sulphur on the bark, and they didn't grow. One of the best things about it is you can see where you put it — it is visi- ble. I think we can do a great deal by pruning the trees be- fore spraying them. The next thing is to get good spraying apparatus. Mr. Derby has given you some points on good spraying apparatus. The cjuestion came up here about com- pressed air. Over in our state we are using compressed air in the extreme western portion of the state. Just over the line in Pennsylvania there is a man making compressed air sprayers. They work beautifully. The only trouble is the expense of the outfit. To use compressed air you have to have an engine and a compressor, and the whole outfit costs four or five hundred dolars to start in with. Then you have to have several machines. This man has two tanks filled with compressed air, and when one of these is being filled up the other is out in the orchard spraying. The considerable ex- pense of the first outfit debars many from using it. Another word right here about I'aris green. One man here said he 68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. does not get good results with even a pound of Paris green to fifty gallons of water. I live in New York state, where the state law makes it good, and the analysis of the Paris green in New York state has shown a very uniform product. Good spraying apparatus then, and an effective insecticide, either lime and sulphur, or some of the other things, are the two nec- essary things for spraying. The most important thing is thorough work ; I can't say thorough work enough times, or say it hard enough. I have seen some horrible jobs of spray- ing, and I know the San Jose scale is so small that you have got to hit every pin point on the tree. You can't do it too thoroughly, and I think nine-tenths of the adverse reports are right on that point — they don't do it thoroughly enough. You have got to have a pretty well trained hired man that you can send out and spray, if you do a good job. I have come to the conclusion myself that when an orchard is very badly infested, it is almost impossible to get that scale under control with one spraying. I am quite in favor of one spraying in the fall for several reasons. One is you get all the young scale. The scale continue to hatch until December, and you kill all the young scale just hatching, and you kill those that are about ready to go into winter quarters, and you stop the breeding in the fall, and oftentimes there is generally more time to spray in the fall than in March. I am a thorough believer in one spraying in the fall. Then again in March. If you kill 95 per cent, in the fall, it is a very good job, but there is five per cent. left. So I believe in one application in the fall ; then follow this with one application in the spring — say in March. It has been done in the summer, when the foliage is on, but all you kill is the young scale. (The speaker then show'ed a number of lantern slides, illus- trating the scale and methods for controlling it, concluding a very enjoyable and profitable lecture.) Discussion. A Member : What do you think of spraying with lime salt and sulphur this time of the year ? Prof. Slingerland: I think it is all right. I have had sev- eral questions asked me. and one of them is, have you got the FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 69 San lose scale at Cornell and what are you goinj^ to do about it? \\'e are g'oing- to spray, and we are goinc: to use one of these soluble oils, and we are going to do it in the spring. If I was only going to do it once. I would wait until ]\larch. Prof. Gulley : Is it possible to use the oils and then revert again to the lime and sulphur ? Prof. Slingeri^nd: I don't know; that is a very serious condition. If you put on the oil first and then put on the lime and sulphur, I am afraid the latter would not stick as well ; I don't think I would use that combination. A Member : How would it do to use the lime and sulphur and then follow with the oil in the spring? Prof. Slingerland: I think that would be a better com- bination. A Member: I would like to ask about these oils, as to whether they show as well on the tree when applied as the lime and sulphur? Prof. Slingerland: No; they do not as well as the lime- sulphur sprays, though they do make the tree look oily. I would spray the tree until the oil runs down pretty well; give it a good drenching. A Member: Why wouldn't it do to mix a little lime in? Prof. Slingerland: I don't know whether you can put lime in these oils. We have got to learn a good deal about these oils ; they are simply in the experimental stage. A Member: I have used Reynolds' Paris green, but I don't think it is pure, although they claim it is. Prof. Slingerland: I suppose our New York Paris green is made by the same manufacturers you get it from, but I am afraid the manufacturers sell very good Paris green in New York and bad in the other states. I had a letter from a man- ufacturer wdiich set me to thinking on this line. One of our assistants was going to use several pounds of arsenate of lead, and he wrote to the manufacturer asking him how much free arsenic there w^as in it. Now free arsenic burns the foliage, and the manufacturer replied, we try to make our arsenate of lead so there is not more than four per cent, of free arsenic in it. Now our New York state law says that all poison insecticide shall not have more than 3>^ per cent of arsenic in 70 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. it. Four per cent, is a high percentage, and our state law says 3^ per cent, and I wouldn't dare risk arsenic at four per cent. A Member : Could you use a weak mixture of these soluble oils during the mid season with any effect on the young scale without any injury to the tree? Prof. Slingerland: Not many experiments have been made with the oils in the summer time ; they cannot be used as strong in the summer as they can in the winter. We tried them in the fall, when the leaves were mature, and they didn't burn the leaves much, one to fifteen, but whether they can be used in summer is something we have not learned yet. They are a promising thing, and they are something we ought to know more about, and we are going to know a whole lot more in the coming year. A Member: What would you advise on large apple trees, the oil or lime and sulphur? Prof. Slingerland: I said a moment ago I wouldn't rec- ommend the oil on a large scale. I believe in it, and I think it is a promising thing, but I am not going to tell you to buy it in preference to the lime and sulphur, because we know what the lime and sulphur can do. A Member: Would it be easier to put on the oil than the lime and sulphur? Prof. Slingerland: Surely it would be easier to put on, but next spring if your trees were dead, you wouldn't like it. I simply say, try them. I am not recommending them for gen- eral use. A Member : What is your opinion as to the eft'ectiveness of the lime and sulphur solution in case it rains the same day? Prof. Slingerland: You give it a few hours to dry. and it is all right. If you put it on in the morning, and it don't rain until the afternoon, it is all right, but if it rains very soon after, I should want to do it over again, pretty soon. President Eddy : I fear we shall have to draw the discus- sion to a close now, for we have one more speaker that we all want to hear, and that is our friend, Mr. William H. Skill- man of New Jersey. His talk will be right along the same lines we have been discussing. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Ji A New Jersey Fruit Grower's Successful Fight With the San Jose Scale. By William H. Skillman, Belle Mead, N. J. Mr. President, and brother frmt growers : I am always glad to have a professor precede me ; he always takes all his own time and half of mine, and that snits me and makes him happy, too. I understand your rule is to adjourn about five o'clock, and I am going to let you do it. Gentlemen, I am not going to make a speech ; if I tried, I would fall down. I am nothing- but a humble fruit grower, trying to make my bread and butter out of fruit, trying to make both ends meet, and I have met with the same success a gentleman did who, when asked how he was getting along, said, "I am lucky to make one end meat and the other bread." Now I am simply going to give you my experience with the scale. When I first found I had the San Jose, I had a block of Elberta peach trees, six or seven hundred of them, and I found they went oiif color the latter part of the season, and when a peach tree gets yellow leaves on it, there is always something the matter. Next spring I was putting on some muriate of potash, and a boy of mine found something on the tree. He did not know what it was and he came to me with it, and I didn't know what it was. and I took it to the house and put it under a glass, and went to looking at it and studying it, and I came to the conclusion I had a pretty good dose of San Jose scale. T told the boy it is all right ; the orchard has given me one or two good crops, and wc will have more from it. Well, the scale knew more about it than I did. and when T woke up in the spring, I found those trees practically dead. 1 treated them with crude oil, and I never knew what killed those trees until to-day when these speakers told me, for I killed all of those trees because I didn't use that crude oil intelligently. I found I had a block of plum trees, four or five hundred, that had the scale badly. .So T went to one of our learned professors in New Jersey (I will call him "'Professor Jones") and he told 72 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. me to use crude oil, and it was very easy to rid myself of the scale, and I got ready and gave those trees a dose. I told my boys to kill the scale and not spare the oil, and I stood bv and saw them do it. They sprayed those trees until the oil ran down in rivulets ; they drenched the trees in crude oil. I supposed it would kill the tree ; I knew the scale would die, any way, I had had one block of trees killed with it, and I was scared. Well, there ware some of those buds just showing white at the ends. Well, I didn't kill those buds ; I didn't kill one out of a thousand. I had a fine crop of fruit on the or- chard, and I did kill piles of scales, and I never saw trees thrive and have a much more luxuriant foliage than those trees did that year, with the nice crop of fruit they bore. The next year T found they were still infested with scale; I hadn't killed them all. So when the spring came, I thought I would use some more oil, and I gave them a light dose of oil. I don't think I used one-quarter, and perhaps not that, because I only had a few scale compared to what there had been the year before, so I gave them a very light dose of oil, and my word for it, it killed almost every tree of that four hundred in that block. Now then, why it was, I don't know. I have been listening here to what the professor said, and I think it was the accumulative effect ; the heavy dose did not kill the trees when they were literally drenched, but the light dose did kill them, and I think it was the accumulative eft'ect. and I think that is one of the great dangers in using oils of any kind for anything, and that is one of the main reasons why I am so afraid of it. That was the effect in those trees, and it killed trunks and all ; I couldn't spray them again. Then I went to this Professor Jones, as I call him, and told what the result was. Well, he said, you didn't use the right kind of oil. These professors have got a way of slipping out of most everything, and he said, it was your fault, you didn't use it intelligently. Why didn't you get a hydrometer? and I said, I didn't know there was such a thing in existence, what do you call it? He said, you must test the oil, and you must have it 43 degrees. And I got the oil, and I took his word, and it tested 44 degrees, and I put that on with the same result. I killed my trees, prac- tically killed them — as a good many people said, killed them FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Ji dead. Then T went back to this Professor Jones, and said, such and such is the result. \\'ell, he said, that may be so; if it is not the oil, it must be because the vitality of the tree was too low to stand the oil. Well, I says, how am I to tell about the vitality of the tree, when it is safe to put it on and when it isn't? So I stopped using- the crude oil, and then I w^as foolish enough to try using kerosene. This same professor said, "Now look here, if you will only use that on a clear day, when the sun is shining bright, and on a perfect day, you will be all right." Well, I swallowed it again, and I went into an orchard that was not very badly infested, of 2400 peach trees, five years old; went in early in spring, I think the first week in April. The buds had not swelled, and I picked out a day. I waited a whole week to get a day made to order, and I put the pure kerosene on that orchard, and gentlemen, I killed all but two or three hundred trees, and those w^ere so scattered I had to dig them up. Then I followed up the oil business by trying the emulsion, and I didn't kill tiiem so bad, but I killed and injured the trees, particularly where I applied it the second spring, so I had to give up the oil. I was compelled to give it up after suffering severely, year after year by it. So I took up the lime and sulphur wash. Now then, I don't suppose you want me to tell you how that is made ; you have heard it a hundred times from the rostrum, and you have read it thousands of times in the newspapers, and it is the important thing in the country for the fruit men to .con- sider. I have been at different agricultural meetings, and they all give one session, and sometimes two, to the scale subject, and it is thread-bare and worn out, but as I heard a man say to-day, two or three men can't get together without talking about the scale. It is an important question, and the W'orst thing that has ever confronted the fruit men. I have heard J. H. Hale say, time and again, "Thank God for the San Jose sale," and I say the same, gentlemen. It is a serious matter that confronts us, but Mr. Hale was right when he said that, for it is a blessing for the man that grows fruit, as it has taught us a whole lot of things. I stick to the sulphur wash, and it is the same old story of making it. for it is the same old thing. I will tell you how it- is done in a cheap 74 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. way for the small grower. I get a tank that will hold lOO gallons, and it will cost you twelve to fifteen dollars. Get one with a fire box in the center, and not at one end, because it will heat your liquid a good deal faster if you have it in the center. Then you want a boiler you can heat i8 to 20 gallons of water in. Then heat this water and get a barrel and put the lime in, say 40 pounds of lime in to the barrel. An old molasses barrel will do ; in fact most any old barrel will do. Put your lime in and before you slake it, make your sulphur, say thirty pounds of it in a paste, and run it through a sieve, and at any rate make it into a thin paste. When you get that all right (your water is heating, you understand, all the time) throw enough water into the barrel to slake your lime (hot water, 15 or 18 gallons) and throw your sulphur paste in, and boil it as quick as you can ; it will boil 20 or 30 minutes ; you want the very best lime and the very best sulphur you can get. When that gets done boiling, throw that into your tank of eighty gallons of water and boil it thirty minutes ; you will want it to boil thirty minutes, but you can boil it twice thirty, but I don't think there is anything gained. Now if you have paid the proper attention to details, you have got something that will kill the scale. You must then put it on as quick as you can get it on ; you can't get it on hot enough, because before it leaves the nozzle two feet it gets cold. Some of my neighbors were alarmed for fear they would put it on too hot, and I told them they couldn't put it on too hot. If you hit the scale you will kill it. There has been lots of talking and writing about the scale being immune, or to that effect ; in other words, harder to kill on the apple and pear trees than; on peach, but that is all rot, and I don't believe a word of it. You can kill it as easily in one place as you can in another. It is possibly a good deal harder to hit the scale on apple trees,, and on some trees than on others. You take the Burbank plum tree, and it is a pretty hard tree to hit it on. and it is just so with the apple tree on account of its scrawling parts and its horizontal limbs, and still more than that, its hairy growth, last year's growth, for the wood has a sort of hairy substance on it that prevents the liquid getting in there as readily as on a smooth bark, but -you can kill it on one spot as easily as you FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 75- can on another with the sulphur wash, provided you hit it, but the whole thing depends on thoroughness, as the gentleman who preceded me said. It is the little attention to details : it is the little things that you must look after. If you have got a good boy, you can depend on him all right, but don't de- pend on those boys that are likely to be careless in the mat- ter, for it is the attention to details that counts. There never was a time, in mv judgment, when it was so advisable to plant trees, and at the same time so unfavorable, as the present, for this scale is a serious matter that confronts the fruit men. ^Millions and millions of trees have been killed by it, and there are millions more on the way, and more to follow. The scale is here, and here to sta}-, and we have got to meet it ; and if we meet it, and meet it as successfully as we can do, our success is assured from a money standpoint. In other words, the man that will grow fruit and grow it good, will get paid for the labor that it costs him to grow it, and the heedless, care- less man will be put out of business, and the man that will grow it good it is going to make it pay. I have no hesi- tation ; I have ordered several thousand trees to plant this spring. I believe I can hold it in check. There are men tliat claim they can eradicate it. Perhaps you may have noticed in the Rural Ne%v Yorker a criticism on me, in my reply to an arti- cle in that paper that made the statement that a person had erad- icated the scale from an apple tree with one application of K-L. I don't believe the man lives that can go into an apple orchard and kill the scale with one application of K-L or an}' otiier mixture. I have had some experience with the oil mixtures; I used the K-L ; I used it in a small way. I know Professor Root — he is a conservative man, and what he states, he hon- estly believes — and I have had several talks with him and what he says goes with me, generally, and it did with me in this case, and I came pretty near risking thousands of trees to the K-L mixture. I tried the K-L, and I made the solution myself. I used 20 per cent, kerosene to 150, and I used the limoid the kind that he directed I must get. I have got as trustworthy a boy as ever lived, but I wouldn't trust him to do that, and so I made that combination myself, and I say beyond all question there was thorough mixture and a 76 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. thorough combination. I saw the boy turn the nozzle onto some three-year-old apple trees that were infested, and I had them go on both sides, and I never saw trees more completely covered with the K-L. You will see what I said on that subject. I believe it killed a few scales, but I believe they put on so much solution that they were drowned ; I don't believe they were killed in any other way. But, gentlemen, it is not a satisfactory thing. I understand that some of the Dela- ware men do not feel kindly toward me because I criticised adversely the K-L wash, but that was the effect it had with me, and no more K-L for me. I have use Kill-o-scale. and I advise these men to use these different makes, but use them experimentally only, don't depend on it to save a whole orchard, but try it on a small scale. Don't make one year tests, for under certain conditions it may do very well. So I say, experiment with it. The lime and sulphur wash is not a perfect solution, and we have got to have something better and will have it ; but we have not got it yet, and it is the only safe thing we have got so far. This matter of expense is a pretty serious thing. The least I can figure the K-L is two cents and a half a gallon ; that is for the making of it ready to put on the tree, and the lowest I can figure up to the present for the lime and sul- phur is a cent and a fifth a gallon. I have got quotations on sulphur that I can get for $2.60 a hundred. Now gentlemen, the next lowest solution that I know of in price to the sul- phur wash is the K-L, and that is two and a half cents a gallon. That is a good deal of money, and if you use the "Scalacide," or "Kill-o-scale" you will find that it will cost you about four cents a gallon. Now, gentlemen, we are not raising fruit for our health ; we are raising it for the dol- lars that are in it, and it is necessary to save the money in these solutions you mix that are just as eft"ective. I liked one remark that the professor from Cornell made in regard to the small growers who have a few trees in the garden and a few trees in the backyard, and who don't even need a small plant, for they can buy this "Kill-o-scale" or "Scalecide," and they can spray their few trees with it, and if they will do the work they are a blessing, and there is a place for them, but FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. yy I sav to you i^ciitlcnicn. stick to the lime and siil[)liur and it will stand by you, if you do your duty by it. Discussion. Mr. Root : Did I understand you to say tbat we were to boil the solution and put it on hot? Mr. Skillman : Yes sir; if you mix your lime and throw it in cold, or throw the sulphur and the lime in separately, it is necessary to boil it probably an hour, but if you will put the lime and the sulphur together, and let the heat of the lime help to dissolve the sulphur, you will save half an hour, and I don't think you will need to boil it over thirty minutes ; and when I say "boil," it means boiling; it don't mean hot or simmering, but I mean boiling. Mr. Root : I don't think you understood my question. I simply want to know if you boil the whole mixture together, or do you heat the cold water before you mix it? Mr; Skillman : No ; I throw it all together and boil it. Mr. Root : Do you reduce it before you boil it ? Mr. Skillman : No ; I put the eighty gallons in the tank, and I have another vessel with the twenty in, and as soon as I get the lime slaked with the sulphur paste I put it in, but in the meantime this eighty gallons of water is getting hot all the time. Mr. Root: And then you put it on boiling hot? ]\Ir. Skillman : Yes sir ; you can't hurt your trees with it, because it comes out in a mist, and before it leaves the nozzle two feet it will be cold, and you can't get it on too hot. A AIember : How does the scale spread from one part of the country to the other? Mr. Skillman : The birds wall spread it. They will come along, and they will go to another tree ; and wasps and other insects will spread it, but I find a great many trees are first infested down at the bottom near the ground, and it looks to me as if it might have floated there or been dropped there. And then I find a great many trees infested on a hmb, and it looks as though an insect might have dropped the larva. -78 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. President Eddy: I would like to ask 'Mr. Skillman to answer number five on the question list. Is fumigation of nursery stock an effective means of holding San Jose scale in check ? Mr. Skillman: No; and I will say, gentlemen, it is one . of the most foolish laws 'we have got on our statute books. We have got a New Jersey fumigation law, and I have had to . send to Maryland to get some trees, and I tell you I have ^ had some bitter and sad experiences in this fumigation busi- ness. I bought a thousand plum trees at one time, and out of that lot I lost 75 per cent, and I lost my time and trouble and all that sort of thing, and I am thoroughly sat- isfied that fumigation did it. I know of lots of other instances, and I have come to the conclusion that fumigation is inju- rious, and what is more, Prof. John B. Smith of New Jersey, who was the instigator of the law. said last fall in the Rural Ne-cv Yorker that fumigation always weakens a tree to some extent, and if he ever spoke the truth he did then. Prof. Bennett : Would you recommend taking the nursery stock and dipping the trees to the roots in sulphur and lime wash before transplanting? Mr. Skillman: The proper way to do, in my judgement, is to dip the trees in the sulphur wash, and be careful and leave the roots out, and as you dip the trees, turn them up on the top end and let the liquid run off, rather than run down on th*e roots. I would prefer dipping the trees, and it is a very easy job, and if there is any scale on it will be effective. And it is a sure thing, if you have got the scale, to keep it off the roots. I don't know as it will kill, but it is my belief it will kill the roots. I would advise everj^body to dip the trees in that way, but don't have them fumigated. A Member: How hot is your solution that you dip the tree in ? Mr. Skillman : Well,, you don't want it boiling. That is a matter I ought to explain ; I have never done much dipping and that is the reason it didn't occur to me. I would have it merely lukewarm. Prof. Slingerland: I don't like to dift'er with anybody, ; but I think my friend has missed the point, which is, is fumi- FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 79 gaticni the most effective method we have? Now to my mind, it is the most effective method we have, but it must be done properly with the right kind of chemicals, but there is a whole lot of difference in them. I think fumigation done properly is the most effective method for the trees. j\Ir. SkilliMAn : If the trees are wet. fumigation is in- jurious. Prof. Slingerland: Yes sir; if the trees are wet. Mr. Skillman: You will also admit that soft-wooded trees treated with hydrocyanic gas will be injured. Prof. Slingerland: They may be under certain conditions. ]\Ir. Skiu^man : Then I would ask you how are we old hayseeds to know what those conditions are? Prof. Slingerland: Are you sure that vou kill every San Jose scale when you dip the trees in the lime and sulphur, or kill 95 per cent.? I\Ir. Skillman: I don't claim we kill them all; we have got to allow for the Lord's poor that are always with us. Now then, I am not in favor of a compulsory law. I have no objection to the other fellow having his trees fumigated, but I hate to have it crammed down my throat when I believe it is injurious. I planted several orchards of stock they told me was fumigated, and in one block of a thousand I only lost three trees ; it don't always kill, but it sometimes does. A Member: Would you rather have fumigated trees or inspected trees? Mr. Skillman : I don't want the fumigated trees, and I don't care for the other, because if I haven't got a scale on the trees when I buy them, I will have them pretty soon after- wards. Mr. Hovt: I don't know what the poor nurseryman is going to do ; one man will not have them fumigated, and the other must have them. Mr. Skillman: If the fellow wants them fumigated, give it to him, but if he don't want them, don't fumigate them. Mr. Hoyt : The nurseryman doing any business could not get along that way. ]\Ir. Skillman: I don't know; I simply don't want my trees fumigated. 8o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ]Mr. Hoyt : I think it is one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation that was ever passed, to cause the nurserymen to fumigate a tree, when there is no law made for the man outside of the nursery to do anything to kill the scales on his trees. How is the nurseryman to keep his nursery clean when his neighbor has them on his apple trees and other trees, and they will spread into his nursery? If you are going to make the nurseryman fumigate, make the man next to him fumi- gate too. It delays business and it is a hindrance to the man who wants his trees, and it is no good. Mr. Skillman : It is a perfect outrage on the nurseryman that he should be compelled to fumigate his trees, and it is an outrage on me that I should be compelled to buy them. A Member: I think I would just as soon buy my trees of Mr. Hoyt, for I believe he is an honest person, but all nurserymen are not built that way, and the reason why the nurserymen were compelled to fumigate was because they were distributing the San Jose scale. Nobody has demon- strated yet that an orchard has become infested from the fruit itself ; it may be possible, but there is not one case in ten, and while I don't believe in compelling nurserymen to fumi- gate, still I think they ought to. A Member : I can't see how the .nurseryman suffers in any way, when he has an examiner to certify that his nursery is free from scale. I should think that would help, rather than hurt him. Mr. Derby : I have never seen a certificate given yet that was full and complete. The inspector always gets around it by sa3-ing they appear to be free, and that is all he can give. If this fumigation did the work, and it was no detriment to the ■ tree, as we thought in the first place, you can easily see it is right that legislation should be had so that no nurseryman would send out any nursery stock infested with the San Jose scale, but as it stands to-day, I believe the law is of no effect whatever, and it certainlv is a detriment to the vitality of the trees in probably ninety trees out of a hundred. Mr. Jewell: I would like to ask Mr. Skillman what is the advantage in putting on the lime and sulphur wash hot, FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 8l or prctomling" to, when it must get cold before it gets away from the end of the nozzle ? Mr. Skillman : Because it will spray much better; you will have less difficulty in getting it through the nozzle ; it is not near as likely to clog. You will find there is a great dif- ference in spraying it whether it is hot or cold. Secretary Miles: I would like to call for an answer to question number four, Is the San Jose scale on the increase in Connecticut? AIr. Barnes : I think it is, Mr. President, without any doubt. Mr. Hoyt: Of course it is; there is not any doubt about that. The appoinment of the following special committees was announced by the chair : Coiiiinittce to judge the fruit on c.vliibitioii at tJiis meet- ing— Mr. S. H. Derby of Delaw^are and Mr. J. R. Cornell of New York. Committee to examine and report on the display of imple- ments— L. C. Root, Farmington ; ]\I. L. Coleman, Seymour, and A. R. Yale, Meriden. After which a recess was taken until the evenin": session. EVENING SESSION. The convention reassembled for the evening session promptly at 7.30 o'clock. As previously arranged, this evening meeting was devoted to the important and timely subject of "Our Highway Trees, their Value, Care and Protection," and the sentiment "a more beautiful Connecticut," was expressed in the various address- es, discussions, etc. The tree wardens from all the towns in the state had been especially invited to attend this session and participate in the program, which was arranged for their especial benefit as well as all others interested in the shade tree problem. A 82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. large number of the wardens were present and helped to swell the attendance, which was larger than at any previous evening" meeting of the Society. Mr. J. H. Hale of South Glastonbury was the presiding officer at this session, and in opening the program said : "The Connecticut Pomological Society with its more than 600 members having done much to stimulate the production of better and more beautiful fruits in greater abundance for all people of the state, is glad to turn aside for a single session at its annual meeting and take up the subject of our highway trees. While Connecticut's tree warden law was first enacted in 1893, it was not until 1905 that it was made obligatory upon all towns to elect a Tree Warden, and the great and good work of protecting our highway trees and encouraging the planting of others, has now been put on a solid basis in every town in the State. "Since the notices have gone out for this meeting, I have receved a number of letters touching on the sub- ject. One came from a good old lady in the western part of the state, and she said she was glad we were getting together for the protection of our shade trees. Just at that moment the telephone compau}- were running a line by her house, and the man in charge had told her that the magnifi- cent old maple in the highway must go, and that some trees within her borders w'ould have to be trimmed, and she sent out a cry for help. I at once took the matter up wdth the Southern New England Company, and was able to notify her within a few hours that another pole or two and a few rods- of wire would be used, and they would get around the tree. Another letter on the other side came to me here, and the gen- tleman asks that his name be not given, and for the sake of his feelings in the future I will not give it. He says : T question the authority to set shade trees in the highway beside cultivated land either by the town or state, and should seek damages in the courts if such was done. The land is worthless in and alongside shade trees for cultivation. Trees are valuable in their proper place, and the writer can show- that he appreciates their worth for shade and timber, but he does not propose to have his valuable land damaged by mis- FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 83 guitlcd public sentiment.' Those are two views on the sub- ject. A few years aj^o it was my g-ood pleasure to drive a g-ood bit across the state of Connecticut with a friend from the west, who had never been in the east before, and at almost every turn in the road he was exclaiming about the beauty of the landscape, the magnificence and the glory of our native trees. He said to me : 'Do you know this Connecticut is one vast park, and if we had it in the west we would use it for advertising purposes to bring in tens of thousands of new settlers? It is a gold mine and we wish we had something- like it in the west.' A year or two afterwards a farmer in the section of the country where we traveled through, had in front of his farm an eighth of a mile row of magnificent maples, and he sold his farm, and the jiew owner found that inside of his border line potatoes and corn did not grow as well where those maple trees were, and the whole row was cut down, and an outraged public sentiment demanded the prevention of such crime in future, and the passage of the Connecticut tree warden law is the monument to the magnifi- cent row of murdered maples. We are here to-night to take up this question of the preservation of our trees, and main- taining and enlarging* the beauty of Connecticut. We prac- tical fruit growers of the Pomological Society realize that the more beautiful Connecticut can become, the more enjoy- able it will be for our own homes and for those we love ; but it also will be a great attraction to others to establish and maintain homes with us, and those others are people who are appreciative of many beautiful things, and will buy most liberally of our fine fruits. We stand here for a more beau- tiful Connecticut for the niany as ag-ainst more bushels of corn and potatoes for the few. It is now my pleasure to introduce as the first speaker Mr. James Draper of the Worcester, Mass., park commission, who will take up the general subject of shade trees." 84 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The Street Shade Tree Problem. Hon. James Draper, Worcester, Mass. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : Standing here with this beautiful demonstration of your handiwork as Pomolo- gists and iiorists, I am satisfied that you believe in the beau- tiful here in Connecticut. It seems a little out of place to bring a gentleman from Massachusetts to talk about shade trees, when you have such beautiful illustrations of it here in the Connecticut valley. The name and fame of Xew Haven through the work of Loomis has gone out throughout the land, and years ago I remember seeing the beautiful elms of East Hartford and Glastonbury, planted there a century or more ago, and we find all through this section evidences that there is something beautiful in the tree located by the highway. This is a pretty broad subject to touch in the lim- ited time at our command, and I think it phould be consid- ered in three divisions ; first, the division where it is under the control of the municipal authorities ; second, in the towns .and villages where the village improvement societies are .taking a hand ; and third, the country roadsides where the tree wardens have come in to take up their w^ork. In the city of Hartford, your trees are under the control of the high- way department. Now it seems to me that is a decided -misfit. You may be fortunate in having a man who is an •expert in road building and everything pertaining thereto, and that has a love for the tree and for its preservation, but those cases are rare. The road must g"o where it is wanted, and that stands first, and the trees in the second place ; so I believe it should be under an entirely separate administration, and that would be the park commissioners. W'e plant our trees from 35 to 50 feet apart, and the- wider distance is preferable. We would plant them a little thicker and take out every other tree, but it is pretty hard to get people to do that. Now comes the question of what variety to plant, which applies to the country as well as the city. I believe if you have got the proper width of street, there is nothing FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 85 that succeeds so well as the American elm, but if your streets are a little narrow, we must g^et along- with the maple. But you can enlarge this by using the red oak and beech and ash and some other trees, and by so enlarging the variety I think you make the effect more beautiful. We have our trouble in protecting our trees in the city and the same applies to the country, and that is the temptation of fastening horses to a tree, or, if not fastening, leaving them unhitched by the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker — ^they will leave their horses unhitched, and the horse will find that tree and commence to feed thereon. Now we have our laws and there is a penalty for a person fastening a horse to a shade tree, and we have to make examples of some of them, and sometimes it has its effect. Our greatest trouble is with the telegraph and telephone companies. We cannot do without that service, and we have got to work with them, there is no use of denying that ; we can't antagonize them, we have got to work with them, and this is left to the control of the tree wardens and the park commissioners. They have the right of way first, and if these companies come in with their wires, they must locate their poles either high enough, or go around them, so as not to destroy the trees. Then we have the trolley -companies that come along and destroy whole rows of trees with their wires, but that can be stopped by shifting their tracks on one side or another of the street, rather than destroying these trees. We have our troubles in addition to that ; there is a disposition to post signs or bills on these trees. We have our laws to prevent that, and we don't hesitate to strip them off the trees. This is a disfig- urement of the landscape, and we believe it is just as impor- tant to eliminate from our roadsides everything that is a blot on the landscape, as it is to encourage the beautiful in the planting of trees. So we look after tliat thing, and see as far as possible, that our rocks and fences and things are not made use of for advertising purposes. An instance occurred in my own city where the secretary of the park board, a man of robust figure and very positive in his manner of speech, had drawn to one of our large parks near the entrance a tremendous rock which took six pair of oxen to get it there. 86 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. About that time a religious enthusiast felt bound to draw sermons from the stones by printing thereon a little spiritual advice, and he thought there was an excellent place to dis- play his sermon, so he printed thereon: "Prepare to meet thy God." Mr. Lincoln came around there, his attention being called to that, and he looked at it and said, " 'Prepare to meet thy God ;' if I could get hold of that fellow about one minute I would know he would want to be prepared ;" and so we figure we would like to g"et hold of these persons who are trying to disfigure our landscape. I believe in the nat- ural beauty of many of our roadsides. It is grown up to brush, and if that can be kept at the proper heig-ht and be properly trimmed, I think there is nothing more beautiul than the natural growth. Let us have our desirable trees pro- tected and preserved ; the tree warden's work comes in here to desig-nate how they shall be preserved and cared for. I think the law here is practically the same as in Alassachu- setts. I have noticed some very serious mistakes that some tree wardens have made in marking of too many trees. That is a mistake. I think v/e ought to mark desirable trees at proper distances, and I believe also in the natural beauty of the roadsides. Work with the road builders, so they shan't be undoing- what we are trying to do in making this world a little more beautiful. If they must have the material, they should take it from such a place as not to leave it unsightly. Tree wardens, if they go at their work with a concentrated effort, can make this little part of the world more beautiful every day. Mr. Hale: Last fall I saw a lot of fine maples being set along a new state highway. An adjoining proprietor asked if I did not think trees growing there would in time unfit his field for crops. I said, "A little, probably." His eyes sparkled and he asked if I would so testify if he sued for damages. I said, "Oh, yes, but of course the benefits assessed on you will be far greater than the damages. Your property and all who travel this way will be greatly bene- fited by this tree planting." Then he called me a fool tree crank. The subject of trees on our state highways will be presented by Mr. McDonald, our state highway commissioner. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 87 He has it in his power and does compel the planting^ of trees on every piece of new road that is built in the state of Con- necticut to-day. (k)d bless him and all who helped to pass the law. Trees on State Highways. By J. H. MacDONald, State Highway Commissioner. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I shall not trans- gress, Mr. Chairman, on the time, but I will stop long enough to quote one of the best things, I think, that the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table wrote, if I say no more. "Give fools their gold. Give knaves their power, Let fortune's baubles rise or fall. Who sows the field, or plants the tree, Or grows the flower, is more than all." It was a wise thought that occurred to the minds of the gentlemen comprising the state board of trade, when they suggested to the commissioner the wisdom of installing upon all sections of improved highway, trees. There was no trouble in getting the Legislature to heartily concur with the propo- sition, and it was engrafted in the law of 1903, and last year w^e put in some two thousand trees under that law. There is no question in my mind but what it will be a saving of thousands of dollars in keeping our highways in better order. It is for the benefit of the state or those building a road, that costs seven or eight thousand dollars per mile to con- struct, to have anything that will assist in keeping that road in repair without any appreciable outlay on the part of the town in which the road lies, and is a great benefit to that town. There is no question but what the longevity of any mac- adam road is added to five or ten years by having that advan- tage ; a macadam road delights in a semi-shade. It was no doubtful compliment that was paid by a man who is second only to Tennyson, the poet laureate of England, in his pro- fession— J. C. Loudon — when he was asked by a committee who had charge of a park what would they plant in the way 88 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of trees, he said : "Plant the trees of North America, they to be succeeded by the trees of Greece and Italy, they by Ger- many and France, then British trees, and lastly trees from North Russia, Sweden and Norway." As I go through the state and have access to nature's best handiwork, as I do through the only show windows . that you can have to get true access to nature in her best work, I simply emphasize what has been so well said b}^ Brother Hale in regard to the beauties of nature that God in his great bounty has blessed this state and us. We can go to Europe to see the pictures painted b\' all the masters, but we forget that the Almighty God has painted on the hillsides, the valleys and the plains of dear old Connecticut, pictures more beautiful than any emanating from the brush of the master, for, in the one instance, it fades from the canvas and is lost to memory, while in the other it endures through all time. We cannot beautify our landscape any better than the Almighty has done for us, but we can so take that which he has been so lavish with and place it in isolated places where it will be arranged for our comfort and our convenience and our compensation for all time. (Applause.) Mr. Hale: It is not often we are able to get a good law- yer and his opinion for nothing, but we have it to-night and it is worth all it costs. Judge Root of Waterbury wall give us the legal side of the question. Judge Root : Mr. Chairman and friends : I suppose to- night I am the "Supreme Court of the Pomological Society." Mr. Hale : That means the State of Connecticut. The Legal Side of the Matter. By Judge Charles G. Root, of Waterbur3^ Ignorance of the law excuses no one. Everyone is pre- sumed to know the law, except the lawyers. It is admitted that they do not know it. When, therefore, they are con- sulted upon any particular subject, they have to take down their law books, and make a thorough examination of the FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 89 authorities, statutes and decisions in order to find out what every one is presumed to be famiHar with. A short time ago 1 received a cohimunication from a tree warden reading- something Hke this, with the names of persons suppressed. "Dear Sir: I liave just been elected tree warden of the Town of and \\ould hke to know my duties and powers. It seems to me that the time for me to act has arrived, and I am entirely ignorant what course to pursue. The occasion for my action is this. The Tel- — — — (now I won't tell this name as I started out with the announcement that all proper names should be omitted, although no great mental effort will be required to imagine it) — the Tel has severed some large limbs from several magnificent shade trees in the highways of our town. It is not the first time, and some of our citizens would like to know if the existing laws are able to protect our trees from mutilation and destruction. What shall I do to bring the offenders to justice? Yours truly, , Tree Warden." Now I knew a tree warden from the warden of the State Prison, but the ofiice had been created so recently, and so little had been done by tree wardens, that I knew no more about their powers and duties than I did about the powers and duties of the old Sho-Guns of Japan. In 1901 the Legislature first authorized towns to elect tree wardens, but the provision that they may elect them was not sufficient to arouse the municipalities to a realization of the importance of the office. In 1905, therefore, the General Assembly made the election of a tree warden in each town which does not include within its limits a city coextensive with the town, imperative. The results are, the people are paying more attention to trees, their uses and beauties, and their mutila- tion and destruction by the commercial spirit of the age, and a large body of officials is studying its powers and duties in relation to these highest forms of the vegetable world. But to return to my letter. Someone had mutilated a tree in the public highway. Could he be punished, just what proceeding must be started, and what has the tree warden tO' do with it? To make an intelligent reply to my enquirer, a knowledge of all the circumstances was essential. For the ordinarv 90 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. case of injuring- a tree standing- in a highway, the mode of prosecution is the same as in other criminal cases. Our Statutes provide that every person who cuts a tree in a pubHc way or place except for the purpose of protecting it, and under a written permit from a tree warden, shall be fined not more than $50 (General Statutes, Sec. 4447). and every person who wilfully injures or defaces an ornamental or shade tree within the limits of a public way or place, shall be fined not more than $100 (General Statutes, Sec. 4447), and every person who shall wilfully injure any tree or shrub standing upon the land of another, or on the public highway in front of said land, shall be fined not more than $100, or imprisoned not more than 12 months, or both (General Stat- utes, Sec. 1223). To enforce these penalties, complaint must be made to the g-rand juror or other prosecuting officer of the town where the offense is committed. If the destruction or injury of the tree was the act of the owner of the land in front of which the tree stood, would he be amenable to those statutes? I think not. If the act complained of w'as the act of a tele- g-raph, telephone or electric light or power company, or of any person or corporation, having a right to maintain struc- tures in the highway, done under the claim that it was rea- sonably necessary in the exercise of such rights, w^ould the actor be liable to these penalties? I think not, unless the act was malicious and wanton. Besides these laws just recited, which may well be called the general laws concerning the preservation of trees in highways, there are other stat- utes protecting certain trees in highways and on town com- mons. Every person who shall cut, destroy or carry away any trees standing or l>ing on town commons, shall pay to the town certain damages, to be recovered in a civil action (General Statutes. Sec. 1097). This, of course, would not apply to persons or corporations having a right to maintain structures on the town commons, where the acts were reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of the right and were not done wantonly and maliciously. Any person or association, with the written pennission of the selectmen, and in compliance with certain conditions. FIFTEllNTII ANNUAL MEETING. 91 may set out trees in the highway, and protect them by suitable posts and stakes. Every person who sliall remove or injure any ornamental or shade tree planted in any highway, or the posts or stakes, intended for its protection, except imme- diateh- before his own dooryard, without the written order of the selectmen, shall be fined, etc. (General Statutes, Sec- tions 2041 and 2042). Grand jurors and other prosecuting officers have jurisdiction of this offense as of other crimes. The selectmen may also designate certain trees within the limits of highways, for the purpose of ornament and shade, by driving into each a nail or spike with the letter C on it, and grand jurors may prosecute for their injury. The stat- ute provides that the owner of the adjoining property may remove them or cut them down by the written consent of the officials authorized to designate. (General Statutes, Sec. 2043.) As the owner of the land abutting on the highway is ordi- narily the owner of the trees standing in the highway in front of his land, our Courts may determine that these stat- utes creating protected and designated trees are unconstitu- tional, if protected and designated without his consent. Certainly persons or corporations having a right to maintain structures in the highway would not be liable to the penalties for interfering with protected or designated trees where such interference was under a claim of right, and not malicious. Xow we come to bounty trees. These are elm, maple, tulip, ash, basswood, oak, black walnut, hickory, apple, pear or clierry trees, for the planting, protecting and cultivating of which along any public highway, a person shall receive an annual bounty from the state of ten cents for each tree. Any person who shall cut down or injure any tree upon which the State has paid a bounty or which has been set out by a village society, without the written consent of a majority of the Selectmen, is liable to a penalty to be imposed as in other criminal cases (General Statutes, Sections 4439 and 4440). Bounty trees like the others, however, must, so far as this Statute is concerned, yield to the rights of persons and cor- porations who have the privilege of maintaining structures in the highwav. 92 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Again, we have public shade trees. Any town may appro- priate money to be expended by the tree warden in planting^ shade trees in the public ways, provided the written consent of the owners of the adjoining land shall be first obtained. "All transplanted trees and all other trees not less than six inches in circumference, measured two feet from the ground, within the limits of any public way shall be deemed public shade trees." Such trees can only be cut or removed by the tree warden. Any person, not the owner of the adjoining land, wilfully injuring such a tree may be prosecuted under a statute which prescribes a fine of not more than $ioo, or imprisonment for not more than 12 months or both. (General Statutes, Sections 4444, 4445 and 1223). If the owner of the adjoining land is the offender, I think that he should be prosecuted under a statute which makes the penalty a fine of not more than $100. (General Statutes. Sec. 4447)- The person or corporation having a right to maintain structures in the highway is, in my judgment, exempt from the operation of these statutes, while acting in the exercise of his or its rights, without malice. But, says my tree warden friend, the offender named in my letter is one who has a right to maintain structures in the highway. Whisper it softly. It is a telephone company. Ah, then, I fear that unless you can prove that the acts were done wantonly and maliciously, and even in that case you would doubtless have to prosecute the individual actors and not the corporation, there is only one little statute for you to rely upon. It is this. "No telegraph, telephone or electric light or power company shall cause to be cut down or injured any tree growing on the highway for the purpose of con- structing or maintaining any electrical wires or fixtures of any kind, without the written consent of the adjoining proprietor."' (General Statutes, Sec. 4441). Every corporation violating any provision of Sec. 4441 shall forfeit fifty dollars for each offense, and the act of the agent or employe of such corporation shall be the act of such corporation to work the forfeiture herein povided. (General Statutes, Sec. 4442.) FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 93 Now you ask mc what should be clone? I reply as the man did who was asked how to make a rabbit stew. First catch your rabbit. That is, gfet your evidence that the man who mutilated the tree was an employe of that particular corporation, that his acts, or axe if he used one, injured the tree, and that they were done without the consent of the adjoining^ proprietor. The statute says written consent, but I am inclined to think that an oral consent would be sufficient. The corporation has then incurred the forfeiture of $50. Who gets the $50, and how is it to be collected? Our stat- utes provide that whenever any corporation has incurred a forfeiture, the State's attorney in the County wherein such corporation is located, or has its principal place of business in this State, may bring- a civil action on the statute in the name of the state to recover such forfeiture. (General Stat- utes, Sec. 1488). The proceeds where the forfeiture is $50, as in this case, would, in my judgment, belong to the town wherein the offense was committed. To punish the offending corporation, you must then, my dear sir, ascertain the County where it is located or has its principal place of business in this state, and make your complaint to the State's attorney of that County. The Grand Juror or prosecuting officer of your town has nothing to do with it. The policy of Connecticut seems to be to remove from local control the persons and corporations who have a right to maintain structures in the highways. It is an anomalous condition. Each town and city has to main- tain its owm highways and is liable for damages if one is injured in person or property by reason of defects therein. It is to be hoped that some more satisfactory condition may be developed in time. 'But, says my tree warden, is it my duty to see that this forfeiture is collected? Most assuredl}'- it is. What other officer is there in the town who has that duty? Is it not important that our trees be preserved and that the laws be enforced? America is just waking up to the fact that the loss of trees may turn a paradise into a des- ert. The commercial spirit is responsible for the devastation of our forests and the indifference to arboreal ornamentation. Manufacturing, as it has been and is, tends to eradicate from 94 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the hiinian mine] all appreciation of the beauties of nature and of art. Where this manufacturing ardor is not rampant, you will find a controlling delight in wide avenues decorated with living objects that arouse pleasant recollections and tend to the promotion of health and comfort. Look at the broad highway, with great noble trees and grassy plots on both sides, constituting the main street in the old agricultural com- munity ! You see it in some towns in every county in the State, and the mere imagination of it causes a thrill of pleasure. The laws relating to tree wardens are now so crude and incoherent that great results cannot be expected. Further legislation is needed to increase the number of trees in the highways and to thoroughly protect them, but I think it a fair inference that all trees w^ithin the limits of the highway, bounty trees, protected and designated trees, public shade trees, and all other trees are within the jurisdiction of the tree warden, to a limited extent, and that he should consider it his duty to look after them and see that offenses concern- ing them are punished. I believe that I have made an exhaustive examination of our laws relating to the subject and have placed the results before you. If my feeble efforts shall aid the great movement for the preservation of trees, my reward will be sufficient. Mr. Hale: Well, you have heard about "laying down the law," and you have certainly had enough of it to-night, and I think we all appreciate the eft'orts of Judge Root in bringing this matter before us, and I wish we had time to ask him some questions, and stir him up in a good many ways, but there does not seem to be any opportunity just at present. Now we come to the tree wardens, and I am going to call on Air. John N. Brooks of Torrington, as I saw he was kicking at something Mr. Root said. A New Man at the Work. By John N. Brooks, Tree Warden. Torrington. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: My appearing here to-night is rather of a joke. Out in Torrington I do con- FIFTEENTH ANNUAL AI FETING. 95 siderable kickiii"- on different snbjects at different times, and so at the last election they made me tree warden. I have begam to realize that the tree warden has control of the shade trees in the town in which he lives, which in my town is all of them, because there is no public park department, and a public shade tree is defined by the statutes as any tree within the limits of the public highway over six inches in circum- ference and two inches in diameter. According to my friend Judge Root, the telephone, electric light and trolley companies are exempt from any damages they may do, because if you try to g-et after them, it will cost you more to do it than you will g^et out of them in the end, and all I can say is that this Socie.ty had better advocate the repeal if possible at the next legislature of all the laws reg'ardingf trees, and pass one or two that will cover the whole subject, and bring a test case to the Supreme Court, and find out what the duties of a tree warden are. and then elect them not as a political office, and not let it get into the control of your telephone, telegraph or electric light companies, but make it a public service office for the beauty of your town and state. Find out where you are at, and then get a meeting of your tree wardens, and find out how they will conduct this business. Mr. Hale : If we can get a new man Hke that in every town, things will begin to hum. I will now call on Prof. Gulley. What Results May Be Expected. By Prof. A. G. Gulley, Tree Warden, Mansfield. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I should judge from what we have heard we won't get much results. There is nothing left for us to do, after hearing what the laws are in this state, and I must confess that is the first thing I didn't know anything about. I was one of those fellows elected last year, and I went to our town (^lerk and asked what I had to do, and he didn't know, and so we asked a few lawyers, but we found out they didn't agree. Now Judge Root has just quoted to us about fifty statutes, and I am blamed if I can 96 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. see that there is anything we can do at all ; that is about the way it looks to me. Now it seems to me the best thing we can do is to get these tree wardens into a meeting and get them together, and then find out just what we would like to do, or what is desirable to do, and then go to the Legislature and get some laws we can work on, for I can see if we don't get together we may be working at cross purposes in our different towns. Air. Hale asked me to look up a few things we might do, but I wouldn't give you any of them, because after Judge Root's remarks I don't think we can do anvthing. Mr. Hale: We will now listen to what Brother Hoyt lias to say on the practicability of roadside embellishment. The Practicability of Roadside Embellishment. By Edwin Hoyt, Tree Warden, New Canaan. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: A few years ago I offered the citizens of the town of New Canaan five thou- sand shade trees free of cost, if they would plant them along the highways of our town. Many were planted and our town is better for it. Some attention has recently been given by the State towards improving the grade and roadbeds of some of the main roads, leading from one town to another, and the law requires that on such highways trees shall be planted, when such roads have been built under state appropriation. Yet there is one serious hindrance to this being perfectly done, and that is the ignorance and selfishness of some per- sons owning land fronting on our highways. Property owners claim the use of the land on the roadsides, adjoining their property, and say the town has no right to these road- ways, only for travel and repairs. They also say they have the right to dig dirt or gravel from the roadside (which they feel they have a right to use or sell), thus leaving unsightly places where it has been dug out, and, besides, many use the roadsides for depositing rocks or stones taken from their fields. Thev also feel thev have FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 97 the right to stop any tree planting- on the roadside passing their land, which assumed right many men exercise, so that continuous lines of tree planting along the highways cannot be done. This has been the case in our town, and I presume it is the case in every town. There should be a law in tliis state which would give tree wardens, or improvement societies, the power to plant out continuous lines of trees, or to make any improvements which they consider advisable, to beautify the highwa}s. There is much, however, that can be done along our highways where trees have come up without planting and which are doing fairly well. Such of these as are adapted for a permanent place should be marked by the warden, and that mark placed upon a tree should guarantee it perfect protection. There are many places where a number of these young trees have sprung up, and are growing, which should be properly thinned out, and let others stand, not always in a straight line, but let them stand so as to form little clumps or groves. In regular planting there are many places where the straight rows may be varied to small clumps of trees, and in some cases an ever- green or a Cut Leaf Birch, or a Purple Beech may be added, whereby the monotony of single lines of one kind of tree will be avoided, and^will also add to the beauty of the landscape. Then again, there is a great variety of soils, exposures, etc., which will require trees best adapted for the places in which they are to grow. When roads run over hills and into val- leys, there are many places where the soil is thin and dry and poorly adapted for the growth of certain varieties of trees, while in many of the low places the ground is wet and the Sugar or Norway Maples, Lindens, or Tulips would not grow, while the Swamp Maple, Elms, Pin Oak, and many vari- eties of W'illows would grow finely. Where the soil is thin on the knolls, such fast growing trees as the Carolina Poplars, Oriental Planes, and Silver Maples should be set, and with a little rich fine dirt used in setting them out, to start the trees, they would grow' and do fairly well. In planting out a line of trees, this adaptability of trees to location and soil should be studied, and followed, tliat the planting may be successful. Then again, it is not enough that highways shotdd be planted 98 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. with shade trees, but they should be cleaned of all the rocks and stones, the surface smoothed off, and, in many places, shrubbery of both the flowermg and fancy foliage variety should be planted. What would add more to the beauty, pleasure and comfort of a country road, where it is feasible to do it, than shade trees, and different kinds of shrubbery, interspersed with a few perennials and bulbous plants? This is feasible and practicable. Almost every person owning a country place can, and should, have a certain amount of care and ornamentation given every year to the highway passing by his home grounds at least. Our public roads should be laid out with solid roadbeds, the sides lined with shade, ornamental trees and shrubs, wdiere it is practicable to do it, giving them a park-like appearance. This would make driving, walking or automobiling over these roads safe, pleasanter, and more desirable. This would be a new departure from the present conditions of most of our highways, but is it not high time there was a new departure along this line? There are new departures in almost everything else, and it is quite time that thought and attention were given to our unkept, unattractive and many times most unsatisfactory highways. Just one word more. To do this work will require much discussion and education along these lines, also financial help will be needed to some extent as a starter, and a tax of 3^ mill -each year, laid upon the town assessment list of the property, to be used for the purpose of beautifying our roadsides, would be a wise and paying investment to any town which tried the experiment ; the money to be given only to those persons who agree to give as nuich in money, or work, as the town gives towards improving the roadside in front of and along- their property. This offer would be accepted by some and the work would start, and, once started, it would soon have many followers, and roadside planting and embellish- ment would finally become not only practicable, but universal, and the people elevated and made better because of it. Mr. Hale: I now call on Mr. Ripley of Glastonbury to speak on the subject of signs. He has already done some- thing about removing these unsightly objects. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 99 Signs. By L. W. Ripley, Tree Warden, Glastonbury. Mr. Chaimian, friends, and brother wardens : I had iny magazine ah loaded and was going to give you the two barrels at dififerent times, but now I am going to fire it all off at once. I was going to talk about the two kinds of signs. The first, the signs of the times, and, second, the advertising signs. We all know, very well that one of the most encouraging signs we have to-day is the growing sentiment all over our land in favor of making it a land of beauty. Now this matter of signs that I am to talk about particularly is the matter of advertising signs. If I had handled the advertising sign business in our town according to the lines laid down by Judge Root, I am afraid that there wouldn't have been very much done, because I should have been scared myself to do anything, but as it is now, I must have the telephone company and the electric railway company, and all the abutting property owners scared stiff, because nobody touches the limb of a tree without coming to my house and getting my permission. Perhaps the law does not permit that, but I rest my case on that last stat- ute passed where it says the tree warden shall have the care and control all the shade trees, and it goes on and defines what those shade trees are, so I think I have got control in Glastonbury of all the shade trees that are more than six inches in circumference two feet from the ground, and I have everybody else in Glastonbury thinking so too. Now it is true, as Mr. Hale told you, that this law was passed because some person destroyed a row of maples an eighth of a mile long abutting on his property, and the Legislature thought it wise to pass a law so that that couldn't happen again in the future. But the trouble is we have got a lot of statutes made by lawyers that don't mean anything, they are all mixed up, and ail a tree warden can do is to just look at one or two of them. I have got them here right on the first page, where it says a tree warden has the care and control of all the shade trees. Noav we had in our town, and I suppose you have in 100 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. your town, lots of sio-ns on the trees in tlie hig-hway. and I can testify that 55 of th<^se large board advertising signs are now reposing quietly out in one of my barns, and in time thev will get into the furnace. I have asked the owners if thev wanted them, and I think they said they didn't want them, as they thought there was a sentiment growing up in our state against the putting of them out on trees any more. How manv signs do you suppose there are on billboards between here and New York? I can tell you, because I counted them to-day. I went down to New York and counted all the signs on the west side going down, and then counted them coming back on the east side, and I don't mean little signs, but great big advertising billboards that average 55 feet in length ; I found that out by counting the number of sixteen-feet length boards in them, and they averaged about 55 feet in length. Well, I counted 1,097 o^ those signs. There are over twelve solid miles of billboards between Hartford and the city of New^ York, and we have to look at them every time we ride from here to New York. We can prevent a man from setting up a bone boiling contrivance out in front of our house in the high- way and making an odor we don't like ; we can prevent a man from ringing a bell and stop him under the law that he is committing a public nuisance ; and the steam railways can be made to stop blowing their whistles time and time again, as they have in this and other states ; we can stop an offense to our sense of hearing and smelling ; now can we not stop this offense, an ofifense against our sense of sight, against that God-given sense of beauty that is implanted in most of us — can we stop that ? Certainly we can ; there is no question about that at all. Let me tell you a little story about a decision just rendered by the courts of the state of New York, and it is upon that principle, gentlemen, that we have got to build our hopes for a proper law. There was a man lived in a town in New York, and he had lived all his life in the same place, and opposite his house there had grown up two beautiful trees. He had been familiar with those trees since his boyhood, and they were friends of his, and a leaky gas main caused the death of those trees, and so he sued for damages by loss of those trees, and he based his claim for damages on the idea FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. lOI that those trees had helped form a beautiftil picture in front of liis house. Well, the lower court awarded him damages, and the gas company didn't think that was right, and appealed the case to the higher court, and straightway the higher court sustained the decision of the lower court. Well, they went ahead and ai)pealcd to the Supreme Court of the state of New York, and the judges took the matter into consideration, after the manner of our Supreme Court of Errors, and finally they made up their mind that that man had a just cause and they awarded damages upon the ground that that man had acquired an easement in those trees, and they gave him $150.00 for those trees. Now the question is, have we acquired an easement in the beauty of our landscape, and if we have 1 think we can catch those fellows, and I firmly believe that we will wipe this ^'Wilsons" and "Gortons" and all the rest of that sordid stufif right off the face of the map. Mr. Hale: Our next tree warden, Mr. C. I. Allen of Plymouth, will address vou on The Need of a Better Understanding of Our Rights. By C. T. Allen, Tree Warden, Plymouth. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I suppose every tree warden in the state, when they accepted the office, took a solemn oath that they would fulfil the duties of that office to the best of their ability. It seemed to me, after taking this oath, that the first thing for me to do was to find out what the duties of that office were. The office was a new one to our town and I was a new man in the office, and consequently I didn't have any precedents to handicap me or guide me, and the only authority I could find was the statutes, and I began to look in them to see what my duties were, and I very soon found I was up against a mixture of laws that I wasn't able to interpret to my own satisfaction, and, after hearing my friend Judge Root here to-night, I find they are mixed a little worse than I thought they were. I didn't, however, feel like sitting down and saying we are powerless, and wait for another legislature to help us out and n^ake some new laws that prob- ably vyon't be an\ better than wc have already. Someone 102 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. hcas said the best way to get a bad law repealed was to enforce it, and I think the best thing for the tree wardens to do is to interpret the laws for themselves to the best advantage, and go ahead on that basis. If they can get a few test cases, it will keep the matter stirred up, and the next legislature will have some basis to work upon, and to know what the present laws are good for and what they are not good for. I will simply state one or two things that I have done in our town. I have got ready to do them, but I have not done them publicly yet, I find in our town it is very much the same as others, we have signs nailed on to the trees, and also in the center of the town. The trees make very good billboards, and near the town hall they are used to put other notices on. There is a law prohib- iting this and specifying a fine for it, but if I should make any complaint and get any of these people who did not know any- thing about the law into trouble, it would create a sentiment against the tree warden, and against the whole work. It wouldn't be advisable, so I therefore had the law printed,. Section 4447 of the General Statutes of Connecticut, and it reads as follows : "Every person who affixes to a tree in a public way or place a playbill, picture, notice, advertisement, or other thing, whether in writing or otherwise, or cuts, paints, or marks such tree, except for the purpose of protecting it and under a written permit from the tree warden, shall be fined not more than fifty dollars. Every person who wilfuljy injures or defaces an ornamental or shade tree within the limits of a public way or place, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars." I propose to take ofif, the present post- ers that are on some of these trees, and have this law well advertised over town, and without causing any trouble I think this will accomplish the desired purpose, the law permitting tree wardens to designate certain trees in the highway as public shade trees. In our town there are many strips of woodland through which the highways pass, and while these forests remain there is plenty of shade, and there is no need of designating any shade trees ; but when these forests are cut ofif, which is usually the case when they become of an age that is profitable to cut them ofT. they are cut clean to the highway, and we have a barren strip of brush land for a num- FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 103 ber of years until thcv g'ct gTown up ag-ain, and the law per- mitting- tree wardens or their agents to designate certain trees, and after that they are to be protected, is a good one. T propose to desig^nate the trees of this kind, but I have had some cards printed reading like this, "Notice: This tree and all others within the limits of the highway, and designated by nails with the letter C on the head as provided in Section 2043 of the general statutes, are public shade trees, and whoever wantonly injures, defaces or destroys any tree designated in accordance with this section shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than thirty days." When I designate these trees. I propose to hang that card on. The card will not last long, but the people will learn the law by the time the card is gone, and that is the desirable thing in my mind. Mr. Hale : One or two of the tree wardens we had on this list have escaped, so we are going to wind up with five minutes' talk from Mr. Sternberg of West Hartford. Macadam Roads and Tree Planting. By A. C. Sternberg, Tree Warden, West Hartford. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: When I was invited to say a few words to-night, I did not know that we were to have the pleasure of having the distinguished gentleman here who spoke to you on macadam roads and tree planting, other- wise I would have chosen a different topic. He has covered this ground in his usual eloquent way, and there is nothing left for me only to digress. Now we have tree wardens, and there was a good reason why tree wardens should be appointed. I know in my town we wanted a tree warden, for the very reason that our public spirited men had planted trees in the highway for the last forty years, like many other good towns in this state, and they wanted those trees protected. Now, as tree warden of my town, in which capacity I have served for four years, I have been called upon quite a few times where the corporations had been complained of, and T think the tree I04 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. warden has done a great deal to protect the pubHc interests, and the corporations have been careful not to mutilate the trees any more than was absolutely necessary to carry on their work. For this reason I believe when trees are set out. it would be better to remove them from the highway inside of the lot, so as not to interfere with the sewer pipes and the electric light wires. We all want electric lights, and if the trees are too near the highway, the lights will be covered by the limbs, and the effect will be loss of light. But the spirit in which I think this meeting was largely called for was to impress on our people, and especially the younger people, the necessity of taking care of trees, and I hope the sentiment that will go out from this meeting will help to embellish our road- sides, and embellish our homes. The state has done a great deal in this respect by passing the Arbor day law. Now I know many schools in this state where J:his law is respected and upheld, and I know of hundreds of trees set out on our public school grounds and parks owing to the Arbor day law, and I hope this movement will continue. There is nothing more beautiful than to see a fine row of shade trees along our highways. It is a blessing to man and beast, and I can speak from experience, when I say that trees that have been planted along macadam roads and have been in existence for over twenty years, have done a great deal to protect the life of those roads. I have noticed that by comparison. Right near my residence there is a long row of trees, fifty or more, and a macadam road running aside of them, and I think those trees have protected that road, for the road is very seldom dusty, and I think the trees do a great deal to lay the dust. I hope the time will come, and very rapidly, when trees will be planted alongside of all our highways. The tree warden has plenty of power; I don't believe all these lawyers tell you. I would go ahead and use my power to the best of my ability, and I tell the corporations they must do so and so, and I tell the owners they must do so and so, and in any public-spirited community the public will uphold you, and that is the best backer of any law, if you have the right spirit in any town; and if you all believe in public improvement and beautifying vour streets, whv. then, von can make the law whatever you FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 105 want to, notwithstanding that our lcg"al friends will try to discourage us from exercising our powers. I have not met a single person that has found any fault with my orders as tree warden, but at the same time it behooves us all to use discretion and not overstep our boundaries. I thank you very much, and I am sorry I have made this lengthy talk, but, as I said before, the gentleman on my left took all the wind out of my sails. Judge Root: I am very sorry if the effect of my remarks will be to discourage any tree warden. I hope they will all strike in and do everything they were inclined to do. It will make our business better. Mr. Hale: Now I thought Brother Hoyt was the only man that was going to grind his little axe, but the lawyer gets in his last whack every time. Now the next thing on our program is probably the most interesting of the whole evening, and it is the lecture by Prof. A. H. Kirkland on insect ene- mies of shade trees. Insect Enemies of Shade Trees. This was an illustrated lecture by Prof. A. H. Kirkland, of Boston, who is in charge of the work for suppressing the Gypsy and Brown-tail Aloths in Massachusetts, and proved to be one of the most valuable features of the program. The professor is a leading authority on the subject of shade tree pests, and his address, which dealt especially with the injuries to trees by various insects and methods for con- trolling the same, was listened to with close attention. Nearly 100 fine lantern slides were shown, illustrating noi only insect depredations, but also how the work of protection is carried on in Massachusetts. Numerous views of famous old trees and beautifully shaded streets in New England towns were thrown on the screen, to the delight of the audience. It is to be regretted that none of these splendid views can be reproduced here, nor can we give but a brief abstract of the lecture, which is as follows : I06 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The speaker first mentioned the influence of the Enghsh sparrow and of imported insect pests as two principal factors in increasing- insect damage. Taking up specific pests, the elm beetle was mentioned as one which had its alternating periods of abundance and scarcity. This beetle has proved in certain years a serious enemy of the elm, but is easily con- trolled by spraying with arsenate of lead in the early summer. The Tussock moth, while primarily a' pest of the elm, also attacks the maple, the pear, and a wide range of trees. The outbreaks of this caterpillar are soon checked by parasites, but when the insects are over-abundant, a thorough spraying with arsenate of lead will keep them under control. The habits of the imported brown-tail moth, which makes webs at the tips of branches on fruit and shade trees in late fall, were fully described. This insect is common throughout Europe, where it is principally known as a fruit tree pest,, although it also attacks oaks and other shade trees. It is not known to occur in Connecticut as yet, but property owners should be on the lookout for it, and if, during the winter, any suspicious webs are foimd in the tree tops they should be cut ofif and referred to the experiment station authorities for identification. The cutting off and burning of the webs in the winter is the simplest and most effective means of con- trolling this insect. The gypsy moth has spread rapidly during the last five years and now occurs throughout eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and northern Rhode Island. As the infestation at Providence extends along the railroad tracks for some distance, it is entirely probable that the insect may be found in Connecticut in the near future. The moth passes the winter in the egg stage, the yellow, hair-covered mass being conspicuous objects on tree trunks, fences, walls, etc. These are easily destroyed by soaking with crude coal tar creosote. After the eggs have hatched, the young caterpillars feed on all kinds of foliage, but can be controlled by a thor- ough, heavy spraying with arsenate of lead. After the cater- pillars are half grown, they seek shelter by day and feed by night; hence, if a band of cloth or burlap is tied loosely about an infested tree trunk, the caterpillars will assemble under it FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. lo/ duriiii^ the nig-ht and may be killed by hand in large numbers the following- morning. The speaker pointed out the desirability of keeping a con- stant watch on shade and fruit trees so that, if these latter insects reach Connecticut, the infestation may be promptly wiped out. The desirability and justice of national aid in suppressing the gypsy and brown-tail moths was also strongly expressed. The very enjoyable and profitable evening session closed at lo o'clock. (Note. — After the session closed the tree wardens present gathered in a room of the lower hall and held a conference on matters connected with their special work. This conference laid the foundations for the organization of the "Connecticut Tree Wardens Association," which has since been formed for the purpose of furthering the important work of beautif\'ing our highways and protecting the natural beauties of the state. Without doubt the success of the movement is assured and it is a source of gratification that the Pomological Society, in its 1906 annual meeting, was, in a large measure, responsible for bringing this about.) I08 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Second Day, Thursday, February 8. MORNING SESSION. The second day of the Society's annual meeting "opened at 9.45 a. m., with President J. C. Eddy in the chair. The Exhibition hall, with all its varied attractions, was closed for the time being and the fruit growers in large num- bers gathered in the Convention hall for the work of the ses- sion. The program was a very full and attractive one and the interest in the several subjects under discussion continued unabated. The attendance numbered nearly 500 at this session with all conditions favorable to an interesting and profitable gathering. President Eddy first called for the Report of the Auditors, which was presented by IMr. G. W. Staples (see page 19). Voted, that the report be accepted and printed in the pro- ceedings. President Eddy: If anyone has any questions on the printed list that he would 'like to have discussed at this time, there is now an opportunity. Number One was called for — "How soon after planting can apple orchards be made commercially profitable in Con- necticut ?" Mr. Hoyt: I will say that that largely depends upon the land. Mr. Cook: Ten years? Mr. Fenn : I will go you one better, I will say nine. Prof. Gulley : You can get some fruit in seven, perhaps five years. President Eddy: Before taking up the addresses sched- uled for this morning, the program calls for remarks by vis- iting delegates from other states. We have a number of visitors present who are largely interested in the same lines FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 109 of work that we are here in Connecticut and we will call on some of them for a word or two. The first is Dr. J. B. Ward, delegate from the New Jersey Horticultural Society. I am glad to introduce Dr. Ward. Dr. J. B. W^ard: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: New Jersey sends her congratulations to Connecticut. We horticulturists there are working on the same lines as the horticulturists of Connecticut, and the same things confront us there that you have here. You have your Hale here ; we claim him in New Jersey, and not only New Jersey but the United States. He is a man that is doing a world of good to the fruit growers, and for the encouragement of fruit growers, and for the elevation of fruit growing. Yesterday, in his talk, he spoke of the time coming when this transporta- tion question would have to be met, and we are meeting it now in New Jersey. About ten years ago the state appro- priated about $200,000 a year for the improvement of state roads, and that appropriation has been carried on ever since, and some years increased; last year I think we had $450,000; but in the last ten years the roads of New Jersey have been improved, hard stone roads have been built throughout the state, and the farmers are already receiving the benefit. All the truck growers in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, for 25 or 40 miles, are using those stone roads to carry their truck into market, and instead of carrying two tons, like they used to do, many of them are now loading their wagons with four or five tons, and carrying it with the same facility that they formerly did, so you see the stone roads are benefiting the farmer. When that law was first enacted, the farmers opposed it bitterly, and yet it was the farmers' organizations assisted by the state board of agriculture that have fathered it, and for three years the commissioner of agriculture was the commissioner of public roads. So you see we are advanc- ing on the same lines that Mr. Hale has already recommended. Already progress has been made, experiments have been made on that line ; the horse will be abandoned and motor power sometime will be substituted. But with our stone roads many difficulties are beino- found. Instead of travelins: along at no THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. our old rate, we want to gel behind a three-minute horse, and the automobiles from the adjoining states are going through our state at a speed of i6 or 17 miles an hour, and the consequence is that the farmers' wives and daughters have been driven from the roads. Every day or two an acci- dent is happening, and somebody is being killed from the reckless way in which these vehicles are speeding through the state. Not only that, the clouds of dust that are being raised are ruining the small fruits. Now I have in front of my place about three thousand front feet, and all that ground is in strawberries, and with a west wnnd blowing there is a .cloud of dust that is constantly going over the strawberry beds and disfiguring the fruit, and yet we have got to meet this. Air. President, I don't know as there is very much more I can say, except that I wish we in New Jersey at our horticultural meetings could get such fine talkers as you get at yours here. I am delighted to see the enthusiasm that you good men of Connecticut are showing by coming out and attending your meetings. It is to me a very good sign of the progress of fruit growing in Connecticut, where persons take an interest to come in the way they have attended this meet- ing, especially yesterday, and I want to congratulate you, Mr. President, on that feature of your meeting. President Eddy : I will call on Air. C. E. \\'heeler ot Alaine, who is largely interested in apple growing. AIr. Wheeler : Air. President, and members of the Con- necticut Pomological Society : While I am not here as a dele- vgate from the Alaine Pomological Society, yet being a life member of that society, I know something of its workings, and I want to say in the first place that they are working" .along many of the same lines as you are, and I will now give you just a brief history of the beginning of that society. I think it was organized in 1873, and one of its by-laws is that every life member shall pay ten dollars, which shall constitute a permanent fund, of which the interest can be used from year to year. The state always gives them one thousand dollars each year to use, and we hold our meetings a little .different from what 3-011 do. We at first used that money in holding an annual meeting in September in connection FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. in Avith the state agricultural society, but it didn't give us satis- faction, it came too early in the season. We now hold it in November when the fruits have matured. We are not troubled with San Jose scale so far as I know. We are not fighting that, but we do fear the brown-tail moth, which is fast coming into Maine ; in fact, it is scattered the whole length of the sea- coast from Kittery to Bar Harbor, and it extends back per- haps 25 to 50 miles inland. I don't know as there is any more I can say along that line, but I do just want to say one word to you people here in Connecticut, situated so differently from the people in ]^Iaine, with large cities within your state, and surrounded by large cities, you hardly know, you hardly realize the chance that you have to dispose of your crops, and I think you should do everything you can to urge the retailing and the growing of better crops of fruit here in your state. President Eddy : We have with us a man that represents a business that a good many of us are a little shy of, but we think we have in him a square dealing commission man, and we will call on Mr. A. Warren Patch of Boston to say a word. ]\Ir. Patch : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I cer- tainly thank you, Mr. President, for your very kind introduc- tion. I have been in tliis business some thirty years, and I knov/ the kind of healthy and unhealthy remarks that are made about commission men. At the same time we are all human, and I don't know as we get rich any faster than the people that grow fruit. I bring you the greetings of all the com- mission men in Boston, and I beg to assure you I am pleased to be with you, and when I see the amount of apples and the showing you make down stairs, and when we know the quan- tity_ of strawberries you grew last spring, and the amount of peaches that were produced in this state, and when we hear as we did yesterday about the barrels of apples used and the prices you obtained, it calls to my mind a little incident I saw- in the paper, where the father got a little indignant and spoke to his wife in this fashion : "Don't that young man in the front room with Sarah know enough to go home?" And the little boy spoke up and said: "Papa, he can't; sister's sitting on him." So I say to you, gentlemen, don't allow yourselves to think that Connecticut cannot grow apples. The rest of 112 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the states cannot sit on Connecticut ; she can grow apples, she can grow peaches and strawberries, and it is up to you to get the quality. The gentleman who just preceded me mentioned that subject, and I would only like to emphasize it a little further. It is the quality that is going to count; the world is going to produce any amount of fruit, but it is not the quan- tity of fruit that is in demand in any market, and the best thing you can do is to devote your energies in getting a good quality, and not having so large a quantity. At the Interna- tional Apple Association, held in Put-in-Bay last August, the fact was brought out that a very large class of the vinegar produced in the United States was adulterated, and was not made from apples, and that if all the vinegar that w^as used was made from apples, it would take off the market a very large quantity of what we call seconds or cider apples, and that is true, I think. But for all that, I think a man had better have a hundred barrels of a fine quality than to have two hundred of an inferior quality. He saves the labor of picking ; he saves the ground in growing them ; he saves the prices of the packages and the time in packing them and ship- ping them to market, and if he sells them at home, he gets more money out of the one hundred barrels of good fruit than he does out of the two hundred barrels of inferior fruit. I was asked last evening and this morning quite a good many times about the box for a package. I don't want to precede any thing or antedate anything, but I don't think that in the eastern markets the time has arrived for the box package. 1 am still a barrel man, and, as far as I read the handlers of apples in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. I think the unanimous opinion would be for the barrel. I might interest some of you who have asked what the prices of apples were in our city by saying, that you are getting near as much for apples here as we can get for you in our city. Of course, we have had some very nice apples — Kings — that have sold for $8.00 a barrel, and the market for Baldwins is ranging from four to five dollars. There are some fancy Baldwins put up that are bringing six dollars, but you must understand those that are bringing six dollars are apples that you get three or four barrels out of possibly ten barrels, strictly num- FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 113 ber ones ; so you can see the three or four barrels are away ahead of fancy. 1 am pleased to be with you, and I hope it will always be my privilet^e to unite with this association in its annual meetings. I have had a pleasant time, and I thank you all. President Eddy: Can we have just another word from our friend from New Jersey, Mr. Skillman? He is going to leave us very soon, but I think he is in the hall now. Mr. Skillman : I realize that this is complimentary, and I appreciate it, but I don't want to say much ; I talked enough yesterday, and you don't want me to give you a double dose. I came here as a sort of kindness to Dr. Ward; he is very young (?) and I thought he would need a chaperone; and so I will simply say that I am glad to be here, and I appre- ciate your kindness, and will shake hands and hearts with you. You have got an ideal society, and you have got an ideal room to meet in ; it is the handsomest I have ever been in at a fruit meeting; you have got an ideal president, and an ideal secretary, and if you don't appreciate him you ought to, and you had better keep him right along; and in addition to all that, you have got still more, you have got J. H. Hale, I say to you, go ahead, you are doing a good work; use plenty of lime sulphur and salt, and I know the Lord will reward you all. President Eddy: If I had thought it was going to be all taffy I wouldn't have called on him. j\Ir. Fenn : I want to interrupt with a question. I see that Oregon apples have been sold for $4.50 a box, the price we have been getting for a barrel of fruit. Now doesn't that in a meas- ure help to bear out the box as a package, Mr. Patch ? Mr. Patch : No, I don't think so. If you will notice these boxes of apples from Oregon, you will see that every apple in them is a fancy apple. You are all working to get the most money out of your crop, and I tried to illustrate that when I told you that if a man only gets three barrels of fancy out of ten barrels of number ones, I don't believe he would make so much money as if he sold his number ones at $4.50. The few boxes of Oregon apples coming here have a 114 I^HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. very limited sale; you don't see them moving rapidly. Of course last year there was a combination of men in Philadel- phia, New York and Boston, that went out to Oregon and bought fifty cars of apples, but, instead of going there as competitors, they united here and sent one firm out to buy the apples, and they distributed them in the different cities, and there were only two cars came to Boston. The price is too high, the bulk of the people won't use them. I can't see any use in the box ; I don't think it drives out the barrel ; I can't see it that way. Mr. Fenn: One dealer in New Haven has been selling Oregon apples at a dollar a dozen — only think of it! I don't believe if the Connecticut apples were grown as fine as the Oregon apples, that anybody would pay that price for them. Mr. Ives : Does anyone know what per cent, of the apples grown by the Oregon growers are packed in those boxes? Do they get 50 per cent, or 25 per cent, into those boxes of the crop grown there in Oregon? Mr. Patch : You want to know what proportion of the apples that are grown are packed in boxes. I have an idea from what I have read and been told by men who have been more especially in the Hood River valley, which I understand is only about six miles long and ten miles wide, that section there seems to be a good apple growmg country, and they liave not been troubled with scale or worm, and it seems to be one of those places where apples grow extra fine, and I understand they get a very large proportion of very fancy -apples. Mr. Ives : Those Oregon apples, shown in our exhibit here, were evidently well sprayed, and in the Hood Siver section, I understand that they spray in some places a great many times, and I am curious to know what per cent, of fancy fruit they get ; they make eight or ten sprayings generally, somebody says a dozen sprayings. Mr. Patch : I can't answer that, but I am a thorough "believer in spraying. President Eddy : I would like now to call upon ]\Ir. E. C. Powell of Massachusetts, if he is in the room. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 1 1 5 Alu. I'owKLi. : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I am very glad indeed to be with you again and represent in a measure our Massachusetts growers. If you look along this row of seats you will see we have several representative growers here from Massachustts. There is a feeling of regret, however, that one of our most prominent growers, who has been here several years and addressed your meetings, Mr. Sharp of Richmond, is no longer with us. He passed away this winter, and in his death I think Massachusetts loses one of its most successful and most prominent growers of small fruits. I think we have others that are capable of taking his place, but yet it makes a void that will not soon be filled. I was very much impressed yesterday in looking at the tables of fruit you have down stairs, and it struck me it is not neces- sary for Connecticut growers to go to Oregon to get specimens of good fruit. I think it was shown last year that Connecti- cut can grow as fine apples as any other state. As to the matter referred to just previously, the number of Oregon apples that get into the boxes, from the best information that I have at hand the box is the universal package in Oregon, and all through the apple growing section east of the Cas- cades, and we only see a very small amount of it here ; very little of it in fact comes east of the Mississippi river, and, as Mr. Patch says, two carloads is enough to supply the Boston market. The one reason that the Oregon grower gets such fine apples is, I think as a rule, they give better care and cul- ture than we do. There is an article in the current issue of the Farm and Home about the Hood River section which is very interesting. I believe it is only seven miles wide in its widest part, and ten or eleven miles long; a territory that will not exceed seventy square miles. It is not much larger than some of your Connecticut townships, and yet there is not one township that is celebrated outside of Connecticut for its fruit. You have the reputation for the state, but not for any partic- ular section, and I think I am not casting any criticism or reflection on you in saying that ; but there is a little valley that is known all over the world for its apples, and it is so with the whole western country, most of their apples are grown in small valleys in a limited way. But we need not go to the west or Il6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. go to Canada to grow good apples ; if we will give them the same care in cultivation, in pruning and spraying, we can grow as fine apples here in New England, and we certainly get as good prices, and average much better prices for our crop than anywhere else, because we have the best markets right at our door, and we don't have to pay fifty cents a box to get them to the market ; we can take them in the wagon to the market. So I say to you now, only grow apples, but better apples. The San Jose scale is going to drive out these fellows that have got a few scabby apple trees ; they have got to go out of business, and the man that will give his best thought to the production of fine fruit is the fellow that is going to win out. President Eddy then announced the appointment of the following special committee to consider the matter of member- ship, in conformity with the resolution adopted at a previous session : A. G. Gulley, Edwin Hoyt, Orrin Gilbert, Stanclift Hale and Secretary Miles. Prof. Gulley : In accordance with the usages of this Society, I would move that a committee be now appointed by the chair on the nomination of officers, to present a list to be voted for this afternoon. Seconded and unanimously passed. President Eddy appointed the following as the committee: J. N. Barnes, Yalesville; George F. Piatt, Milford; J. T. Molumphy, Berlin; G. G. Tillinghast, Vernon; J. E. Andrews, New Britain. President Stimson of the Agricultural College: ]\Ir. President: I think in the past four years I have not taken up much of the time of the Pomological convention. To-day I would like to take a few minutes on a matter that is of con- siderable importance to us all. You heard about our big neighboring state last night. Out in New York they are doing things on a big scale ; they are trying to deal with the San Jose scale in a large way in many localities. The conditions in some parts of New York are very much like the conditions in Connecticut, but in other parts the conditions are quite different. We in Connecticut must depend on ourselves for FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 1 17 the solution of some of the problems that confront the fruit growers, but we may depend upon other people for solving part of the problems which we share along with them. Now there is in the United States a double system calculated to assist practical farmers in their operations. There is a National department of agriculture, and a system of United States experiment stations. On the state's part there is a state agri- cultural college in each one of the states of the union, the state agricultural college contributing to the work of the United States experiment station in that state. It seems to me it is going to be good policy to further the ends of both of these great institutions. Connecticut is not prepared, so far as we can judge, to assume the full burden of all the experi- mental work that ought to be done in the interest of the prac- tical men who are up against these serious problems in fruit growing. Connecticut, like all other states, needs friends at the great seat of government. One of ' the best friends the farmer has to-day in Congress is the Hon. H. C. Adams of Wisconsin. ^Nlr. Adams has for several years pushed a bill for the further endowment of the experiment stations, that is to say. the United States experiment stations in the different states of the union. This year we are given pretty good assurance that there is a strong probability that the bill which Mr. Adams has introduced will become a law, and that will increase, if it does become a law, resources in each state for experimental work. You have had our station men in your institutes in all parts of this state. The files of our experi- ment station and college are loaded with letters containing inquiries from men who have had trouble at home and who wanted help. We have sent our men to your orchards and to you personally to talk things over. Some of them have led you astray, as Mr. Skillman said yesterday he had been led astray on some points. But, gentlemen, you see we have been learning from you, and you have on the whole, we believe. been learning from us. Now, on our part, we must imme- diately ask you to build a horticultural building at the Con- necticut agricultural college at the state expense ; we must ask you to give us some greenhouses at the college at the state expense ; we shall also have to ask you to give us a good model Il8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. dairy barn at the colleg'e at the state expense. Now, then,, the state will have all it can do to meet the needs which ought to be given in order to further the work of experiments in agriculture in this state. We need, however, in addition, the aid from the National government which the Adams bill aims to give. Therefore, I have prepared a resolution calling- on the Senators and Representatives in Congress from Con- necticut to further the interests of this Adams bill. I may speak with less diffidence for this reason, that if this increase comes, it will be divided^ — we will not get it all; I am speak- ing for the entire experimental work in Connecticut, but the Connecticut Agricultural College and Storrs Experiment sta- tion will receive only half of any benefit that may come to Connecticut. We have two stations in this state, one at New Haven and one at Storrs. The New Haven station will get half the increase, unless you go to the legislature and order otlierwise. The resolution is as follows : JVhereas, the problems before the fruit growers were never so serious, nor so imperative of solution, and Whereas, the agricultural experiment stations of this and other states are among the most important agents for the betterment of fruit growing conditions ; therefore, be it Resolved, by the Connecticut Pomological Society in annual meeting convened, ( i ) that we unanimously favor the passage of H. R. 345, introduced into Congress by the Hon. H. C. Adams of Wisconsin, and (2) that our secretar\- be and is hereby instructed to communicate these our sentiments to the several Senators and Representatives in Congress from Con- necticut, together with our respectful request that they aid the passage of this bill by every means in their power. The resolution was seconded and adopted without a dis- senting vote. President Eddy : We have been some time in reaching the first address on the morning's program, but it is now my pleasure to present to you Mr. T. L. Kinney of Vermont, a man famous for the fine apples that he produces and who will speak to us on the subject of the New England apple crop. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 119 A New England Grower's Methods of Growing and Marketing the Apple Crop. By T. L. KiNNEV of South Hero, Vermont. Afr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I am very glad, indeed, that I have been crowded back, because the discus- sions that have been going on have been so interesting and so profitable, and 1 hardly feel myself worthy to take up the time when it is being so well occupied, but, like the New Jersey man, I want to say that I am delighted to see the enthusiasm and the enthusiastic work which this association is doing. I am also delighted to see the display of fruit that is presented here in Connecticut; I am delighted to see the audience you get out, because in a way we are all interested in New England, not only the purchasers but the consumers ; but I must get down to the business point of New England apples. I want to say that New England apples are the com- ing fruit of New England. I know very well you have accomplished wonders in the production of peaches in Con- necticut, I know you have been very successful along that line ; but remember that Maine and Vermont cannot grow peaches, but we can grow apples, and you have exhibited here the fact that Connecticut can grow apples, and so I say indeed that New England can claim for its coming fruit the apple. The apple is the coming fruit all through New Eng- land, and all through the world wherever it is known. It is a fruit that can be carried everywhere, and can be consumed with a relish and with a benefit to all the people of the world. We have heard about the apples that are exhibited here from Oregon. I have been wondering since I came in here and saw these boxes of apples exhibited here from Oregon, and was told they were picked up on the market and brought in here because they were Oregon apples, if Oregon or any of the Pacific coast states in their Pomological meetings ever picked up a Connecticut box of apples and brought it into their exhibition rooms. Why is it we take their boxes of apples for exhibition and they don't ours? Because they have made a mark, they have made a name that is known all over the world — Oregon apples — and they are ])utting tlicm in boxes. I20 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. You know we have been hearing from the marketmen of Boston just now about the barrel as being preferred by the marketmen of Boston instead of the box. There are several reasons for that. You know the barrel can be rolled, and the box has to be carried, and the marketmen in Boston like to roll things. Then again, the box, as a New England market production, is a new thing in the Boston market. Up to this present year there have been very few boxes of Oregon apples in the Boston market, but this year, I understand, they were presented a few from some wholesale dealers in New York. They have had more calls for the box of apples than ever before, but they are not dealing in them very extensively. I wrote to the members of the firm we are dealing with and asked them a question similar to one that was asked here. I said to them, *T see by the paper that the Boston market are selling boxes of apples from Oregon at five dollars a box, and you are giving us returns at from two to three dollars a box on pur apples; how is that?" He writes back and says, "You understand, every Oregon apple is perfect, and you understand further that the men that are buying these boxes of Oregon apples at five dollars a box, which means fifteen dollars a barrel, are the class of customers that let their accounts run for six months or a year before they pay, and we common handlers cannot wait that time for payment." There are a great many reasons wh}- the Oregon apple is sold for those extreme prices, but our own apples when sold in boxes sell or have been selling as high as three dollars a box, which makes nine or ten dollars a barrel, there being about three and one-third boxes to the barrel ; but there is lots of objection to the box business. Now v/e will consider the production of apples, after the tree or the orchard has become of bearing age, and the first matter that I will call your attention to will be the matter of pruning. We learn from the nurserymen's catalogues that the standard apple tree is self-sustaining and will care for itself, after it comes to the bearing age. Now that statement has gone by, and never should be placed in a catalogue to-day, because the apple tree when it is in the bear- ing age to-day, in order to produce the best of fruit, must be pruned continually until the time it is pruned the last time with the axe at the bottom. Ever\' apple tree should be cared PLATE II. ^> A BLOCK OF GREENINGS AND SPYS. Apple Orchards of T. L. Kinney, South Hero, Vermont. VIEW IN MR. KINNEY'S VERMONT ORCHARDS. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 121 for just as surely, and as truly, and as scientifically as the dairy cow is cared for by the best dairymen in the country. We hesitate when we say we are going to set out an orchard, and that we must care for those trees a hundred years. Do you know that an apple tree in New England will grow for a hundred years if it is well cared for, and produce fruit all that time? Now you see when we start out in apple produc- tion in New England, we are starting out on something that is for our own good, and our children's good, and our grand- children's good. Everyone should have a special time to prune, but I don't think it matters much when that time is, not so very much. I always prune in the spring of the year after the snow gets off, and I try and get it done before the •other work is crowding me ; and when you have an orchard of a hundred or a thousand trees to prune, large trees of a bearing size, you want to get right at it and see it is all pruned, because if you leave a portion of it undone, you are going to leave it that way the whole year round. Now about the imple- ments for pruning. The pruning saw is the best implement •of all ; that is an implement that is used more than anything else. The shears are a very good thing, but I want to say right here that the crosscut saw with two handles on each end is a wonderful good thing, and you should always have it in your orchard at pruning- time. If you have a gang of three or four men pruning, very often you want to cut off a large limb, and you can do the work quicker with that than you can with anything else, and it is quickly done, and you can move right on and do something else. Look out for your implements, and see that they are well taken care of iDefore you begin your pruning. The next subject for us to •consider is the soil cultivation. Mr. Hale: When you cut off that big limb with the saw, what are you going to do with that wound? . Mr. Kinney : We will cover that wound with something like shellac or wax, but if you don't do that up in our country it ain't going to die, it goes right along and it will heal over in a little while. But that is an important ])oint and worthy of our consideration. In order to not mar the beauty of that tree when you cut off a large limb, you ought to cover over 122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. the wound with some substance rig-ht after the wound is made, and it won't let the sap run very much and it will heal over very readily. Lime and some other materials, such as whitewash, have a very good effect, and wax is a very good thing, and that is wdiat I do with a wound. I look after that just as carefully as I do any other' part of the work. Soil cultivation is one of the most important things which New England orchardists have to consider ; it is wonderfully important, llie question has been asked here how early or how young can you get an apple tree to bear. It depends very largely on the soil cultivation. The question was asked here if the system of mulching was a good thing for New England orchards, and I should say no. It may be very well in the blue grass region, or some place where the grass grows so luxuriantly that it will rot, and continue growing and growing, but that is not the case on the hills of New England. Here we have a hard matter to cover our orchards with a mulch that is sufficient to do away with cultivation. Xow the matter of consistent and continued cultivation is a serious subject to consider. We can cultivate our soil to death, and if we cultivate it continuously, the soil becomes hard and lunipy, and the trees cannot get the substance that is really there. I would advocate and do advocate a combination of cultivating and mulching, which is to cultivate during the growing season, and then follow on with a cover crop, which is really mulching. Now you can put on cow peas for a cover crop or beans or clover, and the next spring plow that in, and then you have the nitrogen substances all ploughed in, and it all contributes to the soil, and gives it all the moisture and heat that there is. Scientific men will tell you how many tons of water an apple tree will draw up- in a given length of time ; I don't know anything about that, but I know it will draw a great deal ; but they say very little of what it draws from the atmosphere. In my own mind I think that while the apple tree draws a great quantity of tons of water from the soil and earth down below, if the condition of the surface soil is right and takes it to its use and consume> it, yet it draws pounds of water from the atmosphere, and the pounds are more valuable than the tons that come from the FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. I23 soil below. The moisture that comes from the atmosphere in the form of dew or light showers is carried through the clouds and brouglit down to the soil, and if we have that soil in a proper condition, it will take in this moisture and hold it there, and the roots can get it and use it, and you have got more nutritious matter, more growing material in the atmos- phere moisture than from the same amount below ; so if we have the soil condition to hold this moisture, we are going to gain both wa}S. We go out in the morning and we notice the slate roof of our house, and we will see the water trick- Img down through the conductors, and yet we have had no rain^ but it has gathered the dew to a certain extent and it runs down through the conductors. Then we walk along to a barn with cedar shingles on it, and there is no water run- ning down there. Why? Because the cedar shingles have absorbed all the moisture, but the slate roofs on those houses that are flat will hold the water, the dew, in little puddles. Now the soil under your apple trees and about them, if it is blanketed with a fine nice mulching blanket of fine soil, absorbs the moisture and it goes into the roots of the trees, while if it is covered over with grass the moisture stays there, and when the sun climbs up it soaks it up in the atmosphere and takes it away. It is a little thing to look after the prun- ing, but it is constant every-day work from beginning to end ; but the little points, if well attended to, mean success in Xew England fruit growing of any kind. Now there is a point about the time to cultivate — when shall we cultivate? Com- mence cultivation just as soon after springtime opens as we can, and don't make the soil lumpy. If you cultivate when it is wet, you make it lumpy, and it is not in a condition to get all the benefit it should. Cultivate as early as you can, and cultivate until the middle of June or the first of July, and then have the soil very smooth, and as smooth as you can. If it is an orchard, you can cultivate and seed it down to some crop, and I might dwell longer on this, but I don't think it is necessary. Then the next spring plough it in again, and cul- tivate it again. I am glad to see the implements down below for cultivating the soil and tilling the soil, and I want to say that I use a plow for ploughing the orchard, and then a very 124 ^^-E CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fine tooth harrow, and keep it just as fine as I can. We will leave that matter and come to the point of spraying. I don't wish to dwell hardly a bit on the subject of spraying-, because it has been so thoroughly discussed and handled better than I can do it. I won't say anything about the different things for spraying, because that subject can be better handled by the experiment station and the scientific men. There is one point in spraying which is important, and that is to consider what implements we are going to use. Don't in a large Xew England apple orchard think of spraying by hand, it is too much work. You can't do it and do it well. Get some kind of a power behind the pump that will throw a fine spray and throw it thoroughly all over the tree. Then we come to the harvesting, and you see how these things come right along so closely after each other. You hardly get through culti- vating and spraying before the harvest time comes, and it don't seem as though the apples are ready, and yet they are there hanging on the trees, and each tree that contains a few barrels of apples will have in each barrel four or five hundred individual specimens, and we have got to pick them one at a time by hand in order to make successful work in harvesting. You must be very spry, for the man who handles a gang of men in picking apples wants to be right on to his work, and right after these men, and if there is a poor picker among them, send him out splitting rails, because a poor apple picker is like a poor dairy "cow to the dairyman. Don't have a man that is not adapted to picking apples very long at that work, for you want a man to be very careful, so that when he goes up into a tree he will pick all within his reach before he comes down. Some men \\'\\\ put a ladder up two or three times to get all the apples in a particular place, while another man will put it up but once. When a man goes into a tree with a basket on his arm, see that he picks them all as he goes along. Be very careful that the picker breaks off the apple as he should, and not yank down three on the ground while he puts one into the basket. Sometimes you will see them lay a basket down on the steps of the ladder, and then pick an apple and drop it down into the basket; don't let him do it. Then we have got to take each individual four hundred to a FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 125 barrel, and if a thousand barrels are picked, just think of the number of special movements there are to g^et it into the barrel. Then comes the question of sorting-; what will vve do about the sorting, at that time of the year. We will sup- pose we have a storehouse to put our apples in, and I will suggest that we sort those apples at the apple picking time. It is the nicest time in the world, just when the days are a little longer than in the dead of winter, and it is the time we like to work and we are accustomed to it. But if we wait until the winter, the days are short, and we are spending our New England evenings out late, and we dread to get up early in the morning. So I say to you, sort your apples in the fall when you are picking them, unless they are to be sold immediately, and put them under cover just as quick as pos- sible ; in fact, put them into the place where you are going to keep them as quick as you can. There is a time in the his- tory of the apple when it begins to rot, and while you may hinder it you cannot stop it, for sometime that apple is going* to be dead, and that is the time when you want to delay them ; don't think you can stop it, because after it has commenced to rot, you can never bring it back by putting it in cold storage. Here is another point you ought to consider in the apple picking season. If it is a hot, sultry^ time, I think you should use a great deal of judgment in picking those apples, and not put them in barrels when they are really warm. You know an apple is the same temperature all through as it is at the surface. Now if they are hot, and you put four hun- dred of them into a barrel, and head it up (we may call it the animal heat in those apples), it will never come out, and you can put those apples into cold storage, but they won't keep. We are not troubled very much in that hue ; this past fall we didn't lose one single day for warm weather. It does not matter if the apples are wet, if the pickers are willing to pick them. You can put them in wet, and it doesn't hurt them. Water doesn't hurt an apple ; it is the heat that hurts it, combined with the water. At about the apple pick- ing time it is very im])ortant that you get your utensils ready for picking, your baskets and ladders. See that your baskets all have hooks on them, and have everything all ready, so 126 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. that after you get one variety picked you can get them out of the way as quick as you can, 'because another variety is Vv^aiting for you at the close of that. Now there is a time for picking. The time to pick is when they will pick easily. You ought to leave the apples on the trees as long as you can safely and get all the color and all the size you can. With us I think we don't have as long a time as you do, from some information I gathered from Mr. Hale yesterday, which was ver}- new to me, but in our country we don't have as long a time between the ripening of one fruit and the ripening of another ; we don't have as long a time in the blossoming. As he tells me, one blossom will come out and the other will lie dormant aside of it, but up in our country our trees will blossom in a day, and the blossoms are gone in a day. Some- times you go out into your apple orchard and you think your apples will stand two or three weeks yet, and you go back there again two or three days after, and you will find half of them are dropping-, and when the time comes for them to drop they will drop very quickly, yet some years they hang on until the snowy weather, and so the different varieties need to be studied. The packages for the Xew England apple is a very important topic, which I spoke of a little while ago I am like our friend from the Boston market, I like a barrel the best for the New England apple, and I think I always will, because, as he has told you, you can get more for four barrels of good number one apples than you can for three common number ones and one barrel of selects ; the difference is not enough in a nice, choice box of apples, and a barrel that contains a good grade. Again, the facing surface is very important in all our markets everywhere you go. It is a very important matter that the facing of a box or barrel of apples is perfect. This dealer or any other Boston dealer will tell you if you have one poor apple in the face of a barrel, and a man comes up to buy a barrel of apples, he will see that particular apple, and he will hold you there until he has beaten you down in your price. But if they are all good, he will take that barrel of apples and go off satisfied. But the facing -of a box is more than the facing of a barrel ; you have three .boxes for one barrel, so ycni see it takes more time to face up FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 12/ a box than a barrel, and time is valuable at all times of the year. There are all those things to consider, and it is a very easy matter to pick out a box and say this box is not packed properly, but yet I think all the New England orchardists ought to be up on the box question, and ought to be shipping a few boxes to build up our reputation, and keep in touch with the practices of other sections. Storage is a very impor- tant matter to the New England apple orchardist. How many dairymen are there in the state of Connecticut that have not got a good dairy barn? How many apple orchardists are there in the state of Connecticut that have got a good apple house? We don't think of those things as we should; we are not studying them as close as we should. Up in our part of New England, there are not half enough apple houses. If we have lOO barrels of apples, we ought to have a place to put them away in ; and if we haven't, when the buyer comes up from New York he will say to us, "You have got to take our price, because you haven't got a place to keep them in ;" and every farmer that hasn't got a storehouse is under the control of those buyers and speculators, and they are the shrewdest workers in the country, and they are men that don't care how tight they hold you, and they will beat the farmer down until they get his apples as cheap as they can, and they combine every effort to get a wedge under him, so as to get his neighbor's apples a little lower. Now the day has gone by when the American agriculturist shall wait for the speculator, whoever he may be, to set the prices on farm goods ; the time has gone by when the New England farmer should allow speculators to come to New England and tell us what our apples are worth. Look at this associa- tion that was spoken of this morning. They have their organ- ization, and before the apple crop is ready to harvest, they know what the condition of the crop is all over this country, and they know what the market in this country and foreign countries is, and they are prepared to know what they must pay for apples. They paid an enormous price for apples this year, and they took anything that was put into a barrel, because they knew that the opportunity would be open to th^m to dispose of that apple product, no matter what was 128 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAE SOCIETY. in the middle of the barrel. All they wanted \\'as to get the g-oods. What do they care about the reputation of any grower or of Connecticut apples? Prof. Henderson says that the Maine apples have gone down from the standard they had five or six years ago in Europe and other foreign countries. And why? Because they allowed the speculators to do the packing. Now, when are we going to get together in Xevv^ England and have one regular form of packing all over it, and when are we going to get together and have our agents, so that we may know what the chances are for a large product this season in this country and foreign countries, and what the prospects are for a price ; and when we do get together, we wnll be able to say here in New England that our apples this year are three dollars a barrel, but if anybody can get more let him do so, but we won't sell under that. When will we cooperate in every way to bring farm products up to the standard? This is a matter which must be done through cooperation, and I want to speak just a moment on that sub- ject. We have been cooperating in the Champlain valley, in just a little part of it, on this line, in shipping our fruit to market. You know it is impossible for a man with twenty barrels of apples to ship to Boston or New York, because they are liable to freeze before they get there. But a combi- nation of farmers can get together, and put in ten barrels apiece, and somebody can get a car and we can fill the car all together. Now the car we are shipping in goes right to Boston, and comes right back to us ; it is in our employ, and just as quick as it gets back we are ready to load it. and by telephone communication I know wdiat my neighbors are going to put in, and they put in all they want to. and I put in the balance, because I have a larger storehouse than they. We shipped a carload a week every week this winter ; last winter we shipped two carloads a week, and the winter before we shipped less than that, and we never have frozen any apples in shipping, and that was done through cooperation. This is not organized cooperation, it is cooperative work on a small scale. Our dairymen very largely through New England are cooperating in the sales of their products, and are getting better results from cooperation. I want to call FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 129 30111" attention to the prices received in the last few years by 5onie of our growers up in our county. I have here a state- ment of one of my neighbors. I consider a barrel of apples will cost delivered at our nearest station one dollar a barrel, and I consider that is a good average cost. If we sell a barrel below that, it is a loss. Now if we consider that a barrel of apples costs a dollar, how often are we selling our apples for less than two dollars? If we are selling our apples for two dollars, we are doubling our money. Now is there any other agricultural product in New England that will match it ? How often do we get three dollars a barrel ? This past fall we were paid all over New England three dollars; it is a wonderful product. This list shows that the average price for apples for the last five years since 1900 was $3.43 a barrel. Now^ he got for his green apples in 1900 $2.97 a barrel, and he received for all his number ones and number twos and his red fruit $3.90 a barrel. Now^ in 1894, when the buyers were buying apples up our way at $1.25 and $1.50 delivered at the station in the fall, and they wouldn't touch a second, they didn't want them ; he kept his apples through the winter and shipped them at $2.50 net for the number ones. He is not a big orchardist, but he does like a good apple, and he likes to take care of them, and he has always got a market for them in either New York or Boston. I might say some- thing about my own prices, but they don't vary much from his, only I grow more apples and more varieties than he does. His prices are very high, and he has very few unsalable apples, and that is what you want to guard against. Those varieties that I get the best crops from and get the best prices for are the Rhode Island Greening, the Spy and the Spitzenberg. The Rhode Island Greening is a won- derful apple for us, jet it don't sell so high as the Spy or the Spitzenberg, but it bears every year, and this year has been commanding ^as high a price in Boston as the Spy. Don't push on to the market a variety that the market don't want ; hold that variety until the market calls for it. It calls early in the season for the Snow and Mcin- tosh, then a little later for the King and Spitzenberg, then the 130 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Rhode Island Greening. Hold your apples until you can meet the market, and at the time when the market wants your fruit. Discussion. . A lively discussion followed Mr. Kinney's excellent address, the many questions asked and answered attesting the deep interest of fruit growers in the apple — still the most important topic in any fruit meeting. A AIember : I would like to ask Mr. Kinney how he keeps his apples in winter, whether he keeps them in cold storage or not? Mr. Kinney : Our climate in northern New England does not need any ice in our storehouses to keep our apples right. The atmosphere in nothern New England is all sufficient for the keeping of winter apples, and if we can only retard them by putting them in a room that can be ventilated to meet the changes of the temperature in the fall, it will be sufficient. Every individual here that has ever built a barn or a house would know just what to do. You want a building that is air tight, where the atmosphere can be kept regular from day to day, and constant over a warm spell and cold spell, and the temperature even from month to month, in order to keep your New England winter apples. To build a storehouse for a farmer's use depends upon the size of your crop. Our store- house is 30 by 50, and it has two storage rooms, one partially underground and the other entirely above ground, with a good wall and with tight outside boarding, with two hollow spaces between the two walls, and then we have double windows and shutters outside of those, and it is practically air tight. \\'e ventilate through the windows very largely, though we have a ventilator that goes up through the top of the building. I don't know but this picture shows there was an observatory on top of the storehouse, and that is not only fine for a ven- tilator to the building, but it is a grand place to go and look over the orchard and look over the lake and the mountains on each side of us. Prof. Gulley: Please state a little about when you put FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEE TING. 1 3 1 the apples in in the fah, when you are pieking them, how you regulate the temperature then ? Mr. Kinney: We regulate it entirely by the atmosphere. We always have at our place a cold west wind, and we open those windows and let the air blow through, and when the wind shifts and the warm breeze comes we shut them up. When we open up all of these it becomes quite cold in there, and when it gets warm w^e close them, and in that way we keep that room very cold, but not quite as cold as it ought to be. If ever ice is used it ought to be used at that time to cool dovvn the fruit a little more, but there is no danger of these winter apples going down in a minute if they are put in there cool, and the air is cold to the extent I speak of. One point in storing. Take an apple like the Rhode Island Greening, and it is much better to store in crates than bar- rels, because they don't scald so badly. They do dry up a little more in crates. We don't cement our cellar, because we find we get a good deal of moisture from the soil, and that helps to keep them moist, and the apples are not inclined to dry up ; I think in western New York they use crates for storing purposes. Bins are ver)- good for the Northern Spy. When w^e were short of barrels, we built a bin the whole length of the cellar, and we put in over three hundred barrels of Spies in that bin, and I was fearful that the bottom apples would be squashed, that there would be too much weight there, but I found when I took them out they were all just as fresh, and there was not a jammed one in the whole lot. We use a spring wagon to carry our apples from the orchard to the storehouse, and if we buy any apples a few miles away, we always head the barrels before we draw them. We never head our barrels of Spies when we put them in this storage; it saves jamming and they keep just as well in an air tight room, and where there is no change in the atmosphere it is not necessary. Mr. Hotchkiss: The Spy is not as profitable in my orchard as some other varieties. • ]^Ir. Kixxev: It is so with us to a certain extent; the Spy needs a special soil. On the east side of our farm I wouldn't set a Spy tree because it is underlaid with a hard slate rock, 132 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. but on the west side the soil has a lime-rock bottom and vou can go down there and pick it up, and the roots can go down there, I don't know how deep, into this lime-rock soil. Select the variety that is suited to your soil. We used to think in New England if we were going into the orchard business that all we had to do was to select a locality, but to-day what we have to do to grow good New England apples is to select varieties for the locality where we wish to put them. Mr. Hale: Do you practice thinning your apples in the summer season, that is, thinning out the surplus apples, and do you also harvest them all at one time? Mr. Kinnf.y: We never try thinning our apples, but the Greening and the Baldwin, and the Spy and the King and the Spitzenberg I don't think need thinning in our section, pro- vided the trees are properly trimmed. The trimming of trees after they are at the bearing age is one method of thinning fruit. In regard to the picking of our fruit, practically when one tree is ready of a variety they are all ready. Mr. Hale: What I meant was, does all of your fruit tnature on a tree at the same time, so that it is in the same stage of readiness for picking on the same day ? Do you pick the ripe fruit that is mature and leave that which is not, or do you pick it all, whether mature or not? Mr. Kinney: The fruit I think is all mature at the same time, but the fruit on different parts of the same tree is not all alike. On some parts of the tree it may be very red, and on other parts it may be lighter color, but that light apple is just as much ripe as the red one, in my experience. All of ovir apples of the same varieties, I think I am safe in saying, ripen near enough together to say that they ripen at the same time. You know that all you can get out of your neighbor is fruit plunder, and if a certain variety of apples is doing remarkably well with your neighbor, watch them and study them, and put them in your own orchard if they are a success. Mr.' Warner : I would like to ask if Mr. Kinney suc- ceeds in getting a full («rop of Baldwins every year on the same tree? ]\Ir. Kinney : I think it can be done ; we have succeeded in fruiting them for three years past. But the Snow apple. PLATE III. SHIPPING VERMONT APPLES TO THE BOSTON MARKET. APPLE STORARGE HOUSE OF T. L. KINNEY. South Hero, Vermont. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 133 I don't know of an orchard that bears in Vermont except every other year. I think where we fail is, we don't under- stand how to fertilize the soil. It seems to me that the buds of the Baldwin tree can be so promoted in the fall that they will be ready to bear fruit again the next year. A Member: \\'hat do you use for fertilizer? Mr. Kinney : We fertilize by ploughing in the cover crop, and I have fertilized with bone meal and potash, and put it on in the spring. I am not an authority on that matter only so far as my own experience goes, but I think our soil is deficient in potash, and that is something our experi- ment stations ought to tell us more about. They ought to come into our communities and test our soil and help us out. I would like to know what I ought to apply on my Spy orchard to get a better color. You all know that these apples are often deficient in color, and I think potash w^ll bring out more color. Mr. Ives: Don't you find the color better some seasons than others? Mr. Kinney : Certainly. The atmosphere has a great deal to do with the coloring of fruit. Last year we left some Spies on the trees a long time, but they didn't seem to color up a bit. The Spies were very poor color last year, and especially in this orchard that was treated with potash. We notice this, the orchard that has not been cultivated at all, gives us the best colored Spies we have got. The finest col- ored Spies I ever saw was in a neighboring orchard that was not cultivated at all ; but remember this, that orchard had not borne a good crop of apples for a long time, it was practically kept dormant from the fact that it had not been thoroughly cultivated and pushed along, and when the season did come, that orchard was just ready to bear and it did bear, and the season being just right to color them, it colored them up fine. I think it had been gathering up the right kind of fertility while my orchard had been bearing fruit every year and was partially exhausted. Now, if I knew what to put on my soil to keep it up to the highest standard, I could make my apples bear and color well vear after vear. 134 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A Member : What is . the comparative ratio of vield between the Spy, the Mcintosh Red and the Wealthy? Mr. Kinney: I can't tell exactly. I think the Mcintosh and Wealthy will yield double the number barrels of apples the Spy will ; they are great bearers. Now whether we shall become intelligent enoug'h so that we can make the Spy bear every year, I don't know. The Alclntosh and the Wealthy are two wonderful apples ; they are the leaders and they are demanded in every market, and we can grow them in almost every part of New England. One point about mulching. There are many orchards in New England where you can't cultivate ; in that case v.'hat can you do ? You can't do any- thing but mulch. There is a nice orchard up in central Ver- mont, up near the top of a mountain, where a man had a pasture that became so overrun with hardback that there was no feed there, and he plowed the land and set out apple trees, largely Mcintosh and Wealthy, and he draws manure up there every year and mulches the trees and he is getting wonderful results ; and do you know that the Mcintosh and the Wealthy grown up there keep much longer than those grown on the lake shore. Now, that is in favor of the rough hill country, which a few years ago Vv^e didn't think could grow anything. Mr. Hotchkiss: If you were to set out an orchard at the present time, what kinds would you set, say an apple orchard of a thousand trees? Mr. Kinney: I would use about four or five varieties for market purposes. I might name the Spy, the Baldwin, the King, Spitzenberg, the Mcintosh and the Wealthy, and the Talman Sweet, and the Greening. Next on the program were two short papers on the impor- tant subject of Nursery Stock, the first being presented by Prof. Gulley of the Connecticut Agricultural College. The Need of Better Nursery Stock for Orchard Plantings. By Professor A. G. Gulley, Storrs. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : The topic assigned me is the need of better nursery stock. If you look around FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 135 you will find at least four men in this hall who will tell you that is a very foolish question. Mr. Gardner, j\Ir. Hoyt, Mr. Perry and ^fr. Barnes wall say, ''Come to us." Every one of them is correct. Any one of these men can furnish you stock that is grown anywhere within these United States. Therefore, this topic cannot be discussed without to a certain extent taking in some other issues. Perhaps the first one that comes up wdiich makes any difirerence to us is, ivhcrc are we to go for our nursery stock?. My owm plan has been, in handling and using it for several years, to get it where I could most satisfactorily. I am not a bit particular personally whether the trees come one, five, ten, fifty, or a thousand miles, so long as I can get what I want that will be satisfac- tory to the condition or place I expect to use it. There is only one limit, as least as far as I know, in getting stock. Whoever goes w'est of the great lakes strikes into the prairie type of soil, which is different from anything this side of that line, and those trees do not do as well east, as the trees from this state. New York, Michigan or northern Ohio. I have never found a man who said it made a particle of differ- ence where you got peach trees, and I don't believe it does. The soil upon which the peach is grown is nearly always sandy land, and they all do well on that kind of soil. There is one thing certain, you can get as good stock from your local nurserymen as )OU can anywhere else. If you insist on the local man growing the particular kinds you want, they will grow them for you, if the soil in this state will do it. There is no excuse for a man being humbugged buying nur- sery stock. The man who gets bit to-day buying trees of any kind does it wilfully, or simply because he is trying to beat somebody else ; in other words, he is taking them of some- body that has offered trees very cheap, or something in that line, and he is the man that is to blame. Every one of our newspapers gives you a list of g-ood nurserymen in every state, and men who are reliable. If I am buying and want standard stock, I very seldom send an order to a man who advertises many new things ; let us buy from the man who is advertising the general standard stock, and as a rule you will get satisfactory trees in nearly every case. If you want to 136 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. try new things, why then you can get as many of those as you see fit. and you will get very badly bitten once in a while. There is one thing that the nurserymen are prone to do, and particularly the small local nurserymen, and that is to create demand as well as supply it. This is a mistake. In other words, they will advise you to take varieties simply because they have them growing, or can grow those varieties easier. Some kinds will give to the nurserymen, ready for sale at the proper time, 90 per cent, salable trees, while of other kinds the nurseryman that gets 50 per cent, is getting a good, large number of trees of that variety. Let the nurseryman have a large ftock of a certain kind, and he is pretty apt to advise you to use them. In this case the buyer should do his own selecting, and make the nurserymen grow what he wants. Any nurseryman will supply "now what you call for. Up to five years ago you couldn't buy low headed trees in this state, but our new methods of handling these trees in the orchard have reduced very materially tl:e height at which we want these trees, and, as I learned two weeks ago in Rochester, there is not anyone but what will fill you an order for two-foot trees or lower ; they will all come down to it if you want them that way. That has been the objection heretofore, it has been almost impossible to buy from the nurserymen trees as low headed as you wanted them, that is a three-year-old tree, but you can buy them to-day, and it is just as easy to grow a tree headed two feet down, as four ; it is only a question of demand. Too many of our growers put too much emphasis on the ques- four or five or six dollars a hundred. Mr. Kinney told you that an apple orchard is planted for 100 years, and a peach orchard is good for 15 years, or ought to be; that is a very low limit. Never mind a dollar or two more on a hundred trees at planting, it is a very small matter. This question of cheap trees is much advocated by the buyer ; don't be asking for cheap trees so much as asking for trees that are good. Now, cheap trees may include several other things ; you may get a tree that is most decidedly cheap, and get some other things that you didn't expect to get, in the shape of insects, or diseases, or something of that sort; they generally come in with cheap trees. Cheap trees are the kind that don't always FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 137 prove to be what they are said to be, or what you buy. In planting at different times and at different places a great number of trees. I must confess I have got wholly out of the idea of small trees, and personally I have no use for a small tree ; I want a good strong tree in any orchard that I plant. There is another thing that comes on top of this. Small trees always mean lower grades out of the same lot. If a nurseryman takes an order for a hundred or a thousand peach trees, he groups them under certain sizes and prices, and you get them in that way, and it is practically the same in the apple tree, unless you order a one-year-old tree or a two-year- old tree, you get simply weaker and poorer trees right out of the same lot. From the growing of these trees a good many times and in different ways, I am certainly satisfied that the stronger tree pays the best. Another thing that purchasers don't consider half so much as they should is the variation in the growth of trees. No two varieties of apple trees grow just alike, and if anv of you will come up to our college, we will show you the dift"erence in shape of two trees of a certain age, and, you would hardly believe it, they are just as differ- ent as you can imagine. Now all trees, as I say, do not grow alike, and, as I mentioned a moment ago, some are much easier for the nurserymen to grow, and this point is not con- sidered by the grower half as much as it should be. If a man sends an order for a certain variety, insisting that they shall be straight and large, he will get them very often, or the order will be refused ; but if he gets them, the chances are that he will be surprised at the similarity of the fruit when they come to bear. I don't understand why the nurserymen don't make a little difference in their charges for a straight tree. It costs easily twice as much to grow some varieties as it does others. I have always found it difficult to get a Bosc pear from the nurserymen. Send them an order for fifty Bosc trees alone and you won't get them, but if you send them an order for 150 trees of different varieties, including some Bosc, you will get them. They will not say to you, we will give you the Bosc pear for so much more additional, but I do know they refuse to sell them alone. It is a very difficult and mean tree to grow, but if they would price these things a 138 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. little more definitely, then a man could get what he asked for. I never have seen a nurseryman's catalogue in which they distinctly priced the different stock they grow. Personally, I have no hesitation in planting crooked trees. Take a variety that naturally grows crooked, but they will straighten up, and you will be surprised to see how the crook disappears as they get older. Better nursery stock in one line means better varieties. We are having that thrown at us by every speaker that has spoken here before us, and there is no doubt about that; let us plant the varieties that this state ought to grow. We certainly can grow some of these varieties of better qual- ities, and it is a great deal better than handling these cheaper growing trees, with which we must compete all over the land. They cannot -grow them out west, but we can, and, especially with our local markets, you can find a market for these finer kinds at almost your own prices. Take some of those Mcintosh apples, for instance. One gentleman told me last fall he sold all he had at five dollars a barrel. Those are not supposed to keep as well, but the Mcintosh and some of those higher grade kinds can be grown perfectly well, and it is only a C[uestion of planting and growing the tree. The main thing, on the whole, is to get healthy, strong trees; get them where you can buy the best, and then give them the proper care afterwards, and that is about the whole of it. The "Pedigree Idea" in Nursery Stock, By Edwin Hoyt, Neii' Canaan. So much is being said and written about "Thoroughbred" or "Pedigree" nursery stock I deemed it advisable to try to show you the fallacy of the term thoroughbred as applied to nursery trees. The term thoroughbred, as applied to cattle, horses or other animals, is well understood by all intelligent farmers, and if it was not for the fact that such stock is more expensive to buy than the common bred animals all who wished to buy stock would purchase onl}- the thoroughbreds. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 1 39 When care has been taken to breed up an animal so that it will be able to produce its kind to almost perfection, when mated with one equally well bred, it means a price for such stock which is beyond the reach of the averag-e farmer. The term "thoroughbred" carries with it the idea or thought that all bad or undesirable traits have been removed — it is par excellence. Then, the term "thoroughbred, " when ap- plied to nursery stock, carries with it the idea of its superiority over some other nursery stock, and thereby some are deceived. It is not strange that this is so, for too many of us are quite apt to accept these plausible statements as facts. 'Thoroughbred trees," "Pedigree trees/' oh, how nicely it sounds ! What an inviting and tempting bait it is ! Now let us look briefly into this matter. We will take an apple tree for our study, and see if the term thoroughbred, as we under- stand it, can be reached in its propagation. To plant the seeds from a Baldwin apple, to raise improved Baldwins would, you know, be impossible. It never has been done and never will be done. If the Baldwin cannot be reproduced from the seeds of the Baldwin, can we have thoroughbred apple trees from their seed? We cannot, of course. The Baldwin of seventy-five years ago is the Baldwin of to-day, and the Baldwin of to-day is the same as seventy-five years ago, and equally as good. I am aware there is a difference in the appearance of Baldwin apples, as may be seen at any ex- hibition, where a number of samples are shown, yet they are Baldwins, just the same, but are grown under dift'erent conditions, hence the difference in looks. There are some who think the Baldwin lias deteriorated and the fruit is not what it was when first introduced. I do not believe this at all. I do think, however, that the trees have, in some cases, been weakened by propagating them from scions taken from stunted and unhealthy bearing- trees. A tree grown from scions taken from a young, thrifty tree and grafted on a young, healthy seedling, planted on good soil, well cultivated and fed, will bear fruit as near perfection as it can be grown, but starvation and neglect in growing fruit as well as in animals will not give prefection. The statements made by these growers of so-called "thor- oughbred" trees, viz., that the scions are taken from trees 140 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. known to be annual and heavy bearers of very fine fruit, there- by making trees "thoroug-hbred" and more sure to bear every year, and much finer fruit, is not, in my opinion, a fact. It is done simply to catch buyers, and yet, as unreasonable as the statement is, there are many who believe it to be so. Is there any reason for believing- that scions taken from an overloaded, and may be an old tree, or any bearing tree, will make a healthier, stronger, longer lived tree, and one more likely to bear every year finer fruit, and trees more produc- tive, than from scions of the same variety taken from thrifty, healthy young nursery trees. I do not believe there is one reason that will stand the test in favor of such propagating. When the New Canaan Nursery was first started in 1849. scions were procured from a nursery in Syracuse to start our Baldwin trees, and all the Baldwin trees grown in our nursery since that time have been taken, year by year, from our young nursery trees. Nine years ago this coming spring, we sold to Mr. C. B. Meeker of Westport Baldwin trees which were grown from scions taken from our nursery trees over forty- five years. I have here a sample of Mr. Meeker's apples. The trees these apples grew upon produced last season four barrels of picked apples each, the ninth season from planting. This fruit looks as though it was thoroughly fed, if the trees were not so-called thoroughbred. Could any Baldwins be finer? Would anyone expect or wish a tree the ninth season after planting to bear more than four barrels of such fruit? Now it is not that the Baldwin trees Mr. ]\Ieeker had nine years ago were any better Baldwin trees than the thousands and hundred of thousands of such tree we have grown and sold in the past fifty years. It is simply the conditions under which this sample fruit was grown. Any one of the thou- sands of trees we have grown would do the same under like conditions. I know there are some w'ho will differ from me in this last statement. Ex-Governor Lounsbury of Ridgefield bought from our nursery ten Northern Spy apple trees, and when they came into bearing, there was one tree (I heard him say) which bore a different apple from the other nine: that it was a large and different flavored apple. Now I never saw Mr. Lounsbury's trees or the fruit which gre\v upon them, but I will venture to sav if the ten trees were all true Northern FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 14I Spies, that if any one of the other nine had stood in the place of the one he so highly prized, it would have borne equally as good fruit. There was something in the soil in which that particular tree grew which differed from the soil where the others grew, and which this tree found, but Mr. Lounsbury did not know of. It does not follow, because some of the trees of the same variety growing in an orchard produce larger, finer and bettered flavored fruit than some other trees in the same orchard, that the trees are different, or that the variety is different. The difference is caused by the conditions under which the fruit is grown, and these conditions may vary ma- terially in an orchard of only one acre or less of ground. If we could turn the X-rays on and look into the ground, we might find the reasons why some trees of the same variety will do better in the same orchard than others. I. have often heard the question asked. What effect has the stock upon the scion, and is not the fruit changed some- what by the stock the scion is grafted upon? I would say in nursery grown trees, no. In top grafting large trees some- times with some varieties, there might be a slight variation, while if grafted with some other variety but little, if any difference would be noticed. There can be no material differ- ence in the fruit of nursery grown trees of the same variety grown and fruited under the same conditions. In growing trees we start them with one or two-year-old seedlings like these (shows samples), and graft them as I will show you (grafts a tree). The graft as you see is three or four inches in length, and the root about the same length. When this root graft is planted, it is planted so as to leave only the last bud out of the ground. In a week or two the graft begins to bud out and new feed roots put out from the piece of the root. Both scion and roots begin to grow and live upon the stored up sap or plant food in the scion and root, which is liberated by heat and moisture, until able to draw its food from the soil and air. As the sprout from the scion grows, so also does the root, each contributing its share to build up* the tree. Now does this small portion of root used have any influence upon the scion 142 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to change the character of the fruit? Xot in the least. If the fruit, in flavor or appearance, was changed by the stock upon which is is worked, would not the pear show it when worked upon a quince stock? You will see by this tree that roots have come out from the scion (shows tree) which would be sufficient to feed and build up the tree without the root upon which is was grafted. Now the fruit of a tree started with this small root cannot be influenced by the root, for the roots are the underground part of the one tree, and the fruit it produces is absolutely true to its kind. Thus it is that this fruit of Mr. Meeker's, grown from trees propagated from scions taken from nursery trees seventy-five vears or more down from the parent stock, are as typical Baldwins, no doubt, as those grown upon the original Baldwin trees. That the stock of a properly grown nursery tree changes the character of the variety grafted upon it, there is not the slightest reason for believing. The best trees to plant are those grown in a nursery, on a dry soil, making bright yellow roots, a firm, hard wood that will stand the winter frosts, and that will not shrivel up from a day or two of exposure. Trees taken from a pasture, reset and top grafted, is a slow and an expensive way to get an orchard of the best fruit. Do not buy any trees and set them in poor or wet ground, and neglect to feed and cultivate them, for they will not pro- duce thoroughbred apples ; neither be led into buying trees from plausible statements made by nurserymen, for, with the great competition there is in this line of trade, it does not tend to make saints of them all. any more than it does in some other lines of business. Know your men from whom you buy. and remember, that he who buys a good tree and plants it has as much, or more to do in making it a "thoroughbred tree" when it bears than has the nurseryman from whom he buys it. President Eddy: As it is near time to adjourn for din- ner, it has been suggested that we defer the remaining address on this morning's program until afternoon. If there is no objection, the Society will now take a recess until 1.30. PlI'TEENrH ANNUAL MEETING. ' 143 AFTERNOON SESSION. The Society re-assembled promptly at 1.30 for the closing- session of the meeting. After calling- to order, President Eddy announced that the first business of the afternoon was the election of officers for the ensuing" year. The report of the committee on nominations was called for. Mr. J. Xorris Barnes, Chairman of that Committee, pre- sented the following- list of nominations for the various officers : For President — J. C. Eddy, of Simsbury. Vice-President — J. H. Putnam, of Litchfield. Secretary — H. C. C. Miles, of Milford. Treasnrer — Orrin Gilbert, of Middletown. County Vice-Presidents : Hartford — J. T. Molumphy, Berlin. New Haven — John R. Barnes, Yalesville. Fairfield — Stephen Hoyt, New Canaan. Litchfield — Chas. L. Gold, West Cornwall. Middlesex — Chas. E. Lyman, Middlefield. Nezc London — \V. S. Thomas, Groton. . Windham— U. B. Buell, Eastford. Tolland — Andrew Kingsbury, Coventry. On motion of Mr. N. S. Piatt, it was voted that the report be accepted, and that the Secretary be instructed to cast one ballot for the list of ofhcers as submitted by the committee. The Secretary then proceeded to cast one ballot for the en- tire list, and the following w^re declared duly elected for the ensuing term of one year. President. J. C. Eddy, of Simsbury ; \lce-President, J. H. Putnam, of Litchfield ; Secretary, H. C. C. Miles, of Milford ; Treasurer, Orrin Gilbert, of iMiddletown. County Vice-Presidents — Hartford, J. T. ]\Iolumphy, Ber- lin ; Nezi' Haven, John R. Barnes, Yalesville ; Fairfield, Stephen Hovt. Xew Canaan ; Litchfield, Chas. L. Gold, West Cornwall; 144 '^'^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Middlesex, Chas. E. Lyman, Middlefield ; New London, W. S. Thomas, Groton ; IVindhani, H. B. Buell, Eastford ; Tolland, Andrew Kngsbury, Coventry. President Eddy : I will say I appreciate the compli- ment you have again paid me, but I would have been better pleased if you had put some one else in as president. I wull endeavor to do* under the circumstances, the best I can for you. (Applause.) Secretary Miles : Would it be entirely out of order and using time more valuable for something else, if I should claim y^our attention for a moment to thank you for reelecting me for, I think, the seventh time to the office of secretary of the Society. I wish to say that I appreciate your continued confidence in me, and if you will assist me in the coming year as you have in the past years with the work, I will try to do as well, or better, than in the past, to make our Society and its work a great success, and a power for good in the state of Connecticut. That is the object for which we are all working, and that is why I say we must all have our hearts in the work. I thank you very much, gentlemen. ]\Ir. Hale : The remarks of the worthy secretary call to mind the amount of earnest work that he has done for this Society for a very small compensation, and we have loaded it on him again. He is not a perfect secretary, and he makes some mistakes, and he is open to criticism, as we all are, but I don't believe that there is any member of this whole Pomo- logical Society that would as willingly put in as much time and do the work belonging to this Society as our secretary does, and it seems to me that every one who comes to these meetings as they do, year after year, and enjoys them, and pays the little insignificant dollar, ought to do more, when they consider the amount of work that our secretary does all through the year at the rate of about five cents a day, and I think that instead of paying a dollar membership fee, we ought to be willing to pay three or five dollars, a*id I certainly am ashamed of some of my brother fruit growers in Connecticut who, I notice, come to these meeting's year after year, who never pay riFTEHNTH ANNUAL MEETING. 145 at all and never become members of this Society because it costs a dollar. President Eddy : The first address this afternoon is one that was unavoidably crowded out of the morning program. We will now listen to Mr. S. H. Derby of Delaware, on the important subject of Fertility. The Fertility Problem in Fruit Culture. By S. H. Derby, Woodside. Del. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I don't know that you need in Conecticut soil fertility in the same measure that we need it in Delaware. Prehaps you know that the Delaware and Maryland peninsula is alluvial wash, so that a large part of our state is a light loam, running to sand. There is another thing tliat makes me think that probably you don't need as much fertility here in Connecticut, because I understand that Mr. Hale advertises to sell "water" in his fruit, with just a little coloring matter in it. Rut I recognize that the fertility problem generally is before every farmer of the eastern part of the United States, and how long it will be before the zvesfern people have exhausted what seemed to be an inexhaustible store of fertility, I have no means of telling. In Delaware we find soil that has been skinned thin, to begin with — one that has been skinned by the slaves or worked by the slaves, and all products of the soil sold off. So that those who went from the North into Delaware and began to farm, found they had an exhausted soil; they found a beautiful climate, they had plentiful rainfalls, but they had no store of soil fer- tility to fall back upon. We began years ago by trying rye and buckwheat, and some other things to turn down. When the Experiment Stations of the United States came into existence. Delaware had its experiment station, and they began in Del- aware, as they did elsewhere, to make experiments to see what could be done to restore the fertility of the soil. Many cover crops, chiefly the legumes, have been tried in Delaware, but crimson clover and cowpeas are mostly used. Crimson clover gives the quickest results, and all tilings con- 146 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. sidered, the most valuable returns for the outlay. It is well that these are not days when men are burned for witchcraft, for if they were, the men who first used crimson clover in Delaware, and who boasted of the almost miraculous richness imparted to the soil from its use, would surely have been broug^ht to trial. Even in this age I recognize that I risk your incredulity in speaking of its marvelous powers, and its adapt- ability to the needs of those who till our soils. You probably know that the shores of the Mediterranean are regarded as the home of this wonder working plant, and that years elapsed after its introduction into this country before much use was made of it. Years before 1888 it was used and condemned, but that year some who were trying it began to know its value for soiling, for hay, and most of all for its power to increase the fertility of the soil. It was recognized that ni- trogen was chiefly the element introduced by its use ; practical trials also showed that it, in some way, made available the latent store of phosphoric acid and potash contained in every soil. We now know how the nitrogen comes as a free gift from the air, caught by the agency of bacteria contained in the nodules on the roots of every thrifty clover plant, but just how phosphoric acid and potash are rendered of use is still a disputed question. It is, however, agreed that the plant only adds nitrogen. The other elements are brought from several feet deep in the earth to the top, to the soil that is used in the ordinary farm routine. Under wise management of this plant all the nitrogen needed in the orchard can be se- cured at a very trifling cost. Such crops as corn and tomatoes can be supplied with all the nitrogen needed. Corn after corn can be grown, and each year the yield increased. A good stand of crimson clover turned down is considered equal in fertilizing value to a good application of barn-yard manure. Unaided the plant does not, however, make much growth on so-called dead poor land, but once a stand is secured, an appli- cation of two hundred pounds of soluble phosphate rock, and fifty pounds of muriate of potash, or their equivalent, will give a good growth of clover, and in one season (and that the so-called dormant season) bring about an entire change FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 147 in the physical condition of the soil and put it in condition to yield a good succeeding crop. The summer is not needed to do this, for the plant grows in late fall, winter and early spring. The chemist tells us that quite twenty-five dollars would be needed to purchase fertilizer in the open market to equal the fertilizing value of one crop of crimson clover. This laboratory test of value is borne out by practical results, a few of which are given. Eleven consecu- tive crops of apples, with no fertilizer but crimson clover, the last crop as large and good as any, and the trees grown where only a few years ago ten bushels of corn per acre was the usual crop. A crop of six bushels of wheat per acre, and on the the same land a few years after, sixty bushels of shelled corn per acre. The corn crop chiefly the result of one crop of crimson clover. On soil too poor to be of any use, after a good stand of crimson clover was dressed with two hundred pounds of soluble phosphate rock and four hundred pounds of muriate of potash per acre, and then gave a large hay crop, and also the same season was planted to corn on July first, and produced thirty-four bushels of shelled corn per acre without other dress- ing. As a live winter orchard cover it is unexcelled, preventing- leaching, washing, and from our light soils, blowing of the dust ; in other words, by its use our real estate is not movable. A gentleman from Alaine who had been through Dela- ware a number of times, was much pleased this year with the beautiful, green fields of whea^ where, in former years, dry, weedy peach orchards only greeted the eye during the winter. There is now no excuse for any orchard not meeting the artistic side of man all the seasons of the year. One drawback to continuous use of crimson clover in orchards is too much nitrogen, and consequently too much wood growth; to adjust this condition some are using strap-leaf or cowhorn turnips for cover crops, with good results. The old remedy for worn- out land was rest, but Nature never rests, and the cover crop system only follows Nature's teaching. Look at the bleak hillside and the brown level plain in a country of rainfall, and look quickly, for Nature will soon cover them with her in- numerable shades of vegetable life. Some of those chance 148 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. seedlings are soil consumers, and some are soil improvers. Man simply improves on Nature, and makes sure that every plant enriches the soil when he plants crimson clover. Note how well this plant fits into the Delaware orchardist's plans. On his light soils in the early spring, when the plant is only six inches high and practically all the water that the ground has caught during the winter is still there, it may be ploughed down, and at that stage of growth will give ninety-five per cent of its possible fertilizing value. As the size of the fruit, its color, flavor and quality, the growth of the tree, and care of next year's buds, depend usually on a wise conservation of the spring store of water, this adaptability to early ploughing is of very important value. The pertinent question for the Connecticut orchardist is, what plant can we use to equal crimson clover? And that problem is theirs to solve, if not already done. The only hint I can give to them is my belief that nature has provided the plant just suited to their soil, climate and other conditions. In Delaware so important is the queston of water supply to orchard fertility, or rather to orchard results, that the univer- sal practice is to give clean culture from spring time to har- vest, reversing perhaps the old way which gave continuous early cultivation, to giving the most cultivation later, when the energy of the tree is devoted to perfecting the fruit. The sum of Delaware endeavor for orchard fertility is then : Wisely using Nature's best plants to add nitrogen, and adapt mineral elements, cutltivation, conserving the water supply, and give the sun and air a chance to ai(5 in improving the soil. The motto is, make Nature work for you. Now, then, I have been speaking of light soils. In the upper part of Delaware, where they have a heavy clayey soil, it was found that they would lose nearly 50 per cent, of the value of the clover plant by ploughing it under at that stage of its growth. Now then, in ploughing that crimson clover down early in the spring, we have ploughed it in at a time when the winter's rains are in that soil, so that we have all the value of the crimson clover and we have all the water we can get in the soil. Now at once we begin to put on our harrows, and we work that soil to keep the water contents FIFTEENTH .INNUAL MEETING. 1 49 there. lxx"uise the size ami the color and tlie (|uaUt_\' of our fruit (lei)encls in a great measure cm the water contained in our soil; we can't get beautiful apples, we can't get beautiful luscious peaches without we have the water there, it is a necessity. And it is a well known fact that there is nothing that conserves the water supply in the soil as well as cultiva- tion. We use when it is necessary a harrow with a large tooth, whether it be a spading harrow, a cutaway harrow or anything else that would cut it up wdien it is necessary, but when we are not obliged to do that, we use a fine tooth har- row simply to keep the surface broken all the time through the season. Xow the old way used to be that we would go to work and plough the orchards in x^pril, and put the harrow on and harrow it every week until June or the first of July. While we like to keep to those early harrowings in order to keep the ground mellow on the top and conserve the fertility, yet it seems to us we must go further than that, that a little later the fruit will begin to swell and the draft on those trees is much heavier than it was earl\- in the spring, so we want to keep a continuous harrowing until later in the season, so it has got to be the first of August or after before we cease ctil- tivation in those orchards, and by that time our fruit is plump and well colored. And, by the way, the color depends on the sunshine. That leads me ofif to another point that probably is not within my topic, yet I will speak of it. The color of the Oregon apples, the color of the Colorado apples, the Ozark region apples, depends on the long continued sunshine they have in those regions, and that means we have got to intelli- gently trim our trees, so that each apple may stand out by itself, so that the wind and the sun can kiss the cheeks of the fruit ; that is what makes color. We all of us know there is no painter like the sun. Knowing that, then, it is clear to us that while we have not the immense amount of sunshine that they have in those western regions, we must utilize every bit of sunshine we have got. The work in Delaware, then, for orchard fertility is to do all the cultivation we can for the tree, and to conserve all the fertility we can and all the water we can by the use of .the cultivator. In a word, to repeat. 150 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. we are trying to attain the best results in our orchards by making nature work for us. Discussion. A Member: If crimson clover is planted after the last cul- tivation, what effect does it have on the plants, driving a horse and team over it, while harvesting the crop? Mr. Derby : No appreciable effect. A Member: Not with a heavy team handling the crop? Mr. Derby : No sir. A Member: You don't mention rye as a cover crop? Mr. Derby: I don't want to; it doesn't add anything of value to the soil. A Member: One time I had a crop of rye just about ready to plough under, and a gray-headed farmer came along and he said the same things as you did — I wouldn't give a cent for that rye to plough under. He says that grows from the soil, and takes from it all it puts back in it, and then if you plough it under you are putting back just what it has taken from the soil. But wdien you come to figure out and find that 95 per cent, of that rye came from some other source than the soil, you are putting back something that didn't come from the soil. Mr. Derby : I suppose rye will do if we haven't anything better, but why use a plant whose character is so inferior to' several other plants we have ? There are other legumes that may be used in the same way as crimson clover, but our use of the crimson clover has demonstrated it is the best food of anything for our soil, and I want to say, if I didn't say it before, that I am talking about Delaware not Connecticut. You have got to fit things to suit your conditions. A Member : I understood you to say that the soil was rather of a lime and clayey nature in one part of Delaware, and I would like to inquire at what stage of the growth of the clover you plough it under? Mr. Derby : In northern Delaware there is a broken-down granite formation, a very heavy soil, and it is a compact soil, and it seems that the bacteria on the crimson clover plant in such a compact soil don't get to work as early as they do FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 151 in our lighter soil, where the water can get in and penetrate, so that it is later in the life and growth of the crimson clover before the nitrogen is there, while on our light soils, where the bacteria can get to work early in the season, we have 95 per cent, of all the fertilizing value of that crimson clover when it is six inches high. I saw somewhere that the Delaware fruit exchange had advertised crimson clover seed all over the United States, and I sold some of it here in Connecticut, but to-day I am buying my own crmson clover seed, so I am not blowing my own horn. A ^Member: I tried crimson clover here in Connecticut, and it was a failure. Mr. Derby : That might occur and the season might not be favorable, or the seed might not be good, but any farmer that sows any seed and does not prepare the soil properly before he sows it, deserves to have a failure. The bacteria must be in that soil before any clover plant will thrive on it, and you must get it there some way. Prof. Clinton : I consider that for our Connecticut soil rye is one of our best cover crops, especially for our hill land, and next to that I will place the mammoth red clover. Now the crimson clover grows splendidly in the valley, but I like something that will start growing early in the spring. When spring comes the crimson clover that is alive will begin growing, if we have had a favorable winter, but when we have winters like the last two, it is a failure, but almost any winter we have the mammoth clover will be alive, and will start growing early in the spring, and it grows just as rapidly as the crimson clover, and will do every work that the crimson will do ; but don't be discouraged, and don't let anyone tell you that rye is not a good cover crop for our New England hills, for it is a splendid cover crop. Mr. Hale: Our good friend no doubt talks what he means, and means what he talks, but he doesn't know what he is talking about; at least so far as Connecticut orchards are concerned. Don't you listen to any man that tells you to plant rye in an orchard, because it will stay too long in the spring, and your ground will have its moisture pumped out. The ob- jection that is made to crimson clover in Connecticut is a 152 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. good one from one point of view, and that is that crimson clover will not live through all of our winters. But if it lives through the winter and starts to grow in the spring, you will find it is all right, but it is a great temptation. It looks so pretty and beautiful, and it grows so rapidly that you are tempted to put off your ploughing a few days longer ; it is such a beautiful thing and there is going to be so much more of it to turn under the next week, and by that time you are busy, and then you have got this enormous mass that Pirother Derby tells about. There have been a great many losses from ploughing under these heavy clover crops jn the spring, after letting them grow too long, and I thank God our crimson clo- ver sometimes dies in the winter, and we can go right along in the spring with our cultivation. Prof. Clinton : I know that such a man as Mr. Hale can- not resist temptation. He certainly would be tempted, and yield to temptation. I had in mind our general fields, because we have lots of fields not devoted to fruit growing. I had those in mind when I spoke of the rye. How to Realize the Greatest Profit from our Fruit Crops. President Eddy: The next subject on the program is one of practical interest to us all, and will be in the form of a general discussion, "How to realize the greatest profit from our fruit crops." Apples will be considered first, and the discussion opened by a grower of experience, Mr. J. X. Barnes of Yalesville. Apples. Mr. Barnes: I do not know that I can better open this discussion than by repeating the words of Mr. Edwin Hoyt, spoken to this Society some years ago, "Perfect, handsome and attractive fruit, invitingly put up for market, should be the motto of each grower." I would say that such fruit should be of high quality, full of flavor or character, that there be no disappointment in anticipation when the fruit is eaten. FJFTEHXTII AXXUAL MHHTING. 153- With this kind of fruit we have something good enough to largely displace the orange, the great competitor of the apple in our markets. For years the speakers before this Society have been urging for the apple orchard better treatment in the way of thorough spraying for both insect and fungous troubles, to give sound and perfectly colored fruit, to cultivate and fertilize to give vigor and strength to the tree, to be re- flected in turn by the fruit in the way of yield, size and flavor. What better can I do at this time than to empha- size these, essential points? In the early season, just past, our apple orchards were full of promise, having a phenomenally full bloom, but by fruiting time the orchard showing a heavy yield was the exception, and the quality, as to soundness of fruit, was worse yet. I think I may. with confidence, urge that the experiences of this season are such as to show the great value of scientific handling and care of our apple orchards. A good strong soil and tillage is not enough, for while such trees may have re- tained enough fruit for a fair yield, 90 to 99 per cent, of it was wormy and defective, selling for the lowest price and' the last choice by the buyer of fruit, while fruit of the best grade has an almost unlimited demand, selling easily for one to two dollars per bushel, and it has been on sale on fruit stands in the city of New Haven at fifty cents per dozen, or the same price as fine oranges. Without doubt the possessors of apple trees of bearing age, here in Connecticut, have the past season lost thousands of dollars that might have been theirs by simply spraying, according to well-known rules. The failure to do so being shown first by the loss of a large per- centage of fruit before it became of any value or any pur- pose, another large percentage salable at only at ten to twenty cents per hundred weight, and of that remaining on the tree at picking time nearlv all of it imperfect and salable only at huckster's prices. Our orchards were among the fortunate few in our locality to yield a crop of fine apples. I must say I am surprised at the ease with which the fruit found buyers. Local grocerymen tell us that their customers bought them freely at the high price, preferring them to oranges. We have not been obliged to move a barrel of apples from our 154 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. storage place, dealers being anxious enough to get the apples to come and take them from storehouse as wanted for their trade. Aside from growing the crop our only cost was labor in picking and drawing to storehouse, and carefully picking out all wormy or defective apples, making a grade of fruit absolutely sound, practically no waste in using, and the quality was high, such as to make them preferred for eating to oranges. Therefore the apples sold themselves. This goes to prove that one of the best ways to get money out of the apple crop is to stop the leaks occasioned* bv care- less or indifferent methods of handling the orchard and crop, and which is shown in results in the quality of the fruit and in cash returns, and also to keep in mind the motto recommended by Mr. Hoyt. Air. Clark, our Massachusetts brother fruit grower, says, in speaking of the apple crop, "Stick to our New England hills and care well for the orchard while it and you are young, and when you have grown old, it \\'\\\ care for you." Words of wisdom, these of Messrs. Hoyt and Clark. Put them in practice and you will not only realize the greatest profit out of the apple crop, but also have an investment that will surely yield great future dividends in happiness, in contentment, as well as in dollars and cents The topic was then thrown open for general discussion, and many questions were asked of ^Nlr. Barnes. A Member : I would like to ask Mr. Barnes how many times he sprays? Mr. Barnes : I will have to say that our orchard did not get sprayed but once, for the reason that other work interfered when it should have been sprayed the first time, and before I could get to them the second time it was too late, and so we had a little womiy fruit to pick out. We sprayed just before the little apples commenced to turn over. Generally we spray right after the blossoms are oft', and later give a second spraying. A Member: Do you get apples every year? Mr. Barnes : Yes ; we got a nice crop of apples from this orchard the previous year. It is Baldwin apples quite largely. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 155 A Member: Did you have a g'ood crop tliis last vear? Mr. Barnes : Some of tlie trees were almost breakinf^, and many of them had quite enou^s^h on them. A Member: I would like to ask Mr. Barnes about his storage house and about the ]n-acticability of a farmer stor- ing his apples. Mr. Barnes : I think it is very practicable. I will say that the storehouse tliat we used was simply our peach pack- ing house and general nursery storage house, and the apples were not in cold storage, but in this storage room until along in December, when they were moved into the basement of this building. We made a bargain with a dealer early in the season at about one dollar per bushel, with no expense to lis for packing or delivering, or anything of the kind, the apples to be taken at our rooms. They were stored latterly in barrels, but earlier in the picking baskets, which are about the size of a half-bushel basket, stacked up as high as you want, but I will say that such apples as the red russett and Roxbury russett, and others that need a damp place, showed some signs of shriveling. We have a good storage cellar, but our apples were doing very well where they were so we didn't move them. A Member: Is the red russet a good bearer? Mr. Barnes : Yes. You want to keep it where it won't •shrivel ; it will bear well. A Member : Is it an improvement on the Roxbury ? Mr. Barnes : I cannot say that I think it is. I don't know as I would plant either at the present time. I would grow a Baldwin myself in ])reference. We have an old lot of trees that were full of dead limbs, and we cut out the worst of the trees, and the rest of them we trimmed out and fussed oVer until we have now got a very fine lot of trees in what are left, some of them forty feet high, and the San Jose scale in them too, because it is pretty hard to reach the top in spraying. Mr. Sperry : Do you succeed in raising a continuous crop •of Baldwins, year after year? -Mr. Barnes: I should say not, but I don't know why; we got two crops in succession this year and last. I don't 156 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. know whether it is in the treatment ; they have had the same- treatment every year, and they have had the same fertihzing, and the trees are in vigorous condition ; thev have not been sprayed with bordeaux mixture, simply Paris green and water. A\'e had some large Baldwin trees on which we thought there was not enough fruit, but we should have got a fine crop from those six year old trees if we had sprayed them so that the apples would have stayed on until they matured. We must spray every year. ]\Ir. Sperry: Have you had any trouble with the blight on your apple trees? Mr. Barnes : Not at Yalesville. We have an orchard in Cheshire that is not in so good a condition for some reason. Mr. Sperry : I should like to ask ]\Ir. Derby if blight is the cause of the Gravenstein apples maturing early and falling to the ground before they are ripe. We have that trouble here and can't raise them successfully. Mr. Derby : I don't see any connection between the two. Mr. Sperry: What about the foliage falling? Mr. Derby : You mean leaf blight ? Mr. Sperry : Yes, sir. Mr. Derby : Anv man who raises leaf blight, and tries to raise apples at the same time has got a big job on his hands. You understand that the leaves of the trees are prac- tically the lungs of the trees, and if you are going to keep- the lungs of the trees so they can work, it has got to be kept healthy. They must be kept free from fungus troubles, and as long as we have bordeaux mixture that ^can be put on easily, we can keep the leaves healthy. I don't care what kind of fruit you are growing, if the leaves of the trees are not healthy and are destroyed, the fruit will fall off. Mr. Sperry : I should like to speak for a moment in regard to turning under r}e. When I was quite a young' farmer I got it into my head that rye was a renovator of the soil, and I ploughed in a few acres of the heaviest rye I ever grew. I think it was about the last of May ; I didn't dare wait any longer because I was afraid it would all fall down. We ploughed that under, and I think it was a great injury to the soil. The succeeding crops did not respond as FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 157 .tho\ sliould have clone, .'iiul I think it caused too much acid in the soil. JUit where you can't grow an\thing- else. 1 guess rye is a pretty good thing on the New England side hills to keep them from washing in the winter. I don't think it adds much fertility. However, in regard to crimson clover, I tried a crop of it and raised a good crop ; it was in a young peach orchard that was not in bearing, and I was foolish •enough to let it grow to the blossom stage and cut it and made good hay out of it. but the orchard did not do as well that year, after that kind of treatment. However, proper fertilizing brought the orchard out later on. ^Mr. Barnes : The matter of growing crops on the Wal- lingford plains has been spoken of here, and I want to say this in regard to them. We own some land on the Wallingford plains, and for some ten or fifteen years we have made a practice of sowing rye on that soil whenever I thought it was going to be vacant, and we have used a good deal of fertilizer on that soil, but the first thing I do in turning over a piece •of that waste land is to put some rye on it, and I am very frequently asked wdiat I have done to that good-for-nothing plain land to make it so productive. I have taken pretty good care of it and have got it where I can grow good crops on it. This last year I failed to get a good seeding of corn on the land owing to poor seed, and along about July I sowed a mixture of crimson clover, red clover and cowhorn turnips, with the idea that I might succeed in growing a crop of crim- son clover that would go through the winter. I have several times got it to grow through the fall, but when it came spring I had none, and the land was barren of crimson clover. Well, the crimson clover and the others came up all right, and the ground at freezing time was thoroughh' covered with all these plants, but when spring came (the turnips having been allowed to remain on the soil mostly as a protection, hoping the crimson clover would come through) we were without any crimson clover, the turnips were dead, of course, but we did have a fine lot of red clover, and we got a suc- ceeding growth which was turned into the soil, and it made the foundation of a crop of nursery peach trees to sell to •our Connecticut brother orchardists. And I think for our 158 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. conditions, for that character of soil, and using large quanti- ties of fertilizer as we do, that rather than have that ground barren all through the winter, I would very much rather have a crop of green rye growing on it. I have many times failed to get a crop of crimson clover, so I cannot pin my faith to that, but I do feel that rye has added greatly to the char- acter of that soil. However, I wouldn't recommend it for orchards. A Member: I would suggest if anybody tries rye, espe- cially on light soil, that they plough it under when it is not very high, not over a foot. I have tried that quite a little, and if I were going to plough under rye in that way I would certainly advocate a good thorough harrowing after plough- ing. That is the experience we have had in our truck gardens. Mr. Sperry.: I wanted to say in reference to this cover crop question that I should prefer to sow the ordinary red clover, and I think that can be sowed along early in July, or any time in July, and if the soil will grow it, you can get a pretty good stand, and wood ashes will almost surely help to bring it in, and if you get a stand of red clover, you will get something this is of great value to the orchard. Mr. Cooke: I would like to tell you how I have kept apples through the winter the last few seasons, ^^'hen it comes picking time we go into the meadow and mow the fresh meadow hay, and then spread it under the trees, three or four inches thick ; that is to protect the apples that fall. Now, you all know that the nicest specimens ripen first in the top of the trees, and they all fall, and that gets rid of the first picking. We did not have to pick but once, as those that fell off struck that hay and were not bruised, and if it rains they are not covered with dirt, and the inferior specimens that drop are also clean and nice to pick up to make cider of. When it comes picking time we get into those trees and pick all the remaining apples. The nice apples we pick and put into baskets and take them under a tree that has a heavy foliage, where we build a bin that is thirty feet long, and sometimes longer, and we put them into that bin to the depth of three or four feet, and we leave them there until it comes almost freezing weather. Sometimes we FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MJiETlNU. 159 don't get ready to take them in until it docs freeze a little, and in that case we generally cover them up with old blankets, or straw, or anything that is handy to cover them with. Then I have prepared a cave which is 60 feet wide and eight feet deep, and the roof is made of chestnut poles covered with eighteen inches of dirt. I have read it was a good plan to box or barrel apples when you pick them, and one season I had a nice lot of Baldwins, and when I picked those apples I put them into boxes and stacked them up in the shed and kept them there until the last of October, or the first of November, and then we moved them to a cellar under the house. When I took those apples out in the winter we didn't g'et but four quarts of good fruit out of some boxes ; there was black rot all the way throug"h, and from that we arrived at the con- clusion that we had better keep them out of the box as long as we could. Now, my method is to take the boxes and fill them with apples and set them along each side of this narrow cave, and those boxes are all about two feet high, and I fill in between them and round them up four or five feet deep, and that cave, 60 feet long and eight feet wide, will hold a thousand bushels, and those apples will keep there until the next June, and they are perfectly firm and crisp. A Member : I would like to inquire what town you are from? Mr. Cooke: From Branford. President Eddy : If there is nothing further on the apple question, we will next take up peaches, and the discussion will be opened by Mr. Charles E. Lyman of Middlefield, who, as you know, is a large and successful grower. Peaches. ]\Ir. Lyman : This subject of how to realize the greatest profit from peaches, is a pretty big subject. It means first the selection of the location for your orchard, then the plant- ing of your trees and the general culture until you get the trees grown ready to bear a crop, and then you have just begun to get into the business, and the man that has never handled a peach crop will have his eyes opened before he -l6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. gets through, because I don't beheve anybody can tell him how to harvest a crop — he must learn by experience. I will first speak of starting an orchard. The best way in my experience (the way I would start an orchard) would be to set the trees quite near together. A few years ago I adopted the plan of planting something like 200 trees to the acre, and I would mark out my land and set my trees twenty feet apart, then diagonally on every row, I would set another tree, and that would make 215 trees to the acre. In cultivating those trees there are a good many difficulties to en- counter; it is very hard work to cultivate those trees if they are set out that way. Now, if it is planned to raise two or three crops between the trees while you are growing your orchard, it is a very poor plan; it is much better to plant your rows twenty feet apart, and your trees ten feet apart, and then cut out every other tree when they commence to crowd. This means devoting the entire land to peaches. In regard to the fertilizing, in growing your trees up to the fruiting period, I find often the greatest danger is in growing them too fast, rather than not growing them fast enough. I believe in pruning every year ; I believe that all the leading limbs should be cut, perhaps a half of the preceding year's growth, and of course the amount of pruning should be regulated by the growth the tree has made. The fertilizing problem is one of the greatest problems that comes up before the peach grower, and I must confess I have made some great blunders myself in the business, and I think that perhaps we all learn more by our mistakes than by our successes, but I will say here in regard to fertilizing that so much depends on the weather, that with the best of judgment the peach grower often makes a mistake, and gets left on his crop. His crop will rot. If he is growing the fruit very large, and his trees are too thrifty, the fruit may be off color on account of the dense foliage, and if the weather is at all wet during the ripening period, he is in trouble surely, because his fruit will be full of water, and he can't ship it successfully, and he will have to pick it very green, off color ; and if he waits until it is a little soft, he doesn't realize as much, if he has to ship it a distance, but if he uses a market near bv, he doesn't have that difficulty. The FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. i6l grower that has his market so near that he don't have to car his fruit is very fortunate, because when the railroad handles our fruit, it seems as if they thought it was all pig iron. The way they have of coupling cars now with the automatic coupler, they bump their cars pretty hard, and it is almost impossible to load a car without nailing the bas- kets to the floor, unless you want to have them all upset. The last car of peaches I shipped this year, I sent to Providence, and it was just what I could put in on the floor of an ordinary box car. I had the baskets covered ; they were all put in snug, but they were not nailed in, and the man to whom I consigned them called me up over the wire and said there were but fifteen baskets right side up in the car when it arrived, and of course, it resulted in much loss. In shipping peaches under those conditions, if there are a few ripe ones in the basket, the hard ones will dent the ripe ones, so they will be almost as bad as if they were rotten, and when they arrive at their destination the buyers won't take them. The matter of fertilizers, I should like to ask Mr. Hale to tell us about. He has been very successful in growing crimson clover almost every year, and I am going to ask him how much fertilizer he has to use to supplement the crim- son clover in growing his big crops of peaches. Mr. Hale : That is a difficult question to answer, ofT-hand. I have always given the orchards all I thought they could stand, and sometimes more than my pocketbook would stand, but I have been a liberal feeder of potash and phosphoric acid. no specific amount to each acre, but perhaps some have had more than others, but take one year with another, perhaps 400 pounds of muriate of potash and 800 or 1,000 pounds of fine ground bone, or its equivalent. I find we can't grow peaches without furnishing material to feed them with. Mr. Lyman : In your large crop of last year, did you find it necessary to use any nitrogen besides what you got in your clover ? Mr. Hale : We did use some ; I don't know whether it is always necessary or not. but there Avas an enormous crop «n the trees, and I did use some nitrate of potash. i62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Lyman : Did you find, in any case, it was a disadvan- tao^e when you came to harvest the fruit? Mr. Hale: Yes; I think in some cases we had too much nitrogen, and therefore too much foHage. I am quite confident we did in one orchard — in the Old Mixon orchard there was too much nitrogen used there. Mr. Lyman : I should like to say to the audience that I visitied Mr. Hale's ' place when he was picking his Carman and Waddell peaches (which are very early varieties) and he was picking some fine peaches for shipping, but on ac- count of the dry weather they were small, but had a good color. I went through his orchards, and I certainly never saw so much fruit on the trees ; there was no tree but what was ladened to its full capacity, and beyond its capacity, and I was wondering how he got through the succeeding wet weather with this immense crop ; whether he was successful in marketing them, and if he lost much fruit ; if he got it into the cars, and it didn't pan out at other end as he expected, — that is probably the same result we all experienced when shipping large quantities. It is a very difficult matter to handle a big crop in bad weather, and it is hard to get men to pick in the rain, and when you handle fruit in the rain it must be put into the refrigerator cars, or there is not much use in picking it. A Member : I would like to ask Mr. Lyman if he has experimented with crimson clover? Mr. Lyman : I grew a good crop once ; it was only a small piece, about ten or twelve years ago, and as I stated, I cut a crop of hay. It was in the peach orchard, and the orchard was not in bearing and of course it was not a valuable crop for hay. I sowed quite a large piece the next year, but I didn't have any success with it, and so far as my experience goes, if I was going to sow any kind of clover, I would sow the common red clover. A Member : Professor Clinton has alluded to the Soy bean as compared with other cover crops. Does he think there is merit in the Soy bean for us? Professor Clinton : I think in some places, on poor soils, the bean will grow where you can't get a stand of clover, or FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 163 where you can't grow cow peas. Then, in a cold wet season, I would rather plant Soy beans than cow peas. Mr. Barnes: I have sowed these Soy beans several times, and I think our first experience was that cold summer, three or four years ago, and we got negative results that year. But about two years later we sowed them on this plain land, a piece that would grow nothing but bent grass, with sand strips in between, absolutely worthless for crop production, and which had had rye on it previously and been ploughed under, and we got a fine growth of these beans, all we could turn under. Professor Henry of Wisconsin was at our place, and I took him to the field, and he commenced pulling up the plants and showing me the nitrogen nodules on the roots. He found they were covered, and he was congratulating me on the nice thing we had in those Soy beans, and at this time we have a magnificent growth of peach trees — several thou- sand of them on there — so I think there was a good deal of virtue in the beans. Mr. Lyman : 1 would like to speak of my experience in feeding too much nitrogen to peach orchards. Two years ago I had a block of trees that the scale had done quite an injury to, and had killed a portion of the trees outright. They were sprayed, but the trees were dead, apparently, vet they leaved out and blossomed, but that season died. A part of the orchard was all right, and I used a strong fertilizer, and got a splendid crop. This year, the season was different, and we had a great deal of wet weather. I had a block of trees (about 700) and I thought I would do especially well by them and I would get a finer crop of fruit ofT of that orchar'd, which was ten or twelve years old, so I gave it a strong dose of nitrate of potash and other chemicals, and the crop was almost a failure ; they almost all went on to the ground. The wet weather came at a time when the fruit was ripening and it was a most conspciuous failure. Mr. Rogers: I would like to ask Mr. Lyman if he puts his fertilizer on all at one application, or two or three ? Mr. Lyman : Two or three. But as to putting on the nitrate of potash or the nitrate of soda. I should want to be careful when that went on, and I am in doubt how late to put l64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, those chemicals on ; I am incHned to think they should all be put on before the first of July, and I believe the cultivation should stop very early ; the tendency of cultivation is to grow a great deal of wood, and in growing a young orchard I should stop cultivation quite early, and give the trees something to feed on besides. A Member : I would like to ask ]\Ir. Lyman if he expects to use nitrate of potash this coming season; if not what he does expect to use? Mr. Lyman : Unfortunately nitrate ^f potash is out of the question as a fertilizer. The prices quoted are from $90.00 to $100.00 a ton, but you can g-et practically the same results from nitrate of soda, and I propose to use that in place of the ni- trate of potash. I use large quantities of nitrate of potash when I can get it in growing my hay. I think it pays a farm- er to abundantly fertilize his meadows, and so I always have it on hand for a peach orchard, if I think they need it, and sometimes I make a mistake and put in to when it ought to be kept away from it. I want to say this about peaches, that I think the different varieties should be treated in a different way. I think the Elberta will stand more nitrogen than the Old Mixon. It has a very firm skin and stands up well in ship- ping, and for that reason it will stand more fertilizer, and when you have got a good crop in sight, it will pay the grower to fer- tilizer highly. A Member: I would like to know about the Champions; how about fertilizing them ? Mr. Lyman : I spoke of a small block that I fertihzed two years ago, and those were Champions, and I got wonderful re- sults. And we came out all right this year; we lost none of the Champions. A Member: Do you think the Champion needs as much fertilizer as the Elberta? Mr. Lyman : I don't think it will stand quite so much ; it is an earlier peach and won't stand up for shipping quite so well. I think all the later peaches will stand a little more fer- tilizer; there is difficulty in getting sufficient color on those later peaches, but plenty of fertilizer, especially muriate of pot- .-ash, will bring it out. The Champion puts on a beautiful red FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 165 cheek if it is grown right; of course, if it is grown in the shade it is a poor colored peach. A Member: How about hard wood ashes? Mr. Lyman : If you put on enough of them it would be all right. A Member: How much would you apply to an orchard? Mr. Lyman : On an orchard that is bearing a good crop of peaches, say 800 baskets to the acre, you would want to put on a number of tons. President Eddy : I will call now for the discussion on "strawberries," which will be opened by Stancliff Hale of South Glastonbury. Strawberries. Mr. Stancliff Hale: The subject assigned to me was "how to get the greatest profit from strawberries." This past year was the first year I have had any experience in grow- ing strawberries solely for the fruit. As you know, our busi- ness has been growing strawberry plants, and the crop of fruit has been only incidental. I am going' to give you, not accurate results in dollars and cents, because I can't do that, but I am going to give you some statistics of what I think should be the approximate cost, and what should be the approximate returns from an acre of land, well cared for, in strawberries. We had discussed strawberries for some time and at last decided we would try the hill system. We had heard a great deal of it. First I am going to give you what I think are fair figures on the cost of growing the crop. A great many of the items may be over and some may be under the average. I have taken the rent of the land, and I have allowed six per cent, on a hundred dollars for an acre a year, and that is charged against the land. For the ploughing, harrowing and marking I have allowed five dollars. I have allowed for eight thousand plants at three dollars. And then ten cultivations with an ordinary horse cultivator; I have allowed for that sixty cents a trip. Five hoeings at three dollars a hoeyig, (some of you, I don't doubt, will question that). For fertilizer (manure or com- mercial fertilizer) I have allowed thirty-five dollars. Bas- l66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. kets, four thousand, I have allowed three dollars a thousand for the baskets. Picking, one and one-half cents per quart, and our last crop didn't cost quite that. Five dollars for crates. For marketing I have allowed twenty-five dollars, and for mis- cellaneous items I have allowed $15.00. Now, as to the receipts, I have allowed four thou- sand quarts at ten cents a quart, which gives a total of four hundred dollars, and with an outlay of nearly two hundred dollars we have got a net profit of about two hundred dollars. I want to tell you what I have done with that acre of land. I presume many of you have different ways of growing. This was an entirely new sys- tem for us, but we had heard of people raising them on the hill system and so we tried it. We went to work and took a trifle over an acre of land and planted it. We used more plants than I gave you in my estimate. We put those plants eighteen inches apart each way. We cultivated them all that season with a twelve-tooth cultivator, with the two rear teeth on each side taken out. We kept all runners cut off of them, and in the fall we gave it a good mulch of hay and manure, and last year from that acre we picked, I think, to exceed four thous- and quarts, and I think the price I gave of ten cents a quart was too low, because we sold those when the market was high, which was early last year, but I think the figures I have given you are fairly conservative. If a man will go to work, and take a patch of strawberries, and take good honest care of it, as some of our friends do their tobacco — in fact, if they give it half as much attention and work — I think their profits will be duplicated. And in the instance of this field, we have held it over for another year, and we think we are going to get as many, if not more berries off of it next year. Whether we will or not, I don't know. We cultvated it this fall, and gave it another mulching this last winter. That was my first ex- perience in growing straw^berries for profit, and that is the way we did it. Those figures I give you are not far from the result, and we have got that same patch to pick from next year. What they will do next year I don't know, but I think we are going to get a nice crop of berries. They look fine this winter. Fl FTEEN Til A NN UA L MEE TING. 1 67 A Member: Were they all of one variety? Mr. Hale: No; the varieties I have got in there are the Glen Mary, the Climax. Pride of Cumberland and Gandy, but if I was to do it again T should put in more of the Climax and Gandy. A Member: How about the President? Mr. Hale : I never have grown it in the field ; I have seen a few of those great big berries, but never many quarts of them. A Member : Were your plants sprayed ? Mr. Hale : Yes ; ours were sprayed. A Member : How many times ? Mr. Hale : I think we sprayed them but once ; we should have sprayed them more, and that spraying was done in the fall. A Member: You didn't burn them over in the spring? Mr. Hale : No, we didn't. I wouldn't dare burn them over, especially with this large body of mulch on there ; there wasn't anything to burn off in the weed Hne ; we pulled those out. I would like to take that mulch off next spring, roll it up and cultivate the land if I can, and then put the mulch back. A Member: Did you cut back the plants after the crop was taken off this year? Mr. Hale: No. A Member: Don't the plants pretty much cover the ground ? Mr. Hale: No, not now ; I presume they will by the next fruiting season, but just at present they don't; we went over it this fall with a cultivator. The discussion of the question was then taken up by Mr. A. N. Farnham, of New Haven. Mr. Farnham : I didn't come intending to say much about strawberry culture and profits. I supposed Mr. Hale would cover that ground very thoroughly. I think he has ■given you a pretty fair estimate on the cost of taking care of and growing an acre of berries. Possibly on some of the older soils we should have added a little more of the fertilizer. It is our custom to do the same as he is doing this year, to hold l68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the bed over for one and possibly two or three years. As I have stated to some of you before, I am in the market garden- ing" business, and for that reason we hold our beds probably longer than others, because after we have taken the crop ofif, we are going to plow them in and have time to plant a later crop of vegetables on the same ground. The varieties that a person is to grow should be worked out by himself — in other words, the variety that does well on your soil may not on mine, and that which does well on some of my soil- won't do well on some other parts of it, so that I raise quite a number of varie- ties, and I find we get good results. You may take the Gandy berry, and there are a good many soils that will not produce a good crop. We hear of the Parker-Earle that produces such enormous crops, and on a great deal of our land we can't get any such crops as the men in New Jersey give it credit for pro- ducing, and I know there is a friend here in the audience who has had remarkable success year after year with the Sharp- less, which is one of the best berries, where it does grow to perfection. The thing for a person to take into consideration is the market that he is growing for. If he is going to grow for a distant market, he must select a berry that is firm and will stand transportation, and if he is going to cater to a fancy mar- ket, he must select a berry that will make a fancy berry, that is, one that will grow and make large, handsome berries. If you are going to raise berries for the general market, pos- sibly something that grows a uniform size might be the most profitable, and give the largest number of quarts, and would succeed possibly with less care than some of the larger sorts. The prices, taking all things into consideration, diflfer but lit- tle, as to whether you are producing for the home market or for the shipping market, or for the fancy, in proportion to the cost of producing and the cost of selling. I think the person that has chances to furnish some of the best stores in some of the smaller towns, possibly where there is less competition, gets the best results from his berry crop. Mr. Hoyt had quite a little to say in regard to the pedigree of the apple. \\t have all of us been receiving the last year or two different pam- phlets or catalogues, holding up the "pedigree" of the strawber- ry, but I look at the pedigree of the strawberry in much the same wav Mr. Hoyt does the pedigree of the apple. After you FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 169 get the variety that you want to grow, it all lies with the soil and with the man, and the season, etc., as to what results you get, rather than anything that our friend from Three Rivers, Mich- igan, tells us we are going to get by planting his "pedigree" plants. I don't know but his plants are equally as good, but I would just as soon have my plants as to send a long distance to get any "pedigree" plants, and especially if I had to pay any extra price for the pedigree. Of course, our different soils, and our dift'erent locations give us different results in regard to the earliness and lateness of our fruit, but I think any one that is going to grow berries to any large extent can well afford to try and get the earliest berries and the latest berries, and in so doing he will in all probability have a contin-uous crop from the very earliest to the latest. It is getting so that our late berries are sought after fully as much and at better prices possibly than our early berries, the berries from the south coming in such large quantities and lasting until our berries come, so that the price is well down when our first berries come on the market, that is, it is quite a little earlier than we used to think was profitable years ago for the first berries, and it has materially cut into the profit of berry growing. The quality of the berry is to be taken into consideration to a large extent, and it is advisable to grow a good quality, but sometimes for shipping purposes, and you will observe that as being the fact in the berries that come from the south, quality always does not predominate, for they have to use a berry that has good shipping properties ; but for a berry for the near-by market quality and good looks has quite a little to do with the sale. The berry crop is very different from' the apple crop, for we can't put our berries into cold storage, and hold them for sev- eral days and weeks, as you can much of the tree fruits, and we must necessarily sell quickly, but we find that the shippers and the buyers, for instance, in a city like New Haven, are a lit- tle bit careful the latter part of the time in ordering in too many carloads, and sometimes the growers have written the dealers that they are going to have berries in abundance in a very few days, and in that way we get the market a little uK^re bare than it otherwise would be, and that is a benefit to them as well as to ourselves. I may say that almost every year I am 170 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. called up several times just about the beginning of the berry season, asking how soon we expect our berries are going to be ready in any quantity. There is one thing that I can't under- stand in the berry market or any other market, what the rea- son is that the buyer, the middleman, wants to crowd the price down so for. He cannot sell any more, he cannot buy any more, but he contrives in every conceivable manner to crowd down the price, and, as was said by one of the speakers this morn- ing, they take advantage of those who come in with a few, and it is a deplorable fact that a great many of the merchants are always ready to tell you the price is a little bit off, and, as I say, I can't conceive why they should do so, and it is a wrong upon the producer, but I don't know that we will ever be able to right it in any way. We grow our berries in the narrow matted row, and we mulch as Mr. Hale has described, although I don't think I would advise the use of stable manure upon a new bed, if I were going to grow it more than two seasons, because the or- dinary stable manure has enough grass and weed seeds of dif- ferent varieties that will germinate to make you a whole lot of extra work in the cultivation, but after the first year use your stable manure. The salt meadow hay along where it is ob- tainable makes a fine mulch, and we use quite a little rotted manure for a mulch, putting it on pretty freely. And while I grow in narrow rows quite a few of my neighbors grow in wide rows, but I don't like it as well, for I don't think that down through the center of the row you get as many large berries. One of the principal things is to grow your berries cheaply. We are getting a very cheap mulch now which will be beneficial to a good many of you that are not getting the same kind. Around New Haven, and I find in other places somwhat, and I cannot conceive how it has come upon us so rapidly, within the last few years, while we have always had it to a slight extent, still at the present time this little weed that we all know as chickweed is just swamping out our berries, and I don't know but it will drive out a good many of us from ■growing strawberries. A Member : How far apart do you have your rows ? Mr. Farnham : About three feet. FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. I/I A Member: How wide do you let them spread, those nar- row, matted rows? Mr. Farnham : After we have filled the bed we cut that row down to six or eight inches by ploughing it down, and then cultivating them out. A Member: How far do you live from the salt marsh, and how much of that salt hay do you succeed in getting ? Mr. Farnham : I am only from two to three miles from it, and I get a great many tons — fifty or a hundred tons. A Member : You own a good deal of salt land ? Mr. Farnham : I don't own a foot, but I buy the grass standing. President Eddy : The next thing on our program is a ■discussion on raspberries, which will be opened by Mr. Charles I. Allen of Terryville. Raspberries and Blackberries. Mr. Allen : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : The subject assigned to me is raspberries and blackberries. That is a pretty broad subject to cover in a few moments, and I don't propose to cover it in detail at all. I suppose this topic includes the red raspberries and the black and yellow raspberries, and the blueberries and the high-bush blackberries. The cultiva- tion of all of these is the same in many respects ; there are some points of difference. Any land which will raise corn or pota- toes as a rule will raise any of these berries. In selecting the land, I should prefer the more moist land for the black rasp- berries and perhaps next the red raspberries, and for the black- berries I would select the highest and comparatively dry land. The blackberries are liable to winter kill in a cold winter, and they should be planted on high elevations where there is a good frost drainage, where they will pass through the winter without injury to the fruit buds. I set all of these very nearly the same after preparing the land, in rows about five or six feet apart, and I set the plants, the red raspberries about eighteen inches apart, and the black raspberries about three feet apart, and the blackberries about the same distance. The red rasp- berries may be set either in the fall or the spring and the black- 172 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. berries also, but the black raspberries should be set only in the spring, and the earlier they are set the better. There are num- berless varieties of the red and black raspberries, but in my own use I have found only one or two of each that are profitable at all. In the red raspberries the Cuthbert seems to be the only one that does well, and the Golden Queen is simply a yellow Cuthbert. But one objection to the Cuthbert is they are quite late in ripening, and of late years they have proved not hardy and disease has attacked them, which has practically driven the Cuthbert more or less out of the market. I have tried quite a number of the early varieties of the red raspberries — Thomp- son, Miller, and some others — and got a few pickings of very early ones, and that was the end of it. They were small after the first pickings, and the "pickers wouldn't pick them and the markets didn't want them, but the best red raspberry is the Phoenix ; that is not only early but it is also late. We begin picking about the last days of June, and pick clear up to the middle of August on the same variety. It is good size from the beginning to the end of the season, bright color, does not crum- ble and sells well. These should be marketed in pint baskets, as they stand up much better, and you can get almost as much for a pint as you can for a quart basket. As to the black rasp- berries, about the only variety I am raising is the Kansas. I have tried the Cumberland ; it is said to be much larger than the Kansas, but it has been inferior with me. It is claimed if you plant the Kansas and Cumberland side by side, the Cum- berland will prove the best, but on my soil it is no use at all : it is unhealthy. I am looking for something later than the Kansas to extend the season, and the only thing I have found is the Munger, but I have had only indififerent experience with this up to the present time. In blackberries the dewberry or the running blackberry is the first to ripen, but there don't prove hardy with me unless they are covered during winter, and it is necessary to cover them with soil; I have tried covering them with stable manure but that didn't protect them, and I have only succeeded in getting a crop when they were covered with the soil. I don't know as that is of any benefit to us ex- cept in this way, that if we are raising very many high bush blackberries, if we can raise a limited quantity of the dewber- ries we could open the season much earlier and secure the mar- FIFTERNTH ANNUAL MHHTING. 173 ] ANNUAL REPORT. 1 87 fruit farms where the day could be devoted to a tour and inspection of the orchards and berry fields under the g-uidance of the genial host, a basket picnic lunch at noon, to be fol- lowed by brief addresses and discussion of topics relating- to the farm and its management or other matters of timely inter- est to the growers present. To these features might be added demonstrations of spraying work or pruning and thinning, in charge of Experiment Station men and practical orchard- ists, the testing and scoring of varieties of fruits and an exhibit of seasonable fruits with prizes offered, the entire program to be of an informal nature, with plenty of time for questions and free discussion and social chat. Each year as the summer season approaches we have these ideals in mind and plan to carry out as many such pleasant gatherings as possible. But unfortunately all this comes at a time when work is most pressing on every farm, and often- times the season is not a favorable one for our fruit crops and it is difficult to find places for the meetings, consequently our plans do not always materialize. This was more or less so in 1905, and, as has been indicated in the report of the Secretary, but two field meetings were held last season. Early in May, in a circular sent out asking for information; on the first crop prospects, the following note was added : To the Members of the Society : Are you in favor of popular Field Meetings this summer? We believe every member is, and the Society would like to perfect ar- rangements now for several of these very interesting and enjoyable gatherings in various parts of the State. Will you not lend your aid in securing an invitation from some fruit farm in your vicinity, or from the Grange? Surely there must be points of interest in your town that we should all like to visit, and there need be very little trouble or expense connected, with such a meeting. Write us at once if you think favorably of the matter. No feature of our work has contributed so much to the life and mterest of the Society as these Field Days and we want to continue them. Where shall we hold the first one— "a Strawberry Meeting, in June?" Let us hear from you. To this appeal many favorable replies were received, show- ing the hearty appreciation of this feature of our work, but 1 88 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. for various reasons we were able to arrange for only two summer meetings. Like the many such meetings held in the past, both proved very successful and full of profit and pleas- ure for all who attended. The first of these gatherings was held in strawberry time at Hamden, June 24th. The following invitation, as sent out, shows the scope of the meeting: THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OPENING THE FIELD MEETING SEASON, 1905 Has arranged for a Strawberry Field Day at Hamden Plains (near New Haven) Saturday, June 24, 1905. Messrs. Flight, Thomas Ure, and other large berry growers of Hamden having kindly offered their farms and market gardens for the inspection of the members of the Society and their friends, the visit will be made on Saturday the 24th inst. This part of Hamden comprises the largest market gardening and berry sections of New Haven and within a radius of a mile over 100 acres of strawberries are to be found. As the crop is a big one and the picking just now at its height, the visit is sure to be interesting and profitable to every fruit grower in the state. The program for the day will be as follows : Headquarters will be at the Ladies' Aid Society Hall. Forenoon will be devoted to looking over the nearby fields of Strawberries, Raspberries. Dew- berries, and Blackberries ; also extensive market garden crops, all well worth the trip to see. Dinner at 12.30 in the hall, strictly on the basket lunch plan. After lunch, informal speaking and discussion of timely topics until 2 p. m., "when teams will be ready to take visitors to the more distant farms and berry fields, rounding out a day of pleasure and profit. If you want to see and study the practical side of strawberry growing, picking and shipping, don't miss this great opportunity. Members, take a few hours' recreation and attend this meeting ! Coming at a very busy time the attendance was not the largest, but over 100 members and others were present, includ- ing many ladies. No better section could have been chosen for a strawberry meeting. Hamden, just north of and close to the big city of New Haven, has long been a leading section for the produc- tion of vegetables and berries. Immense fields of straw- berries are to be seen on e\evy hand, the level, sandy soil found here seemins: to be entirelv suited to the successful ANNUAL REPORT. 1 89 growing- of this fruit. The neighboring city is supplied, besides shipping to the Boston market a car or more each day while the berry season lasts. As it was in the height of picking when this meeting was held, but little time could be devoted to the visitors by the growers themselves, but the company were given full permission to inspect the fields and observe the methods of culture, picking and packing. The pickers were largely Italian women, and the fruit as fast as picked was packed in crates and hurried to the refrigerator cars for shipment. After the company had enjoyed a bountiful lunch at the hall. President Eddy called to order and an hour was spent in informal speaking and discussion. Rev. Mr. Tree of Hamden welcomed the visitors and referred to the progress made in the growing of fruits in that town. Vice-President Putnam responded in behalf of the Society, savine that it was a treat to see such fine fields of berries and such clean culture over wide areas. This is an object lesson to every farmer. Stancliff Hale spoke next. He said these clean berry fields are a revelation, especially in a wet season like the pres- ent one. !More mulching material is needed to keep the fruit clean in such a season. Mr. A. N. Farnham of Westville was called upon to tell of his berry crop and he responded briefly. Prof. W. E. Britton, State Entomologist, followed. N. S. Piatt referred to the success attained with the strawberry in this section and the fact that several valuable varieties have originated here. J. M. Hubbard of Middletown spoke of the extension of fruit culture in the state. Much of the waste land is being planted to fruits, thereby adding to the wealth of the state. A wonderful amount of strawberries are consumed by our people. Fruit is now a common food ration. A fact worth considering is that fruit growling is a business that benefits all engaged in it or in any way touched by it. An interesting address was made by Mr. A. Warren Patch, the well known Boston fruit dealer. "We have been receiving lots of 'water' 1 90 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. from Connecticut this week in your berries," he said, "still your growers have got a good profit from your fruit, better than those of other sections. There's money in growing straw- berries. Grow less acres and grow better quality fruit. The eye and the palate buys the fruit every time. The commission man knows by instinct good fruit when he sees it." Mr. Patch alluded to the great good derived from such meetings as this and then gave a report of fruit crop conditions in New Eng- land. He said fruit growers had reason to feel encouraged. Other speakers were E. C. Warner of North Haven and N. H. Sherwood of Southport, both large berry growers. After the meeting closed, teams were taken for a tour of some of the distant berry fields and peach orchards, and through the kindness of Mr. Farnham the day was rounded out with a visit to his extensive market garden farm nearby, in Westville. This mammoth establishment with over 400 acres under cultivation, its greenhouses, stables, packing houses, etc., proved an interesting sight to the visitors, who were unanimous in their expression of thanks to Air. Farn- ham, no Jess than to the Hamden friends, for a day of much profit and pleasure. Field Meeting at Wallingford, August 18, 1905. Whenever Connecticut is blessed with a big peach crop (and this happens oftener than is the case in most other sec- tions), it is customary for the Pomological Society to hold a "Grand Peach Meeting," visiting some of the extensive or- chards and making it an occasion to do honor to the "Connec- ticut Peach, than which there is none better grown." The season of 1905, conditions were ideal for such a meet- ing' and accordingly arrangements were made with some of the growers in the town of Wallingford, which has become a well-known center for the production of peaches, to hold a field day there on Friday, August i8th. As has been indi- cated in the report of the Secretary, the purposes of this meeting were three-fold: To afford an opportunity to visit PLATE V. Members and their Fkiends at the "Straw.errv Field-Dav " Hamden, June 24, 1905. A Field of Strawberries Grown Under the Matted- Row Svs STEM. ANNUAL REPORT. 191 and inspect some of the best orchards in the state ; to meet and discuss ways and means of handling- the prospective crop, and to bring- the growers and buyers of the fruit tog^ether for mutual business arrang-ements. Doubtless all these aims were realized, for the gathering was an entire success. The attend- ance was large, about 300 growers, buyers, commission men and railroad officials were present. On arrival in Wallingford, 'busses were taken for a trip to the orchards of Z. P. Beach, J. A. Martin, W. A. Henry & Son and others on the west side of the town. At noon, lunch was served in the Grange Hall, after which the company met for a brief period of speaking and discussion. The meeting was called to order by President Eddy and Mr. J. H. Hale was invited to preside. Selectman M. E. Cooke gave a cordial address of welcome. The next speaker was Mr. W. H. Blodgett, a fruit dealer of Worcester, Mass., and who is Mayor of that city. Prof. W. A. Henry of the Wisconsin Agricultural College was called and responded with an excellent address. Prof. Henry, who has recently purchased a farm in Connecticut where he intends to grow fruit, paid a high tribute to the advantages of New England as a place to live and carry on farming. He urged farmers to awaken to their possibilities and cooperate to secure the full fruits of their labor. Mr. A. F. Currier, in charge of car service on the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. system, was invited to address the meeting. He told what his road would do to help the growers move their fruit and of the special cars that w^ould be fitted up for the peach trade. Mr. Currier was thoroughly questioned and much of value to the growers was learned. The census of the state, to ascertain the probable size of the peach crop, which had just been completed by the Society, was reported on and its features discussed. It was stated that with favorable weather conditions not far from a lialf million baskets of peaches would be harvested in the state this season. Many of the growers present reported the crop from a week to ten days late in ripening. Other speakers who addressed the meeting and congratu- lated the growers on the peach outlook and the necessity for 192 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. most careful planning in harvesting and marketing the crop, were Mr. Stiles of New York City, A. Warren Patch of Boston, J. M. Hubbard and Mr. Hale. The meeting then adjourned to allow of side trips being made to other large orchards in Wallingford and Yalesville, the nurseries and orchards of Barnes Bros., and other points of interest. All agreed that it had been a day well spent and to the peach growers especially it is doubtful if a more helpful meet- ing could have been planned. It enabled them to meet the commission men and arrange for markets for their fruit, it enabled them to become familiar with the railroad's shipping arrangements, and, best of all, it put them in touch with the latest and most timely information in regard to the peach crop and the markets. The nieeting also proved a strong advertisement for our peaches both at home and abroad. The markets of Boston, New York. Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport were represented by buyers and commission merchants. All in all, the "Peach Meeting" of 1905 will long be remembered. The Eighth Annual Exhibition of Fruits, 1905. SCHEDULE OF PREMIUMS OFFERED. First Division — Collections. Class I. Best general collection of fruits by- grower, of which not more than two-thirds ist 2d 3d to be apples. See Rule 7. . . $xo.oo $5.00 $3.00 Class 2. Best collection, 15 varieties of applies, 5.00 2.50 i.oo Class 3. Best collection, 10 varieties of apples, 3.00 i.oo .75 Class 4. Best collection, 8 varieties of apples, for general purposes, . . . 2.00 i.oo .50 Class 5. Best collection, 5 varieties of apples, for market only. See Rule 7. Class 6. Best collection, 12 varieties of pears, . Class 7. Best collection, 6 varieties of pears, . Class 8. Best collection, 12 varieties of grapes, 3.00 1.50 •75 5.00 2.50 I.oo 2.00 I.oo ■so 5.00 2.50 I.oo ANNUAL REPORT. I93 1st 2d 3d Class 9. Best collection, 6 varieties of grapes, $2.00 $1.00 $ .50 Class 10. Best collection, 6 varieties of peaclies, 2.00 i.oo .75 Second Division — Single Plates. Class I. Best single plate of following varieties of Aples, each, .... $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Red Astrachan, Sweet Bough, Williams' Favorite, Old- enburg, Porter, Gravenstein, Red Bietigheimer, Fameuse, Fall Pippin, Maiden Blush, Twenty Ounce, Hurlburt, Wealthy, Rome Beauty, Baldwin, Talnian Sweet, Cogswell, Hubbardston, Jonathan, Gillifiow^er, King, Northern Spy, Belleflower, Pewaukee, Mcintosh Red, Red Canada, Sutton, Wagner, Westfield, Jacob's Sweet, Fallowater, Golden Rus- set, Roxbury Russet, Newton Pippin, Peck's Pleasant, R. I. Greening, Ben Davis, Hyslop, Crab^ and for all Other Worthy Varieties, Premiums of One-Half t^he Regular Amounts are Offered: That is, 50c., 25c., and 15c., re- spectively. Class 2. Best single plate of following varieties of Pears, each, .... $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Clapp's, Bartlett, Bosc, Angouleme, Louise Bonne, Diel, Onondaga, Anjou, Lucrative, Boussock, Buffum, Howell, Flemish Beauty, Mt. Vernon, Seckel, Clairgeau, Lawrence, Sheldon, Easter Buerre, Keiffer, Le Conte, Nelis. Of Other Worty Varieties not to Exceed Ten. Class 3. Best single plate of following varieties of Grapes, each, . . . . $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Aloore's Early, Brighton, Concord, Eaton, Hartford, Wilder, Worden, Isabella, Agawam, Delaware, Diana, Dia- mond, Jefferson, Campbell's Early, Clinton, Green Mountain, Catawba, Lindley, Salem, Empire State, Martha, Niagara. Pocklington. Of Other Worthy Varieties not to Ex- ceed Ten. Class 4. Peaches and Plums, each valuable va- riety, ..... $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Class 5. Quince, each valuable variety, . . i.oo .50 .25 Class 6. Grapes, grown under glass, one bunch each variety, . . . .1.00 .75 .50 Class 7. Cranberries, best exhibit any variety, 2.00 i.oo Third Division — Canned Fruits. Jellies, Etc. For Table Use. Class I. Best collection canned fruit, 15 varieties. $6.00 $3.00 $2.00 Class 2. Best collection canned fruit, 8 varieties. 4.00 2.00 i.oo 1st 2d 3d ;3.oo $2.00 $1.00 3.00 2.00 1. 00 3.00 2.00 1. 00 75 •50 ■25 194 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Class 3. Best collection canned berries, 6 varie- ties. See Rule 8. . Class 4. Best collection pickles, 6 kinds, one quart each, ..... Class 5. Best collection Jellies, 6 kinds, . Class 6. Best single can of the following fruits. Strawberries, Blackberries, Black and Red Raspberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Pears, Yellow and White Peaches, Apples, Quinces, Cherries, Pineapple, European Plums and Japan Plums. (See Rule 8.) Class 7. Best sample unfermented fruit juice, each kind, not to exceed six, . . .75 .50 .25 Fourth Division — Nuts, Etc. Class I. Best specimen any variety of cultivated nuts, > . . . . $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Class 2. Best sample of native nuts, any kind, i.oo .50 .25 Class 3. Best collection native nuts, made by boy or girl and correctly named (exhibitors in this class not required to be members of the Society), .... 2.00 i.oo .50 Class 4. Best arranged table piece of home- grown fruits, .... 2.00 I.oo .50 Class 5. Best packed barrel, choice market apples, . . Class 6. Best box, choice apples. Class 7. Best basket choice peaches, Class 8. Articles not classified for which dis- cretionary premiums may be awarded. Rules of the Exhibition. Rule I. — All exhibits must be received for entry not later than noon of Tuesday, September 26, and must be in place by 6 p. m.. as judging will begin promptly on opening of second day — Wednesday. (This rule will be strictly enforced.) 2. Entries of collections in First and Third Divisions must be made with the Secretary on or before Wednesday, September 20, using entry blank for this purpose, that proper table room may be prepared. 3. All articles entered, except in Fourth Division, must be grown or prepared by the exhibitor. 4. All fruits shall be correctly labeled (if possible) and except grapes and crab apples, five specimens, neither more or less, shall make a plate, either single or in collections. 500 2.50 1.00 2.00 I.oo ■50 2.00 1.00 •50 ANNUAL REPORT. 195 Of crab apples ten specimens, and of grapes three bunches, shall make a plate, except where noted. The collections also shall embrace just the required nunil)er of plates. 5. No exhibitor shall make more than one entry for the same premium, nor enter the same plate for more than one premium. 6. In the various collections the values of the varieties shown, as well as the conditions of the specimens, will be considered in making the award. 7. Entries in Division i. Class i, must not contain over two- thirds apples, or over one-fourth of any other single class of fruit. Division i. Class 5, is intended to draw out the growers' ideas of value of varieties. In making the award this will be considered as well as the conditions of the specimens shown. 8. Entries of different kinds of Canned Fruit must be self-evident ; that is, separate varieties of "red raspberries" or "yellow peaches" will not be considered as distinct kinds. Any or all cans to be opened for sampling at the discretion of the judges. 9. Lists of varieties in all collections must be made and placed with entry card on collection. 10. As the object of the Society is to encourage the growth of fruits of fine quality, wormy or diseased specimens or those infested with San Jose Scale will not be allowed to compete. 11. Premiums will be awarded to members of the Society only. 12. No exhibit shall be removed without the consent of the com- mittee, until the close of the meeting. Exhibitors are requested to state whether fruit is to be returned to them, or donated to thei Society. , The above ofificial list of prizes is given here for the sake of reference and becatise in some of the classes, notably the canned fniits, etc., several important changes were made in the list as previotisly offered. The Exhibition of 1905 was again held in connection with the Rockville Fair on September 26, 27 and 28, and like its predecessors was a most successful show. The report of the Exhibition Committee on page 20 gives in detail the size and character of the various exhibits. We would only add that while the amount of fruit shown was not quite as large as in some former years, owing to the short crop of apples in the state, yet the generally fine quality and appearance of the exhibits was fully up to the high standard of the exhibitions- of this Societv. 196 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Visitors from other states gave the exhibit highest words of praise, thus confirming- the statement so often made that olir yearly exhibition has grown to be as fine as anything of the kind held in New England. The throng of visitors was very large, as is always the case at the big Rockville Fair, and it is doubtful if any location could be found in the state where more people could have the opportunity to see the exhibition and profit by it. The fruit was shown under a mammoth tent, the interior of which was indeed a beautiful sight, the long rows of tables, loaded with magnificent speci- mens of the fruit growers" products — grapes and peaches, pears and apples, and plums and cjuinces, besides hundreds of cases of preserved fruits, jellies, pickles, etc., etc. Just over the tent entrance was suspended a huge banner bearing the v/ords, "Welcome to Connecticut's Harvest of Fruits." Plates IV. and VI. gave some little idea of the beauty of the fruit display. There was a good attendance of members of the Society on each day of the exhibition and the occasion was made a sort of a fall gathering of the fruit grow'ers. The exhibits were studied, notes compared and ideas exchanged, and the successful exhibitors closely questioned as to their methods, etc. The value of such an exhibition along these lines can hardly be over-estimated. The judging and awarding of prizes was done by com- petent experts, for the most part from outside the ranks of the Society. Those who acted were : On Apples, (collections and single plates) T. E. Cross of Poughkeepsie, X. Y. ; Pears, E. C. Powell, Editor Farm and Home, Springfield, ]\Iass. ; Grapes, Prof. Fred W. Card, Rhode Island Agricultural Col- lege, Kingston ; Peaches, N. S. Piatt, New Haven ; Plums, Quinces and miscellaneous fruits. Prof. A. G. Gulley, Storrs ; Nuts, J. H. Putnam, Litchfield ; Canned Fruits, Jellies, Pickles, etc., Chas. E. Steele, Miss A. T. Thomas, and Mrs. H. C. C. Miles. One rather discouraging thing connected with our exhi- bitions is the fact that so small a proportion of the members of the Societv send in fruit for exhibition. Those who com- PLATE VI. A Table of Prize-Winning Fruit. A "Snapshot" at the Society's Officers. ANNUAL REPORT. 197 pete for the prizes are practically the same individuals year after year and but few new ones are added. If growers knew the great benefit to be gained by participating in these shows, not to speak of the pecuniary advantages, they would surely prepare and send in exhibits, even if but a few plates of fruit. A fruit grower can learn more by entering these friendly con- tests than in almost any other way. In the future it is earn- estly hoped that more of our members will l)e represented by their fruits at the Annual Exhibition. The liberal treatment and kindly assistance received from the managers of the Rockville Fair deserves special mention. Xever has the Society been better treated than in the two years we have exhibited in that city. To them, and to all our workers who helped with the numerous details of the exhi- bition, is due the credit for the pronounced success of the event. Report of Institute Work for 1905. The Secretary's Report covered quite fully the Society's Institute work of the past year, and the subject is only referred to here for the sake of making the record conform with that published in previous annual Reports. It should be understood that the Farmers' Institute work, as carried out by this Society for a number of years past, has been purely voluntary, nothing in the legislative action, which makes an annual appropriation to the Society, requiring it. Nor does the Society's own Constitution recognize such work. Institutes have been added to the other features of our work, because there seemed to be a pressing need for such educational work among the farmers and fruit growers of the state and because it opened up still another channel for carrying the benefits of the Pomological organization to a large number of people. The success attending our efforts and the increased demand for these institutes year after year prove conclusivel}^ the wisdom of the Society engaging in this work. 198 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. As ]ias been pointed out in previous reports, the other agricultural organizations in the state have also held insti- tutes each season, each after its own plans, and continue to do" so at the present time. It is unfortunate that our state has no well defined laws in the matter of Farmers' Institute work ; that so far it has failed to adopt some definite plan for conducting- the work, in charge of a central bureau sup- ported entirely with state funds. We doubt if there is any other state in the Union where the important work of farmers^ institutes is left for any and all the interested organizations to take a hand in. During the season of 1904 a fairly success- ful plan of consolidated institute work was put in operation by the State Board of Agriculture, the Dairymen's Associa- tion, and the Pomological Society. In 1905 no "combined • plan" was agreed upon and our Society conducted its insti- tutes separately, except that speakers were frequently exchanged with the Dairymen's Association. During the winter of 1905, the Society held nine institutes, as follows: At Higganum, Middlesex Co., February 17; Whigville. Hartford Co.. February 23 ; Wilton. Fairfield Co., Alarch 3 ; Milford, New Haven Co., March 7 ; Wethersfield. Hartford Co.. March 8; Bristol, Hartford Co., March 9; East Canaan, Litchfield Co., Alarch 10; Fairfield, Fairfield Co., March 14; East Haddam, Middlesex Co., March 17; besides furnishing speakers on fruit topics at institutes of the Dairy- men's Association in Enfield. Plainville. and other places. All the institutes were held in cooperation with local granges and were very successful, both in point of interest shown and a large attendance. The speakers w'ere all from within the state, with the exception of the series held week of March 7, when Mr. John Jeannin, Jr., of New York State, a well-known fruit grower and market gardener, was engaged to address the meetings. His addresses were practical and helpful and well received. The total expense of the work in 1905 was about $185.00. These institutes entailed a consid- erable amount of extra work and sacrifice on the part of the speakers and the Society's officers, but all felt that w4th the results obtained it was well worth while. ANNUAL REPORT. 1 99 Farmers' -Institute \V(irk tlinnii^-hout the L'nitcd States is to-dav a recognized force in agricultural education and the movement toward better and more profitable farming and rural living. In almost every state and territory it is thor- oughly organized and carried out. State governments sup- port the work with liberal appropriations. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has established a Farmers' Institute Bureau with an expert in charge. Besides this the workers in the various states and Canada have organ- ized the American Association of Farmers' Institute Workers, for the purpose of mutual helpfulness and to bring about more uniform plans for conducting the work. Our Society was represented at the Association's 1905 meeting held at \\'ashington, D. C, by Secretary Miles. The convention was composed of a most earnest and pro- gressive body of men and women engaged in a grand and uplifting movement for the benefit of the farmers of the coimtry. Agricultural educators, leading farmers and suc- cessful specialists were represented, and all seemed inspired with a strong faith in the wonderful possibilities of Amreican agriculture. The great benefit of attending such a gathering" as this can hardly be overestimated. A report of Connecticut's institute work was called for at this convention and that given in behalf of the Pomological Society is included here, as showing in brief form what we accomplished during the past year. By H. C. C. Miles, Sec'y, Milford. [For the Pomological Society.] "For the year ending Novemljer i, 1905, there were held 9 institutes, i State fruit growers' meeting, and 2 summer field days. The total average attendance at all these meetings was 2,275 persons. "The total cost of the institutes was $185 and of the other meetings $365. In addition the distribution of reports and other printed matter will bring the total cost of our work up to nearly $1,000. Fifteen sjjeakers are on our institute force. "In our state there is no concerted plan of conducting insti- 200 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tute work. The Pomological Society, the Daiwmen's Asso- ciation, and the Board of Agriculture each hold institutes and carry on the work as one feature of their work; therefore, the combined reports of these organizations show actually what Connecticut has done in the line of institute work. *'So far the institutes have been held upon the request of local granges and farmers' clubs, and the local arrangements are made by these granges and clubs, the advertising, selec- tion of speakers, and conduct of the institute being carried out by the state organization. The only expense asked of the local people is the expense of the hall, all other expenses being met by the state society. Interest in institute work is on the increase in our state, and the demand for institutes is larger each year than we can supply with the funds at command. "For the coming year the legislature has given an extra $500 to the Pomological Society for the purpose of carrying- on institute work, and, with the work now well planned in advance, we anticipate more and better work will be accom- plished in the line of carrying the benefits of the institute to the farmers and farmers' families in our state." As has been indicated elsewhere, our Society asked of the General Assembly of 1905 an increase of $500 in its annual appropriation, this increase to be used chiefly for institute work. The request was granted and the funds became available October ist, 1905. A bill was also introduced at that session, from a source outside the Society, looking to the establishment of a State Bureau of Farmers' Institutes, with a director in charge. For various reasons this bill was not pushed to a passage, but it did serve to bring up for dis- cussion the whole subject of Institute work in the state. This and the increased funds granted to the Society and also to the Dairymen's Association serves to show that the matter is receiving increased attention, and some change in the pres- ent situation may be expected before many years. "XMth more money at its command for institutes, the Society, early in the fall of 1905, began to plan the work for the season and, as suggested in the report of the Secretary, to arrange it on a more systematic basis. As before stated, this was accomplished with considerable success, resulting in a splendid campaign of Pomological institutes for the winter of 1905-06. Since the work was still going on at the time of the annual ANNUAL REPORT. 20 r meeting and all the figures not being available at this time, the complete record must necessarily be left until our next Annual Report. Suffice it to say that the Pomological Society has at last been enabled to put in operation an improved system of Institute work, that has merited the unanimous cooperation and appreciation of the farmers of the state, and that has demonstrated what Connecticut can do and will do in even larger measure in the near future. 202 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Necrology. Each year we are called upon to record the loss of those Death has claimed from our ranks. Since the annual report of last year was published, seven deaths have been reported to the Secretary's office, as follow : Everett B. Lathrop, of Vcr)wn, a member of the Society since its early years and always one of its most enthusiastic workers. Like his father, who helped to organize our Society, he was an excellent fruit grower, and often exhibited at the Society's shows. In his sudden death the Society lost a val- ued member. George A. Bogart, of Chester, a member since 1902. I\Ir. Bogart was a well known farmer and fruit grower and active in Grange work in his section. Charles J. Deming, of Litchfield, joined the Society in 1901. and, while not often present at the meetings, yet was an interested member and believed in the value oc its work. Mr. Deming was a thorough lover of fruit culture and all that pertains to rural life. W. E. Wilcox, of Merideii, died suddenly in the summer