UMASS/AMHERST 31EDtibOD51S^55E LIBRARY OF THE |i\_^ IJ ^P MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE C8 \ 5m-12-'29. K.. .,o. ,9,3^ ^9,5: ^-^HApa THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY .1 v^.'i.-. -^i':. PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWENTY - SECOND ANNUAL MEETING - 19 13 i m CXa^"^ ^c^^ '^^ CM RLPORT OF The Connecticut Pomological Society FOR THE YE.AR 1912 With Proceedings of the Twenty-5econd Annual Meeting 1913 Published by The Connecticut Pomological Society 19 13 CL'Tb CHAPEL Press of The Ryder Printing House, New Haven, Conn. OFFICERS OF THE Connecticut Pomological Society" FOR 1913 President J. NORRIS BARNES, Wallingford. Vice-President STANCLIFF HALE, South Glastonbury. Secretary HENRY C. C. MILES, Milford Treasurer ALLEN B. COOK, Farmington. County Vice-Presidents Hartford— LEWIS C. ROOT, Farmington. New Haven— A. T. HENRY, Wallingford. Fairfield— GEORGE A. DREW, Greenwich. Litchfield— E. D. CURTIS, Litchfield. New London— F. W. BROWNING, Norwich. Middlesex— HENRY H. LYMAN, Middlefield. Windham— E. E. BROWN, Pomfret Center. Tolland— CLARENCE H. SAVAGE, Storrs Standing Committees Legislation. C. L. Gold, West Cornwall. J. H. Blakeman, Oronoque. J. W. Alsop, Avon, Membership. ]. H. Putnam, Litchfield. Theo. M. Savage, Berlin. Minor Ives, South Meriden. Frank N, Platt, Milford. Injurious Insects. Dr. W. E. Britton, New Haven. Prof. C. D. Jarvis, Storrs. F. A. Bartlett, Stamford. Finance. E. Rogers, Southington. J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. G. W. Staples, Hartford. Publicity (and Co-op oration'). E. D. Curtis, Bantam. C. L. Gold, West Cornwall. A. N. Farnham, Westville. Chas. G. Bliss, Essex. E. Rogers, Southington. Exhibitions. L. C. Root, Farmington. Prof. A. G. Gulley, Storrs. W. H. Baldwin, Cheshire. E. E. Brown, Pomfret Center. S. P. Hollister, Storrs Fungous Diseases. Dr. G. p. Clinton, New Haven, James Stocking, Weatogue. H. B. BuELL, Eastford. New Fruits. Prof. A. T. Stevens, Storrs. John R. Barnes, Yalesville, Paul M. Hubbard, Bristol. Markets and Transportation. Chas. E. Lyman, Middlefield. J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury. A. T. Henry, Wallingford. Auditors. Geo. W. Staples, Hartford. J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. CO CO CM Contents o Proceedings: President's Address 2 Reports of the Officers: Secretary's Report 4 Treasurer's Report 112 Reports of Standing Committees: On Legislation 10 On Exhibitions 11 On Markets and Transportation 12 On Publicity 13 On New Fruits 16 On Injurious Insects 19 Report on Fungous Diseases for 1912. Prof. G. P. Clin- ton 25 Methods for Controlling Fungous Diseases of the Apple in New York State. Dr. Donald Reddick 30 What Lessons Has the Past Season Taught Us Regarding Spraying? A. T. Henry 46 Common Mistakes in Apple Growing. Charles E. Bassett 50 The Fruit Grower's Share of the Consumer's Dollar. Dr. George M. Twitchell 67 Address by Mayor Cheney 81 The Public Market and the Distribution of Food Sup- plies. Hon. Cyrus W. Miller 84 Practical Plans for Co-operative Marketing. Charles E. Bassett 94 What Our State College Has Done and Will Do for the Fruit Interests. Dr. C. D. Jarvis 105 Report of the Treasurer 1 10 Discussion — What Should Be Our Ideals in the Pruning of Orchard Trees? Prof. A. G. Gulley 119 E. E. Brown 123 The Profitable Handling of Orchard Soils. Dr. Jacob G. Lipman 131 Connecticut Soil Conditions. Dr. E. H. Jenkins 145 Discussion of the Question List 152 The Importance of Pure Strains of Seed in Vegetable Growing. Dr. W. W. Tracy '. . . . 156 vi CONTENTS. Resolutions ". . 164, 166, 194 The Railroad's Part in the Better Marketing of Fruit Crops. W. H. Seeley 168 Election of Officers 177 The Successful Culture of Currants and Other Small Fruits. Herman Tice 178 Advertising and Publicity as Factors in Successful Fruit Growing. J. H. Hale 183 Discussion — What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of New England as a Fruit Growing Section? George N. Creswell 192 Report of the Special Committee on Fruit Exhibit,, with List of Premiums and Awards 195 The Trade Exhibit 202 Part Two — A Brief Record of Field Meetings, Exhibitions, etc., held in 1912: Summer Field Meetings 205 First Field Meeting of the Season, at Storrs, August 13, 14, 1912 206 Field Meeting at the Summit Orchards, West Cheshire, October 4, 1912 210 Exhibitions of 1912: Peach Show at the Connecticut Fair, Hartford, Sep- tember 2-7 215 Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of Fruits 216 Necrology 222 List of Members 224 Constitution and By-Laws of the Society. WITH REVISIONS OF 1912. THE CONSTITUTION. Article I — The name of this association shall be The Connnecti- CUT POMOCOGICAL SOCIETY. Article II — 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 membership shall cease at the end of the current year. Any person may become a life member of this Society by the pay- ment 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 Secre- ta.ry 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 Executive 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 meet- ings for special purposes may be arranged for and called by the Executive Committee virhenever 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 mem- bers each, on the following subjects, shall be appointed by the Presi- dent, to hold during his term of office; the appointments to be an- nounced at the annual meeting of the society. Business and Legislation, New Fruits, Injurious Insects, Markets and Transportation, Exhih itio ns. Publicity, Membership, Two Auditors. Fungous Diseases, Article VII — This Constitution may be amended by a vote of two- thirds of the members present at any annual meeting. BY-LAW^S. Article I — The President, Secretary, Treasurer and the Chairman of each standing committee shall each present a report at the annual meeting of the Society. Article II — The President shall appoint annually two members to audit the accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer. Article III — The Treasurer shall pay out no money except on the written order of the President, countersigned by the Secretary. He shall be empowered to sign and endorse all checks, drafts, receipts and vouchers in the name of the Society. He shall also be respon- sible for the funds and securities of the Society and may deposit and draw money in its name. viii BY-LAWS. The Treasurer shall give a bond in the sum of $2,000, the ex- pense of same to be paid by the Society. Articxe 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 meetings of the Society, to fill all vacancies which may occur in its officers between the annual meet- ings, and to have general management of the aflfairs of the Society. Article VI — It shall be the duty of the County Vice-Presidents to actively represent the Society in its various lines of work in their re- spective counties, to arrange for at least one meeting of the Society in their county during the year, and to report to the Society from time to time the progress of the fruit growing industry in their respective sections of the State. Article VII — The Committee on Legislation shall inform them- selves 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 intro- duced by others, which directly or indirectly affect the interests of the fruit-grower. Article VIII — The Committee on Membership, with the co-oper- ation of the County Vice-Presidents, shall bring the work of the So- ciety to the attention of the fruit-growers throughout the State, and, by such means as they deem best, strive to increase the membership. Article IX — 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 X — It shall be the duty of the Committee 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 mem- bers as far as possible, and, when necessary, promptly lay before the Society timely information on these subjects. Article XI — The Committee on New Fruits shall investigate and collect such information in relation to newly-introduced varieties of fruits as is possible, and report the same to the Society, with sugges- tions as to the value of the varieties for general cultivation. Article XII — The Committee on Markets and Transportation shall inform themselves as to the best method 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 XIII — The Society will adopt the nomenclature of the American Pomological Society. Article XIV — These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the members present at any regular meeting. 1 he C>^ 5th and 6th, 1913. The Executive Committee had arranged, some months previous, to hold the meeting in the big Foot. Guard Amior>'^, owing to the fact that Unity Hall, where the Annual Meetings had been held for so many years, was not available at this time, and also because larger accommodations were needed to meet the growing needs of the Society, Foot Guard Hall proved to be well suited to the require- m.ents of the Convention, especially the exhibits of fruit and the displays of implements, spraying machinery and other fruit growers' supplies, which completely filled the large hall in the basement. The fruit was attractively staged in the main hall, and on two sides were displayed a great show of apples in boxes, barrels and baskets, the plate exhibit and the display of vege- tables, etc., by The Hartford Market Gardeners' Association. The hall had been tastefully decorated with bunting and flags, and the stage decorations of palms and flowers all helped to make a setting of beauty and attractiveness. Owing to the fact that the staging of the exhibits occu- pied the early morning hours, it was impossible to open the 2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Convention at the usual hour, and it was eleven o'clock when the meeting was called to order by the President, J. Norris Barnes, of Yalesville, on Wednesday morning, February 5th. On opening the meeting, President Barnes, addressing a large attendance, said : "The first thing as outlined by our program is the presi- dent's address, whicli I will now present." President's Address. Members of the Connecticut Pomological Society and Friends : As the years go by and these annual mieetings in due time claim out attention, I am sure I voice the sentiment of each one present in expressing pleasure at being able to be present on these occasions, and in extending greeting one to another on this twenty-second annual meeting of our So- ciety. Not only is there a pleasure in this meeting, brother fruity growers of this and other States, on these occasions, but it is also a source of mucl) satisfaction to be able to car- ry home with us fromi these meetings the results of other's experiences to aid us in our own every-day problems. The various lines of work of the Society, as arranged, is largely done through its committees, from which in due time a report of their activities is expected ; therefore it is not necessary, perhaps, to now take time to refer to such work. As a whole, the year past for orchard fruits, has not been one of great production, although certain localities and or- chards, both apple and peach, have given large yields, afford- ing a moderately fair supply of fruit, for our local markets. By far the larger extent of orchards have been improduc- tive. Many other sections of the country outside our State, however, have had crops of both apple and peach — of maxi- mum yield — which has supplied any deficiency in our markets resulting from unproductiveness of Connecticut orchards, TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 3 and keeping prices — in a wholesale way — reasonable in our markets. Very little, if any, Connecticut fruit went outside the state the past year. With favorahle conditions attending the commercial peach growing interests of our state from now on — during the coming year — resulting in a full crop of fruit, no doubt, there will be by far the largest production of peaches ever grown in Connecticut, for in addition to an increased produc- tion from mature orchards, several young orchards of large extent are due to produce abundantly. From the general trend of events, I believe it important that a way be found to lessen the cost of placing our fruit productions with the consumer — a greater economy in distri- bution should be brought about to accompany any largely increased production from our fruit farms. In my judgment no more important work can be performed by the various state agricultural societies for their members and the public than attempting to help solve successfully the problems con- nected with economy of distribution of our farm products and the necessary co-operation of all concerned in such a scheme. If this matter can be worked out successfully — no matter by whom — ^I ibelieve it will do much towards putting off the day of over-production, or rather unprofitable pro- duction. Among the various activities of our_ Society during the past year in an educational way, I wish particularly to men- tion the apple packing school, recently held in Meriden, Conn., under the auspices of the Connecticut Agricultural College and our Society, and which I believe was the right thing done. The membership was made up of busy men, from grown-up college men to busy managers of large farms and middle life farm owners. Everyone attending for a purpose, to learn how to pack fruit better and more attractively. As usual on these occasions, I believe we have many with us from without the state. We greatly appreciate having these friends with us. and I trust they will feel free to join with us in our discussions. 4 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. President Barnes: Next in order will be the report of the Secretary. Secretary Miles: Mr. President, ladies and gentle- men, on these annual occasions your officers have the oppor- tunity to look into the faces of the memibers and speak di- rectly to you — ^perhaps the only chance during the year that we have — and of course there is the temptation to occupy your time a little longer than we should ; but this year, owing to the lateness of the hour at which our meeting is called to- gether, we have decided to make the reports as brief as pos- sible; and leave it to you to bring out by your questions any further information that you wish in regard to the Society's work. Secretary's Report. Mr. President and Members of the Society: The fruit growing industry is increasing in volume and importance year by year. This is especially true in our New England States, where fruit growers and farmers and the people generally are beginning to realize that our conditions of soil and climate favor the production of fruits of flavor and quality, equal and even superior to those grown in any other section. This has led to the planting of large commer- cial orchards as well as extensive planting of fruit for the home supply, and to-day there is practically no branch of ag- riculture that is attracting so much attention as fruit grow- ing. Our own State is getting its share of this awakened interest in the fruit business, as the progress of this Society plainly indicates. For more than twenty years, the organi- zation has been exhorting to a greater faith in Connecticut's fruit growing ipossibilities until the people have become aroused and the work is showing gratifying results. Heavy investments are being made in lands for fruit culture, and the results already attained in orcharding, especially peach and apple, by many successful growers, is stimulating others to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 5 plant trees as well as to renovate their old orchards. That there is profit and pleasure to be derived from fruit growing right here at home is admitted by all. Because of this promising outlook, the past year has witnessed a steady growth in the strength and usefulness of our Pomological Society. We have increased in number of members and extended our usefulness in various lines of work for the direct benefit of the fruit interests of the State. As a whole, it has been a busy year and I think in work ac- comiplished will equal any previous year in our history. Probably you will be interested to hear about Our Membership. One year ago the total number of members on the list was 717. From February, 1912, to February, 1913, we have added 165 new members, and a number have been reinstated, making a total of 938 names on the list during the past year — 42 life memibers and 896 annual. Six deaths within the past year among our member- ship have been reported to this office, and up to date, 80 members have failed to renew their memberships for 1912. If we deduct these losses, it will be seen that the present number of members in good standing is 852. It would seem to your officers that this loss caused by members failingi to renew is unnecessary. When a member stops to consider what the Society is giving him in return for his dollar, he must conclude that he cannot afford to let his membership lapse. It is most gratifying to note that our membership has almost reached the thousand mark, yet we feel justified in say- ing that we can and should have a still larger membership. Let each present member constitute himself a "Committee of One" to secure at least one new member the coming year. If this is done, we shall not only increase in strength and use- fulness, but also remain in the front rank of the largest state societies in America. 6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Finances. For the year February 1st, 1912, to February 1st, 1913, I have received and paid to the Treasurer: From Annual Membership Fees $736.00 From Life Membership Fees 100.00 From Rental of Exhibit Space at Annual Meeting 80.50 From Sales of Fruit at Annual Meeting 4.50 $921.00 I have drawn orders for the payment of bills amounting to $2,914.00. These bills are classified under the following" heads : Annual Meeting, 1912, including Premiums on Fruit.... $712.05 Annual Report 752.49 Annual Fall Exhibition: Running Expenses : $133.80 Premiums Paid 409.25 543.05 Field Meetings 24.30 Institute Work 169.75 Secretary's Office: Salary, Balance Year 1911 $100.00 Salary, on Account Year 1912 150.00 Office Expenses and Supplies 47.65 — — — 297.65 "The Connecticut Farmer" Furnished to Members 208.38 Expenses President's Office (1911) 49.26 Expenses Treasurer's Office 12.34 Miscellaneous Printing and Advertising 84.28 Sundry Expenses 60.45 Total $2,914.00 Meetings and Exhibitions. In addition to the Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Feb- ruary, the Society held two summer field meetings and two exhibitions during the year 1912. By invitation of the officers of the Connecticut Agricul- tural College, the members of the Society visited the College TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 7 on August 13th and 14th, and one of the most successful field meetings we have ever held was the result. A large number of fruit gi-owers of the State took advantage of this oppor- tunity to visit the College and study the various 'branches of work being done at this splendid institution. All were most hospitably cared for by the College people during the enjoy- able two days' outing. On October 4th, a very profitable field day was held at the Summit Orchards of the Barnes Bros, at West Cheshire. -Here the visitors saw a magnificent apple orchard, the crop of splendid fruit just ripening. It was a revelation to many to note the wonderful results aecomplished on this rough land in the successful production of apples and peaches. The Summit Orchards were. one of the earliest fruit enterprises in the State to be made a success, and the thousands of apple trees comprising it promise to yield the owners paying crops for years to come. The first Exhibition of the season was a Peach Show held at the Connecticut Fair, Charter Oalc Park, the first week in September. Despite the light peach crop last season, we were enabled to stage a superb show of peaches, thanks to the co-operation of some of the larger peach growers, and the beautiful fruit displayed in every sort of commercial pack- age, and a large collection of varieties on plates drew forth much praise from the crowds that attended the Fair. The sale of the fruit netted the Society about $100.00 above the expenses. Our Annual Fall Exhibition of fruits was held, as in previous years, with the Connecticut State Fair at Berlin, Sep- tember 24-27. It was a fine display in every way, especially of apples and grapes, and proved one of the most attractive educational features of the Fair. Premiums amounting to $411.25 were awarded to over fifty exhibitors. The details of this show will be given you in the report of the Commit- tee on Exhibitions. 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Institute Work. During the past year, no Institutes were held directly by this Society, but, as in the previous year, we have been rep- resented on the State Advisory Board of Farmers' Institutes, which has had charg'e of the Institute work done in the State. Under this plan of co-operation, a goodly number of meet- ings were held and the subject of fruit growing was given a place in many of the programs as carried out. The Society is doing its share of Institute Work again this season through the same method of co-operation. Last Spring, the Society worked with the Agricultural College in carrying out a number of Demonstration Orchard Meetings in different parts of the State, and last week we as- sisted in the holding of a successful apple packing school at Meriden. This latter work is of much importance and should be given more attention in the future. Your officers acting as an Executive Committee have met frequently during the year and have given much time and thought to the careful planning of the year's work. At every season, there is a demand for the helpful service of the or- ganization touching the various phases of the fruit industry of our State, and the results accomplished thus far give prom- ise of busy, useful years ahead, so long as the Society shall "make good" and give an adequate return for the money in- vested in it by its members and by the State. * There is an increasing need for the work of just such a Society as ours, and especially at the present time, when so many of our citizens are about to embark in the business of fruit growing. The help that we can render through ad- vice and direction, yes, and even by urging caution some- times, will no doubt prove of the greatest value. In short, the Society should influence and direct along right lines this wonderfully aroused interest in fruit culture. If this is done, it will result in a healthy building up of the fruit industry, as well as profit to the producer and the betterment of the State at large. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. g er to properly carry on the campaign of education ^o the fruit grower and consumer, we should have at hand more accurate information concerning the soil con- ditions within the State, the cost of production of fruit crops, the problems of marketing and other facts that enter into the -success of fruit culture. As one step in this matter, the Society was instrumental in securing the assignment of a government soil expert to study the fruit soils of Connecticut the past season. We are hoping for considerable valuable information from the work of Prof. Wilder^ whose report is not yet ready for publica- tion. In these and other ways, the Society will have abundant ■opportunity to show its ability and usefulness as a business ■organization of fruit growers and to accomplish its avozced ■fnission, which is "to encourage among our people a greater love and appreciation for choice fruit .products, to awaken a larger interest in the advantages of Connecticut as a fruit producing State, and to offer practical help to all fruit grow- ers along the lines of better methods of planting, cultivating, ■spraying, packing and marketing." With sincere appreciation of the kindly treatment accord- •ed your Secretary during the year, this report is Respectfully submitted, H. C. C. MILES, Secretary. February 3rd, 1913. President Barnes: You have the report of the Sec- retary before you. What is your pleasure'? It was moved and seconded that the report of the Secre- tary be accepted and placed on file; and it was so voted. President Barnes: The next in order is the Treasur- er's report. I understand that the report of the Treasurer will be delayed, as Treasurer Cook may not be present to-day 10 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. on account of sickness ; so we will postpone for the present this report. Reports of Standing Committees. President Barnes: The next are the reports of the Standing Committees. The report of the Membership Com- mittee is now in order, Mr. J. H. Putnam, Chairman. Secretary Miles : Mr. Putnam is very busy collect- ing memberships, doing good work for the committee, at the other end of the hall. Possibly we could have his report later in the day. President Barnes : Next in order is the report of the Committee on Legislation, Mr. C. L. Gold, Chairman. Mr. Gold : I have no written report, as we have done very little. There was no session of the legislature last year; and they have 'been very busy so far this year. I would mention that the State Entomologist, Dr. Britton, has introduced a bill in regard to the inspection of foreign nursery stock, which is very important ; and I hope later in the meeting some action will be taken in regard to the endorse- ment of this bill now before the legislature. It is an amend- ment to the present law now on the statute book. We would also state that a bill is to be introduced asking for an appropriation for the Pomological Society for mak- ing an exhibit of fruit at the New England Fruit Show in Boston next Fall. That is all I have to report. President Barnes : You have heard the report of the Committee on Legislation. What is your pleasure? It was moved and seconded that the report of the Com- mittee on Legislation be accepted and placed on file ; and it was so voted. President Barnes : The next report is the report of the Committee on Exhibitions, the Chairman of which is Mr. L. C. Root. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. n Report of the Exhibition Committee. The year 1912 has passed with fewer fruit exhibits by this Society than last, but each of the three exhibitions held were carefully planned and very nice fruit displayed. At the Annual Meeting- in Februar}- there was a liberal display of plate fruit, but the commercial packages were few ; how- ever, these few were of good quality and well packed. With the Connecticut Fair at Charter Oak Park irt September our exhibit was of peaches grown by members of this Society. Your Secretary and Exhibition Committee took the mat- ter up with nearby growers and had some early varieties put in cold storage, and with more or less success managed to get several of the early varieties on exhibition. The very damp weather at the time of the Exhibition made it difficult to keep the display in the best shape, as the growers could not pick in the rain, and if they did it took the bloom from the fruit which injured the keeping qualities and also the looks. However, rain or shine, a good display of fruit was secured, and a creditable display made both in commercial packages and varieties on plates. Any one asking to see a certain va- riety could be satisfied generally, as there were about twenty varieties on exhibition. At our Annual Fall Exhibition, this year with the Berlin Agricultural Society, there was a fine display of plate fruit, with many contests for first places. The contest in collections was close, and as the Judges were told to stick to our rules as to codling moth and scale, they were obliged to make some av/ards that seemed unfair, but were without doubt just. The display of grapes was much larger this year than in previous years, and certainly it looks as if Connecticut might become quite a vineyard some dav. The pears and plums were not so well represented as in former years. The ladies furnished a fine display of canned 12 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fruit, jellies and pickles; rarely if ever, has this department excelled in quality or number of cans. There was but one collection of nuts, and this one showed that the exhibitor had to work for his prize, as we all know nuts were scarce. We trust the boys will make a try this coming year. Barnes Brothers' display of peaches added much to the show, it being late in the season to expect much of this fruit on exhibition. Your Comiftiittee would recommend that the exhibition rules of this Society be revised and so printed that members may know just what fruit to select for competition, whether a large apple or small one ; a "green" Greening or a "blush" ^Greening and many other points should be given to the exhib- itors that they may all aim at one ideal. This also would aid the judges greatly. L. C. ROOT, A. G. GULLEY, W. H. BALDWIN, Committee. President Barnes: You have. the report of the Com- mittee on Exhibitions before you. I would call your attention particularly to the recoanmendation made that the rules be revised for the exhibition of fruit. What is your pleasure in regard to his report? Secretary Miles : I move that it be accepted and placed on file. Motion seconded ; and it was so voted. President Barnes : Next on the programme is the re- port of the Committee on Markets and Transportation, Mr. C. E. Lyman, Chairman. Report of Committee on Markets and Transportation. Mr. Lyman : A very few words, Mr. Chairman, will givei you all the information that we have in regard to this matter. As you are aware, the 1912 peach crop was a very TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 13 short crop in Connecticut, and the majority of the fruit was transported .in wagons, and the railroad company was not asked to do the service which it usually does for us in that matter. I should attribute the poor transportation that we had, or the poor service that we had — it was not quite up to the usual thing that we usually get from the railroad com- pany— to the very small crop that we had. If we should have a larger crop another year all of us large growers have got to look out that our distribution is more extended ; that we have better distribution in regard to the railroad company. I think our experience with the New Haven Railroad leads us to believe that they give us as fine service as we could ask for ; and I think we should all co-operate with the railroad com- pany in every way that we can in order to help them out in distributing our peaches and our fruit. I think that is all. President Barnes : You have heard the report of the Commiittee on Markets and Transportation. I think we will all agree with Mr. Lyman on the necessity of getting together in this matter of future crops. What is your pleasure in regard to this report? It was moved and seconded that the report of the Com- mittee on Markets and Transportation be accepted and placed on file; and it was so voted. President Barnes : The next report is that of the Com- mittee on Publicity, Mr. E. D. Curtis, Chairman. Report of the Publicity Committee. Your committee has to report a year which it believes has been of much value to the Society and to the fruit growers of the State. Early in the spring, the matter of a soil survey was taken up in connection with the work of Mr. H. J. Wild- er, of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Mr. Wilder's work in Massachusetts in 1911 had been of much value and importance to the growers there, and your commit- tee succeeded in having Mr. Wilder assigned by the Depart- 14 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ment of Ag-riculture to perform a similar work in Comiecti- cut. Upon this he was engaged most of the past year. The chief credit for this assignment is due to Dr. E. H. Jenkins, who, at our request, made a trip to Washington for this pur- pose. It is unfortunate that the Department was not wilHng to have Mr. Wilder give us the results of his work at this meeting, but it is hoped that his findings may soon be avail- able in print. Meanwhile, his report on Massachusetts apple soils is available in the proceedings of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association, and detailed information on our own conditions can undoubtedly be obtained by writing to Mr. Wilder at Washington. Your committee further took up the matter of the co- operative purchase of fertilizers. Since this undertaking was entirely experimental, it was deemed advisable not to try to do too much the first year, and it was finally decided to con- fine ourselves to the purchase of basic slag. In connection with the Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Association, a pur- chase of 250 tons of slag was made at a price much below ordinary dealers' quotations. The purchase was made on the basis of the foreign analysis, which showed an excess of total phosphoric acid over the seller's guaranty, and a very mate- rial excess of available phosphoric acid, so that we have every reason to be satisfied with the results of the experiment. One hundred tons were taken by the Massachusetts society and l.SO by our own growers. Owing to the fact that the clerical la- bor involved in handling small quantities would have been great, and that the services of your committee were rendered without any charge whatever, it was impossible to handle any- thing but carload lots. Notices of the intended purchase were, therefore, sent only to the growers who had reported over ten acres of fruit in the census taken two years ago by this committee. Your committee believes that the Society is to be con- gratulated upon the success of this purchase. While we have been requested to treat as confidential both the seller's name and the price, we may say that a saving of from three to five TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 15 dollars a ton was made over usual car lot prices. It is rea- sonable to suppose from this, that a considerable saving in other chemicals could be made, and that many of our smaller growers could be supplied if the requisite machinery for hand- ling the business is authorized. Your committee is willing to report definitely that a large saving can almost invariably be effected by such methods of purchase, but it must be equally definite in the statement that any general scheme of co-opera- tive buying will involve some clerical expense, and some def- inite financial responsibility. How far, therefore, such a scheme will be practicable for this Society depends upon what quantity of stuff can be sold and upon how ready our mem- bers are to co-operate in the matter. This is a subject upon wihich the chairman of the committee will be glad to hear ■from individual members, or which may, perhaps, be better discussed in the course of this meeting. Your committee has also devoted considerable time to investigating the question of co-operative packing and market- ing, as authorized at our last winter meeting. We do not be- lieve, however, that the time for co-operative packing and marketing has yet arrived, if, indeed, it ever will arrive in this state. Owing to the wide separation of our growers and our excellent local markets, most of our marketing can be best done individually. There may be excellent opportunities for a few local growers to make a uniform pack and combine in a large shipment that will bring a better price than a few small consignments. But that is not a matter in which this Society will be interested. Your committee still believes that the efforts of this Society in the line of selling fruit should be directed to its proper distribution among the markets. In this field there is ample room. While we have been unable to get any information from the New Haven Railroad as to movements of apples by their lines, we are informed, for in- stance, that about fifteen cars of New York State apples were shipped into Waterbury alone during that portion of the sea- son prior to last January first. If the same proportion would hold for all cur large cities, our imports this year would be l6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. very material. While the dealer from whom this information: was derived regarded our own crop as light and the New York crop as unusually heavy, yet the imports would seem to ibe insufficient to indicate, that we are not supplying the demand in the State, and that our markets are therefore, at the present time, ample. Before many years, however, in- creased production will make it necessary to take into account the competition of fruit from other States. But at present no action hy the Society on this point seems either necessary or desirable. E. D. CURTIS, C. L. GOLD, STAN'CLIFF HALE, Committee. President Barnes: You have before you the report of the Committee on Publicity. What is your pleasure? It was moved and seconded that the report of the Com- mittee on Publicity be accepted and placed on file. It was sa voted. President Barnes : The field of work covered by this committee is a very large one, very responsible, and very im- portant, and calls for a lot of work, in order to get anything of this kind in proper working order. I believe that the commit- tee is entitled to the gratitude and thanks of this Society for the work that they have done. The next report will be of the Committee on New Fruits^, Chairman, Prof. A. T. Stevens. Report of Committee on New Fruits. The year 1912 seems not to have been a year for the out- cropping of many great varieties of new fruits of value. The committee has had few such brought to its attention. Its re- port consequently will be brief, but we hope helpful. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 17 The recommending of varieties for general planting should be very discriminating indeed. No doubt as many growers are 'lead astray in the selection of varieties, as in any one department of fruit growing. Hence a long series of trials, under varying conditions of soils and atmosphere are necessary before a variety of tree fruits should be planted in general by the average fruit grower. The J. H. Hale Peach. It is not often in the life time of a Society like this one of ours that it has the pleasure of cataloging one of its mem- ber's own products — a product of which the members and the Society may well be proud. This pleasure, however, falls to the Connecticut Pomological Society, and its most worthy member, Mr. J. H. Hale, this year, when it is enabled to place in its list of new and valuable varieties for New England the J. H. Hale Peach. Mr. Hale describes this new product as a chance seedling, found while driving through the orchard about twelve years ago. He has been fruiting it now for about eight or nine years, and is now willing to have his name attached to it. It is a strong, vigorous growing tree of the Eltberta type, but perhaps more stocky and with drooping, branching head. Fruit buds hardiest of any large, yellow peach — a few having escaped a temperature of twenty-seven degrees below zero. Tree enormously productive of the largest sized, globular, deep yellow fruits, overlaid with bright carmine, except on the very under side. Fruit is smooth, solid, thick skin (without fuzz). Flesh deep yellow, firm, fine grained and solid as a cling, but free and tender. In many tests it has stood shipping excellent- ly. It has a long season, just before Elberta. St. Regis Raspberry, This is one of the so-called everbearing berries, which has been called to our attention by one of the best fruit 1 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. growers and nurseryniien. It is said to be very satisfactory wherever tried, and where tried out alongside other varieties has superceded them. It is described as a brilliant crimson, very large, juicy berry of highest quality. The canes are very strong, vigorous and hardy. It is said to be a heavy cropper, producing fruits in early June on the old wood and continuing until late Aug- ust on the new wood. It may be worthy of testing m a small way. Howard No. 17 Strawberry. This is a variety that was received at the College in 1908, and has been fruited since on different soils with marked success. The plant seems to adapt itself to nearly all con- ditions and has given large annual yields. It is a good plant maker, a strong grower, and quite free from disease. The fruit is rather light colored for a first-class shipping variety, but for home use and home market will be difficult to excel. It begins to ripen with Dunlop and Haverland, and contin- ues to give large, ver^' sweet, delicious fruit after those va- rieties are past. It was originated by A. B. Howard & Son of Belchertown, Mass., who have been fruiting it since 1896. with miarked success. In addition to the report that the committee made last year in regard to the Delicious apple, we desire now to make this as a supplementary to that report. Last sumimer was a season in which the orange rust worked very badly with a great many varieties of apples ; but during the season the De- licious was attacked very little, if any, where other varieties were almost completely destroyed by the orange rust. That, I think, is something that should be looked into in the future ; because it seems to me that one of our methods of fighting disease is by the adoption of varieties that will withstand the attack. A. T. STEVENS, JOHN R. BARNES, HENRY H. LYMAN, Committee. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 19 President Barnes: You have heard the report of the Committee on New Fruits. What is your pleasure concern- ing it? It was moved and seconded that the report of the Com- mittee on New Fruits ibe accepted and placed on file; and it was so voted. President Barnes : We will have the report of the Committee on Injurious Insects, Dr. Britton, Chairman. Report of Committee on Injurious Insects. During the season of 1912 aphids of all kinds were abun- dant and the Rosy apple aphis, Aphis sorbi Kalt., caused much injury to fruit. This is a difficult pest to control and is so influenced by natural enemies and other conditions, that the grower never knows when it is going to do enough dam- age to warrant treatment. After the injury has been done it is too late. Spraying with commercial lime-sulphur 1-8 just before the buds open will kill some of the eggs and newly- hatched aphids. If the insect is abundant late in May a thor- ough spraying of the under side of the leaves, especially in the center of the tree, using kerosene emulsion, is probably the best treatment. Great damage by white grubs was an important feature of the season. They ate the roots of strawberry plants, young nursery trees, and destroyed and injured fields of po- tatoes, corn and grass. These grubs are the larvae of the common brown "May beetles," or "June beetles," which fly around lights the latter part of May and the. first part of June. The Station collection contains fourteen species taken in Con- necticut. Five of these are common and are doubtless respon- sible for most of the injury. Normally, the grubs are pres- ent and feed upon the roots of native grasses and weeds, but escape notice. It is only when they are exceptionally abundant that they cause damage to cultivated crops. Cultural meth- ods, such as late fall plowing, rotation of crops, and avoiding 20 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. sod land for those crops most seriously affected, are the only control methods. Infested land should be disked very thor- oughly in all directions to kill the grubs. During the year my assistant, Mr. B. H. Walden, has completed life history studies on a new species of sawfly found defoliating cultivated blackberries in a plantation in Hamden, near New Haven. No one knows whether or not this insect will prove to be a pest. If it does, spraying the leaves with lead arsenate about June first will prevent damage. Another assistant, Mr. H. B. Kirk, has worked out the life histories of the walnut weevil, Conotrachelus juglandis Lee, which infests Persian or English walnuts, Japanese wal- nuts and butternuts; and a bud-moth of the genus Acrobasis, which attacks the Persian or English walnut. Both these insects cause great inury to trees, as the larvae tunnel in the new shoots so that there is no set of fruit and the growth is seriously checked. Fortunately, spraying with lead arsenate at the proper time serves to control both insects. Those in- terested may find full accounts of these investigations in the twelfth report of the state entomologist for 1912. The peach sawfly continues to be present and causes more or less injury each year where peach trees are not sprayed with arsenical poisons. Messrs. Lyman of Middlefield and Henry of Wallingford sprayed a large number of trees in 1912 to control this insect. The San Jose scale is still to be reckoned with in fruit culture, though the experienced grower no longer fears it. It must be kept down on young trees, and bearing trees will not produce clean fruit unless sprayed, and infested fruit is not profitable. It is true that this insect is not killing so many old neglected trees as it did ten years ago. The gypsy moth control work has been successful. No caterpillars have been found at Stonington since 1910, and it is believed that the pest has been exterminated there. Only twenty six caterpillars were found in Wallingford last summer, against nine thousand in 1910, and only two egg clusters were TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 21 found there this winter, though carefully examined by two state scouts, and two federal scouts. The brown-tail moth, on the other hand, is spreading toward the west and south and it will not be many years be- fore it will cover the State. We are checking it by clipping off and destroying the winter nests, but as both sexes fly, ex- termination is impossible over large areas. Scattered infesta- tions have already been found as far west as'Stonington, Nor- wich, Storrs and Stafford Springs, and probably the territory east of these points is more or less infested. Professor G. W. Herrick of the Cornell Station, in a pa- per before the American Association of Economic Entomolo- gists at Cleveland, Januar)^ first, reported that in New York State two species of maggots are found in cherries, Rhagole- tis cingulata Loew and R. fausta O. S. Investigations show that these insects can in a large m.easure be controlled by spraying the leaves and young fruit with a sweet poison mix- ture. The adult flies feed upon the poisoned syrup and are killed before laying eggs. This method may also prove effec- tive against the apple maggot, a near relative. Professor Her- rick's paper will soon appear in the Journal of Economic En- tomology and probably will be published in detail as a bulle- tin of the Cornell Station. A publication of the Bureau of Entomology (Bull. 116, Part IV) has just been issued, indicating -that the lime-sul- phur mixture has considerable efficiency as a stomach poison. When sprayed foliage was fed to fall web worms and cer- tain other caterpillars, all were killed, though less quickly than when lead arsenate was used. The tests indicate that lime-sulphur, 1 gal. to 50 gals, water, is about as effective a stomach poison in killing insects as lead arsenate, 1 lb. to 50 gals, water. Further tests are necessary before we can have definite knowledge on this point, ibut this publication is sugges- tive, and lime sulphur may prove to be of considerable value against certain chewing insects which are easily killed, like the sawfly larvae, and especially on such things as currants, black- 22 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. berries, raspberries and strawberries in the home garden, where arsenical poisons are undesirable. The careful inspection of all growing nursery stock has been continued, as well as the inspection of all woody field- grown stock imported from foreign countries. The law known as the Federal Quarantine Act, establishing the Feder- al Horticultural Board, took effect October first, 191.2 Un- der this law all stock must enter the country under a permit, and must bear the proper certificate of inspection, and marks showing contents, origin and destination. The Federal au- thorities may establish quarantines, but do not attempt to in- spect stock, and, in fact, have no control over it after it passes out of interstate commerce. It remains, therefore, for the state inspectors to inspect this stock upon its arrival. This we have done in Connecticut since 1909 and have already headed off a number of pests. This work has steadily in- creased from 306 packages in 1909, 707 in 1910, 854 in 1911, to 987 in 1912. Since the first of October there have been many more than before, because florists' woody stock was not previously inspected, and since the law went into effect we re ceive from the importing brokers and also from the Federal Horticultural Board notices of all shipments. Formerly the nurserymen notified us, but private parties did not. From Oc- tober first to February first we have inspected 472 boxes, bales and parcels. We are now asking that our law be changed slightly, so that this imported stock cannot be unpacked with- out permission except in the presence of the inspector. Under the present law a person may unpack and distribute the stock before the inspector arrives, and there is no penalty. It should also be illegal for any transportation company to bring uncertified stock into Connecticut without notifying the state entomologist, so that such stock may be inspected. These changes, we believe, are reasonable, and for the protection of the State, should be enacted into the law. W. E. BRITTON, Chairman. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 23 Dr. W. E. Britton : Since this report was prepared, I have had several notes sent in regarding the prevalence of canker worm in the' State. These are always more or less destructive; and in order to guard against injury we spray the trees early every year with arsenate of lead. In some cases it may be necessary to give one spraying before the blossoms open ; and it should be given soon after in all cases. Usually that will be sufficient to prevent serious damage. President Barnes: You have heard the report of the Committee on Injurious Insects. What is your pleasure? It was moved and seconded that the rejx)rt of the Com- mittee on Injurious Insects be accepted and printed in the proceeding and it was so voted. Secretary Miles : I want to say a word or two in re- gard to the matter of hotel accomm.odations. A number of members have asked me to look up rooms for them. Mr. L. J. Robertson has given me a list of rooms in private houses and I should be glad to communicate with any member in re- gard to them. Gentlemen, remember that you are to deposit the stub of your railroad certificate with the station agent as soon as you arrive in town. This is necessary so that we may know as soon as possible if two hundred have done so; in order that we may get the return rates. I wish also to call your attention to the trade exhibit down stairs and also to t'he exhibits of fruit and the exhibits of the Market Gardeners' Association in the main hall. President Barnes: I would emphasize what the Sec- retary has just said to you about the various exhibits in the hall and down stairs. I would like to say that it was quite a question for the Executive Committee to decide on a place in which to hold this meeting. The hall that we have had in pre- vious years for certain reasons was not available, and this is a very large hall to occupy. I am inclined to think that the move is not a bad one. It onlv remains for our members to 24 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. avail themselves of the opportunities here afforded and to take every advantage possible of the program that is offered and get all the good they can out of it. I ibelieve we have a very full program for this afternoon and for the follow^ing sessions ; and I hope that you will be present promptly at the opening hour this afternoon, prepared to take advantage of every moment cf time. If any of you wish at this time to call up any of the ques7 tions on the last page of the program, we should be pleased to have them presented for discussion If not, we will adjourn until the afternoon session. No questions being called for, the meeting adjourned at 12 :05 for the noon recess. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 25 AFTERNOON SESSION. The afternoon session was called to order at 1 :30 by President Barnes. The attendance was much larger than at the morning- session, and one of the largest ever seen at a meeting of the Society. Probably not far from one thous- and persons were present! during the afternoon, in the main hall and in the exhibition rooms below, the trade displays be- ing at this time in complete shape. President Barnes : We Ihink we have a very full pro- gram ; and it will depend largely on the attention that you give how much of it we will be able to get through with this afternoon. First on the program this afternoon we have the report of the Committee on Fungous Diseases, by Dr. G. P. Clinton of the Connecticut Experiment Station, New Haven. Report of Committee on Fungous Diseases for 1912. , By Dr. G. P. Clinton, New Haven. Weatheir Conditions. The winter of 1911-12 caused considerable injury to the f^ruit buds because of a period of warm, wet weather beginning in December, followed by a sudden cold snap about the middle of January. This was most severe on peaches, killing all or a large percentage of their fruit buds in many sections, so that the resulting crop on the whole was light. There was also some winter injury to the peach wood through frost cracks. The spring was unusually wet and cloudy, April and May being quite marked in these respects. This wet weather, with late frosts about the middle of June, made a very late spring, and favored an unusual development of the fungous troubles that start at that time of the year. 26 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In June and the first half of July there was a drought period that threatened serious trouble, but in most regions this was largely overcome by scattered rains from then on. The fall was dry, and was unusual in that the first severe killing frost held off longer than for some years, occuring on November 2nd, at New Haven, though very light frosts oc- curred the first of October. Common Fungous Troubles. Taken as a whole, the year did not develop very numerous or severe fungous trou- bles, except those started by the unusually wet spring. Among these may be especially mentioned leaf curl of peach and ap- ple rust, which were worse than for some years. The leaf curl of peach was so bad that some reported that it was not controlled by the winter treatment with lime-sulphur. The Station's young orchard, however, which received a spray- ing about the time the buds began to swell, did not suffer at all, though an older, unsprayed orchard near by developed the leaf curl conspicuously. Several Station experimenters have reported the past year that the apple rust can be largely con- trolled if sprayings arq made at just the proper time — that is, when the cedar apples begin to form spores and the apple leaves are not fully grown. In this State, that means from about the fifth of May until at least the end of that month. Brown rot was not so serious on the whole, partly on ac- count of weather conditions, and, partly because of the light peach crop. Some of the early varieties, as the Champion, however, rotted quite badly, and those who practiced spraying with self-boiled lime sulphur reported considerable benefit to these varieties. The wet spring also developed considerable anthracnose on the cherry and currant. On the other hand, the dry fall caused a minimum development of the sooty blotch of apple. Chestnut Blight. Some years ago there was consid- erable interest manifested in chestnut culture in this State. To-day, however, the writer is able to find only three per- sons who have trees grafted with European or Japanese varie- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 27 ties. If there are others, he would like to hear of them. Mr. John H..Dickerman grafted the Paragon and sortie other varieties on a few trees at Mount Carmel. Mr. W. O. Com- ing of Marbledale has in bearing a number of trees grafted with both Japanese and European varieties. Both of these men report that the blight is killing these trees. Dr. Robert T. Morris of Stamford has perhaps experimented with more varieties from a wider distributary range than anyone else in this country. He reports the seedlings of cer- tain varieties from North Japan and Corea as about the only ones w^hich show any marked immunity to the blight. On our forest chestnuts the blight has now been report- ed in all of the one hundred and sixty-eight towns of the State, though in Tolland and Windham Counties it is incon- spicuous as compared with Fairfield and New Haven Coun- ties. In the dry year of 1911, taking the State as a whole, the blight was certainly far more conspicuous and injurious than in any previous year. If weather conditions have noth- ing to do with its progress, this would certainly mean that in 1912 its spread and damage would be far greater than in 1911. Yet a special inquiry recently sent out to farmers, lumbermen and scientists of the State who have carefully watched this trouble shows that twenty-two out of the forty- six who have thus far replied to the inquiry believe the dis- ease to have been no more, or even less, conspicuous in 1912 than in 1911. This accords with the writer's observations, and itidicates that we may have reached the worst of this dis- easie in most localities, and may hope for a general, though gradual decline in its severity. Unusual Fungous Troubles. As we have not made a report on the fungous diseases of fruit since 1909, several new troubles that have come to light since then may be brief- ly mentioned here. We have already reported two species of rust that occur on our apples, but this fall a third one (Roeslelia aurantiaca) was sent to the Station from two lo- calities. This last has such bright colored spores that we may 28 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. distinguish it as the orange-spored rust. It has been found here previously on the sarvice (ben:y, quince and hawthorn. Like other rusts, it has its winter stage on cedar and juniper. It is more commonly found on the fruit and young stems, es- pecially in the case of the quince. Both the specimens re- ceived on apple were on the young twigs. On one of these the fungus had not yet fomned its fruiting pustules, although it was then very late in the fall, and as the tissues were still alive, it looked as if the fungus might have carried over win- ter and formed them in the spring. Usually the twigs are killed, and there is no evidence of the further development of the fungus on them the following year. A second fungus new to this State was found by Dr*. Britton on young peach twigs while inspecting nurseries in 1911. The same fungus has also been sent in to the Station once since then. This fungus, Plionia Persicae, has been re- ported before in this country only by Selby, who several years ago found it in Ohio in several orchards, and also doing con- siderable injury in one nursery. This fungus produces sunken cankers in the bark, sometimes girdling the stem and causing the death of the parts above. The fungus fruits in incon- spicuous black pustules on the cankered area. On the whole, we do not believe that this is liable ever to become a serious pest in Connecticut, and it should be easily controlled by pruning ofif the diseased branches and burning them. We have previously found a little of the pine rust on im- ported white pine in two or three plantations, though it has never become established here. Last year Mr. Walden, while inspecting white pine imported from Holland by one of our nurserymen, ran across a very considerable number of trees that showed this rust. These were all destroyed. The rust is of importance not only to the owners of white pine, but also to those who grow currants and gooseberries, since these are the alternate hosts of this rust {Cronartmm ribicola). Heretofore, outbreaks of this rust on currants have been re- ported in this country only from Geneva, N. Y. Curiously enough, Stewart of the Geneva Station this year reported TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 29 another very serious outbreak there, while Stone of Amherst, Mass., found the disease in Massachusetts, and the writer brought to Hght one case in a private garden at Meriden, Conn. The black currant is by far the most susceptible va- riety. Fortunately- this is not grown extensively in Connec- ticut. Very few of our nurser3Tiien have more than a few plants of it, and some have none at all. An examination of a f ew of these nurseries last fall, and correspondence with the oth- ers handling currants, failed to reveal this rust in any of the nurseries. The Uunited States Department of Agriculture has recently prohibited the importation of white pine from any of the countries of Europe where this disease is found. These recent outbreaks, however, seem to indicate that the rust can carry over on currants and re-infect them the follow- ing year without the alternation of the stage on the white pine. The last new fungus which I shall call to your attention is a Japanese juniper rust known as Gymnosporangium ja- ponicum. In the spring of 1911, Mr. Walden, while inspect- ing a large importation of Juniperus chinensis from Japan for one of our nurseries, ran across quite a number of them that showed this rust on their stems or leaves. Evidently this fungus had developed from its winter condition into its fruit- ing stage during the journey to this country. The stem in- fected plants were destroyed, and those having the rust on the leaves were set out in an isolated place, and were exam- ined the next year by the writer. No sign of the fungus ap- peared on them, or on a badly infected specimen which was kept in the green house, thus indicating the annual nature of the fungus on this host. The alternate hosts of this fungus in Japan are apple, pear and quince, and some injury, espe- cially to pear, is reported there. President Barnes: Would you like to question Dr. Clinton on this report at this time, or later? You have the report of this committee before you. What is your pleasure? 30 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. It was moved and seconded that the report of the Com- mittee on Fungousi Diseases be accepted and placed on file; and it was so voted. President Barnes: Those of us who are trying to grow apples successfully know how hard it is to grow perfect fruit. I think you will be particularly interested in the next address, which is by Dr. Reddick, of the New York State Col- lege of Agriculture, at Ithaca, on "New York State Methods for the Control of Diseases of the Apple." Methods for Controlling Fungous Diseases of the Apple in New York State. By Dr. Donald Reddick, Professor of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. In thinking over the subject assigned, the speaker has decided that it would have been better to have brought along a moving picture film to show just how the various opera- tions in fighting diseases are performed in some of our best orchards. Unfortunately for us our men are all too busy at spraying time to bother with just ordinary pictures, to say nothing of moving pictures, so that such a plan is quite im- possible. It has occured to me, therefore, that if I explained to you the basis on which our men proceed in their orchard operations of fighting disease, you would find it equally prof- itable. I doubt not one can find, in actual practice, about as high a percentage of men doing their disease fighting" in the latest approved fashion in Connecticut as in New York State. Although I have never had the pleasure of visiting Connecti- cut orchards during the growing season I presume you have with you, as we have with us, some men who never quite get around to make more than two applications of spray in any one season, as well as the kind who depend on the Lord to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 31 ward off any pestilence. To the latter class I have only to ■quote from the holy writ, James II : 17 : "Even so faith if it hath not works is dead, being alone." Apple Scab. All things considered there is no disease which gives New York orchardists so much trouble and worry as the scab dis- ease, or as it is sometimes called the fungus. Cause. Most pf the fungi are so small that they can- not be seen and the fruit grower who has not access to a com- pound microscope never has the opportunity to become so well acquainted with the fungi that cause disease as he does with the various insects of the orchard. Never having seen a spore one cannot form a very definite idea as to what such a l>ody looks like, what it contains, how much it weighs and so forth. It will be sufficient for our purposes to remember that a spore cannot be seen with the naked eye, that it is smaller and lighter than a particle of dust, and that it carries within it the power of starting a new fungus plant if it is given the necessary requirements of food, heat and moisture. Winter Stage. In our latitude the apple scab (Venturia inaequalis) is known definitely to winter over, largely, if not exclusively, on the diseased fallen leaves. Early in the spring one may find, by careful search, the small black bodies or perithecia of the fungus beginning to protrude from the dead leaves. These perithecia are not much larger than the point of a pin, and it takes an expert to find them at all. Within each perithecium, however, there may be found a large nuin- "ber of spores. These spores are contained in sacs or asci, eight to each ascus. A perithecium may often contain 200 asci, that is 1,600 spores. Some estimates made in 1910, by Dr. Wallace, will serve to illustrate what quantity of spores may be produced in a favorable year. From one sq. cm. of leaf surface, 5,630 spores were caught in a period of 45 min- utes. If the total area under a large tree were evenly cov- •ered with dead leaves as thoroughly infested as the small piece 32 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. from which these spores were obtained there mig-ht be 8,107,- 000,000 spores discharged. Correlation of Fungus and Host. Careful study has been made in a laboratory located right in the orchard to de- termine just when and under what conditions the spores of the scab fungus are distributed. A most remarkable condi- tion was observed. Dr. Wallace never found perithecia being pushed to the surface of the old leaf until the new leaves were unfolding. One year the blossom buds were showing pink when the spores ripened, whereas in 1912 the first infec- tion of the season occurred some days after the blossoms had fallen, and there is good presumptive evidence that the spores were not mature until that time. Meteorological Relations. It was further obsei-ved that the spores did not escape from the perithecia except during rainy, wet weather. More than that, the spores were actually ejected with violence under such conditions. In other words, this means that in the orchard, where fallen scabby leaves are present, the fungus will be in mature condition some time shortly after the first leaves open, and that at the first rain each mature sac containing the spores will swell, pro- trude from the perithecium through a minute ostiole at the apex and violently discharges its contained spores into the air, emptying itself in a few minutes. From the figures I have just given you, it will be seen that a large percentage of these spores might fall to the ground and die, and still there might be left enough to produce an epidemic of the disease. Indeed this is what happens in na- ture. The individual spores are so small and light that the slightest gust of wind or even air currents imperceptible to us are sufficient to carry them considerable distances, certainly as far as the lower branches of the trees. Spore Germination. The same conditions which favor the discharge of spores are also favorable to their germination. Drops of water are indispensible and a certain period of time TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 33 is required. The actual time necessary varies with tempera- ture and m^y range from twelve to twenty-four hours. There- fore, in order that there may be an infection, epidemic in na- ture, there not only should be a certain amount of rainfall, but this should also be followed by a period of quiet, cloudy weather. Wind helps to shake the clinging- drops from the foliage, and dries up the last traces of moisture and is as effective or more so than sunshine in this respect. Infection and Incubation. After a period of such favor- able conditions the spore germinates. It sends forth a tube which soon makes its way under the cuticle of the leaf, and there establishes itself, draws food from the leaf tissues and increases in bulk and length, becoming profusely branched. In the course of eight to fourteen days the growth is suffi- cient to be seen with the naked eye. This interval, common- ly spoken of as the period of incubation, was not understood by most of our growers as late as 1910. Most fortunately for all of us concerned, the apple scab studies begun by Dr. Wallace in 1908 were just being brought to a close during the summer of 1910. This placed us in a position to explain all these matters very fully at the various meetings the fol- lowing winter, and at a time when everv apple man was great- ly interested. The extreme infection on both upper and lower side, depending on the state of development of the leaf at the time infection occurred on the foliage, brought the leaf stage of the disease prominently to the attention of many growers. Formerly many had regarded the disease as con- fined to the fruit, Pedicle Infection. One other point of great importance in some years was brought out in the epidemic of 1910. From careful observations made by Dr. Wallace we felt verv sure of our grounds when we said that it was not the cold rains during the blossoming period that were responsible for the poor set of fruit in certain orchards, but an abundant infec- tion of apple scab on the pedicels of the young fruits. Fur- ther proof that our explanation was the correct one came in 34 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 1912. There was a great abundance of cold rainy weather during the blossoming periods of apples in western New York, as may be seen easily by consulting the data from the Roches- ter and Buffalo weather recording stations. The scab dis- ease had been nearly exterminated by the drought of 1911, so that there were no perithecia on the fallen leaves in the spring of 1912. In spite of the frequent and abundant rains the set of fruit was never larger. Summer Spores. To return to the scab fungus — when the spot is large enough to be visible to the naked eye, one usually finds, on microscopic examination, that summer spores or conidia are being produced. These spores are easily broken loose from the parent, and under favorable conditions are able to produce new spots of scab as did the spore shot from the fallen leaf. During the usual dry and hot period of July there are few opportunities for further development or new infections, but when the fall rains begin these opportu- nities are more abundant, often resulting in late infection of the fruit which only becomes apparent at picking time or may even appear in the barrels in storage. Preparation for Winter. With the frost the infected leaves fall to the ground. Under these conditions the fungus which has remained near the surface grows deeply into the perithecium. This development is continued from time to time as the weather is favorable, and is usually completed dur- ing the warm days of early spring. Basis of Control. With these essential facts in regard to the life histor of the scab fungus clearly in mind, the orchardist can plan his spraying experiments with something very definite in mind. Obviously there is no object in making a scab treatment before the buds open, since the fungus is well protected by the thick wall of the perithecium. If any treatment is given it should be with the plow to turn under all debris, including the foli- age of the year before. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 35 From what has been said above. I beheve you will agree -with me that if one had a microscope, could l^:now certainly "beforehand when the next rain would come, and of the at- tending meteorological conditions, and if he were properly equipped to spray his orchard thoroughly in a short period •of time, he might protect his trees perfectly from scab infec- tion. The fungicide applied would necessarily be one that would adhere well enough through a period of rainy weath- er, to prevent the spores from germinating when they lodged there. But this condition is imposed upon practically every substance used as a fungicide, and there are a number which are definitely known to possess this property. In the speak- er's opinion, the adhesive properties of bordeaux mixture are of as much importance in making it a good fungicide as the toxic properties of the copper it contains. First Application. When the previous season has been a year of scab the grower plans to make an application of spray after the blossom buds are in the cluster stage, but before they open. He believes this is well worth while as an insurance of a set of fruit. To be sure, as high as four-fifths of the blossoms may drop off, but since the lodgment of the spores is as purely a matter of chance as the tossing of a coin, there is no possibility that some will not attack the one-fifth-desired for a crop. A great many have wished to delay the dormant spraying, on account of blister mite, until the tips of the buds appear and have then desired to know if that spraying would not do for the first scab spraying. From what I have told you about the habits of the scab fungus I think you will agree with me that this is quite impossible. The first scab spray- ing is intended as a protection to the foliage and fruit pedi- cels during the blossoming period. Obviously one can not afford any protection to the foliage and fruit pedicels during the blossoming period. Obviously one can not afford any protection to leaves that have not yet unfolded nor to pedicels of fruits until the cluster has spread so that the spra}- may 36 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. be driven down upon them. If the bud moth is serious, poi- son must be applied at this first scab spraying. Second Application. Generally speaking, the application of spray immediately after the blossoms fall is the most im- portant summer application. The young fruit is enlarging rapidly at this time and is, mostly without spray. Then, too, it is necessary to lodge poison for the codling moth in the ca- lyx cup before it closes. This period is usually not more than ten days in length, and often is not so long. To. lengthen this time we often begin before all the petals are off. Of course, we take advantage of the difference in blooming time of the varieties, but unfortunately the Baldwin, Greening and Spy, our most widely planted varieties, blossom at about the same time. Third Application. An application of spray is usually recommended and is sometimes made about three weeks after the calyx spray. The fruits have increased enormously in size, and of course have very little spray on them. If the sea- son is very dry at this time, however, there would seem to be little object in making the application unless it is necessary to go over the orchard for codling moth. Fourth Application. The application of a fungicide at the time of spraying for the second brood oi codling moth, say the end of July, is well worth while as a protection against a late infection of scab. If the early season has been practi- cally free from disease, however, it may not be worth while. Method of Control. Efficiency. So much for the time of application and the reason for it. These are by no means sufficient, but are sim- ply a basis for work. In general there are two kinds of orchardists — the kind that send the men out to spray, and the kind that go out with the men to spray. There are a few fundamental reasons why the latter class of men are more successful in their orchard sprayings. Chief of these is the element of thoroughness. It doesn't mean as much to anyone TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 37. else as to the owner to see that every calyx cup is filled with poison and that every fruit is protected with spray. Time Element. Equally as important is the time ele- ment. This feature, however, has not received the attention due it nor that it is apt to receive in the future. Even the best of growers will perhaps be surprised when I say that one cannot hope to spray more than 600 to 800 forty-year-old trees with one outfit, and do the work at the proper time, and this is on condition that the outfit is operated at maximum capacity. If any are inclined to doubt these statements let them keep an accurate record of conditions at the critical times, as we have done in several places the past two years. They will find that a few days of warm weather will push the buds along at an amazing rate, that there are almost sure to be rainy days and possibly days when it is too wet to go into the orchard; then, too, one day in every seven is a rest day. Duding the past two years we have found that at each of the first two summer applications we have had, in western New York, just four days each time when it was physically possible to make the applications and do the work at the ef- fective time. If one will just bear in mind that the trees must be covered in four or five days at the most, if the work is to be effective, and will plan accordingly he will have plenty to keep him busy, and this is the reason that the man who goes out with his men to spray will, on the average, come through at the end of the season with the nicest lot of clean fruit. Limitations. It requires approximately ten gallons of spray to cover thoroughly a tree forty years old. The or- chardist who is in position to put out 1,200 gallons of liquid per day is the exception rather than the rule. One trouble to be mentioned is the fact that in many orchards it requires as many minutes to fill a spray tank as it does to empty it The source of water supply should be near the orchard ; large tanks of water should be ready for instant filling or there should be a high capacity pump attached to the engine; out- ^8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. lets from tanks should be four inches in diameter instead of one ; chemicals should be measured out and ready to go into the tank with the least possible delay ; all kinds of repair ma- terial should be on hand in abundance — packing, discs for noz- zles, splicing for bursted hose, and a dozen other things. Dusting. So far as the time element is concerned, noth- ing would help so much as to do away with the present meth- od of applying fungicide and poison as a liquid and apply it dry. The great rapidity with which a dust mixture may be applied and the lightness of outfit makes this method an es- pecially desirable one. The only difficulty in the way seems- to be the matter of a sticker. The proposition does not ap- pear on the face of it as a serious one. Hov/ever, no one has yet produced a preparation which seems to compete suc- cessfully with the liquid spray. When the orchardist realizes more fully the necessity of making applications of spray in a limited time there will be an insistent demand for some dry preparation to meet the requirement, and I doubt not some one will develop a satisfactory formula. Mist Spraying. There has been some controversy of late as to the relative efficiency of the coarse driving spray as compared with the mist spray. The agitation first started among the entomologists of the west, but lately has been tak- en up by at least one pathologist in the east. The efficiency of the mist spray has not been questioned by pathologists, but the driving spray, if discharged from the nozzles with suffi- cient force and broken up properly, becomes relatively fine, so that with the rapid deliverv one is able to cover much great- er area. It may be questioned whether one can operate a "fire engine" outfit successfully in the orchard and temporarily it probably will be safe to await experimental evidence of the superiority of such a method of spraying before discarding the present equipment. Wind Spraying. There is a great diversity of opinion- among our growers as to the possibility of spraying against the wind. Some say at once that they have practiced it regn- TV/ENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 39 larlv. while others declare it entirely impracticable. Appar- ently the difference of opinion lies largely in a difference of understanding- of what spraying against the wind really means. It is obviously quite impossible to wait for the wind to change when making the early applications of summer spray. Those who sprav against the wind cover both sides at once by driv- ing directly into the wind and spraying trees on either side of the machine by means of long- extension rods. Pressure. The pressure at Avhich the spray is applied has been gradually raising from year to year until now it is not as uncommon to find men using 200 pounds pressure as it is to find them using 100 pounds. The most effective pres- sure to use, however, depends entirely on the type of nozzle employed. I have seen a nozzle throw an excellent mist at i^orty pounds pressure, and I have seen other nozzles that would not give satisfactory results under 150 pounds. Fruit Spot and Blotch. These diseases are apt to occur where there are unsprayed orchards, but in the orchards where the above schedule of sprayings is made, they are not found. Just which are the effective sprays for these diseases has not been determined for our conditions. The orchardist is not particularly interested in this feature if he can only be assured that the diseases will not appear. Bitter Rot. This disease rarely occurs on apples in New York ex- cept on the Strawberry apple, and this variety is very rare with us. Rust. • The rust has been a serious menace in Virginia, Illinois, Nebraska, etc., but so far has not been troublesome with us except on Long Island, and in the Scoharie Valley. The va- riety Wealthy is particularly susceptible to rust, and the ex- 40 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tensive planting of this popular filler in recent years may mean the introduction and establishment of this most serious dis- ease in western New York. Recent investigations have shown that the fungus involved here is equally dependent on mois- ture conditions for its disseminaton and for infection. It is also shown that any of the common fungicides are effective against the rust if applied at the proper time. Canker and Coij.ar Rot. These have been grouped, not because they are certainly the same disease, but because the method of treatment is es- sentially the same. It has been pretty well proved that collar rot is really an advanced stage of winter injury occurring orig- inally in the form of a frost canker. The black rough canker occurring on the limbs and branches of apple trees is usually ascribed to the action of a fungous parasite (Sphaeropsis ma- lorum Berk.). Neither are necessarily serious if taken at an early stage, but when allowed to run for several years, as they have been in many orchards, are apt to prove quite trouble- some. The rough cankers, or New York apple tree cankers, are readily noticeable at pruning time in the spring, and may be removed to advantage at this time. When the canker oc- curs in one of the smaller limbs it is easiest treated by remov- ing the limb back of the canker at a point where a new shoot can be depended on to grow out and replace the one removed. If the cankers occur on large or important branches, it is often possible to remove the cankered area with sharp tools, after which the wound will readily heal over. The frost cankers may be detected in the spring on the trunk or in the crotches on young trees, but on older trees they are not so apparent until later in the season. A great many of our growers are now making a systematic inspection of their trees for canker just as they do for borers. Owing to the rush of work, cankers that are not detected at the time of the regular spring pruning are usually left until a slack time in August for treatment. Any "Sphaeropsis cankers" TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 41 "that are missed can usually be detected at this time by the stunted growth of the affected limbs and by the yellowish, sickly appearance of the foliage. They should be removed at once. Whenever a canker is detected on a valuable limto or on the trunk it should be "doctored." A drawshave, a chisel and a farrier's knife are the essential instruments. All dead bark and wood should be removed, and the wound should be edged up squarely a short distance back in the healthy tissue. In the case of collar cankers it may be necessary to remove the soil in order to reach the limits of the dead area. The wound is then tarred with creosote, which may be obtained at any gas works w^here the gas is made from coal. The creosote it not at all expensive, can be spread readily with a brush, and is very much better preservative than the lead paints for- merly used for such purposes. It has been used in fresh wounds of apple, peach, plum, cherry, and pear without the slightest signs of inury. A callus will soon begin to form but its spread may be augmented by slitting with a sharp knife once or twice during the season. Fire Blight. This bacterial disease has been prevalent in many apple ■orchards of New York the past fevv years, in some instances proving a serious menace. For the most part the disease is confined to the current season's growth. It is noticeably more abundant in orchards where the growth period has been prolonged as for example in orchards where there has been added quantities of a nitrogenous fertilizer. The methods of control usually applicable in pear orchards, cannot be em- ployed profitably in old apple trees, and, aside from the sani- tary measures of cleaning up hold-over cankers in pear or- chards, and particularly those about blighted w^ater sprouts in old apple trees, there seems to be no satisfactory method of fighting the disease. 42 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Discussion. Dr. Reddick : I think perhaps I have taken a Httle long- er time than I intended to. I shall be glad now to answer any questions you would like to ask. President Barnes: Don't let us miss this opportunity to ask questions of one who is thoroughly familiar with his subject. Dr. Reddick is ready to tell you anything he can in the way of answers to your questions. A Member : Is apple rust the same thing as cedar rust ? DiR. Reddick : Yes, sir ; the same thing. Mr. Robertso'N : Do you know of anything yet that will stop the corky spots inside of the apple? Dr. Reddick : I assume you have what we call over in New York the "Baldwin spot." To my knowdedge there is no known remedy. A Member : It is a very serious thing here. Dr. Reddick: Very serious, yes. Dr. Clinton, do you understand anything about that? Dr. Clinton: That is something I learned from Mr.- Ives. We have made cultures time and time again from^. these spots, and we get no growth. It is either a mechanical or physiological trouble. A great many investigators think it is due to dry weather. We have some who say that per- haps the rosy aphis may be at the bottom of it. Dr. Reddick : I might say in addition that Dr. McAl- pine. in Australia, is carrying on quite an extensive investi- gation into this disease. He has ten thousand dollars a year available for his investigations. It would seem that if money- was any consideration, they certainly should get some results. Dr. McAlpine is a reliable pathologist and it would seem that he ought to get results if anybody can. Mr. Hopkins: Will you please explain the appearance- of canker on the apple tree so that we can detect it? Dr. Reddick: The appearance of canker on the apple- tree — I ought to mention in this connection first, that the canker is caused, or said to be caused, bv the same organism: TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. ■ 43 that produces the black rot on your fruit and that produces the • brown spots on the foHage. On the trees, it appears as a black, dark, rough canker. It may be a few inches long ; it may be two or three feet long ; beginning, of course, as a rather small area and gradually extending so as to involve the whole limb. In this connection I might say that in the last few years we have been making a practice of examining the orchard for canker in August, at the time when there is a little light foliage. The limbs which are badly in- fected are readily detected because of the yellownsh appear- ance of the foliage ; and one can go in and remove any can- kers that were missed at the regular spring pruning. President Barnes: Don't hesitate. Let the questions come. We won't have another chance like this for another year. Mr. Curtis : Isn't canker likely to be confused with sun scald? Dk. Reddick : I am not so sure that sun scald is not the original source of the trouble ; either sun scald or frost canker, something of that sort. The fungus we find associat- ed with this trouble is a fungus that goes by the name of sphaeropsis ; but when we take it and inoculate it into healthy twigs we have a great deal of trouble in getting a canker. In fact, not one per cent of our .inoculations are successful. And so, for that reason, I am coming to think more and more that the canker is originally a sun scald or a winter injury or an injury of some sort that weakens the tis- sues to the extent that fungus can grow on it. A Member : How about sun scald in the tops of old trees? Would that need any particular treatment — small' branches that are left on the top of the tree? Dr. Reddick : The question is whether sun scald in the tops of old trees need a particular canker treatment. I should say the answer to that question would depend largely on whether the scald has gone into the wood or not.- If it has not, the probabilities are that it will throw off the dead 44 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tissue and that you won't have any further trouble. I would not want to say for sure. I should think those are the prob- abilities. Dr. Clinton : I think that may indicate that you have root injury; and that if you cut out those tops you will rem- edy that trouble; get the relationship between the roots and branches into the proper ratio. Dr. Reddick : As I understand it, the scald came after he cut the top out. Mr. Underwood: Can you tell what makes apples grow woody, particularly Northern Spies ? Dr. Reddick : The question is, what makes apples, Northern Spies, become woody, or have little woody nubs in them? I cannot answer. I think that is probably a ques- tion for the entomologist. Am I right? Dir. Britton : There are several different insects which may cause this ; the plum cuculio and various others which attack the growing apple. The ordinary spraying with lead arsenate is tending to reduce this kind of injury, but does not stop it altogether. Mr. Schreiber : Is gas tar the same as coal tar? Should it be applied in different years repeatedly, and should the wound dry out first? Dr. Reddick : The question is whether gas tar is the same as coal tar ; whether it can be applied to the wound at once or whether the wound ought to dry out ; and whether the application must be made year after year. I don't believe I can answer the first part of that. There are so many of those names, they art rather confusing. So I always take the pains to say that the tar or creosote that we use is obtained from the gas works, where the gas is made from coal. Then a man cannot go wrong; all he needs to do is to find a gas works and go there, see if they are getting gas from coal, and then buy some of their creosote. In an- swer to your second question^one of the advantages of the tar over the paint is the fact that it does soak into the TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 45 wood; and that if there is any cracking on the hot days in the summer it is- very apt to work up the tar, and it soaks in a little further; paint doesn't soak in to any great extent, and cracks are pretty apt to occur and there is a possibility of rot setting in. In answer to your third question — we have been making it a practice to apply the tar right on the fresh wound, not allowing it to dry out; we have done this right along; in fact, we have never treated any in the way that you suggest. Mr. Wadsworth : I would like to ask if any remedy is known for cedar rust? Dr. Reddick: Dr. Clinton mentioned here just a few moments ago, rather briefly, something about the investiga- tions we have made the past summer. I will say that in West Virginia, at the Experiment Station, they have made and reported experiments in which they show that any of the common fungicides are efifective against the rust provid- ed they are applied at the proper time. Now, as Dr. Clinton pointed out, the proper time to have that fungicide on there is the all important point. There are some years it might be a week or two weeks or so earlier than others, depending entirely upon the seasonal conditions and upon the develop- ment of that gelatinous mass on the Cedar apple. Mr, L. H. Meade: In his "Pruning Book" Dr. Bailey states that coal tar is injurious to stone fruit trees. Dr. Reddick : The "Pruning Book" was written quite a little while ago; and it may be that the practice he was using or had reference to was not the same thing that I have mentioned here. I don't know ; but, as I say, we have used it in the three classes of peach, aftd plum, and cherry, without any injury whatever. The treatment has been done for a sufficient length of time to show a remarkable healing of those wounds. I have some slides which I will be glad to show you at the end of the hour if you would like to see them, showing how much a peach tree will actually grow in the course of two or three months when so treated. 46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. President Barnes: I think perhaps we shall have to draw this interesting discussion to a close at this time. We certainly have had a very profitable hour. We have next a discussion on "What lessons has the past season taught us regarding spraying?" in charge of Mr, A. T. Henry, of Wallingford. We know that Mr. Henry is always alive to any practical matter in hand. I am sure that Brother Henry has a few words for us right to the point, and I hope you will not fail to question him as he goes along. Discussion. What Lessons Has the Past Season Taught Us Regard- ing Spraying? Mr. a. T. Henry: Mr. Chairman and fellow members of the Society: The discussion is on "What lessons has the past season taught us regarding spraying?" Perhaps the greatest lesson that the past season has taught us is, that we certainly must spray if we are to pro- duce food fruit — and this is applied to peaches and apples, in fact, all fruit. The past spring was very rainy and wet when we should have been spraying; and I know that a good many orchards were left unsprayed, or only partially sprayed when they should have been sprayed entirely. Where we did not spray thoroughly we had a great deal of leaf curl, and where we did spray the leaf curl was entirely absent. We sprayed even sometimes when it was almost rain- ing, and applied the mixture rather strong; and even in those cases we had no leaf curl at all. In some cases where we did not spray the leaf curl- was very bad and destroyed the leaves on the peach trees, and, of course, cut down the fruit for next year. Our spraying has been mostly with peaches. Of course that is the first crop in the spring; and for that we use lime- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 47 sulphur. Next we spray the apple for the codling moth. Of course you are all familiar with that work. Those are really about all the sprayings that we make. If there are any questions perhaps I can answer them. If not," Mr. Rogers has agreed to answer those that I can not. I really have nothing to offer you, and perhaps a great deal more good can be done by answering your questions than by having me stand up here for half an hour talking. President Barnes : Mr. Henry has a regular experiment Station down on his place ; and I am sure that he can an- swer your questions. Dr. Clinton: I would like to ask Mr. Henry what is his experience and what is his belief in summer spraying of peaches. Is lime-sulphur for rot and scab practicable ? Mr. Henry: Is is an awful big job. A person who has never tried it doesn't realize how much spray it takes to put on a peach tree in summer time. On six and seven year old trees you have to put eight to ten gallons to spray it thoroughly in the summer time. I have never done it satis- factorily with less than that. Also it takes a high pressure. You don't want to try the summer spraying unless you can get 150 to 200 pounds pressure; because of the foliage you have to drive it through to all parts of the tree. Summer spraying, on some of our peaches, like the Elbertas, has not been shown to do any good at all ; on Carmans and others, it did a great deal of good ; although we found it necessary to spray several times. You may spray and have your fruit all protected for a while ; and the conditions may not be fa- vorable for a fungous or other trouble. And then in time that spray wears off. That spray has not done much good. It is like insurance. There is no use insuring for six months and then letting it drop because nothing has happened in that -time. There is no use spraying for a limited period and then neglecting it thereafter. We have got to keep each fruit well covered with spray. They have to be sprayed four or five times during the simiraer if you are going to get the 48 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. best results. On peaches I think it does pay on some varie- ties. On the white varieties it does keep the scab off. The Elbertas we spray some, but the season happened to be such that I could not see any difierence. Mr. Dean : What strength would you apply the lime- sulphur for leaf curl? Mr. Henry: If you buy the commercial lime-sulphur, dilute it about one to nine. That would kill scale as well as leaf curl. We have applied it full strength to kill both at the same time. I understand strength as weak as one to thirty will kill leaf curl. In other states, not here, we have used blue vitriol in water. I think we used about three or four pounds of blue vitriol dissolved in fifty gallons of water. That prevented leaf-curl just as well as lime-sulphur. You have got to spray before the buds swell. If you spray after that, infection may have taken place. Mr. Dean r Is it as effective now as after the buds swell ? Mr. Henry : I would prefer not to do it to-day. A Member: You mean this season of the year? Mr. Henry : Yes ; although we generally wait until spring. If you have a lot of it to do I think it would be all right, yes. Leaf curl is a very easy disease to control. If they were all as easy, we would not have any trouble. For the codling moth we finish the trees at one time. But in the spring we try to spray only one side of the trees at one time. Prof. Whetzel of New York says to spray them on two sides ; finish the tree at the same time. We always spray one side of the tree and wait for the wind to change before spray- ing the other. Dr. Reddick : You don't go round and spray the other side of some of those trees in connection with the leaf curl? Of course, every bud must be hit or else you cannot expect to get good results. If you have the wind and you could not go over it twice, isn't there some way of doing it all at once? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 49 Mr. Henry : Well, the way the wind blows on our hills it is a prett}^ tough job to cover the trees at one time. Dr. Reddick : The reason I ask — it is all right to go up and tell a man to do spraying, but if it is practically impos- sible, why, there is no use talking about it. I was simply try- ing to find out whether you had really any experience and whether you thought it possible. I think Whetzel is very enthusiastic about it and I am satisfied thai he was quite suc- cessful in those orchards, but whether it can really be done generally is something I don't know. Mr. Henry : I should very much like to finish the trees at one operation, but we have never been able to do it. A Member: You were speaking of spraying when it was very damp or nearly raining. If it came on and rained the same day after spraying, would you spray over again? Mr. Henry: No, sir; if it does not rain when we are spraying. We had to put rain suits onto the men and kept on spraying all day. We put the stuff on strong and had no leaf curl. If you have five minutes of windy weather after you put on lime sulphur you are all right. President Barnes : Has an\ one had experience with spraying peach trees with plain lime wash as a protection against a premature swelling of fruit buds by warm weather? In regard to that question I have writteji Dr. Whitten in Missouri. He conducted experiments. I think it was given up. He tried it for awhile and got positive results ; then after- wards, I understand, he didn't get such good results. If any- one here has got anything in that line I should be glad to learn of it. Practically we have done nothing in that line at all. Mr. Henry : Whether you can spray peach trees to pre- vent swelling of the buds that would certainly be interest- ing. If we could have done it last fall, some of us would sleep easier nights now. Mr. Platt : I would like to know what the president thinks about that thing — whether he has tried it or not? The President: I have had no experience, Mr. Platt. 50 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. President Barnes : We will have to proceed with the next subject now, as the time is getting away. Some years ago — some of us call to mind that we had -with us at our annual meeting a gentleman from Michigan l>y the name of Bassett ; and we have very pleasant remem- Jbrances of that visit with us, and have been hoping ever since that an opportunity would arise when Mr. Bassett could be present with us again. At this time our wish is realized and we are glad to have him with us again. I will now call on Mr. Charles E. Bassett, who will address you on "Common Mistakes in Apple Growing." Common Mistakes in Apple Growing. By Charles E. Bassett, Secretary Michigan State Horticultural Society, Fennvilk, Mich. Mr. Chairman and Friends : I assure you that it is -a very great pleasure for me to accept your invitation to come here and enjoy this meeting, and to note the prosperity that this Society has experienced since I was with you about five years ago. I bring you a greeting from the Michigan State Horticultural Society, which is doing a similar work to that of your Society. I believe that your Secretary and myself have each served about the same number of- years, so it must be that we are pretty good secretaries or else there is a scar- city of timber for that office. I should judge that in your opinion, Mr. Miles is a pretty good man. T believe so anv- way. It is a man's nature to make mistakes, largely due per- haps to ignorance. Some of these mistakes are funny ; some of them are very serious indeed. We had a funnv one on the farm the other day, and I am going to tell you about it. We have the labor problem, and on the farm we frequently have to resort to the employment of foreign help ; and among the men T employed during the last five years have been many TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 51 Danish people, because we have a settlement to the south of us of people from that country. Last year there came to us a rather green Danish boy, who had some rather awkward tumbles with the English language. He did his best to master that language with the aid of a dictionary, in which the Dan- ish and English words and phrases were placed opposite each other. When he wanted to find a v/ord he would take up the Danish and then find its synonym in the English. This }Oung man was a pretty nice sort of chap, very ambitious to become the head of a family. He became acquainted with a young- American girl, who was working on the farm, and, of course, like the rest of us, he wanted to be as impressive as he could. He wanted to pay her a little compliment and tell her what a beautiful complexion she had, but he was at a loss for the proper English with which to express himself. As a result of his thought on the subject, he finally sprung the following on the young lady : "Mary, you have a beautiful hide." He saw at once that he had made a bad mistake, fromi the expres- sion on the girl's face, and he immediately came and wanted to know what there was wrong about it. I told him he had made a bad mistake and that he should not have expressed himself in that way. I told him that that word "hide" was ap- plied to animals, and that a lady's skin was not hide ; it was skin. Of course, he said he would never make such a mistake as that again. . It happened that he had rather a good voice and was a musical chap. Now, I didn't hear this myself, but I was so informed, that when in church they gave out that beautiful hymn, "Hide Ale, O, My Saviour, Hide," he was heard to sing: "Skin Me, O, My Saviour, Skin." (Laughter.) There are some serious mistakes in the apple business. It is our duty to try to solve them. We can learn just as much by stu- dying the failures and the reasons for them as we can by studying the man who succeeds and the reasons for his suc- cess. The worst trouble all through, I believe, in the growing of fruit, as in anything else, arises largely from the fact that w'e do not realize at the start that v^-e are in a partnership in. 52 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. which we have no conception, many times of who that other partnei^is, and the laws under which we are working. I am not going to preach you a sermon, but I want to say this much — that the man who enters upon any occupation relating to nature and does not realize that he is working with God as a partner, and that a knowledge of the principles that underlie that occupation are absolutely essential — that man is sure to fall by the way. We must have that idea and the basic prin- ciples and the fundamental principles that underlie our occu- pation must be well known, because the rules of nature and the laws of God are as absolutely unchangeable as anything could be. So, if you and I want to succeed in this grand oc- cupation and produce good fruit, we must realize that we are working hand in hand with the Maker of all things and that we must understand His laws, and understanding them, work in harmony with them. And when we do that we cannot fall far out of the way. That is true, whether you are religious in your nature or not. God laid down certain plans; it is your duty to find them out and work in harmony with them. In this business of growing apples, the first considera- tion is — why are we going into the business? What is the outlook. Are we in danger of an over-production? Is the future bright? Is there a prospect of financial success? And I am going to say now, without discussing the question (be- cause I am going to have another chance at you) that if changed conditions do not arise, wc already have a serious over-production. Changed conditions must arise and you and I have got to change those conditions and meet the situation. And in meeting that situation we are going to be able to solve some of the problems that will be met in the matter of pro- duction and distribution, so that every one may eat of the bounty of God toward us here on earth that you and I are simply providing. When we solve that problem of distribu- tion, then I believe that the question of over-production will not be one of any serious moment. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 53 As far as varieties of apples are concerned, we made the same mistake in Michigan that you do here. There is a great "back to the land" movement in our country. Men from Chi- cago, professional, retired business men, and from other large cities, buy our land, pay enormous prices, and rush into the cultivation of apples. Because they have seen some beautiful fruit sold at high prices, they come to the conclusion that it would be very interesting and profitable, and not very labori- ous for them to buy a little place and raise such fruit. I know one man who bought a place near me, paid a fancy price for it, too, and he wanted my advice as to what varieties he should go into. I told him what I was doing and when I got through he said, "You haven't named' — and he named a very popular apple — "the Delicious." I said, "no, I am not going into that. He said, "I am going to raise the Delicious apples." I said "That is for you to decide; you didn't ask me anything about that. I would have named it if I thought well of it." It is not a Michigan apple. It may be a Connecticut apple. If you car: raise them, raise them; but because somebody can raise them somewhere is no reason why you should jump at the idea that they can be raised as well in your locality. Stick pretty close to the varieties that have proved themselves in your locality and you will make very few mistakes. Of course, you don't want to be the last to try a new thing, but don't go into them very deep, until you are thoroughly sure of your ground. In that way you will avoid the mistake of setting out varieties that will prove a disappointment in the future. We can avoid that mistake by the selection of the varieties, and being careful about new varieties. My friends, I started by saying that it would pay \ ou and me to keep our eyes on those who fail. A wise man can learn from their failures and from their experience, whereas the man lacking in wisdom can only learn by the expensive experiences of his own. As a matter of fact, who are the leaders in the apple industry? Who are the people that the world is talking about ? Who is the man who beats vou in 54 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, producing the handsomest stuff? Keep art eye on him and find out why he does this and why he rejects that, and when you have found out, see if you can apply to your proposition some of the methods that he uses and which produced success in his case. Now, if I mention the words "Hood River," every person present will immediately know where it is ; while, if I men- tion "Fennville," some of you would want to know whether it was on the map or a fungous spot. I am not particularly desirous of advertising the fact, but I want to tell you just as a fact that the little town of Fennville produces twenty-five per cent more apples in a year than does Hood River the best year Hood River ever knew. I mention that to emphasize the point that they are doing something out in Hood River, doing something that is worth paying attention to. Now, I ami not entirely of a jealous disposition and I hold up my hands in admiration of that great northwest Pacific country. I am not bound by any state or county lines. Oregon and Washington are a part of my country and I am proud of them ; I haven't a word to say against them ; I am absolutely proud of them, because it is a part of my country and a part of yours. So, let us not get jealous of that country, but see if we cannot learn some- thing- from her success that will show us how we can be suc- cessful in increasing measure. Thai: is a subject upon which I would like to take a little of your time. Is there anything^ particularly about that northwest so dififerent from the State of Connecticut or from the State of Michigan that explains the production of those high-colored, beautiful, attractive ap- ples ? I have been there and studied it and nave listened to what the land agents had to say about what they call the volcanic ash, and so on. I could find very little difference, so tar as soils are concerned ; no particular difference from Michigan. They tell you that they can raise a more beautiful apple in their country, a more perfect apple a ruddier apple. Let us see. What is there about their proposition on the color line? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 55 Why, they tell us that out there the sun shines and paints those pictures on the apples ; they say that they have more hours- of sunshine. - Don't the sun shine in Connecticut ? It came near missing it last year, when it rained so hard in Michigan, but at the same time we had a lot of sunshine. My friends, that is a great mistake we make, not taking advantage of the glorious sunshine. Some of us come here and talk about buy- ing fertilizers at fifty dollars a ton or twelve dollars a ton, or whatever it may be, to put on our land to add color to the apple. That is all right if you've got the money. I carried on a ten years' experiment with fertilizers, and at the end of the first five years I thought I had found something, discov- ered results, and issued a bulletin to that effect. At the end of ten years I questioned very much whether the amount o£ color I secured was at all in proportion to the expense of buy- ing tlie fertilizer. What makes color? What gives apples their color? Is it commercial fertilizer at forty dollars a ton? It is just one thing that paints those beautiful pictures on the cheeks of the beautiful apples. It is God's sunshine, that don't cost one penny except to get over being lazy. What do I mean by being lazy? Why, Connecticut orchards and Michi- gan orchards are like forest trees, absolutely in the apple bus- iness ; half of you are growing forest trees ; you know yott are. You are so greedy to get fruit, more apples on the tree,. that you reject the idea of pruning at all. You take one of those (beautiful apples and you see a light 'spot on one sidet of the apple. What is the reason ? A leaf or a limb was in the way and eclipsed the sun from the apple. The fruit was ruined because you kept off God's sunshine, which doesn't cost one penny ; you don't need to buy it. All you have got to do- 15 to let your trees be open to this sunshine and it will paint the pictures ; as beautiful pictures as ever were painted on any canvas. Then there is another thing that we must put our minds to. And that is, about putting this beautiful fruit upon the market. How much of this beautiful display of Mr. Hale 56 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. and others, and the College display, and the other displays here — what percentage of their display — (here, are three boxes of apples, just as handsome fruit as was ever produced in the northwest) what percentage of the crop is represented in those boxes ? Is it fifty or seventy-five per cent, or is it only about one-half of one per cent? That is the question. I can go into most any orchard and pick out a few apples that would be the equal of any apples ever grown. What percent- age of your crop is represented by the display that is shown here? The thing that we want to know is, what per cent of the fruit that you produce equals those displayed here. Now, I say in all candor and fairness that one of the biggest mistakes we are making to-day is this great desire to have our trees produce so much fruit that we eclipse the sun and produce a lot of green, ill-colored fruit. We have got to do what the west does. Their methods are altogether dif- ferent from ours. Wliy, I went to one of the prize orchards there of Spitzenberg apples ; a little bit of an orchard. A man from the east owned 100 acres and sold it for $20,000 and he bought ten acres out there. What do you suppose he is doing there? Being a married man, he and his boy, when he was home from school, were taking care of nine acres ; one acre being devoted to grounds and buildings. I said, 'T sup- pose back in the east you farmed that 100 acres just the same way — one man and one horse to about three acres?" He turned around, ready to make the proper explanation, but see- ing that I was not very serious about it, he said : "Of course not. Out here we have to do it. It is intensive methods here; back east it was extensive methods." We have been making a mistake here in the east, and you in Connecticut are worse than in Michigan because you have your market at your door; the very fact that you can sell anything has resulted in your raising almost anything, taking and selling anything, and getting next to nothing". You have considered it an advantage, but it doesn't work out that way. W1t\-, we say, we have got it all over the west! Why? Be- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 57 cause we are so near the market. Did you ever stop and think that the. fact that they are so far from the market is what has made them what they are? They wouldn't be any better apple growers than we are if they could ship "cider" ap- ples the way we can. Those fellows know better. It don't pay to raise cider apples out there. And they suddenly found out what it meant to raise good apples and they found out methods that we are awfully slow to adopt. We applaud speakers when they tell us about these things at the conven- tion, and then go home and forget all about it, half of us, when it comes to pruning, and thinning out, and all the up-to- date ideas about apple culture. You will have a general dis- cussion, listen to advice from one in authority, who is versed in all the new ideas ; and you will be all excited ; get so much of it that you will go home and not have sense enough to prune or do anything else that you ought to do. I have seen it that way. And the fellow who sits down and takes it in and goes home and uses his strength and time on some of the ideas, gets a good deal better results than the fellow that gets worked up here and then forgets to do any business at home. The pruning proposition has got to come. We have a lot of old, worn-out trees. What are we doing? Did you ever stop to think that you were overloading? Can you over load in horticulture? You know that the farmer who has got a pair of horses or mules would not overload them. We have a span of mules on the farm in Michigan ; they are the best in the State. We bought them to make money. They might drag quite a load if we ordered them to; but if we were to work them beyond their capacity day after day, that would be the result? That pair is going to be worked steadily right along, but there is not going to be any overloading, be- cause we expect our dividends from that mule team to come day after day, day after day, week after week. Why not be half as sensible in horticulture? We can overload a tree. It means what it says — overloading. What is the load on the tree? We have a top that is trying to do some work; and we 58 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. have a root system that is trying to furnish steam for that en- gine. In nine cases out of ten if you go out into the orchard you will find the tree top is simply bearing more wood than it can possibly handle ; bearing more fruit than it can possi- bly perfect ; especially when you have nothing in the boiler, neither coal nor water ; nothing to get up steam to make that engine go ; an imperfect root system and an overgrown forest tree. Then we kick because people will buy the northwestern apples and pass by our "good" fruit. Then we say that the people haven't got any judgment. Just as the Chinaman says, "We buy by the eye." People are going to buy something that looks good ; and they will take chances on it being good after they taste it. The only way we can meet this competi- tion is by getting up something as nearly like it as possible. This is one of the most essential things in apple culture. Take about ten feet off the top because half of them are so thick you could not produce good apples on the top. I could pro- duce some apples in the top of a tree ; I think I could ; but when you came to harvest them, what have you got? Up to about a certain line we have fine fruit, but that up in the top of the tree would be absolutely worthless. You might as well cut off the unproductive member and let the sunshine in. People think and they say, "that is not orthodox." I have not been orthodox. If I had been I would not have gotten very far. You have sometimes to go against the orthodox opinion ; sometimes you will get hard bumps ; you may some- times see stars; but you will never get very far if you simply follow in that way after a lot of fellows who have never thought very nuich, but have gone on doing things just be- cause grandpa did the same. We have to think for ourselves, and we have the thought and experience of those professional men whose duty it is and whose work it is to work out these problems ; and you will never do it unless you do a little original thinking for yourselves. The pruning proposition, as I understand it, is to relieve the strain on the top of the tree ; at the same time you TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 59 can correct the trouble by encouraging and feeding the tree. How are you going to feed it ? The old agriculturist can ro- tate; he can put in wheat, help it out with clover, perhaps; then another crop of wheat, and then go back and go around three or four or five rotations. When you put in an apple or- chard you cannot rotate; it is apples, apples, apples, ap- ples, one year after another. All you can do is to put in be- tween, some crops that will assist by growing a class of pro- ducts, especially nitrogen, that you can plow under. Some advocate sod mulch ; some agitate clean cultivation ; some one thing and some another. I think our best method is probably about half way between ; I like a combination of both ; I like sod mulch and I like clean cultivation. Take the sod mulch when the clean cultivation is out of the way ; clean cultivation in the summer time, growing time ; then you can put in your fast-growing legumes, like the vetch ; and then when you plow it under in the spring, you also have something which goes back as food in the form of decaying organic matter. That is a good way. In our localitv the clover does not make a sufficient growth. There are so many mistakes in this apple growing business that I may not be able to handle all of it in spraying, I just want to bring out a point. I have here a lit- tle extension rod (Illustrating) of course, this is a small sec- tion ; they are six or eight or ten feet long. Gn the end is the ordinary disk nozzle ; these are familiar in all sections of the country. Now, I want to call your attention to a mistake in spraying, which I think is the cause of a great deal of trou- ble; relating more to the codling moth. As the Professor says, the bunches of blossom buds that come out in the spring naturally stand upright at first. They will tip over in time, but at first they look up towards the sun. Now, I am refer- ring to old trees — anyone can handle young trees. At that time, just after the petals fall, the codling moth hides in the calyx. He crawls in there at the side. So when vou have 6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. your spray with an ordinary nozzle, you are under here ; you are working down here. How much of your spray on these old trees is ever going' to do its work on the codling moth? Of course, you can hit the lower part; how much of this upper part are you going to hit? Very little of it. The western idea is to force that in there under high pressure. The blossom is very likely to close quickly and you have got to force it in there. You cannot simply drop it in ; a little spray will never get down to the codling moth. You have got to do this work from above. There is a little simple way that we use ; possibly you use it ; that vSry largely helps in solving this problem. Add a little crook; I think this costs about fifteen cents. We will add the same nozzle and use that little crook. It ought to be a little curved, or a little bent. Now, understand, we have now an op- portunity to change the direction of our spray ; simply by turning this we can throw the spray in any direction; up, when we want it; down, when we want it. A man cannot spray up underneath with a straight rod. With this spray he can throw the spray in any direction and it will add very largely to the percentage of perfect fruit. I am a little bit of a crank on this question of pruning. You understand, there are two ways of pruning; one is to cut out extra limbs ; and another is, that even though you leave the proper number of limbs you will get more fruit than you ought to have. You see, it costs too much money ; it costs money to climb up in ladders and take ofif the little immature apples early in the season ; ibut, my friends, did you ever stop to think of the result? About all the thinning and pruning some orchards get is what the Lord does for them — by a cyclone ; that is where I first learned my lesson in pruning; a tornado came along and knocked ofif half the limbs, and the tree pro- duced much better fruit. I said, "That is an object lesson for me." If taking ofif a numiber of limts will produce better fruit it certainly should be an eye opener. We have got to restrict the tree to its best work. That is a most important TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 6l idea in our occupation. If we do not hold anything down to its best w^ork we are going to have vitality destroyed; we are going to have a short-lived tree ; we are going to have an unprofitable tree. Another thing about pruning — as I was going through one of those orchards — this was a young orchard — this man came out to do the pruning, but I couldn't see any pruning tools ; no saw, no knife, nothing in his hands ; still he was pruning. I watched him as he was pruning. How do you suppose he was pruning? As long as I can remember I have heard the phrase "nipping things in the bud." I never really appreciated that phrase until I saw that man prune. He w^ould go along and prune with his fore finger and thumb. He would see a bud starting up here that he knew was not where he wanted a limb, and snip went his finger and thumb, and oil it went. And it is a good idea. And in New York they did some of these things in a vtry unorthodox fashion. It gave me several ideas. It all flies through my mind. Now, if there is any one thing that I love more than I do horticulture it is my child ; and I imagine that you and I are in the same boat in that particular. I hope we are. We love our children. God gave us a girl, a beautiful child ; our lives are wrapped up in her. We are trying to bring that child up to be beautiful, not beautiful in the sense of what we would call beauty; but a child who will be a good citizen, a helpful member of the community, an unselfish child. Now, we watched her as she developed; sometimes I would see in her some little thing that I didn't want ; some little tendency ; some word that had been out of place ; that would not have helped the child ; possibly some habit forming. Now, if you and I love that child with that love that God put into our hearts when he gave us that child, what would we do? I suppose you would say. "Well, the child don't know any better; I don't want to bother the child now ; I will wait until that child grows to twenty-one years of age, till it comes to years of understanding. Then the child of its own choice will cast 62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. away its evil associates and become a good citizen. Is that the way you would act ? Oh, no, friends ; not one of you. You know if you do that a part of the strength and vitality of that child that should go to the upbuilding of a beautiful char- acter is going to be devitalized, beaten down, and destroyed. So, with all the kindness possible in the mother's and father's heart, you take the child, and in the most quiet, pleasant, happy way attempt to win that child away from that habit be- fore it becomes too late. I love to think of the little trees as infants to be treated in much the same manner, so when I see a man picking oflf the buds from places where he does not want them, I think of the tree as being turned in the right di- rection to get the best results. That man is saving; he is economizing. Well, I know it is not orthodox to talk about pruning in this way. I can see no reason why you should al- low limbs to grow out in all directions and then some day go out with a saw and instruments of torture to cut off those offending limbs. And worse than that, it leaves terrible scars on the side of those trees; just as we find terrible scars on the character of a child that is allowed to grow without any pruning. Now, the proposition I would make is that if you would go home and prune more severely than you are doing now, you would have results that would be well worth the ex- penditure of the time and the effort. Now, in regard to harvesting the crop. This thought is not original. I want to say right here that it was left in our State Society by one of your own members ; a man who has a national reputation, and whom we have greatly enjoyed at various times ; I give Mr. Hale the credit of having stated the fact. It is a fact that is worthy of greater attention. That is, the idea of harvesting our crop all at one time, our apples, is a most serious proposition. The Northern Spy apple in our section cannot be harvested in less than three operations, which means that certain apples that are exposed redden up, color up, and should be taken off to give the others a chance to go on and perfect better fruit and so on. There are va- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 63 rieties that would stand five pickings. The Wealthy apple that was mentioned to-day as popular in our locality, can be harvested in three, four or five pickings ; and you get a bright highly colored apple, all of them of better size than if you try to get them all at one time. That thought I revolve from Michigan back to you. It is one worthy of your careful at- tention. If you don't believe it, try it; try it on one tree and see how much more desirable fruit you get under those con- ditions. Now, I want to insult evers' person present in closing, just as I was insulted when I made my visit to the west. I traveled all the way up from California to British Columbia, studying their methods in all the places of marketing and care and co-operation. All the way up I was very nicely treated. They had pumped me nearly dry on everything in the east. There was one gentleman there who was very prom- inent in the west, in the apple business ; and I said to him af- ter I had told him about this rejuvenating of the old apple orchards in Connecticut and Michigan and the other eastern states, "What do you think — what are you fellows going to do with your fifteen million apple trees and all the product of those trees when we get our trees in the eastern states in proper bearing condition? Then I got the insult. He says. "You zi'ill never do it." I simply give it to you. Did he in- sult me, or didn't he? Did he tell the truth, or did he utter a libel ? You cannot answer it to-day. Every one of us in Con- necticut, every grower in Michigan, every grower through the eastern district has got to answer that question and an- swer it by what he does, and not by what he says. If vou go home from this meeting and I go home from this meeting with a determination and a desire and a knowledge to do our best, we are going to prove that that man told an untruth. If we go home and follow our old methods, our old, lazy, slack, shiftless, lack-of-any method ways, then he told the truth. Which did he do? It is up to you. 64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Discussion. A Member: What do you think of getting tip in the ap- ple trees to spray them? Mr. Bassett: That is a pretty difficult problem. I am a little too fat for that business. A smaller man might tackle it. I would not like this business of climbing up in trees. I have stood in front of a nozzle too much. I don't want to get any of those side shots. (Laug-hter.) A Member : How about spraying on the ground for those spores? Mr. Bassett : Regarding the spraying the leaves on the ground to destroy the fungous spores before they get started in the spring — as I have observed this business, the bug man shifts it onto the fungous man, and the fungous man tries to shift it onto somebody else. Maybe somebody here can an- swer that question. Dr. Reddick : The difficulty in spraying the leaves on the ground is the fact that the spores have a thick wall. So that if you do spray, it does not effect them. When the warm, moist weather conies, then begins the bursting of these spores. The spray didn't hit them. If you are going to do business that way, the spray would have to be something that would burn up the leaf. Mr. Bassett: If you could plow the leaves under, would the spores continue to live under the ground? Dr. Reddick : That would not happen. You can to a certain extent. Mr. Bassett: When? Dr. Reddick : They could be plowed under, but it would have to be done pretty early. Mr. Bassett: That is something new to me. Dr. Keddick : It would have to be before the buds come cut ; some growers can ; some cannot. Mr. Bassett: It would destroy the spores then to turn them under? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 6$ Dr. Reddick: As soon as you got them down under there in those moist conditions, if they were ripe, they would shoot them into the "ground. Mr. Rogers: Mr. President, I think at this time the Committee on Nominations ought to be appointed; it means one man from each county ; and they may be nominated from the floor. I desire to make a motion that we proceed to ap- point such a committee. Motion seconded. President Barnes : The motion is made and seconded that a Nominating Committee consisting of one individual from each county be chosen to put in nomination officers for this Society for the coming year. Any remarks ? There was no opposition, and the motion was put to vote and passed. The following members were then named from the floor, and duly elected by the meeting as the Committee on Nomi- nations : Hartford County — E. F. Jennison, New Britain. Xew Haven County- — E. M. Ives, Meriden. Fairfield County — G. A. Drew, Greenwich. Litchfield County — J. H. Putnam, Litchfield. New London County — William L Allen, Mystic. Middlesex County — G. W. Spicer, Deep" River. Windham County — G. H. Sumner, Woodstock. Tolland County — A. T. Stevens, Storrs. Secretary Miles : I want to say that it has been ar- ranged to have an orchestra here for the session at seven o'clock. They will play until seven-thirty, when the program opens, and also during the evening. We hope you will all be here and bring in your Hartford friends, too. A meeting of the State Asparagus Growers' Association, to be held during the convention, was announced. 66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The afternoon session closed at four o'clock and a re- cess was taken until the evening session. After adjournment the fine exhibits of fruit and the very interesting display of fruit growers' supplies occupied the attention of the large gathering of members and others. EVENING SESSION. This year the usual banquet of the Society was omitted and in its place was arranged an evening session, with a spe- cial program devoted to "The Interests of Markets and the Consumer." This was a very timely subject, inasmuch as the city of Hartford is just now considering the question of a Public Market, and also because of the widespread interest in the cause and remedy for the present high cost of living. The mayor of the city cheerfully gave his co-operation to the meeting, not only being- present and making an address, but also supplying one of the principal speakers of the evening. The people of the city were especially invited to attena, and many responded, thus helping to swell the large audience. An excellent orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Fran- cis W. Sutherland, rendered selections previous to the open- ing of the program, and also at intervals during the evening. The meeting was called to order by President Barnes at 7:45, who said, by way of introduction: President Barnes : The purpose of this ev^ing's meeting is along educational lines, not only for ourselves, but for those of the community who may be with us and who are consumers and not growers. We have with us to-night a gen- tleman who is in thorough sympathy with the puposes that we have in mind; and it is a great pleasure to introduce to you Dr. George M. Twitchell, of Auburn, Maine, who will TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 67 talk to you on "The Fruit Grower's Share of the Consumer's Dollar." Dr. Tw'itchell: We have a long" prog'ram to-night and you have some eloquent speakers to hear after I have finished, so I will hurry through with what I have to say. You may have heard about the preacher whose text was, "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil." He announced, "For the lack of time I propose to pass over the world, touch light- ly on the flesh, and hurry on to the Devil." So I am going to hurry on with what I have to say without prelude. The Fruit Grower's Share of the Consumer's Dollar. By Dr. George M. Twitchell, Auburn, Me. J\Ir. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : The business of the farmer, through his skill and labor, has been, primarily is, and will ever be to put the energy- of the sun's rays, the ele- ments of the air, and the life of the soil, into forms desired by men and animals. As generations pass and he reads the lesson spread out upon the slate of daily experience more clearly, these forms take on higher grades of quality, richer tints of color and increased per cent of food nutrients. It is the man, ancf he alone, who is gradually evolving the higher types from the lower and his human brain can determine the limit. The business of the industrial world, outside the farm, is to take the products of field and forest, quarry and hill, or- chard and herd, and transport to other shores, and distribute through most convenient points to the waiting, hungry peo- ple. The joint-work of all classes constitutes the life, activity and prosperity of the nation and decides the progress of our civilization. If either fails in reaching the ultimate possible by most har- monious business and social relations, the channels are dis- turbed and results, to that degree, minimized. If in the expendi- ture of time, energy or money there is, for any reason failure to 68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. realize proportionately, the destruction of that enthusiasm, ever at the foundation of success, is inevitable. While this interdependence must be emphasized, it will be well if we keep clear in mind the fact that without the farmer there could be no social or industrial life, that agriculture is the only pro- ductive industry. Change in form, or combination of pro- ducts adds nothing to the volume of production, even when greatly enhancing value. Change of ownership distributes to the remotest section, but adds nothing to volume produced. You boast your giant industries, which have brought a mar- velous prosperity and insured to the laboring man what is im- possible on other shores, but not one of these, necessary as they are to the life of the nation, produces anything. They simply transform, refine and multiply uses to which raw pro- ducts may be put. I have dwelt upon this point, as it is in these days, when in the mad rush of rank commercialism we are prone to forget the source of life, and fail of our obliga- tions. Agriculture alone is our dependence. What is true of products is equally true of men. Your city, great as it is, would die with the third generation were it not for the rich, red, virile blood coursing in veins and ar- teries on the hillsides and up and down the valleys of New England. More than this, the character oi your civilization, and progress of the industrial life of the next fiftv years will be determined by these self -same farmers' boys and girls. I want, first of all, to impress upon your minds, even in the midst of the rapid changes going on in population, that sense of obligation to the man with the hoe, or the man with the pruning knife, which alone can lead to that close relationship necessary for the best good of all. You men of tov/n and city want ever to hold in mind this fact, that the farmer can live independent of you. It may be a crude, simple life, but it was out of this crudeness and simplicity that our conception of free American manhood took form and became a reality. Without this our standard of citizenship could never have TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 69 been established. All this time the farmer can live without you, you cannot live without the farmer. Actual starvation would within six months face every one, but for him who by study, experiments, investigation and labor, is toiling- to put the energy of the sun, and the life of the soil, into tangible forms for your comfort and support. If you realize what this means, you would be active in promoting, in every way pos- sible, the life of the farm, strengthening love for rural con- ditions, and helping insure the producer a fair share of the consumer's dollar. Carry this thought with you to-morrow and thereafter, that in the purchase of farm products, through usual channels of trade, sixty-five cents out of every dollar paid is lost before the producer is reached, and thirty to thir- ty-five is all he gets. Your extravagance, the wasteful methods of purchasing, the telephone and delivery wagon have contributed mightily to the so-called high cost of living, and for these the producer is not responsible. Meanwhile our high officials, men of large interests, newspaper and magazine writers have been preaching the gos- pel of conservation, by increase per acre, per tree or per an- imal. Granted that all this is important; granted that we have been soil robbers ; granted that no man can imagine the limit of production per acre or animal ; granted that certain grave dangers center in present standards ; granted that Mr. Hill was correct when he declared that "When in the life of any nation the time arrives and it fails to produce the food of sup- port of its people, decay is inevitable," granted all this, yet I stand to-night to declare that there never can come that in- crease so necessary, that awakening so vital to the 'best life of the nation until the incentive is recognized. That incentive is the producers' rights in the consumers' dollar. At that great banquet in New York when President Brown of the New York Central Railroad so clearly showed that produc- tion was not keeping up with increase in population, Dr. H. 70 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. H. Wiley answers : "That's all right, but when \ ou pa\- us for increased production we will increase it." History fails to record an advance in social, moral, intellectual or industrial life without some over-mastering incentive. So long as the producer realizes but one-third of what the consumer pays there can be no incentive for increase. In the chang-es in population hinted at, there comes a multiplying number of hands, hungry for subsistence, and seeking- that along the line of least resistance, they reach out to demand a share of that dollar, and by union of self-interests make difficult the part of the producer. Doubtless the claim made is true, that business is simplified by this method and a steady supply made dependable, but what can we do for the man without whom there could be no sup- ply? His rights are ignored and he has no position in the chair of recipients fattening on his labor. What he most needs is not object lessons in cropping, but equalization of burdens in disposal of surplus farm products. Intensified farm operations are demanded in 1913, in or- der that reserve may be secured to carry on the work of the farm and provide for increasing wants of the family. We have passed out of the realm of natural production, and meeting that rebellion of nature against efforts to change the problem with the individual farmer becomes complex, in that enthusiasm which a just appreciation insures, and which is ever the main spring of activity, is lacking, and without this, progress must be slow. Give an open field and direct touch with the market and the whole scene would change. We speak of the responsiveness of nature, and it is all true, but that is found only when man co-operates, and co-operation, which is born of necessity, is matured only by enthusiasm. Measured by increase in earning capacity, there is not that alarmingly high cost of living about which we hear so much, as long as we confine to the food of support most con- ducive to health and longevity. There is a tremendous cost of high living, of wasteful methods, neglect of all economic TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. yi Iiabits of dependence upon a myriad form of predigested humbugs. If, those, in our big cities, who make such a terri- ble struggle to kill time, would devote a fraction of that, now spent in crying down prices for food products, in helping reg- ulate the channels of control and eliminate unnecessary fac- tors, they would reach at once the seat of the difficulty. That they prefer to follow a passing fad rather than a carefully formulated plan but indicates that intoxication of the times satisfied only with some abnormal proposition. Never did the farm products of Maine total as high in value as in 1912, and this is true in Connecticut. Yet for two decades the num- ber of farms in active operation has decreased, the number of farmers grown less, the number of old and young migrating to town or city increasing, and the unconscious, if not con- scious, influence against the routine of fann life grows strong- er. Here is a condition, not a theory. It constitutes the most profound problem facing the man who labors for that per- manent development of rural life necessary for the strength, safety and perpetuity of the state and nation. The business of the world, outside the farm, is and is to be conducted by great corporations, the generic principles at the foundation of which is sound, yet oppressive influence of which is met in every isolated home. Turn which way we may, and the farmer faces a com- bination, manifesting itself in a gentlemanly agreement which bars all competition. We waste time when we cry out against these combinations. They may be regulated, they cannot be destroyed. At the same time we must never forget that the producer holds the key to the whole situation, and will for all time, for out from his hands must ever go the food of sup- port. You and I need to be shaken free from the crusta of habit and lifted to the level of every-dav activities, that the lessons of the hour may find easy lodgment and provide ac- tion. If this was attempted, the open market would soon be found, an increasing demand met, and a living price jnsured 72 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the producer. The farmer has been the most conservative of all classes and the last to practice co-operation, though the first to proclaim its virtues. Give him sixty-five cents out of the consumer's dollar and he would be content. The justice of his claim is unanswera- ble, but his neglect to take the initiatory steps for self-protec- tion staggers the student of economic problems. In Newl York in 1910 the potatoes sold in that city brought $49,000,000. Of this the growers realized $6,000,- 000. One week this winter when buyers were paying twenty- two cents for eggs in New Hampshire they were selling for forty-nine cents a dozen. Apples which sold in Maine for $1.15 retailed in New England cities for $4.00 to $6.00, and in one instance for four cents each. In Maine to-day po- tatoes are selling for $1.00 per barrel and in Boston for $1.00 per bushel and forty cents per peck. President Taft's tariff commission found that in woolen suits selling for $23.00 the farmer's profits on his wool was sixty-three cents, the manu- facturer's twenty-seven, the wholesaler's $2.13, and the re- tailer's $6.57. The first step necessary is to determine the cost of pro- duction. Without this there can be no intelligent basis for action. Given this there will be a^ positive incentive for de- manding a fair price, not possible without. Your milk con- tractors fix the price they will pay largely upon the estimates of cost of keep given by dairymen, hardly one of whom fig- ures the maintenance items, except food, and this, too often, at bare cost of production, never at selling price at the barn. Business enters the milk problem when the contractor receives the product. From that time interest on capital, wear and tear of teams, etc., taxes, insurance, labor, depreciation of property and implements, etc., etc., together with salaries and ten to forty per cent for emergencies, are all carefully figured and added to the cost. Tell me, friends, why the milk pro- ducers should not figure every one of these items as well as the food? By every consideration of justice you are entitled to TWENTY -SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. -j i all this and more. The want of knowledge of actual cost of production is -the chief cause for friction in the milk business. Having this, the farmers would insist, and unite to enforce his claim for a living price. How is it with our orchardists ? Where is the man who figures cost upon a business basis, the same basis as your man- ufacturer? To this we must come, in order that co-opera- tion may be possible and permanent. Reaching this, co-opera- tion will be forced. Our present system of handling trees and fruit is demoralizing in the extreme, both to the trade and grower. Before we can come to a recognition of the rights of producers there ,is demanded a profounder realiza- tion of the cost of the product at the farm. To my mind, here is the pivotal spot in the industry. For a series of years it has cost me an average of fifty-four and one-half cents yearly per tree, in grass, and this includes only pruning, spray- ing, fertilizing, killing borers, and cutting the grass three times each year. Before I can fix the cost item, I must in ad- dition figure taxes, insurance of buildings, depreciation of trees, by death, disease, or accidents, interest on the cash val- ue of the tree, or acre, or orchard, as well as upon the invest- ment in necessary buildings and implements, depreciation of both last named, cultivation or mulch and allow at least ten per cent for emergencies. It is time, friends, to make plain that here is no get-rich-quick scheme, but that successful or- charding hinges upon the application of strict business prin- ciples. Editor Burritt of the Tribune Farmer, out of person- al experience, demonstrates that it costs from twenty to for- ty dollars an acre to establish an orchard ten years old, and from ten to twenty dollars to maintain, and this does not in- clude interest, taxes, depreciation, injur\% accident, etc., etc. An apple orchard ten years old will cost one hundred and fifty dollars an acre upon this basis. Add other items as in- dicated and you -get the foundation on which to figure cost of production. 74 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Given a series of years, one dollar per barrel on the tree in the average orchard, is a safe estimate of cost of number one fruit. Add twenty for packing, two for storing and five for delivery at the station, and when the defective and un- dersized specimens are weeded out your number ones will cost you very close to two dollars per barrel, the per cent of culls determining the greater or less sum. Tell me, friends, why you should give the apple buyer the use of your land, in- terest on your investment, or taxes ? Yet in Maine we have been doing this for years, by figuring cost of production at fifty cents per barrel. As a result, the trees have not received proper attention, the rights of the producer have not been safeguarded, and orcharding has not been considered a bus- iness. If we would find the rights of the producer in the con- sumer's dollar the cost of production must be established upon a business basis. So long as cost is based upon estimates and fixed at a minimum sum, so long will dealers figure price to be paid at the lowest figure. As attention is centered on bus- iness methods there will follow a coming-together of growers for self-protection. Every phase of industrial life has been forced by the present industrial conditions to organize : First, to minimize cost of handling and producing ; second, to elim- inate unnecessary factors in distribution ; third, to maintain uniform prices. Prove to me that agriculture is not an industry and there- fore not dominated by the same general laws, and you have destroyed the claim, but in so doing you have suggested what cannot be refuted, that there is a law underlying agriculture operations, rigid, exacting, which must be sought, found and applied. The evils of the combinations seen are found in their readiness to close cold storage plants when growers decline to sell, to unload upon given markets to break prices, to stop factories and reduce volume. These evils are to be regulated^ but the service possible through this coming'-together must not be overlooked. A sarcastic old farmer declared that "the average man on the farmi would rather lose one dollar than see TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 75 his neighbor make two." To the extent that this holds it must be removed before you can get 3 our rightful share in the con- sumer's dollar. In the general markets of 1913 the individual grower who is content to dump his products to suit his own conven- ience must be satisfied with minimum returns. No man is any better than he has to be, therefore there is demanded the pres- sure of organized powers to correct certain tendencies and practices. Legislation must be resorted to to insure uniformi- ty in grading. There can come no stability in the market un- til the face of the barrel or box is a just and fair index of every apple. The only purpose in facing with superior stock is to deceive, and this is fraud. The men who are reaping largest profits from their orchards do not brand undersized, poor-colored, or defective apples, extra or fancy No. One's. They are not the victims of a special Providence, but have earned their place in the market by a square deal. So long as we sell our apples from the orchard or bin to be packed by buyers, so long will this commercial grading continue. For this reason legislation is demanded to insure a clean pack, an honest grade and a true brand. There must be a coming-together of neighborhoods in local fruit growers' associations, where one man can superintend the packing, shipping, sale and collections, insuring thereby a uniformity of pack, a price and a reputation difficult for an individual to obtain. In Maine in May, 1910, the Oxford Bears Fruit Growers' Association was formed, composed of nine members, one of whom was elected agent, and his duties were to sort, pack, ship and sell every barrel bearing the stamps of the association. Each year the members have real- ized from fifty cents to a dollar and a quarter more per barrel tlian their neighbors outside. In 1912, after but two years, their fruit went on foreign markets without being inspected and was sold before arrival, at from fifty cents to one dollar above the market. It illustrates what one of these local fruit grow- 76 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ers' organizations can do for its members by playing fair with the market. This association has made its place in foreign markets simply by a square deal. Its members are getting a fair share of the consumer's dollar. What they obtained in two years, through organization, an individual might in five, but under difficulties very likely to destroy enthusiasm. In a report just published. Secretary Wilson, reviewing the situation at length, says : "A cheapening of farmers costs of marketing will naturally result in gain to the produc- er rather than to the consumer. If the consumer is to gain by changes in the costs of distribution, it seems probable that he must do so through cheapening or eliminating costs at the end of the chain of distribution. The consumer can cheapen the costs of farm products by co-operative buying and by re- ducing the expenses of retail and other local distribution. The consumers' aspect of the problems of the distribution of farm products is a conspicuous one at the present time, and prob- lems in distribution that are concerning the consumer rather than the producer may well be included within the service of a division of markets." "A survey of the systems of marketing farm products clearly discovers what the farmers can best do to their ad- vantage. They must associate themselves together for the purpose of assembling their individual contributions of pro- ducts, of shipping in carload lots, of obtaining market news at places to which it is practical to send their products, to sell in a considerable number of markets, and to secure the vari- ous economic gains of associate selling." In Nova Scotia, hampered in many ways in disposal of their fruit, co-operation associations were formed, under spe- cial act of government, with capitalization at $10,000 each, par value being $50 per share, each member being obliged to hold one, but could not hold more than five shares. The fruit is gathered by the growers, sorted and taken to one of the five warehouses of the association. Here it is re-sort- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 77 ed, under direct supervision of the general manager, the dis- carded fruit taken away by the grower consigned to the dri- er or destroyed. For the services of packing the grower is charged five cents per barrel. In this way all fruit exported will be of the highest standard and will command the highest prices. In packing, color, as well as size, and quality is strictly ob- served, as the European market demands fruit of high color only. All the fruit of the members is shipped by the associa- tion. "The organization aims not only to handle the fruit of its members, but also to assist them in the purchase of their principle supplies, such as barrels, boxes, farming implements, twine, seed, nursery stock, fertilizers, and, in fact, all the ne- cessary appliances for fruit growing. Last year growers were compelled to pay very high prices for barrels, as much as forty cents in some instances. This year members are paying fromi twenty-three to twenty-eight cents for barrels and about sixteen cents for bushel boxes, supplied by the association. The manager receives a salary of $4,000, which covers hired help, or one cent a barrel on the pack of 1912, while the price net to the grower was better than fifty cents more than buyers would pay. Change is written in bold letters every- where and the orchardist must break from long-established methods and avail himself of the possibilities of practical co- operation. "If God writes opportunity on one side of the open door He writes responsibility on the other," says a writer, and the greater the opportunity the heavier the burden of responsibility. The future promises no relief, but a more exacting demand, with prices based strictly on quality, and this forces the consideration of local associations upon those burdened by the loss now met in reaching the market. Once formed these will arouse to the importance of mini- mizing the inferior and defective fruit, something the individ- ual working independently will hardly appreciate. If we would find the open door to the better market it must be by yS THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. uniform size, color, quality and pack, and this will necessitate a sharper study of cultivation or mulching, pruning-, fertiliza- tion, spraying and the thinning of the fruit. To insure economic justice to the grower, or consumer, there must be scientific production, equitable distribution and discriminating consumption. In all farm products the first covers the elimination of the least valuable and the unifying of the product upon the highest level possible. The man con- tent with forty per cent of No. two's — or below, which is the average- — is not worthy the name of orchardist. Five per cent should be the limit aimed at. So long as individuals stand as units in disposal of pro- ducts there can be no equitable distribution, for each will be dominated by daily fluctuations in large centers, or frightened by the cry of over-production. * Discriminating consumption is stimulated when hig'hest quality and finer flavors tempt the eye and satisfy the palate. The quality of the New England apple is admitted, but we cannot rest on reputation, when our markets are crowded with the beautiful, if inferior, apples from the west. The touchstone of the whole economics system rests on consump- tion, but it is a crime for us to be content to grow wormy and inferior apples on the plea that the poor want them. We can never have true economic justice until all the consumers enjoy in common those things necessary or helpful to the common life. The combination between the grower and consumer is united, powerful, exacting. It can be met successfully only bv a like combination among producers. This Society, gentle- men, may well inaugurate a campaign of education to build sentiment for that united action which alone can promote the industry. While attempting this another important step waits de- finite action. It is the establishment, in all the larger towns and cities, of public market places, located at convenient in- tervals, where on specified days the producers may bring their TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 79 fresh products and meet consumers face to face. This much .such action wduld certainly insure : First, the estabHshment of sympathetic relations and radic- al change in public sentiment. Second, it would insure a better market and more just re- turns to the producer. Third, it would make certain the closer grading of all products and improvement in cjuality. Fourth, it would educate consumers to the value of fresh ^rown fruit and crops and the right selection of the same. Fifth, it would increase consumption of the healthiest food products known. Sixth, it would materially reduce the cost of living, by eliminating desire for more expensive and less nutritious forms of food. Seventh, it would inspire determination to improve in quality and increase in quantity the crops sold. Eighth, it would lead to a specialization in production along lines best adapted to the farm and local demand. Wherever attempted this has been the outcome following the esta:bHshment of these public market places. There is no place on the farm for the careless or indolent. the indifferent or lazy. No calling is more exacting, none of- fers more substantial returns in all the essentials oi true living. There's a great field open along any of the specific lines of farm work, l>ut they demand live men, men who will think as they work, men with a vision, a strong right arm and a <:lear brain. The growing of large crops important as. these are for the prosperity of the State, is secondary to the right handling and disposal of the same. For this reason it becomes the duty of the State to protect its underlying industry, and of the workers to insure the consumer the choicest of all the products of field, flock, herd and orchard, and the pro- ducer his rightful share in the consumer's dollar. That the recognized injustice is permitted is a sad commentarv upon 80 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. our standards of justice and the neglect of the law of self- protection. Wisely fostered and rightfully safeguarded, the orchards will multiply, increased prosperity be assured and through a clean pack, true grade, an honest brand and an open market, the consumers find lasting evidence of the superiority of New England fruit and the producer his rightful share of the con- sumer's dollar. At this point a musical selection was given by the orches- tra and a cornet solo by Mr. Sutherland, which was especially fine. President Barnes : The name that next appears on the program this evening is that of „one who has always been alive to the welfare and interests of the community in which he lives ; and particularly to the fruit growers' interests of the State of Connecticut. He was also for several years the presiding officer of this Society. He is so well-known to us that I think it is not necessary to take up any more of your time in introducing him. I ask that Mr. J. H. Hale take charge of this meeting at this time. Mr. Hale came forward and took the chair, Mr. J. H. Hale : Mr. President, members of the Po- mological Society, and friends : His Honor the mayor of the city of Plartford, is down upon the program for a little talk this evening, and I was invited to speak to you on the sub- ject of "Advertising and Publicity in Fruit Growing," but I will not worn^ you with that just now, but leave it to 'others. It is a sort of three-ring circus at this particular time. The meeting together for the first time in Connecticut — per- haps for the first time in the history of the horticultural bus- iness in this country — of the producers, the dealers, and the consumers, acting together in a meeting of this kind to dis- cuss matters which are of vital interest to us all. It comes about something in this way. This Pomological Society start- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 8l ed something like twent\' years ago, with eighteen or nine- teen members.- It has, in these annual meetings, year by year, made displays of a few plates of more or less perfect apples. It has now developed into a Society which can make a display such as we have here this evening, and with a membership of nearly one thousand, and more coming. Our program was practically planned for this meeting months ago ; and a week or more ago it was discovered that the city of Hartford, through its lively, wide-awake, progres- sive mayor, was discussing the question of a Public Market and had a meeting assigned for this evening. A little con- ference of the officers of this Society with the mayor, decided that we could run the circus all together for our mutual ad- vantage. And so we have here with us this evening the Hon- orable Louis R. Cheney, mayor of the city of Hartford. He will take up the subject of public marketing; and when he is through, ask him all the questions you like. Cuss or discuss it in any way you like, but get together. This is a meeting-together of the producers and the deal- ers and the consumers ; it marks a great step forward. I am glad to have the honor of introducing the mayor of the city of Hartford. Mayor Louis R. Cheney: Mr. President, my introduc- er, members of the Pomological Society of Connecticut, and ladies and gentlemen : It is a very great pleasure to me to be here to- night; and to do what I can to get the circus, as Mr. Hale says, all into one ring, where we can see everything that is going on. It surely is worth anybody's trouble to see these beautiful apples, raised in our own State; and I think we ought to be most deeply grateful and proud that we can produce such a variety of beautiful fruit in our own State. As Mr. Hale has said, we had arranged for another meet- ing on the subject of a Public Market. That is a subject that I have been interested in for some little time ; and the more 82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I have looked into it, the more I have seen that something should be done for the welfare of us all. And I say it is for the welfare of us all, because we are all interested in our stomachs and what we put into them ; and we do like to have good things to eat until we get past the stage v/here we can't taste anything. Then, of course, perhaps, saw-dust will do. But in looking into this matter of the public market, it has seemed to me that the thing for the people of Hartford to do particularly^ — a thing for all to do — ^but particularly for the people of Hartford, is to encourage the farmer all we can. because the more we encourage him and the more we get him interested in producing all he can, the more benefit it will be to us all. Referring particularly to the matter of fruit, there are no better apples raised in the United States, or anywhere in the world, than we can raise right here in Connecticut ; and we should appreciate them. Now, you can see what develop- ments have been made. I understand now that there is a scheme on hand for crossing the watermelon vine with the Jamaica ginger root ; so that we can eat watermelons at all times. I am sure we will all appreciate that. I do not intend to talk to you long this evening, because Mr. Miller of the Borough of the Bronx of New York has really something to say to us, and what he says is solid fact. But before I introduce him I will read a letter I received to- day; and I am reading it to you by request. Hartford, Conn., Feb. 4th, 1913. Hon. Louis R. Cheney, Mayor, Hartford, Conn. My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter, in reply to mine relative to the Market Proposition, and desire to thank you for the kind invitation which you extend to the Hartford Central Labor Union, to be rep- resented at a public meeting, through its accredited representatives, to take in the meeting you have arranged, to properly bring before the people of this city the necessity for such Public Market. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 83 Unfortunately our regular annual meeting for the election of officefs takes place the very evening you have arranged for this market meeting'; but, nevertheless, Mr. Mayor, the Central Labor Union, as I have previously expressed to you in another communi- cation, is in hearty accord and in sympathy with you in this most meritorious project, which will mean so much to the consumers of our city. There is absolutely no good reason why Hartford should not have such a market as you propose. In almost all cities of the United States such markets are in existence, and that, too, with such splendid results to the people. We want to commend you for your effort in this project. It will go a long way towards reducing the present high cost of living; and that, after all, is the great question which confronts the people of this great nation. The federal government, and numerous states, are at present engaged in trying to solve this most perplexing problem, and should not our municipality, the city of Hartford, do its share towards doing something along this line, which would be of a substantial benefit to all its citizens. Again expressing our sincere regret because of our inability to be present at this meeting, but nevertheless hoping and wishing (hat you may be successful in this splendid undertaking, I am, very respectfully, Sol. Sontheimer. The thing for all of us to do, and it is an individual re- sponsibility of us all, is, after we get ourselves stirred up, to stir up our neighbors, and get our neighbors, and get our neigh- bors to stir up their neighbors to the fact that we want to encourage the farmers ; and we want to get our farm products as cheaply as possible ; and to encourage the producers of them to bring their products into Hartford. In so doing we help everybody. It gives me very great pleasure to introduce Mr. Miller and I am sure that every one of us will be very grateful that he has come up here to talk to us on the subject of public mar- kets and transportation. 84 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The Public Market and the Distribution of Food Supplies. By Hon. Cyrus W. Miller, President of the Borough of the Bronxr New York City. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I make it a rule of life never to back up when I have a duty to perform. So when Mr. Hale told you that he would not worry you, but that he would leave that to others who fol- lowed him, I saw at once that it was up to me. I wish you to know that I appreciate the honor of meeting such an audi- ence as this, and for that reason I prepared a very carefully ■written speech, as least my secretary did, and you will find it in the newspapers. The only trouble with those speeches is that they are much better than I can tell, and I always for- get them when I get to the meeting. So I will have to start off and talk on my own hook. I don't want you to think that because I come from New York and happen to be a lawyer that I do not know something about farming. I was born on a farm and brought up on a farm ; I worked a great many days with Mr. George T. Pow- ell, of Ghent, New York, whom some of you probably know, a successful apple grower in Columbia, County, New York. I have occasion to see on his place year after year, some very beautiful fruit ; and it has always been my hope to see a num- ber of eastern growers who could produce apples that would skin those Oregon apples. I have seen them here to-night, so that I feel repaid for coming. You see, I am- a little clan- nish for New York state and the east. I worked on a farm, as I said before ; I can rake, and bind, and plow, or harrow, or do anything on a farm, just as well as any of you; so that I know something about it. And when I was on the farm and had taken the trouble to go through all the pains of rais- ing the crop and see it sent down to New York, or some other TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 85 market, I found that we didn't get anything- for it. I won- dered what was the reason that was so. When I went down to New York to sta}- there, and had to buy a bit of produce at prices which fairly staggered my econ- omical soul, fresh from the country, I wondered why it was that I had to pay so much. That started me otf on a cam- paign to find out why. And I found that there were two main reasons for the difference in price between the farmer and the consumer. One was — and I speak this from the farmer's point of view — that the farmer was ignorant of the require- ments of the market. He didn't know how to pack ; he didn't know how to grade ; he didn't know how to ship his stufif ; and sometimes he was dishonest. That doesn't happen now, of course. (Laughter.) I have seen a cook stove in a bale of hay when it was opened in New York ; I have seen a large boulder in a bale of cotton ; I have seen a barrel of apples that was good on the top and good on the bottom, but in the mid- dle wasn't good, no good at all, and the dealer likewise in New York knows all about that. When he comes to buy the barrel of apples, unless he knows where it comes from, he won't give a price that is anything like a price because he knows that he is taking chances ; he may get a barrel that is good on the top and good on the bottom, but poor in the middle ; he may get a good barrel or he may get a bad one. Now, gentlemen, it is up to you farmers to remedy this. It is up to you to impress confidence in the 'city dealer, so that when he gets to the market he can buy anything that comes into the market and know he is going to get his mon- ey's worth. That is up to you. On the other hand, I found that the market dealers sometimes sell the produce coming to the market at a very good price indeed ; and then sometimes he would write a letter which read something like this, "Dear Sir : The condition of your shipment was very bad and we herewith enclose bill for a deficit. Yours truly." Now. of course, that doesn't happen any more, but it might, (laughter) unless we in the city see to it that the city dealer deals fairly 86 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. with you. Now, this matter of confidence between buyer and seller is one of the most important things in dealing. If you know the man you are dealing with you can afford to give him a fair price; but where you have to take chances, you will not give a fair price unless you cannot help it. In con- nection with that, we intend to advocate to the New York State legislature for a bureau to be created and to be annexed to the department of agriculture; a Bureau of Standards and Tests, which will try to create in the several farming districts, local associations, whose officers can certify to the good qual- ity and grade of anything sent to the New York market. And if that grade is not what it is certified, the buyer can com- plain, not to the farmer up in the country, but to the Bureau of Standards and Tests, who will go back to the local associ- ation. Now, if that is done, you will find that your products can be sent down to the New York market, or any other mar- ket, and be sold for a fair price and you will get your pro- ceeds. That is by way of introduction. That is not always pleasant, because every one likes to be told that it is his neigh- bor, not himself, that might do shady things, I have seen within a short time crates of eggs come into New York, with a very good grade of eggs on top, not so good in the row be- low, still poorer in the row below that, and something awful in the bottom. So that when a man buys a crate of eggs and is not able to take them apart and examine them, you can see how he is compelled to pay a figure which keeps the prices down. This matter to us in New York probably is more press- ing than it is in some of the smaller cities where you haven't so many poor. Many of our people are desperately poor ; they live in quarters which you would not house your chickens or cattle in ; and they have to eat whab they can. This causes a great deal of suffering and a great deal of extra expense on the charitable organizations of the city. So that for this reason, and because my farmer friends were complaining that they didn't get a fair price for their goods, I started an in- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 87 vestigation, and His Honor, the Mayor, appointed me the chairman of a commission, and we are now taking testimony from all classes to find out what the trouble is. At first we found most intense opposition from railroad men, from ship- pers, from wholesalers, from receivers, from retailers, brok- ers. They simply said, "Let well enough alone. You cannot help us. You will take away our bread." But as they came to realize what we were doing, and the discussion went on from one to another, I found that they were pleased with the prospect, and now they are sending in witnesses from their various organizations and we are getting along famously. There are many reasons for the increase in prices. I have no doubt all of you who are in the country know how hard it is to get labor. You know that many of your friends, farmers' boys especially, are moving to the city. I had occa- sion, it must be fully twenty-five years ago, to make an invest- igation on that subject for the Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor in New York. They wanted to know why it was that farm lands were decreasing, why it was that the farmers' boys and girls were leaving the farms to go to the city, where they live in hall rooms, and sometimes be- came charges on these charitable organizations. We went in- to a very extended search in that direction and we found that there were various reasons, but they might be summed up in this — that the farm didn't pay. And when a thing won't pay. naturally, wide-awake people will leave it. When it does pay, people will go to it. Men will suffer all sorts of tribulations and trials to get money; they will go to Alaska and live there during a horrible winter for the purpose of searching for gold ; they will go anywhere where it will pay ; and they will go back to the farms if you can show them how farming will pay. So it is necessary for us in the cities to show the farmer how to make his farm pay. Because then more people will go to the farm ; the farmers will raise more goods and we will get them more cheaply. I found upon careful examination into the question that the great trouble was not in the price that 88 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.- the middleman made, but in the intermidable expense of leak- age, brokerage, handling, delays, cooperage, and other things which went to make expense. We have in New York — I speak of the things of which I know more intima,tely, and because conditions are so poor there, that if we can get at a method of eliminating bad conditions in New York, I think any other place can do so. I found that all of our stuff — prac- tically all of it — comes into New York on the lower west side of the city, anywhere from Pier two up to Twenty-third Street, at the various docks or so-called terminals of rail- roads ; the railroads have to get the stuff in as well as they can ; sometimes they can do it directly and sometimes there are long delays. I was telling this evening of one case which came to my knowledge last summer where sixty cars of wat- ermelons were delayed on the tracks outside the city and rot- ted 'because they could not get them into New York. Water- melons were selling for sixty cents apiece and these could have been sold in New York for eleven cents profitably. I have known that to happen on many occasions. And the farmer who sells them suffers for lack of terminals. From a point only two hours away fromi New York by rail, it requires from eight to fourteen days to get a carload of onions into New York. If it comes in in hot weather, the onions sweat and rot; if in cold weather they may bq frozen. There is a lot of loss which must be made up somewhere, either by the far- mer or the consumer. What we propose to do in New York is to make large terminals for the railroads, so that they can come in directly with their goods, without lightering, with- out brokering ; where the goods will be sold by wholesale, car-load lots it may be, by auction in many cases ; and distri- buted directly to the retailer ; without all this intermediate handling, brokerage, cooperage, delays and loss. We believe that will have two effects. In the first place it will give the farmers a ready market where they can send their stuff, knowing that it will be sold and the money will be re- turned. These auctioneers will be licensed under a bond to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 89 the city ; and the money for whatever goods are sold by them will be returned to the farmer, less the charges. We believe that will encourage the farmer to raise more stuff. That will have the result of increasing the amount of goods in the city market and therefore lowering the price. The farmer will gain, because he will save all the waste and delay, the ex- pense of brokerage and other things of that sort, and get his money directly. The consumer will gain because the retailer, who is the man he must buy from, will get his stuff directly from the large markets and will be able to sell more quickly. We have peculiar methods of marketing there. Probably you don't have the same in any other place. We have a long line of so-called middle-men. The goods come there and are taken by what is known as the receiver or commission man ; he adds his toll and his expenses and finally sells to the whole- saler; the wholesaler asks his toll and expense and then it goes to the jobber, who must re-grade; taking out all the peb- bles in the eggs and the cook stoves in the middle of the bales of hay, the rotten apples in the middle, and all the rest of it ; and after he has done all that he must put on his price to cover all that loss; and then he sells, possibly to another job- ber, who may have a particular system that requires re-grad- ing again ; and then it goes to the retailer, and finally it gets to us who eat it. That is a pretty long line for the stuff to go through. And I find that the farmer gets out of a dollar's worth of stuff that we pay for, about forty-five cents, if he is lucky. He gets forty-five cents out of a dollar. So we are trying to work out a plan by which the farmer can get more and we can pay less and it will be to the advantage of both sides. The result of selling in large lots in the wholesale ter- minal market possibly would be that the commission man and the wholesaler and the receiver would all turn jobbers. They would buy directly in the market, do their sorting and sell to the retailer ; so that you would have but one man between the producer and the retailer, namely, the jobber, instead of four 90 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. or five, and all of the brokering- and all . that sort of thing would be saved. It is a favorite theory among many good people who discuss this subject, that the middleman can be eliminated. I am frank to say to you that I never could find out how that could be done. I believe he is a necessary part of the distri- bution question ; and if his charges are not enlarged by the unnecessary expense to which he is put, they are usually very moderate. Competition regulates that. Last year, or two years ago, in New York, we had a shortage of potatoes. The middlemen sa,y that they sent to Europe and brought over three million bags of potatoes ; and they brought them into New York and sold them to the consumer and kept the price very nearly normal. That was a distinguished service, for which they should be paid. Nobody could find fault with the middlemen; if they had not done that, the price of potatoes in New York that season would have been practically prohib- itive. Again, he is useful in grading and sorting. A good deal of that is caused by the farmer, who does not know how to grade and sort, and it makes it necessary, if a hotel man or anyone else wants a certain grade of goods for his patrons, for him to go to the jobber. He does not want to buy apples by the barrel when a barrel may contain five different grades ; one-fifth of the barrel may be suitable for his customers and he would have to dispose of the other four-fifths in some oth- er manner. So he goes to the jobber; the jobber buys the barrel of apples, divides it up into five different grades, and sells them to five different people who want those grades. The jobber usually is necessary; he must be there; a good deal of that could be saved by the farmers grading properly ; by having the same quality of apples all through the barrel, not good at the top and good at the bottom and otherwise in the middle. That is a good thing to remember. It has al- ways been, of course, among us, but I have heard of people who didn't do it. And if the farmer will realize that bv mix- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 91 ing up all sorts of grades and kinds and sizes in one barrel, he is not only hurting his own trade, but hurting that of ev- eryone else, he will realize that he can remedy these conditions by grading properly. It will require probably some sort of legislation in your agricultural department to fix the absolute g^rades, so that when a barrel of apples goes into the market with the grade marked on, everybody will know what he is jfoing to get; and the people would have a feeling that there is something they could fall back upon. This will save a great deal of re-grading and re-handling. It may seem to you that there is no such market as that in existence. I think that is true in this country. I know of no market in this country just of that kind; but in Europe, where the market is looked upon by the government as a very necessary part of governmental functions, they have gone in- to the market business very thoroughly, with this result. They found that large wholesale terminals of railroads to which the retailers can go directly, are profitable. They serve the State well ; they pay a profit to the State ; and they serve the retail- er cheaply. So those markets have grown apace. In Berlin they have a very large one, a seven million dollar investment. and it pays well ; in Paris they have one which covers twenty- two acres, which represents a ver}' large outlay of money and which has returned fifteen per cent' after all the charges for regulation and inspection. The city of Munich in Germany, started such a market two years ago with very gratifying- re- sults. The Germans did make mistakes. Usually they are very thorough and know just what they are doing, but this time they made a mistake. They built a market which they thought would be sufficiently large for their use. The farm- ers sent their stufif into it. sold it, got their proceeds at once. It was ver\^ satisfactory and encouraged them to raise more stuff, and increased the quantity coming into the market, with the result that the prices fell and Munich has the cheapest market in Germany. All the farmers were well satisfied be- 92 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. cause they could get their money directly ; the result has been that the consumer is getting cheap products ; and the trade has doubled in two years, so that they have to increase the size of the market to twice the size that it was when they start- ed. That shows what can be done with a market of that kind ; wholesalers and retailers, railroad men, consumers and pro- ducers are happy over the result. Not very long ago I was talking with a market expert from Frankfort. When he ad- vocated a market of that kind, after examining all the mar- kets in Europe, he had a good deal of opposition from all the different classes who were interested ; but when he told them what it was he proposed to do, they became enthusiastic ; and now they are building what will be the very last thing in Eur- ope in the way of markets. London has localized large ter- minals ; Cologne has terminals ; Hamburg has a new market, just built, built on this principle; a sort of clearing-house for perishable products. Conditions here are not so intricate or desperate as in New York. You have a better class of people to do with, not so desperately poor in many cases. You depend in a large part for the production around your city ; we grow practically nothing around New York. For instance, we depend for our tgg supply upon Iowa and Missouri ; and we get a great many other things further west; so that our local supply is almost negligible. You have here, I understand, a very good local supply, or facilities "for it ; and the question is, how are you going to take advantage of it? As I understand, albout twen- ty-five per cent of what you consume the year around is raisedi locally. That means that you require seventy-five per cent from somewhere else. The question is, what is the best way to get it? I think that if you had a large market where your stuff could get in by railroad or by boat, you would find out that it would work excellently. The local growers would do one of two things ; either sell directly by large lot to the whole- saler, or thev would hire stalls and sell to the consumers that TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 93 came along. If the farmer should find out after trying it for a while that it would pay him better to sell directly to the wholesaler and go about his business and raise stuff, than to stand and retail his goods, of course, that would be up to him. The experience would be valuable, anyhow. Then ev- ery customer would know exactly where to go for his stuff and every producer would know where he could go to sell it. It is frequently said, of course, that the most direct trade IS from the producer to the consumer, without the intervention of anyone else. There is no dispute about that ; that is the most direct trade. If a man goes directly to the householder and sells his stuff, that is the end of the transaction. But that does not always meet the bill. The farmer, necessarily, would have a limited number of customers, and if he happened to go some day to sell to those customers and found that they had been supplied by some other fellow, why, he would have his goods on his hands. He is very much better off if he knows where he can sell his stuff directl}- b\ going into a wholesale market and disposing of it at once, and tht-n going about his business. It is doubtless true that those who make a business of selling can do it better and do it more economic- ally. That is a local problem. Every city has its own partic- ular problem. All they can do is to study it and lay down the right principles of trade and then adapt them lo the peculiar local condition. And that, I believe, is about what you are going to do here. You seem to have a very excellent site down by the bridge, on the river front, where the railroad can come in, where the streets are broad and the produce can be conven- iently transferred from the market to the retail districts. The only drawback is that it is on one side of the town, while most of your people live on the other side. But that is not a very serious drawback, for the reason that most of that traffic will be in the early hours. I should think- that the cir- cumstances of this city, from a cursory glance, might lead jyou to establish that market there with very great advantage to all. 94 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I don't know how to go on with this subject without get- ting into a very long discussion and a very intricate one. I think the main principles I have spoken of, and I shall be glad to answer any questions that may suggest themselves ta you. Question : Do these plans always contemplate to in- clude cold storage? Mr. Miller: Yes, sir. I think no modern market sys- tem would be complete any longer without a cold storage plant. It would be, of course, especially valuable for produce that is always coming into the market; it could come in on any particular day, then be taken up and put into cold storage until called for. I am very much obliged to you for your kind attention. Chairman Hale : Further down on the evening's pro- gram there is something along the line which we have been talking about just now, "Practical Plans for Co-operative Marketing," by Mr. Charles E. Bassett, of Michigan. Don't go before Mr. Bassett gets through, because then we are going to pass around some apples. Mr. Bassett: We will appreciate the apples, I know. It is nearly, bed time, I suppose, for most of us ; the rest perhaps can stay longer. We have all enjoyed this discussion. I am sure it is a very big problem. I was especially interested in the Mayor's suggestion in regard to a certain process whereby the water- melon vine and Jamaica ginger plant were to be crossed ; I suppose the Jamaica ginger is to be used to cure the stomach ache. Practical Plans for Co-operative Marketing. By Charles E. Bassett, Fennville, Mich. I really feel, my friends, that this is a serious problem that we have before us. We have talked about it for a good many years; in our societies we have time and time again TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 95 been talking about raising more, producing more — well, now, friends, that is all right, perhaps, but we are not going to solve the question of the high cost of living by producing more ; I cannot see how that is going to do it. The consumers think that the farmers are getting to be millionaires, I sup- pose, by the fact that they have to pay such prices for their produce; but v/hen you come to analyze it, as has been said by the gentleman preceding me, you will find it is true that for the farm products, the farmer receives only thirty-five to forty-five cents of the consumer's dollar. What are you go- ing- to do about it? There has been considerable mention here about the middleman. There is a Boston commission man present, who I noticed turned hot and cold as the gen- tleman was speaking about his kind. (Mr. Hale: What was his name?) I don't want to expose friend Patch of Boston. (Laugh- ter.) I think you and I will agree on this general problem — I want you to consider this — any man or corporation who takes your product, and by any act of itself, either physical, mental, or financial, adds to the value of that product, is en- titled to the pay for the work he has done. Isn't that fair, as a matter of business and justice and fair dealing? But any man who does not add to the value of that product by his act or his failure to act, is not entitled to anything for doing nothing. We have no quarrel with the middlemen who work and do something with our products to add to the value; but we do object most seriously to hav- ing the cream skimmed off of our milk and having the skimmed milk handed back to us with thanks by men who simply skim and produce nothing. How are you going to help your products? I am going to get down to brass tacks, as I think it is one of the biggest problems we have to solve. We have to contend with it very many times. There is no reason why the Connecticut men should not help solve that problem. Here you are mostly close to the city ; we are far from the city ; further than you are at least, but too near al- 96 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAE SOCIETY. together for our own good. Of course, you understand I have nothing against the cities. It is simply because it makes it possible for us to market poor stuff ; we can sell close to home. It works out to our disadvantage. We have got to overcome that problem. In Michigan our general market, or dumping ground — that is a good term — is Chicago ; simply dump it in there, no marketing about it; you don't have any- thing to say about it ; you simply raise the article, put it on the cars and wait for returns. That isn't marketing; that isn't even business ; and we have been doing that for a good many years. But we have been trying to work out a plan of active co-operation. I will tell you what we did in 1911. In that year there was a big crop of apples in our community and the buyers simply sat back in their harness and simply agreed among themselves that a dollar and a half a barrel was the price we should receive. . We held a meeting down in the Grange Hall near by, and everybody got there that had a barrel of apples for sale. We talked it over, but didn't have any plan. The buyers got in the back row and took the thing rather lightly, because, although we were up-in-arms and talk- ing about doing something, we had no plan, no concerted ac- tion, and no idea of what to do. One man arose and said, 'T move that we agree among ourselves here that we will not sell a single barrel of apples for two weeks. Then we will come back here. In the meantime we will appoint a commit- tee to consider some plan of co-operation ; then we will put a price on our goods." We proceeded to elect temporary of- ficers, and this gentleman who made the motion was elected secretary. That very night after this "gentlemen's agree- ment" had been arrived at, on the way home one of our non- productive middlemen who saw that there was some chance of the cream escaping him proceeded to call on the secretary before he had even reached home ; they went through some form of a dialogue, during which he said, "We will give you $2.10 a barrel for your apples; we don't care just now for the other fellows' apples," and the "gentlemen's agreement" TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 97 was dissolved right there, because he sold. That was "co-op- eration," as you call it? Not exactly Farmers won't stick together! An absolute libel, only it is true so many times. But it ought to be a' libel, and it is for you to make it so. Now, what do you suppose we did? Well, "gentlemen's agree- ments" don't go, not even among the fruit growers. But you understand, it seems to be human nature; no matter what your agreement is; let just one man meet a fellow who will hold up a nickel and he goes over the fence, even if it tears the shirt off his back. It is nothing to laugh about. It is a most serious problem, How are you going to face it? What is the position to-day — lack of any system of grades what- ever; lack of inspection, lack of distribution. That is the present problem we have to solve, according to my notion, lack of any grades, lack of inspection, lack of any system of distribution. Those three things have got to be solved. How are you going to solve them? In the first place, the bill which v/as introduced by Mr. Sulzer, now governor of New York, I believe, but then congressman, was passed at the last ses- sion of Congress, signed by President Taft and will become operative July first of this year. In our section we got to- gether and organized — we didn't organize any gentlemen's agreement — no, thank you ; we had plenty of that — we or- ganized a cast iron agreement, surrounded by a barbed wire fence and a stone wall, so high that a man cannot jump over it, and if he tries to bang his way through it, the chances are that his head will get some sense jolted into it. How did we do it? It's practical. I want to tell you how we did it. It may not fit your case. We bound every man for five years ; not for one year, no, no. A man is willing to jump in for one year when he cannot sell his own fruit and let us sell it for him ; and then next year, perhaps, when he can sell his own fruit to his satisfaction, he just ignores us. In order to establish business you must do it along regular lines ; and in order to bring back profits to the grower we must create an absolute foundation of confidence in the course we are to 98 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. take. You know and I know that all business that is going to be stable and sound and substantial must rest upon a foun- dation of confidence; and if you haven't confidence you can- not do business. Confidence is the basis and foundation of all of this work. I trust we are going to be business men; we are not now, but we are going to be when we get settled down to it ; and we are pretty near that piont ; some of us only own one automobile. We are getting to the point where we realize our condition. In our section we didn't bring them all together ; we didn't take in the kickers and buckers and bit- ers and high jumpers. Get the most peacable sort of decent business men you can get; then starve the rest until they are hungry enough to come in under the canvas and stay in. We picked sixty men (I think we have about three times too many) ; we bound them for five years. They absolutely passed over for value received their interest in their own product, to be handled by the association; and they could not sell then if they wanted to. The only thing we will allow a member to do is to put a minimum price each year upon his product. If we cannot get the minimum price he can establish a new mini- mum price ; and if he has any offers outside of the associa^i tion higher than the association could possibly get, he is to turn those offers over to the association, so as to prevent some of these middlemen, who want to cut the throat of the organi- zation, from coming in and buying, as they did from our sec- retary the year before. When you have that then you have the men where they cannot get away. The next thing we did, we adopted the Sulzer bill this year, not next year; we believed that if the Sulzer bill is go- ing to be good on July first, we are going to start it right now. We had a bad reputation and we better get rid of it ; and the quicker we get rid of it, the quicker confidence will return, ?nd the result will be beneficial to us. We have got to get in at the head of the procession, because we have got to get into that procession before we do very much business. We TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 99 get more for our cider apples than people outside of our or- ganization; we- get more for our seconds, because they are better than some other folks' seconds ; largely on account of the fact that we sell what the label calls it. The Sulzer bill calls for three grades of No. 1 apples, but the difference is in size. The result was that we had a straight grade ; we had something to build up on. We adopted the Sulzer bill, which perhaps you understand. If you don't understand it, I haven't time to explain it now, but would be glad to do it at any time you will come to me. The next move was rather difficult. How are you going to have your apples inspected, friends? Let each man pack his apples ? That won't do. We are going to guarantee them all. And we did — twenty thousand barrels; guaranteed ev- ery barrel. We said we will trust no man to pack his own ap- ples. Why, we wouldn't trust J. H. Hale. (Laughter.) Not that he isn't decently honest. He is fairly so. (That is the way he talked out in Michigan when he came to see us. Now he has got to sit still and take it.) Maybe you don't think he is honest. I do ; honestly, I do. The point I claim is here ; no man can pack his own stuff. Up in our country, when a man starts in to pack his own stuff he is afflicted with a dis- ease called "strabismus," or something like that. It has the effect of a magnifying glass and a kind of opaque glass that warps his vision. Everything looks large and there are no defects. That is peculiar to the climate where we are, sur- rounded by lakes. You have some water down here ; perhaps you have the same trouble. We are going to cure that disease and cure it mighty sudden. How do we do it? We pick out some prize young men as inspectors and workers, not simply to wear good clothes and stand around in the orchard. We will say to the man who grew this fruit, "You can pick your fruit, bring it down and put it on the packing table ; vou can grade it according to your notion; but between your packing table and you and that barrel where these apples are going, 100 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. will stand this man, who will see that the apples that go in there are right. He shall become accountable to the associa- tion. You pay him because he is doing your work, but at the .«=ame time, not one word can you say to him whether an ap- ple is good, bad or indifferent." Not only that, but when the label is put on the barrel, at the bottom of your label stands an initial, a code letter, which means that the inspector stands sponsor for that barrel of apples. The result is that that man is held accountable; and if, for any reason, a barrel is turned down, that inspector has that much taken out of his wages. We hold back enough of his wages so that we can make a settlement of this kind. We do not go to the grower, we go to the inspector. We can, therefore, guarantee every barrel, and the result is we have something we can have con- fidence in. The last thing is distribution, I think you will agree with me that we could get along with a whole lot less middlemen than we have now. (Mr. Miller, if you enjoy them we will ship you down some if you are short, because we could cer- tainly get along with less than we have now.) Now, the point is right here, in all fairness and in all candor. What is the trouble? Why don't the people eat our apples to-day? In Nev/ York they offer apples for sale to-day, four or five apples at that price. And they are apples, too, that don't bring nothing like what we see here at all. In the first place — too big a price ; people cannot eat them ; very few people can eat apples at that price. And they are apples,, too, that don't bring any such figure, or anything like it, to the farmer. The farm- er is getting cut at one end and the consumer at the other; and between the two they have destroyed the business, pretty rear. They are eating oranges and bananas and so on, and this business is growing. Why? Because we have not a bus- iness method of getting our stuff to the consumers. Now, our association could not handle less than a car load. We cannot afford to handle less than a car load. We have got to find TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. lOI points where they can handle a car load, but we have to keep out of the big cities that are already glutted, and go to the points where the people are not getting a supply of good ap- ples at a decent price. We got two or three young men to- gether, and I said, here are some points that we will try and they were as far away as Virginia and Dakota. We made a list of towns and cities of from two to three thousand inhab- itants ; we skipped Chicago and all the other big cities ; and we simply said, "Go to those towns and go to the retailer and sell him a car load of apples." This young man would say to the retailer, "I want to sell you a car load of apples that I can guarantee. I can sell them cheaper because I can get better transportation charges and there will be no cold stor- age charges or charges for middlemen. I can put you in a car load of better apples for less money, so that you can sell it for less money, and the consumer can buy for less money. You will find no trouble in selling." They hesitated, because they were not accustomed to buying in such quantities; one hun- dred and sixty to two hundred barrels. But in every case a car was sold. The expense was very little, and it will be less in the future, for the reason that we have received replies from every customer, and with every letter, upon their own motion, they have stated just what I have told you; they re- ceived better apples, better packed, no trouble with the grades ; they had niade more selling them for less ; we got more ; the retailer got more; the consumer paid less. The result was that the consumer secured better fruit than ever before, at a lower price; the amount of consumption was increased and there is a larger demand for our product. And that means good prices for the farmer. Is there anything wrong about that? That is practical. I have talked the co-operative meth- od for fifteen years. Haven't we got to the point yet where we can quit talking and do something? Aren't you ready? Haven't you talked co-operation long enough? Aren't you ready to do something? Co-operation may exist in many forms. I02 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. We might have taken those apples and sold them right at home for more money than we got for them. The middle- man would pay our price, but they said, "Keep your label off the top of that barrel. We will pay your price, but keep your label off." What do we want that label on the barrel for? To build up co-operation, wasn't it; to establish the founda- tion of confidence, that I told you is the basis of all good bus- iness. They wanted us to take the labels off those barrels because they knew that the man who eventually bought those barrels and found they were first-class apples — they might be horribly shocked — but if it didn't kill them on sight, he would think of it the next time he wanted more apples and he would naturally come to us for them. He would come to the party whose name was on the barrel. What would be the result? That is what would happen, Mr. Middleman, right there. That is all there is to it. He wouldn't have our label on a good barrel ; he would put his own label on it. We took a chance once and lost out. When we came to fill one of the car loads, we had some trouble in filling the car; and a man who said he would guarantee what he put in was allowed to supply enough barrels to fill the car. When that car was delivered we had some trouble, and the complaint came in about these particular barrels this man put in. On investigation we found that this man had misin- terpreted that Sulzer bill. He made one of those mistakes that we have described. He made this mistake. He had read that bill. It says, "There shall be fifteen per cent leeway on this proposition." In other words, if you had fifteen per cent of the apples poor apples it would still pass under the Sulzer bill. He thought he had got to get in fifteen per cent of poor apples to get by ; and in getting in fifteen he got in about thir- ty. That is where he made his mistake. I suppose that is just some of the old Adam that is still in us men, just as there is some of the old Eve in the other sex, too, sometimes. We are now paying for that little slip of ours. , TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 103 Now, I have laid down some principles that we are prac- ticing. I don't believe you can go far from those and win. In other words, you have got to hold to a certain grade and system of inspection, which means that every man must be under watch all the time. And each man who puts these apples in the barrel must have no personal interest in the fruit that goes into the barrel. We have got in some way to go around some of the middlemen; to get next to the consumer we have got to go to the man nearest to the consumer. We got more for our apples in this co-operative association than anybody in the section got ; anywhere from forty-five to sixty cents per barrel more. We are striving to reach the point where the retailer can depend upon the goods he gets from us, and the consumer can depend upon the goods he gets from the retailer, so that we can get that basis of confidence estab- lished. And that means increased consumption of good ap- ples that we are producing; and the increased consumption means that the people who are now complaining about the high cost of living will get good goods for less money; and the only middleman who is necessary will be getting his fair share of the consumer's dollar. Chairman Hale: Now, Mr. Bassett has made you a rattling fine talk on co-operative marketing. I'm going to give you a chance for a few minutes to ask him questions. Ask questions right to the point. Don't be asking questions like the lady did at the woman's suffrage meeting. After the speaker had made a splendid argument for woman suffrage and had covered the ground in every way, she said, "My dear sisters, I see by the earnest look in your faces how closely you have followed me, but there may be something that I have not made clear. I will be glad to answer any questions that I can." And one lady in the audience spoke up and said, "I would like to know how you get that smooth effect over the hips " (Laughter.") 104 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. As the hour was growing late, the discussion of Mr. Bassett's very practical address was deferred until the follow- ing session, and instead the time was occupied in distributing to the audience samples of the various varieties of apples on exhibition. This "Feast of Fine Fruits" was thoroughly en- joyed by the large gathering, and made a strong impression of the fact that Connecticut apple growers are producing fruit of the finest appearance and highest quality. The session closed at ten o'clock, but many lingered to enjoy the music and to study and admire the splendid fruit display. Altogeth- er it was one of the most enjoyable and profitable evening meetings in the Society's history. p.* w fc o TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 105 SECOND DAY Thursday, February 6th, 1913. MORNING SESSION. The second day of the Annual Meeting opened with a splendid attendance; almost as large as that of the first day, many newcomers were included in the audience. The inter- est in the various features of the meeting, especially the ex- hibits, continued unabated. The morning session was called to order at ten o'clock, Vice-President Stancliff Hale occupying the chair. Vice-President Hale : I will call your attention first to the report of Dr. Jarvis. He will tell you what the College has done and will do for the fruit interests. What Our State College Has Done and Will Do For the Fruit Interests. Report by Dr. C. D. Jauvis, Storrs. . Most of the fruit growers and farmers of Connecticut are familiar with the work that the College and the Society is doing with regard to the demonstration work in orchards. Some of you may have come pretty close to our work, and others are hoping that we will be able to work in orchards in their locality. Nearly four years ago now, this work was started ; two orchards being selected, one in Cheshire and one in Pomfret. These orchards have been operated on for the last three years and now they are in fairly productive condi- tion. I think that the people in those sections are fairly well convinced that it pays to fix up these old orchards. ' Last year we started a third orchard at Bethel, just a little south I06 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of Danbury. In this orchard we have probably the hardest proposition we have tackled anywhere in the State. The trees were in exceptionally bad condition ; but the two rows in the orchard that we worked on looked well last fall, and the indi- cations are that we will have some fruit there next year. Now, as I said last year, that is the best type of demon- stration work. The temporary demonstration, by which I mean going into an orchard for a day or a short time and' giving one demonstration in pruning and spraying, has not been so successful as this permanent type of demonstration work, chiefly because no attempt is made to follow it up. The only reason for taking up that temporary type of demon- stration is that we may cover a larger territory, meet more people. We can go into an orchard here and call the attention of the neighbors to the work ; and the next day we can go to another orchard, and in that way cover a large territory and meet a great many people. That is the chief reason for do- ing it ; but we assume no further responsibility for the or- chards. You can easily see what is the weak point in that system ; that such undertakings are not likely to be followed up in a proper way ; but yet a great deal of good may result from that type of demonstration work. We are going to try, as we tried last year, to select orchards for the work where we believe that the work will be followed up properly ; though some of the orchards that we thought we selected wisely last year have not been cared for as we expected. Last year we had twelve of these temporary demonstrations and the year before we had ten. We will probably have about the same number this year, eight or ten, of the temporary demonstrations. I do not believe that it is going to be neces- sary to go back to Pomf ret and Cheshire, because, as I have said, the people there are fairly well convinced of the value of the work. At the same time, we are going to keep those orchards under observation ; and if anything turns up that requires our attention, we will certainly go down there; be- cause, while we are fairlv sure that the orchards are on a TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 107 profitable basis now, something may turn up that will require our attention later. I want to say just a little about a plan that we are con- templating-; and a plan which I believe you will all be inter- ested in. I refer to the county expert idea. It is in co-opera- tion with the federal government, with the Office of Farm Management of the Department of Agriculture. We are con- templating putting an expert agriculturist in each county of the State. This work must be of a co-operative nature. It is co-operative between the federal government and the col- lege, to begin v/ith ; and we want to have it co-operative with the people in each county as well. And in order that the people in the county should express their feelmgs directly along that line, we shall expect, and we are hoping that each county will take an active and financial part in the promoting of this enterprise. It will undoubtedly come back to the farmers of the county ; and not only are we going to ask the farmers to co-operate in that work ; but we are going to ask every one interested; the manufacturers, the merchants and the railways are going to be benefited by this kind of work just as much as the farmer. There is no way of developing a small town better than by developing the country surround- ing that town. Now, the plan will consist first of all in forming what may be called a farm bureau in that county; and the farm bureau will be under the direction of what may be likened to a county chamber of commerce. It will be controlled by the interests of the county, represented by the farmer, the mer- chant, the manufacturer, and the railroad, and so on. In brief, that is the outline; and there are a great many other things that I could talk about with regard to this plan. I want to say that I would like to have the co-operation of some good, public-spirited citizen in every county to help promote this work. It is important that we should start as early as possible. We want to get our application in to the federal government for a county man for their co-operation not later I08 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. than June first. -The federal fund for this purpose becomes available July first, and we want to have our application in and our county organized so that we can take up this work by that time. If there are any here who would like a little more in- formation about the details of this plan, I would be very glad to talk to them about it personally. Now, if I have time I want to say a few words about this little exhibit of fruit packages over here in the corner. These packages along the side here are all very attractive and contain apples as good as any that we have grown, I am particularly desirous of calling your attention to this basket. I am trying to encourage our local retail trade to adopt a small basket. I have over here three baskets of the same type, just varying in size, which is known as the Climax bas- ket. The size varies in order to fit the various sizes of the apples. That basket has been used in certain sections for a great many years ; across the Niagara River in Canada, it has been used for fifteen years, for peaches, apples, grapes, plums, pears, all the tree fruits. The basket is so construct- ed that it may be stacked up on the wagon, or in the car, ten, twelve, fourteen tiers high ; something you cannot do with the ordinary peach basket. I personally think that it is the best basket for peaches as well as apples. We do not want to get our good, high-colored New England apples confused with the apples from the west; and we are very likely to do that by putting them in western boxes. Therefore, I say, for the best trade, a small package of some kind; some dis- tinctive package that anyone may know is a New England package, is the thing; and then for the general bulk of the crop, put it in the barrels. It has served us well for a long time. We have abused it, no doubt, by not packing honestly, all of the time, but the time is coming when we will not be troubled that way. We should put the best quality in the baskets; the other grades in the barrels. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 109 A Member: I would like to ask Dr. Jarvis, what is the comparative cost — the cost of the baskets as compared with the barrels? Dr. Jarvis : To buy the number of baskets that would be required to fill a barrel, it would cost about the same price. The baskets cost three and a half cents for the smallest size; five cents for the next, and six cents for the next, with the cover, in one hundred lots ; and on larger orders, undoubted- ly, you can get them at lower prices than that. Another im- portant thing about that basket is that it has a solid board bottom ; no other basket will answer the purpose. There is another basket here on the left, in the front, that has a slat bottom. Every time you pick up the basket and set it down again, every apple moves. That is not so with the Climax. Take it by the handle — you can handle it much more read- ily— set it down and take it up without disturbing the apples. Another thing; anyone can pack it; it takes an expert to pack a box. Since I have been here in the hall I have had prob- ably a dozen people ask me where I can get a man who can pack apples in boxes. We haven't got them in New Eng- land. We had a little packing school in Meriden last week, and we trained a few fellows. They wanted the training for their own use ; they are not available to pack for anyone else. No matter how much training we give along that line, we are going to be scarce of expert packers; but it does not re- quire much training to show a man how to pack in baskets. Mr. Bassett: This Climax basket is the one we have used in Michigan for twenty years. It is used there entirely for grapes and peaches. We have never used it for apples. The cost in thousand lots runs from twenty-two dollars a thousand up. We never have paid three and a half cents apiece for them ; perhaps our supply of timber is a little more liberal, and on that account we get them cheaper. no THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Vice-President Hale: At this point I would like to call on the treasurer to make his report. He was unable to be with us yesterday. Report of the Treasurer. Treasurer Cook : Mr. Chairman and Fellow Fruit Growers : I am sorry I was unable to give my report yes- terday in its regular order. The circumstances were such that I was unable to give the time necessary for the auditors to find out whether the graft had exceeded the usual horti- cultural variety. I have just come in this morning and they have just handed me back the books, stating that they were all right. I don't know whether it will agree with the secre- tary's account; we haven't compared notes yet. As the full report will be printed in the procedings I will simply read the summary at this time. RECEIVED. Balance on hand February 1st, 1912 $254.25 From the Secretary for annual memberships 736.00 Rent of hall space for exhibit 80.50 Sale of exhibition fruit 4.50 From the State appropriation 1,765.57 From the Connecticut Agricultural Society 100.00 Total $2,940.82 PAID OUT. On orders signed by the President and Secretary $2,914.00 Leaving a balance of $26.82 I have also to report the life membership fund. As you know, the life membership money is deposited in tw^o savings banks. In the Berlin Savings Banks, Feb. 1st, 1912, on deposit $432.24 (There have been no deposits made in this bank during the year.) Interest during the year 21.74 Deposited in the Society for Savings in Hart- ford, during: the year 100.00 Interest to Dec. 1st, 1912 1.80 $555.78 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. m PRESENT RESOURCES OF THE SOCIETY. In the Berlin Savings Bank $453.98 In the Society for Savings, Hartford 101.80 Due on account of State appropriation 285.25 Due from the State appropriation for the Agricultural Fair fund 200.00 Carried in treasury 26.82 Total $1,067.85 Vice-President Hale : Before we accept this report it would be proper to hear the report of the auditors, Mr, Sta- ples and Mr. Eddy. Mr. Staples : We have examined the books, checks, and accounts of the Treasurer and find them to be all right. Now, there is one suggestion that the auditors v/ould like to make. It is, that the money to be paid out be done as long before the close of the year as possible, so that the checks can be returned. Every year so far we have found that a great many checks have not been returned. And that gives us a great deal of trouble. If the money could be paid ; checks sent out by the first of January, and those who get them would get their checks cashed promptly, it would save the treasurer and the auditors a great deal of trouble. Vice-President Hale: You have heard the report of the Treasurer as approved by the auditors. 'What is your pleasure ? A motion was made and seconded that the report be ac- cepted. It was so voted. 112 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Treasurer's Report. For Year Ending February 1, 1913. ALLEN B. COOK, Treasurer, In Account with The Connecticut Pomological Society. 1912. Feb. 2. To balance on hand $254.25 7. Cash from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for annual memberships 446.00 20. Cash from H. C. C. Miles, rent of space for trade exhibits at Annual Meeting 80.50 Mar. 20. from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 75.00 May 24. from H. C. C. Miles, fruit sold at An- nual Meeting 4.50 from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 31.00 from State appropriation 403.74 Aug. 21. from State appropriation 200.00 Sept. 24. from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 55.00 Oct. 14. from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 40.00 from State appropriation 644.63 Dec. 18. from Connecticut State Agricultural Society (Berlin Fair) 100.00 1913. Jan. 3. from State appropriation 415.00 22. from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 22.00 31. from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 67.00 from State appropriation 102.20 • $2,940.82 1912. Feb. 7. By check to C. C. Hulsart, expenses and ser- vices at Annual Meeting $16.05 J. B. Castner, on account of services, etc., at Annual Meeting 10.00 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 113 Feb. 7. Harry J. Bridge, expenses and servic- es at Annual Meeting $4.00 C. L. Gold, to balance banqvtet account 66.58 28. The Unitarian Congregational Society, rent of Unity Hall for Annual Meeting 70.00 R. S. Bascom, lantern and operator at Annual Meeting 12.00 The Whitehead & Hoag Co., badges and express 26.25 The Fair Publishing House, entry and judges' books 5.50 The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., printing membership receipts 7.50 Dr. J. P. Stewart, services and expenses at Annual Meeting 64.87 The Milford • Post Office, envelopes and stamps 11.75 Clarence H. Ryder, printing programs for Annual Meeting 13.50 Willis A. Lane, services and expenses at Annual Meeting 5.57 H. C. C. Miles, expenses and supplies at Annual Meeting 17.66 A. J. Brundage, services and expenses at Annual Meeting 7.75 Mar. 6. The E. Tucker & Sons Co., paper for exhibition tables at Annual Meeting 2.16 The Garde Hotel, bill for speakers and officers at Annual Meeting 114.30 R. S. Bascom, cash paid for express charges at Annual Meeting 2.60 E. L. Wiggins, Mgr., painting signs for Annual Meeting 8.00 Lloyd S. Tenny, services and expenses at Annual Meeting 28.54 Kilborn Bros., envelopes and stationery 4.40 H. C. C. Miles, fourth payment salary for 1911 50.00 Treasurer Advisory Board of Farmers Institutes Assessment, institute work 150.00 114 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mar. 6. ' The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., printing Treasurer's receipt book.. $2.75 Allen B. Cook, Treasurer, expenses and supplies, Oct. 1, 1911, to Feb. 1, 1912 9.59 John Coombs, decorations for hall, Annual Meeting 8.50 R. .S. Bascom, storage and supplies... 5.00 May 20. Allen N. Hoxsie, photos for Annual Report 2.00 The Milford Post Office, postage on spraying reports 9.25 Charles F. Roberts, reporting Annual Meeting 83.20 June 3. Massachusetts Agricultural College, balance of expense on account of J. B. Castner 98.70 H. C. C. Miles, telephone charges from January 1 to April 1 10.95 The Connecticut Farmer Co., quarterly payment for paper 52.44 Clarence H. Ryder, letterheads printed 7.50 H, C. C. Miles, balance of salary for 1911 50.00 July 13. Prof. F. C. Sears, services and expens- es at Annual Meeting 15.62 Dr. E. H. Jenkins, expenses at Annual Meeting 2.40 Clarence H. Ryder, printing tickets for Annual Banquet 3.25 Aug. 20. Clarence H. Ryder, on account, for printing report 200.00 Sept. 26. H. C. C. Miles, first payment on salary for 1912 50.00 Clarence H. Ryder, printing 500 letter- terheads 3.25 The Connecticut Farmer Co., quarterly payment for paper 50.94 Kilborn Bros., supplies for Secretary's office 4.83 Clarence H. Ryder, printing programs for field meeting 5.75 Milford Post Office, stamped envelopes.. 19.80 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 115 Oct. 7. Clarence H. Ryder, binding in cloth 100 reports $38.50 Adams Express Co., express for annual exhibit at Berlin 1.60 14. A. G. GuUey, expenses at annual exhibit 13.00 Clarence H. Ryder, balance of bill for printing Annual Report 407.46 H. S. Ellsworth, Manager, advance fee for rent of Foot Guard Hall 20.00 16. H. C. C. Miles, expenses, etc., at annual exhibition at Berlin 15.36 Willis A. Lane, services and expenses at annual exhibition 5.57 Prof. F. C. Sears, judging and expens- es at annual exhibition 20.92 J. R. Clark, printing and supplies for annual exhibition 12.65 28. Clarence H. Ryder, printing premium schedules 12.50 The .Connecticut Farmer Co., quarterly payment for paper 52.06 H. C. C. Miles, second payment on sal- ary for 1912 50.00 Clarence H. Ryder, printing 800 post cards 9.75 Nov. 1. Milford Post Office, stamps for mailing- Annual Report 40.00 18. L. C. Root, services and expenses at annual exhibition 25.85 Dec. 14. H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, office ex- penses to July 1 36.70 31. Milford Post Office, stamps and envel- ^ opes '. . 28.88 1913. Jan. 4. A. G. Gulley, washing exhibition plates 1.75 H. C. C. Miles, third payment on sal- ary for 1912 50.00 E. Rogers, cash paid for rent of plates and supplies at annual exhibit 8.10 Premiums awarded at .Annual Meet- ing, February 6 and 7. 1912: W. A. Stocking & Son . . . $39.25 E. Rogers 14.75 Il6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Jan. 4. H. E. Clark $12.00 E. E. Brown 22.00 H. E. Savage & Sons . . . 3.00 Julius I. Ives 2.75 A. J. Clark 1.75 L. J. Grant 1.75 L. H. Warncke 1.00 G. W. Florian 75 H. B. Buell 75 Thos. Griswold & Co. . . . .50 F. B. Bailey 50 E. C. Warner 50 E. C. Roberts 25 S. P. Griswold .25 S. L. Tuttle 25 13. Premiums awarded at annual exhibit, September 24-27, 1912: J. H. Putnam $42.75 Mrs. E. W. Ellison ' 26.00 A. J. Clark 25.50 C. H. Savage 24.25 Albert Bernhard 24.00 F. B. Bailey 24.00 Mrs. C. O. Hanford 18.50 W. H. Baldwin 16.00 Gulley & Bonner 15.75 Mrs. F. B. Bailey 15.50 Mrs. Harvey Jewell 15.50 Geo. H. Griffith 15.00 T. H. & L. C. Root ..... 13.00 Mrs. H. B. Birdsey 1025 G. F. Piatt & Son 9.50 Jacob Beisiegel 9.25 Julius I. Ives 8.50 S. W. Roberts 7.50 H. O. Griswold 7.00 C. L. Gold 6.75 Jos. Albison 5.25 C. O. Young 4.75 Thos. Callahan 4.00 Peter Derudder 4.00 E. Rogers 4.00 $102.00 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. iiy Jan. 13. H. E. Savage's Sons $3.75 Rowland R. Cooke 3.50 Mrs. A. E. Crandall 3.00 H. B. Cooke 3.00 S. F. Avery 2.50 F. B. Cook 2.00 Harvey Jewell 2.00 C. L. Clark . 1.75 F. B. Ashton 1.00 S. A. Hart 1.00 Mrs. C. J. Thompson .... 1.00 C. J. Thompson .75 E. H. Jones 50 31. H. B. Buell '. 9.15 G. W. Florian 3.60 Garrett M. Stack 3.50 Theo. A. Stanley 2.50 W. F. Beaupain 2.00 Frank Neuhauser 2.00 W. C. Robinson 1.35 O. K. Driggs 1.00 R. W. Curtis 1.00 Chas. R. Risley 50 J. R. Rooke 25 E. D. Curtis 15 .25 E. Rogers, institute work, 1911 and 1912 19.75 E. Rogers, general expenses of Presi- dent's office to Feb. 1, 1912., 49.26 The Connecticut Farmer Co.. quarterly payment for paper 52.94 Balance on hand 26.82 $2,940.82 AVAILABLE RESOURCES. On deposit in Berlin Savings Bank $453.98 On deposit in the Society for Savings 101.80 Due on account of State appropriation 285.25 Due on account of Agricultural Fair Fund 200.00 Balance in Treasury 26.82 $1,067.85 Il8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. PERMANENT INVESTED FUND. Berlin Savings Bank: Amount on deposit Feb. 1, 1912 $432.24 . Interest to Jan. 1, 1913 21.74 Society for Savings (Hartford) : Ten Life Memberships deposited in 1912 100.00 Interest to Dec. 1, 1912 1.80 $555.78 AUDITORS' CERTIFICATE. Feb. 6, 1913. We have examined the books, checks and accounts of the Treasurer, Mr. Allen B. Cook, to Feb. 5th, 1913, and find them correct. GEORGE W. STAPLES, J. C. EDDY, Auditors. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 119 Vice-President Hale: It seems advisable that we now call up No. 4 of 'the afternoon program, which is a discussion on, "What Should be Our Ideal in the Pruning of Orchard Trees?" and I am very glad to call upon Prof. Gulley to open the discussion. Discussion — What Should be Our Ideals in the Pruning of Orchard Trees. By PfiOF. A. G. Gulley, Connecticut Agricultural College. I am asked to say something about the ideal orchard tree. You can form an ideal, but you cannot always make it work out. Theory is a mighty pretty thing, but when you come to practice it, very often it doesn't hold up. And yet there is such a thing as an ideal apple tree as I see it. I don't know that you will agree with me. Mr. Bassett told you yesterday that we have got to take up some of those western notions before we are going to be very successful in competing with them. I have been telling you the same thing for some time. They have taught us much that is good and we want to work pret- ty close to them ; at least we want to copy them if we can ; we want to go ahead ; we certainly want to use their plans as far as they are adapted to our country ; and they are adaptable, most of them. A few of you last summer were up to the Col- lege to see some of our trees that we have been trying to grow for the last five to fifteen years. I had an ideal tree, that is back of what we are trying to do ; and we have been working toward it. Some of you saw a little row of Greenings in the west orchard ; you thought they were pretty trees ; trees then were eleven years old this spring; they spread about twenty feet ; mighty poor land, too ; and they were not more than ten feet the other way ; ten feet would reach the top of any of them. They had a pretty nice crop; and we picked those ap- ples without using a ladder; limbs about so high. You can 120 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. take some of the varieties, and it don't take much work to make them pretty nearly what you want; but when you come to take the Northern Spy a man has got to know his trade pretty well before he can give it any kind of an ideal. Some of you know that we have a trial orchard up there where we have something like one hundred and twenty-live or more va- rieties. In an orchard of that kind you have all sorts of trees to make ideals of. With the best work you can do, there is a vast sight of difference in the way the tree may grow, but if anybody will come into that orchard and examine it pretty thoroughly, you will find that with few exceptions we have managed to keep somewhere near the ideal. That is, a tree easy to handle, easy to get at, easy to spray, easy to thin, easy to do anything with ; without having to waste your la- bor. That is the ideal I have got ; and the only way to build a tree that will be convenient and easy to get at is by giving it proper attention. We are making five times as much work as we used to about this tree business. We never heard of spraying; there are "boys" here who have been born quite a while since spraying was thought of. And who ever heard of thinning the fruit on an apple tree? We didn't fifteen years ago. You wouldn't believe it. We have been doing all this and we have got to do a great deal yet if we are to meet these western men. We have got to get rid of our big trees alto- gether and only handle small trees ; we have got to make our fruit growing cheaper. We have got that little eighty cents ahead of them on fruit. There is no such thing as planting a tree and letting it grow itself. I saw a little illustration within three days, a little way to the north of us ; apple and plum trees twelve years old that hadn't been touched. I wouldn't* take those trees myself for a gift. You ask for low- head trees ; you can get them now. You couldn't buy them fifteen years ago. In my early work we headed a tree shoul- der high ; a man who would do that now would not work for me very long. CLh H O o TIVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 121 I have a young tree here to give you a Httle idea. It isn't such a bad one. -(Showing tree.) I took this tree and pulled it right out of the nursery row with my hands. My ideal of a tree is a tree down somewhere where we can handle it. It is a mighty easy thing to shove a tree up in the air ; anybody can do that ; but the man who has to take a tree three, four, five or six }ears old and try to put it the other way has got a mighty mean job. It can be done. You can saw it off ; it will start again ; come out with a new shaped top. You take that tree (Illustrating) and let it alone and you have got two feet of growth here all over it ; next year it is going to go a little way further, next year it will be away on up there ; and in about six years it will be away over here ; and you cannot put a ladder against it at all ; you cannot rest a ladder on it. That is what you would get if you let it alone. But supposing I begin in here, some- thing like this (clipping off limbs of the tree) ; I will have a different looking tree pretty soon. And I would plant that tree facing the west. Our winds come from the northwest and southwest ; and that means that the tree is going to get over here this way (Illustrating) more or less. Every tree in this State stands leaning towards the northeast or the southeast. Then they come around gradually afterwards. Next year the growth has got up in here. I don't want any two limbs coming out at the same place. Per- haps I had not got that high enough. If it is a Northern Spy it ought to have been pointing up here (Illustrating). Later, if you want to raise this it is easy to cut this away. In that case we get a tree, prett\', solid and firm ; and the limbs grow where we want them; but if we cut off these (Illustrating) it would make a prettier shaped tree. I can save some of these limbs and get rid of them later; follow that out two or three years. I would rather trim standing on tke ground than get- ting in the top of the tree. Mr. Bassett spoke about budding. That would be possi- ble on the vouni>- trees. You can go out in the orchard here 122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. in the winter time and shape a lot of it with your thumb and finger. If a man wants to trim some of his trees and make them of beautiful shape it is a wonder what he can do with the thumb and finger on the tree. Do it at the right time. We don't have to take in any big wood in this way until we get the tree shaped. Five years later, if that tree is as high as I want it, I am going in here and working it outside ; open up the centers. I won't do that until the tree is shaped and I have my branches where I want them. Here is a lot of buds here ; they are all going to start next year. You can carry a limb half way round the tree if you want, cutting on the right side all the time, especially young stock; but when they get large you want to commence on the other end. I don't know how far we are going with this opening up of the trees. I can see a possibility of having* an apple tree spread open so it might break down. We haven't reached it anywhere, but I think we will have to watch that a little. At the present time our system is to train and open up, keep them out, after you get the tree shaped in the form you want it. I am talking about young trees now. I haven't been a great believer, as most everybody knows, in reclaiming old trees, from the com- mercial standpoint. The profitable orchards in this state are. every one of them, trees planted within the last fifteen years. There are some of the old ones doing service yet, but we have got to work with the other fellows ; adopt the same system they have, take their plans as far as we can. In pruning there is but one bad way to prune anyway — that is, not to prune at all. Anyl other pruning will help a tree ; it is almost impossible not to help a tree by pruning it. Some ways are better than others ; that's all ; but any kind will help it; one kind a little faster than the other. If you have some plan, you are pretty sure to improve a tree if you have any idea of how a tree grows. That is pretty near what my ideal is ; and I would certainly follow it for a few years. A Member : You would leave the center of the tree en- tirely open ? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 123 Prof. Gulley : After 1 got it in form, yes. I want to g-et the tree shaped first ; get my limbs where I want them ; we don't know how much it is going to spread. The Greening and the King spread open very early and you can get a tree so far out it might break down of its own weight. We haven't done it yet, and you won't do it with the upright trees like the Baldwin. A Member: Do you cut back the tree every year? Prof. Gulley : For the first three or four years I do cut back. It will make more work for the first four or five vears. After you get it shaped you can let up on that. Vice- President Hale: Mr. E. E. Brown will now take up the matter of pruning the older trees. AIr. BRO\^ X : Prof. Gulley has asked me to say some- thing about ideals in the handling of the old trees. I think that Prof. Gulley and also Mr. Bassett, who spoke yesterday, had, in a way, quite an advantage over me, because any of you have ever handled trees know that you can take your young tree and right in the beginning, whether you prune or take off the buds, you have a chance to form what they speak of as the ideal ; but when you try to do anything with a tree forty, sixty or seventy years old, which has been allowed to go its own sweet way all of that time, you strike a very difierent prop- osition. Mr. Bassett alluded to this yesterday m speaking about children. You don't wait with your children until they are twenty-one years of age ; but there are a lot of us who have been trying to work with old trees that have had their own way for a good deal longer than twenty-one years. It, then, becomes a work of reformation. And anybody who has had any experience in the rescue work or reformation work in the human family knows it is something of a problem. It is verv much the same with old trees. I have two orchards, one a little over forty years old when I took hold of it : and the other nearly one hundred. The younger orchard, the forty-year-old one, as far as I can tell, never had anv consecutive care. There were quite a number ^^ 124 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of good varieties; the soil was good, but it had been neglected. There were several of the strong-growing varieties, like the Baldwin, Greening and the Northern Spy, which, as you ap- ple growers know, make lots of wood. And it was a good deal of a problem, as you can imagine, to do very much with these trees where they had been neglected, strong varieties on strong soil ; the water sprouts and suckers had grown up be- yond the center ; had grown up in all sorts of ways ; and there were many large wounds on the trees. The question was, how to get them into some sort of shape as a profitable tree. We cut out the dead wood and lowered those tops somewhat ; and, of course, at first we had to cut some of the tops off the trees. We cut off some strong-growing limbs — the tops of the trees were so thick — in order to get some shape to the trees. My ideal has been, if you can use the word ideal, in handling such old neglected trees, practically the same ideal as Prof. Gulley has spoken about in regard to the young trees. The only way to open up an old tree in the center is to head it down. We have taken off anywhere from ten to twenty feet in height, de- pending upon the location. That is another point that has come up — the question of your local conditions or environ- ment. We have been hampered very decidedly in one direc- tion, in that our orchard was set originall}- thirty feet apart. We did not know so much then as we do now ; we hadn't cul- tivated so much then. We would not think of setting an or- chard of such strong varieties on that same soil to-day, less than forty feet apart. So that as we commenced this recup- erative work it was only a very short time before they com- menced to fill up that space. So we have not been able in some cases to cut down our trees, dehorn them, as low as if we had more space. We had room enough to take some of the trees down twenty feet. One point that I would like to emphasize more than any other is that of making a clean, sharp cut, leaving no stub whatever. I believe that a mistaike is made in not doing this. A good many pruners will cut leaving even half an inch. That TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 125 is not right. Cut it right down close to the trunk. If you cut it here, and then properly protect it, it will commence to heal very promptly, even if six inches across. And the same way with the side limbs — make a clean cut, leaving no stub whatever. That point I would emphasize — make a clean cut. Then, of course, after you cut it off, you want to seal it with some dressing to keep out the water and germs — in the very same way that the surgeon in the human family does. It is not so much the stuff that we put on that is a healing rem- edy, as we used to think years ago ; it is more to keep out the germs of disease. We have used in the last few years a prep- aration, creosote preparation, that you see advertised in the papers, which appears to be in the nature of creosote ; one of those by-products. We have used it as the first application where we cut off these big limbs ; also where we fight the canker. Cut down to the live wood ; use this as an anti- septic ; it penetrates quickly ; it does not skin like paint, which will scale off. It is all right for a term of years and we think favorably of it so far. We shall possibly know more as we get older. Another thing- there is a difference of opinion on is, when are you going to paint these limbs. A good many people will tell you, and they have good reasons for it, too, to wait a little while ; paint them afterwards. We did that for a while, but of late years we take the paint pot into the tree with us. The difficulty with letting it go until later is that unless he is a very careful man he is liable to miss some, which, of course, would not happen if you paint your limb just right after you cut it. We have tried both ways, and have decided that it is best to take the paint along with you when you prune ; hang the paint can with a hook over the limb and go to work. I believe that is the best way in the long run. The ideal, of course, is to have your tree spread so that you can let the sunlight in. That has been spoken of before here. Mr. Bassett and Prof. Gulle\- have both spoken about it. The greatest blessing we have got is through the action of 126 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the sunshine. The Northern Spy is my favorite variety. We have got the soil on the Connecticut hills to grow it ; we have had very good success ; and I don't like to eat any other apple at this time of the year except the Northern Spy. It requires the best of culture, and the best of care ; we grow it, we think, pretty near perfection; it is the best if it is well grown ; but grown on the inside of one of these thick trees it has just about the color of a cucumiber and it is just about as good. I couldn't help thinking when Mr. Bassett was speaking yesterday about that hynm we used to sing, "Let the Blessed Sunshine In." It may not have been very classical music, but the sentiment was there; and it is a mighty good thing for those who are growing apple trees to let the blessed sunshine in. Another thing that we must keep in view when pruning is to prune enough to stimulate a new growth of wood. We have got to get the new vigorous growth to get the type of fruit that takes the first prize and brings the fancy prices. That is where you get the handsome fruit. I was discussing that subject with a leading prize winner and exhibitor two years ago and he made this statement — I thought it rather extreme at the time, but the more I think of it the more I think he hit the thing pretty close to the truth — 'T believe a tree to grow choice fruit ought to have its top renewed once in four years." That may possibly be a little extreme, but it is worth think- ing of. You want to prune enough to keep stimulating the new growth. After you get your old trees shaped up, and prune every year, as you should, yout will get to the point where you don't have to cut ofif any big limbs. I don't believe there is any- thing else that is worth while speaking of at this time. A Member : I would like to know what time of the year you do your heading back ? Mr. Brown : Any time in the winter when we can work in the trees. Where we have a lot of trees we have sometimes worked in December or January ; any time in the winter when TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 127 you can work there with comfort. I should want to get on the paint or something when you take off the big Hmbs ; be- cause there is a tendency to crack, and water and decay will get in. Of course, there is a dozen and one things that the farmer finds to do and if you wait, sometimes you will put it joft' until it is too late. A Member : Have you used coal tar ? Mr. Brown : No, I have not. Some advocate it and have good results, they tell me ; then you will hear others say that they have had some kinds of tar that kill the bark back. For that reason I haven't really dared to use it ; I used lead and oil and later creosote. As I said before, I am working on very old trees ; some of them over forty years old ; I haven't any young trees. I am at a disadvantage in that respect. Prof. Gulley can bring his little tree here in his hand, whereas it is very awkward to bring in a hundred-year-old tree. I have found that the creosote preparation has worked well. One trouble with tar in very cold weather is that the tar is stiff; then when it gets warm it is liable to run ; this creosote prepa- ration stays about the same ; not much variation with heat or cold; and the paint the same way. Personally I am not fa- voraWy disposed towards tar ; some people report good re- sults ; I don't see any advantage over paint or creosote. A Member: You paint the limbs over a second time? Mr. Brown : Yes ; on these big limbs we try to go over them every year. There is a tendency on a big tree for the paint to scale off, the same as on a building, even if you are careful. The question is asked if asphaltum wouldn't be a good thing. Possibly it might. I think paint would be fully as satisfactor}-. The preparation we use is that which you see advertised in the agricultural papers as "carbolineum." We used to order it direct, but our local hardware men keep it in stock now. You see it advertised in the local papers, seven- ty-five cents a gallon, somewhere along there. I think very highly of it, especially for treating canker spots. 128 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A Member: In succeeding years do you still use this carbolineum preparation ? Mr. Brown : That is an antiseptic preparation ; get that in; cleanse it out; make a thorough application. After that first year I should be inclined to favor the paint, although I think it would be perfectly satisfactory to use it again. We have generally painted it every second year. A Member : Have you ever had any trouble when you saw off limbs and then saw them off again? Mr. Brown : You will have this trouble sometimes in a very old tree. It is more likely to die back down here if you cut off a limb up here (Illustrating) ; die perhaps from sun scald.' The trouble in dehorning these old trees is something like this, it seems to me— when you go out in the spring after wear- ing your arms covered up during the winter, and roll up your sleeves, your skin is likely to be blistered. I think it is the same way with the tree. Take out that top and that bark on that tree; and it seems to be tender and just the same way as with your arm. You open it up and let the spring sunshine in and you are liable to sun-scald; you are liable to have it die back from there ; but it is not so likely to die back around the cut if you cut it as I have shown. Vice-President Hale : How would you prevent sun- scald? What is the matter with taking two or three years to cut back your orchard, to head it back? Mr. Brown : We do that ; cut out a part of it at a time. That will help some; it is less of a shock to a tree; if the tree is fifty years old it is quite a shock — an operation of that kind, and if you sort of divide it, cutting off a part this year and some more next year, of course, you are going to reduce that shock somewhat. Here is another thing. If you dehorn your tree, cut it down considerably, and you are feeding- your tree, giving it something to grow on, the tendency is to start out branches lower down. Suppose you want a limb here (Illustrating), if you can get a sucker or a water-sprout here you caa make -J o 0 B > o J < « H pq PS W PL, < H ta Q W •45 > < CD w W M !-> H ^ TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 129 the finest top in the world. There is one other way ; perhaps original with me-. We know that the sucker tends to grow up towards the sun. Fix in a little weight, anything to hold it down there in a horizontal position; get its position fixed and then it will remain there. A Member: What do you do with trees that have four branches ten feet up — cut three of them off? Mr. Brown : No ; you want some branches ten feet up. The Greening tends to drop down anyway; a lot of these other varieties tend to grow up. You have all that to contend with; you have to shape them; there is a kind of individuality that comes in; to prune intelligently you have got to know your variety and know the type of growth. There is another thing about pruning. If you are try- ing to induce this new growth, if you have a naturally strong, vigorous variety, you can prune it harder than the weak- growing variety. With the Wagener, for instance, which grows rather feebly, you might overdo the pruning. A Member: What are you going to do right along for a few years following — I mean in regard to shaping trees, for three, four or five years? Mr. Brown : In our case these trees had been neglected so long it was a good deal of a task. We cut out the dead wood; then we shaped up; got our frame work; opened it up enough to let the sun in. As the old trees commenced to grow, especially the vigorous ones, we didn't do much of any- thing after that through the body of the tree, but thinned out those small branches; gradually keep that tree thinned out; do it every year; I think pruning should be done every year. A Member : Don't you include the cutting back, too ? Mr. Brown : Of course, there will be a tendency for the upper part of the tree to run up in the center again; you have got to keep cutting back ; if you don't it is the nature of the plant to go up towards the center again. 130 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Vice-President Hale: Mr. Drew, do you agree with all this? Mr. Drew : I haven't been listening very closely, as I have been engaging in conversation with some of the other gentlemen here and have probably missed one or two things. I must say that some of the best young trees that I have ever grown at all have been trees that haven't had any pruning done to them at all. I made a special trip this last spring down in southern New Jersey to see an orchard in which a large block was planted without any cutting back. They cer- tainly were very fine. Then about two years ago, against my own judgment, I tried a block that way; setting out two hundred Mcintosh and treating them in the usual way ; then I tried fifty and didn't touch them at all. The last fifty are ahead to-day. I don't know that that would happen with oth- ers. As for the old trees, I think from what I heard Mr. Brown say, that I do not particularly differ with him. The only thing is you have to cut them down if you are going to handle them under modern conditions; you have got to thin out the tops ; and you have got to head in the limbs that grow laterally, to get a compact tree. I do believe, on the wound question, that coal tar is good; I have always used this coal tar product for wounds; and it is certainly the best thing T have ever used. Now, in regard to what Mr. Brown said about suckers, tying weights on them to keep them horizon- tal, when you get the fruit on they will come around of them- selves. As a general proposition I think that we do too much spring pruning and not enough summer pruning. Vice-President Hale: We will see that this discussion is brought up later. We must go on now to the next sub- ject, which is an address on "The Profitable Handling of Or- chard Soils," by Dr. J. G. Lipman of New Jersey. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 131 The Profitable Handling of Orchard Soils. By Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, Director New Jersey Experiment Station, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Climate and soil are by common consent all-important natural influences in determining the yield and quality in fruit. These natural influences are supplemented by treatment that we might term artificial. It is my task to discuss these sup- plemental influences this afternoon ; but before I attempt to discuss that, I should like to refer, in passing, to the wide range of fruit soils. All of us have read about the fruit re- gions of the United States, if we have not read about the fruit regions of Europe; and we recognize that there are remark- able differences as to climate and soil in these fruit regions. We need only to think, in passing, of the fruit soils of the far west, of the orchards grown with irrigation, or the great accumulation in these soils of soluble salts, of the presence in these soils of the great quantity of carbonate of lime. Then, as we think of the older soils of eastern United States, we re- member the limestone soil of West Virginia and we remem- ber the granite soils of New England, and the slate soils of New York and others. There is really a great range of soil conditions and a great variety of compositions; and that is naturally bound to influence the character of the fruit that we produce. Whether it is climate that is the predominating factor or whether it is soil, or whether it is both, may perhaps not al- ways be easy to decide, but we all know that the different fruit regions have their favorites. Certain localities have their favorite apples. To what extent the climate is the lead- ing factor in determining the variety and to what extent it is the soil we do not know ; but we do know that the soil is an important factor in determining not only the yield, but the quality. For instance, I notice in the list of questions given -on your program that the suggestion is made concerning the in- 132 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fluence of fertilization on flavor, or the study of methods for improving the flavor in apples. Now, we know, for instance, that in the grape growing sections of Europe the presence of large amounts of carbonate of lime is recognized as caus- ing a greater amount of sugar in the grape; that is, the soils that are well supplied with carbonate of lime will produce the sweeter grape. Now, flavor, of course, is influenced by the proportion of sugar in the fruit, it is influenced by the proportion of certain vegetable acids; it is influenced by the presence of various other compounds. It is certain enough that it is not the climate alone, or sunshine alone, but the soil itself, and the components that add very much to the flavor and quality of the fruit, entirely apart from determin- ing the adaptation of the certain varieties to the particular soil type. When we analyze the problem in greater detail, we recognize that the components in soils that influence flavor and quality and yield are numerous. It may be lime, it may be magnesia, it may be iron, or manganese; and, of course, it is likely to be nitrogen, and it is likely to be phosphoric acid ; or a combination of some of these. It is the task of the inves- tigator to determine just what is the proper composition to get the best quality and flavor. But when we pass to the relation of soil to fruit produc- tion and the treatment of soils in the growing of fruit, ap- ples, peaches, and other fruit, we recognize that there are four operations; four factors, perhaps I might say, that we must consider sooner or later. All of us must consider ques- tions of tillage; we must also consider questions of lime; we must also think more or less of cover crops; and when we grow large crops of fruit we must all think more or less of fertilizer. Therefore the broad question of handling fruit soils includes these four factors. It is my intention to consid- er briefly the application of these four factors to successful fruit growing. Tillage is an important factor, we recognize, because it helps to determine the supply of moisture for our fruit trees TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 133 and the supply of plant food. Sometimes we feel that if mois- ture is not the most important factor, that it is best not to till the soil too much; and hence the discussion of sod mulch; the discussion about the number of cultivations, the depth of cultivation, and the depth of plowing. He who would at- tempt to form a general rule as to tillage is bound to go wrong, because he could not form any general rule that would applyj to all soils. If nothing else, we should recognize that it is very difficult to furnish the best amount of available ni- trogen to the crop. If we have too much of it, we reduce the yield of fruit, and favor, undoubtedly, the production of wood. If we do not supply enough of it, we reduce the crop. The nitrogen problem in the fertilization of fruit is, to my mind, a most difficult problem ; the most difficult of the fer- tilizer problems. I shall discuss that question in a moment. But tillage has a very direct relation to the nitrogen problem. I can best illustrate that perhaps by an experience of ours in the growing of peaches. We have two experimental or- chards ; one of them located on poor gravelly soil in southern New Jersey; the other on a granitic soil in northern Jersey. The orchard in southern New Jersey, before we set out our peach trees, was very poor ; it would not grow corn or snap beans. We set out our trees ; laid out our plots. And it is a curious thing that this soil, which was so poor it would not grow anything without applications of nitrjDgen, is now making, I fear, too much wood growth with these trees on the plots where we used this potash and phosphoric acid. As time went on, we have found that we can increase the crops to a very large extent on those very same trees by judicious appli- cations of nitrogen. I will come back to that again : but we found that in this same orchard, located on a soil very poor in plant food, containing very little nitrogen on actual analy- sis, that by increased cultivation, by increased tilling of the .soil, we got a growth of wood beyond the amount that our fruit men considered desirable. Now, then, if the soil is heavy, it happens that the circu- lation of air is not rapid enough to give you a sufficient 134 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. amount of change, decomposition, decay, to supply the avail- able compounds of nitrogen. All of us know, who have con- sidered the soil, that the heavier land with cultivation has a more striking effect in stimulating the available supply of compounds of nitrogen. And when we discuss methods of tillage in the orchard, we must recognize that we are dealing to a certain extent not only with the moisture problem, but with the nitrogen problem; and that it is for the individual fruit grower to determine where the mean is to be found, as to best results for the moisture supply and the best results for the nitrogen supply; that where there is danger of sup- plying too much nitrogen and yet losing the proper supply of moisture, it is for him to reduce the number of cultiva- tions or to make his cultivations more shallow. There is something for the individual grower to consider and deter- mine for himself in his soil and treatment. Some men would consider the depth of the plowing. These operations are quite important, because they touch the water question and the nitrogen question ; and, of course, the supply of other forms of plant food. Ljime and Liming. These are receiving more attention now than they have been for the last five years ; partly be- cause our soils are more acid now than they were five years ago ; they grow more acid, tend to grow more acid as they grow older; and partly because new products have come on the market. Ground limestone and prepared limes with the farmer is very much a question as to what is the cheapest lime for him to buy. He is at sea because of these new materials that are advocated in farmers' meetings as to how much to apply and the time of application. I really think that we could all of us with profit give a little thought to the lime question, As I said a few moments ago, there is no doubt that lime, a proper supply of lime, in the soil has something to do with the flavor of the fruit; and there is no doubt, in our experiments, that it has a great deal to do with the circu- lation of plant food in the soil ; it has a great deal to do with the accumulation of nitrogen. If we are going to grow fruit TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 1 35 successfully for many years, we have got to consider lime for its own sake as influencing quality in fruit and yields, and also for the sake of cover crops ; and also for the sake of fertilizers which are to be used in our soils. It is not my intention to discuss the lime question in detail. Possibly some of you might feel that you want to ask questions and I should be glad to give you our experience ; but we can all of us remember that if we are using burned or slaked lime, that they are more thorough in their actions, more concen- trated in their composition, and we should use less than if we are using ground limestone, which is slower and less con- centrated; and that everything being equal the finer the ma- terial mechanically, the further it will go; and the coarser it is the larger the amount that will be needed to produce the same result. I should be pleased to discuss this question at greater length if you desire it later. The cover crop question is a question that is not as sim- ple as some people might imagine in fruit growing. We find, for Instance, in our peach orchards, that the work of crop harvesting in the late summer and fall makes it very difficult sometimes to grow a satisfactory cover crop; we find that the shadows cast by the trees, and the drying out of the soil caused by the trees, make it difficult to secure a good catch. Then we have the difficulty, too, in the growing of legumi- nous cover crops; the possibility of supplying -more nitrogen than is really needed for the best results in fruit production. One of our apple growers in New Jersey does not use any cover crops at all. He says, "When I use leguminous cover crops I know I increase the difficulties due to fungous diseas- es • and that I cannot afford. To have too much vegetable mat- ter I might get too much wood growth, and I have more diffi- culty from the various fungous troubles." That is his theory, and so far he has been able to prove his theory by his facts. But I believe, and I think that he will believe before long, that this practice is not the best practice. He uses only basic slag and ground limestone, unless the natural vegetation supplies the oro-anic matter. I think this year he had already felt the 136 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. shrinkage in yield due to lack of available nitrogen. That is a question that fruit growers perhaps will do well to con- sider more seriously than any other question. They should not be misled by the fact that because the natural weeds and vegetation will grow up in the summer for one or two years, that it will be sufficient for the maintenance of a proper amount of vegetable matter in the soil. Why do we want vegetable matter in the soil ? Our new points of view in the study of the soil have opened a broader horizon. Do we recognize that the soil is in a constant state of change all the time ; that recent investigations on soil bac- teria indicates that these micro-organisms are developing in the soil; that change is going on all the time; and that a soil that will produce fifty or sixty bushels of shelled corn to the acre may not have as much plant food in it as soil that will produce only thirty bushels of shelled corn to the acre. I know of soils in southern New Jersey that contain about one- tenth of a per cent of nitrogen and about a half per cent of potash and less than one-tenth per cent of phosphoric acid that produced seventy-five bushels of shelled corn to the acre; and T know of heavier soils in northern New Jersey, containing two or three times as much of these constituents that do not produce more than thirty or thirty-five or forty bushels of shelled corn to the acre. We have recognized that quantity of plant food in soils is not everything; and we are recogniz- ing that there is a machinery in the soil that is responsible for the circulation of the plant food ; that machinery must be in operation; the machinery must be to a certain extent a living machinery ; that around each soil particle there is at work an infinite volume of living organisms that are constantly caus- ing chemical change, chemical fermentation. The German farmers have recognized this. Before the days of bacteriol- ogy nobody knew there were such things. The Germans have been using this knowledge of soil fermentation in the practice; of killing the soil. We must have something for the bacteria to live on, for them to cause that fermentation and to give us the available compounds that the crop needs. And it is not TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 137 enough that we should simply have this vegetable matter that will ferment. We cannot expect that machinery in the soil to work fast enough to supply our crop, whatever it may be, trees or an annual crop ; we cannot expect it to continue to supply this crop with enough plant food for profitable produc- tion. The difference between a soil in a high state of cultiva- tion and a soil that is run down is not so much the amount of plant food, but the presence of the right sort of machinery, that will provide for the rapid enough circulation of plant food to supply the needs of the growing things from day to day ; and there is where the important function of cover crops and all other vegetable matter relates to fruit growing. You have a granitic soil containing two and one-half to three per cent potash; it may be seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand pounds per acre ; and yet, curiously enough, some of you may apply one hundred or one hundred and fifty pounds of sulphate of potash or muriate of potash, contain- ing only perhaps seventy-five or eighty pounds of actual pot- ash, and you note an increase in growth. Our heavier soils contain, many of them, two-tenths of a per cent of phosphoric acid. That means perhaps four or five or six thousand pounds per acre to a depth of nine or ten inches ; and yet we apply two hundred pounds of acid phosphate or one hundred and fifty pounds, containing fourteen to twenty-eight- pounds ac- tual phosphoric acid against that, and we see a marked in- crease in growth. We have one result when we have a mater- ial that does not get into solution fast enough, and another when we have something that can be immediately taken up. That explains to us the part that cover crops plowed under play in taking the place of the available fertilizers that we have to buy. If our soil contains one hundred thousand pounds of potash per acre, and more of it in the subsoil, there is really no reason why we should buy potash salts if we can make that potash available. That is the point that we have to determine. If we can make them available there is no ex- cuse for us in buying that particular kind of fertilizer. If 138 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. we cannot, then it is quite profitable and quite proper to buy it and use it. The same would apply to phosphoric acid and other materials that we might buy. We are beginning to re- alize that the influence exerted by small quantities of available fertilizers as seen in crop yields may be due, after all, to the direct influence of the crop itself. We are beginning to re- cognize in our work, particularly at the New Jersey Experi- ment Station, that one hundred pounds of acid phosphate, an insignificant quantity as compared with what there is in the soil of phosphoric acid, would act on the micro-organisms in the soil on the bacteria in the soil. In other words, they are really plant food for those invisible plants, the bacteria. And when we add something that would stimulate their activi- ties we get a stimulated production of available plant food out of that inert mass in the soil. But, after all, we cannot do that unless we have a sufficient quantity of vegetable mat- ter ; and therefore cover crops. The matter of nitrogen is a very important question for Ihe consideration of every fruit grower; and it is for the in- dividual fruit grower to determine what the use of cover crops should be in his orchard. I can illustrate that best per- haps by giving our practice. At New Brunswick we have an orchard of standard trees, two or three acres ; then an or- chard of dwarf apples, two or three acres more. We have studied among other things the influence of diflFerent cover crops on these trees. We find that where we grow legumin- ous cover crops year after year we are likely enough to force too much wood growth. That is, of course, a fact that is familiar to all of you. When we combine barley or oats with vetch we produce results that the tree would not produce. Why ? The fruit buds are formed, of course, in the pre- ceding season, in the late summer, and that is the time when we want to reduce the amount of available nitrogen in the soil. How do we do that? In two ways. By taking out the amount in the soil by means of our cover crop ; and by taking out the amount of moisture in the soil by means of a cover crop, so that the bacteria which produces the available nitro- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 139 gen compound out of the soil too much may be stopped for lack of sufficient quantities of moisture. In other words, it is our purpose to dry up the soil from the first of July or the middle of July until the end of the growing season, to discourage further wood growth and to encourage the for- mation of fruit buds ; by discouraging and reducing the sup- ply of moisture directly to the trees and the supply of mois- ture to the bacteria so as to reduce the amount of available nitrogen compound. But the same trees, when they begin to make their growth in the spring, are in need of more nitro- gen than the soil is supplying them if you have nothing but oats or barley as your cover crop. When we combine the vetch with the barley or oats, then this vetch will supply the nitrogen that may be needed by the trees during the growing season. We have really a two-fold purpose; your ordinary man growing corn or wheat and reducing the nitrogen at a certain time ; and increasing it at another time. We would accomplish the same purpose by using barley or oats, as the case may be, or wheat, and then in the following spring, small quantities of nitrate of soda. Then, some peach trees that would make too much growth if we hadn't something that would check that supply in the fall, would not produce fruit unless we supplied more nitrogen in the spring. We have had remarkable results with applications of fifty pounds of nitrate of soda per acre on peach plots. We haven't reached the limit, as our trees are six years old. It is possible that if we use 150 pounds per acre we might still increase the yield of peaches; but that must be applied in the spring during the growing season. We do not use it in the summer, be- cause it might check the growth of the wood. So, therefore, the use of cover crops is all-important in successful fruit growing; and it is a more difficult matter to deal with than most matters connected with fruit culture, as it is for the individual grower who knows his soil and knows his trees to determine how fast his trees are growing and whether he wants them to grow anv faster or not. 140 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. . As to commercial fertilizer one could, I suppose, use a general formula for apples or peaches. For instance, in our peach orchard and in our apple orchard we have been using possibly 150 pounds of muriate potash per acre; we have re- garded that as quite satisfactory. We used the muriate in- stead of the sulphate; we don't see any advantage in sul- phate over muriate, and it costs more. As regards basic slag^ some of it is sold cheaply enough in some conditions to com- pete with acid phosphate. Then again, the question as to the use of ground phosphoric rock has come up. The time is too limited to discuss that. Generally speaking, if we can supply a sufficient amount of phosphoric acid, which I regard as most essential for the heavier soils, the potash is likely to take care of itself, provided we have enough fermenting or- ganisms. It may be necessary to use some soluble potash to cure some of the conditions that are bound to arise as the soil grows older. The needs of the soil and the needs of the trees in a young orchard would not do for an older bearing orchard; and there again we have to adjust our applications to suit the needs of the crop; and yet, speaking generally, in our experience with pears, peaches and apples where we have put five to six hundred pounds per acre of a mixture that con- tains two to three hundred pounds of acid phosphate, one hun- dred pounds of muriate potash, to supply our nitrogen, either in cover crops or nitrate of soda or stable manure, as, the case may be, we can get the necessary wood growth and the necessary fruit yield, and maintain also a proper com- bination that would enable us to provide for proper mois- ture conditions. A Member: What makes the soil become sour? Dr. Lipman : Sourness is due to vegetable acid and lack of lime in the soil. There is nothing to neutralize these acids and the soil will become acid. A Member : Have you any experience in growing mulch around trees — say meadow grass? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 141 Dr. Lipman : No. To mulch the trees with saU grass, salt meadow grass, theoretically I should say would be bene- ficial where the material could be obtained cheaply enough, because you might then maintain the texture of the soil in better condition and retain the moisture in the soil. We sel- dom ha.ve too much of it. Where the expense it not too great it would help the growth. Remember again there that oc- casionally you might get too much available nitrogen. Mr. Curtis: Can not Dr. Lipman's time be extended for ten minutes to talk to us on raw rock phosphate? Dr. Lipman: Perhaps some of you who have read the older books on European agriculture may remember that one hundred or one hundred and twenty-five years ago the prac- tice of "boning" was very prevalent. Farmers in Scotland and England and Germany used as much as a ton of bone per acre. Now, it happened, as it has happened in this country, that in any system where the straw is retained on the farm, where more or less clover is grown, that the soil will become deficient in those constituents which supply the phosphoric acid. In other words, we have a tendency in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and in many of the eastern states, for the soil to become poor in available phosphoric acid; and there was a study made, or some investigation, as to what could be best used to supply this available phosphoric acid. Now, because of. that tenden- cy, someone one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and thirty years ago noted a rather surprisingly good result from the use of bone; but the results were not entirely satisfactory unless the bones were composted with decayed vegetable mat- ter. For all that, we had to use rather large quantities of bone meal to gain the results desired. They used a ton per acre ; sometimes more, and sometimes one boning would last for twenty years. And yet there was a feeling that somehow or other it was an expensive method and that the bone meal did not give results — the best results for several seasons. For this reason Leibig suggested in 1840, that the bone be dissolved with some strong acid. When that bone 142 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. was dissolved he obtained something that seemed to work better, and a few hundred pounds of that dissolved form did as well and more for the soil than a large application of the untreated bone. Then a few years later. Sir John Lawes, who was a founder of that well-known experimental station in Eng- land, suggested treating with acid in some way, not only that bene meal, but also rock. They found rock deposit; phos- phoric rock. He suggested that this be ground and treated with acid to make the phosphoric acid in it available. That was the beginning of our acid phosphate industry. He made a fortune out of it and others have made a fortune out of it. And they have helped the farmers to raise better crops. Why the treatment of bone? Why the dissolving of phosphoric lock? Furthermore — we have to give the European farmers a great deal of credit for their mistakes, and for accom- plishments through their mistakes. What is the practice in Europe? When you stop to inquire, what do the potato grow- ers in Germany or Belgium use as a fertilizer for their land? Now, they use phosphoric acid. They know they can raise large crops of potatoes under their intensive conditions. They can average two hundred or two hundred and fifty bushels per acre since they have used phosphoric acid. Do they use ba- sic slag? Of three million tons of basic slag used in Europe, do they use that on their' potatoes? No. They might use it en their meadows or in their fruit orchards. They don't use it ever on vegetables. Why? They will buy phosphoric rock in Florida and will dissolve it in acid and apply that ; because they know that for potatoes they get the results from phos- phoric acid ; the basic slag is not rapid enough. Furthermore, what is the character of the phosphoric acid in our soils? Largely phosphate of lime. Why, we have to use small appli- cations of a few hundred pounds against several thousand al- ready in the soil because that is more available. Dr. Hopkins and I are very good friends, but we can'f agree on all things. He is a good farmer, but this phosphoric rock business I don't agree with him on. It has done a lot of TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 143 harm in our State and has done a lot of harm in other States. I think, since you asked me to express my opinion, I ought to tell you that our brethren in Europe, the farmers, are a hundred years ahead of us in the finer points. They have tried it all out; and the mere dismissal of the subject by Dr. Hopkins saying that their conditions are different from ours does not answer the question. In those countries where they raise thirty-five bushels of wheat per acre against our fifteen, and other things in like proportion, we ought to give them credit for testing these things out ; and they would certainly use phosphoric rock if they could get the results. Now, then, gentlemen, I am willing to tell you that phos- phoric rock, ground phosphoric rock, will give you excellent re- sults— and untreated bone will give you excellent results — in sour, peaty soil ; but in sour, peaty soil you would not grow clover, or vetch, or legumes. You can grow crops in acid soil with bone meal alone or with ground phosphoric rock alone; but this, you know, would not supply the nitrogen. You have got to lime your soil. When you do that, your phosphoric rock does not become available ; it ceases to be available. In Tennessee the question is a live one, because they have those deposits of phosphoric rock. The Tennessee Station is doing a great deal of work on that. I know that, because I was down there as a member of the Soil Committee ; and T have studied their results. Phosphoric rock does not show re- sults. The Ohio Station tested it out. Ask Dr. Thorne what he thinks about this phosphoric rock. Dr. Hopkins will justify the use of it on another basis — from the standpoint of national economy. He would say, "here you can get a ton of phosphoric rock for eight or ten dollars, delivered in Illinois, where you will have to pay four- teen dollars for acid phosphate ; phosphoric rock contains twenty-eight to thirty per cent and the acid less than half of that. You can get twice as much if you buy floats." He for- gets in presenting this argument that we have no right to lock up a ton in the soil when half a ton will do just as well. 144 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. lie might argue the same way in considering business, and say, "Here is an elastic medium; here is a community where the means of, transportation are so good that one dollar will circulate fast enough to do the work of two in another com- munity, where the means of transportation are not as ade- quate." I am inclined to think that from the standpoint of national economy that we ought not to use a certain amount of available plant food where less will do the work more quick- ly; and that will not deprive those who come after us of these deposits of phosphoric rock. From the standpoint of national economy such use of it as he would argue, assum- ing that the phosphoric rock would give results, which it doesn't, is not justifiable. Furthermore, acid phosphate contains considerable quanti- ties of gypsum. Some of the older members of this gather- ing have perhaps known or heard of the experiments in the practical use of land plaster in the olden times. Curiously enough, this plaster has been revived and some tests have been made, with rather good results. I gather it is as a stim- ulus of the bacteriological elements in the soil. Basic slag and phosphoric rock do not contain land plaster. If we are going to discuss this question fairly y^e should certainly con- sider the question of land plaster. And furthermore, I pointed out to you that I believe that tilings we know about our fertilizers are not so important as connected directly with the crop as the stimulation of your machinery in the soil, which may affect the plant food. Our experiments show that the use of very small quantities will r>timulate the activities in the soil and give a better machinery for the transformation into available plant food. I believe that expresses my views on ground phosphoric took. Plate V. Ideals in Pruning — Central Leader Type of Tree, By courtesy jf Connecticut Farme The "Dynamite Man" and His Outfit Clearing Stumi- Land for Orchard Planting. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 145 President Barnes: Following Dr. Lipman's address we will have a talk on "Connecticut Soil Conditions," by Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director, Connecticut Agricultural Experi- ment Station. Connecticut Soil Conditions. By Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director Connecticut Experiment Stations. There is little that need be said after Dr. Lipman has finished. He comes from a State perhaps not quite as puz- 7:ling in soil problems as our own. The Connecticut River, which never really knew its mind before Adam's fall, and the repeated invasions of Arctic ice and the glaciers, both on their travels, and after they had laid themselves down to die, together with all the lesser forces of geologic ages, have mixed and sorted clays and silt and sand and stones until a soil survey map of Connecticut would be a checker board pattern with one or more squares to every farm. Nevertheless, New Jersey has soils as hungry and thirsty and as deficient in humus as our own, and Dr. Lipman and his associates, working with the farmers of that State, have done most fruitful work in making those soils productive. We are a little skeptical of methods of tillage and of fer- tilization which have proved successful far away, on very dif- ferent types of soil, comparatively rich in humus, and where the situation as to labor, transportation and market demands is quite unlike our own. But New Jersey is our neighbor. The economic situation is quite alike in both States and a considerable area of New Jersey, as I understand it, like much of the land with which we have to deal. These facts make Dr. Lipman's talk espe- cially valuable to us, because it is directly applicable to Con- necticut. 146 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The needs of our Connecticut agriculturists are many. Two of them seem to me to stand out before all the others in immediate importance. One is a better knowledge of business methods and prac- tice. Farming is no longer, as it was a century ago, merely the direct supply of the food of the family. To-day it is a business. Its success depends, on ability to trade successfully, and the farmer to-day must know the rules of the game. He must keep accounts intelligently to know whether he is gain- ing or losing; he must know business methods, and he must have business and banking facilities much better than he has at present. Is not this a direction in which business interests, which are anxious to increase the food production of our State, might be of great help? The other special need of our farming, as I see it, is a better knowledge of the soil — of the part it plays in crop pro- duction and the ways of handling it so as to make it most ef- fective. It has been hard to get up any enthusiasm about the soil . It is ours already. There are no bargains in it, except for building lots. To be sure, it gives crops a chance to stand on end; it holds the fertilizers and manures which make our crops, and the rain, when there is any. To be sure, people talk of bacteria in the soil, but who ever saw them? They make no sign. It takes some writing more authoritative than a Station bulletin to induce faith in that which is unseen. Faith in woodchucks, moles and cut- worms is justified, but bacteria, ghosts and fairies are different. Of course, we have got beyond all this now. We know that the soil is not this unamiable sulky thing; that it is not just ground rock, lifeless and inert, but that it is alive all the year round and that its life is necessary to all the life on it and above it; and we are learning that to en- courage and tend this hidden life within the soil is as neces- sary as to care for that above it. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 147 We have been great users of commercial fertilizers and still continue to use them in increasing amount and with increasing profit. But some of us, I am sure, have used them as a patent medicine meant to cure the bad effects of neglect, of drainage, tillage, good seed, etc. Just so medicine began with the study of drugs and their use in disease. There is scarcely a metal known whose compounds have not been tried on willing or unwilling victims for the cure of their ailments. Bait now medical practice, not wholly discarding drugs, no longer chiefly relies on them, but rather on putting the pa- tient into healthful surroundings and a cheerful spirit and giving his body a chance to throw off disease. In like manner we have got to study — the Stations must study — the hygiene of our soils, the sanitation of our crops. We must put our crops, whether apple trees or onions, as we try to put our bodies, into healthful surroundings and a cheerful spirit, not slavishly following a prescribed routine of fertilization, but watching symptoms and suiting our treat- ment as to tillage and fertilizing to the needs of the crop as we see them. The more I see of crops in this State, the more cer- tain I feel that the water supply of the soil, or the lack of water, determines and limits the size of our crops, as a rule, rather than any lack of sunlight or plant food. Connecticut for the last ten years has been a semi-arid region in summer. Every pound of dry matter in our crops may take three hundred pounds or more of water to produce it, the rainfall cf the growing season does not supply this, and the soil must be considered as a pond or reservoir of fall and spring rains to be protected, as far as may be, from wasteful evapora- tion and also from undue leakage at the bottom. That, it seems to me, is the reason in a nutshell for proper tillage and green manuring. It is in the study of soil conditions and soil sanitation that most profitable experimental work can be done at pres- ent. T hope and intend that both our own Stations may 'be able, in co-operation and in addition to the work we are now 148 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. doing, to immediately work in this field. The study of the bacterial and other microbe life of the soil, with immediate reference to the work which they do in reducing our green manures to humus and in preparing the plant food in both for the crops, is what I want to get at. And in the field and laboratory determine what are our most profitable cover crops, how to raise them and what we may expect from them. Such work we have begun in a small way on our orchard in Mount Carmel. It is too early to make even a report of progress, but to illustrate what I propose : On one plot we sowed buckwheat about July fifteenth, which, I was told, was a watery thing, worthless as green ma- nure. But it contained, just before the first frost, which came late, three thousand four hundred and sixty-seven pounds of dry organic matter per acre, or as much as are in five and three-quarters tons of stable manure. That came largely from the air. The sixty-six pounds of nitrogen, thirty of phosphoric acid, and eighty-seven of potash came from the soil, but it goes back into the tilth. On another plot we sowed barley and vetch. The bar- ley alone left on the soil gave three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four pounds of dry organic matter as much as is in six and three-tenths tons of manure, a little more than the buckwheat, with seventy-three pounds of nitrogen, twen- ty-two of phosphoric acid, and one hundred and one of potash. It lies there, and with it a good stand of vetch, to be exam- ined before the spring plowing. 1 do not mean that the organic matter of these crops is as immediately valuable as that of stable manure, but it is a great addition to that light soil, and next summer will do a great deal in holding soil moisture and controlling soil heat. The plots of soy-beans and cow-peas were a partial fail- ure. In our experience we have to plant soy-beans two or three vears in succession before the land gets well inoculated Artificial inoculation has not worked the first year. Cow-peas do well with us from the start. Our failure this year with cow-peas was because of late planting. In a young orchard TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 149 they should go in in early June, and if drilled, cultivation can go on until the traditional time for stopping it. I would like this year to arrange with some of our or- chardists and other farmers to measure and determine just how much vegetable matter their cover crops contain, as a demonstration of their value. The Station, I feel, has done sound work for the orchard- ists in preventing, by inspection, the importation of foreign fruit pests, in controlling the San Jose scale, in destroying the gypsy moth infections, in the study of the diseases of fruit trees and their remedies, and in the control of the qual- ity of fertilizers. The work of the Agricultural college and of the Storrs Station has also yielded most valuable results. All three in- stitutions, I feel justified in saying, are working in co-opera- tion and wish to render every service possible to the fruit growers of Connecticut. For the Stations I want to ask your patience and your support. Their work is not showy ; it is largely done behind closed doors. It does not produce immediate and striking results. But most of our solid gain in agricultural methods must come from a better grasp of the underlying principles of animal and vegetable nutrition and maintenance, which it is the problem of the Station to unearth and make clear. Discussion. A Member : What time of the season do you sow bar- ley and vetch? Dr. Jenkins : About at the same time ; about the fif- teenth of July. Prof. Gulley: You have used two kinds of lime, the slaked and the other? Dr. Jenkins: Why, yes. I can only give you my own opinion on it. If I had a very acid land which I wanted quickly to correct, why, I would use slaked lime in preference to ground limestone, because it is more quickly soluble, and 150 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. more quickly reduces and removes the acid. If I had land which was only very moderately acid and where I wanted es- pecially to increase the nitrogen in the soil, I would be in- clined to use ground limestone, if I could get it at a price enough cheaper than the slaked lime. I do not under any con- ditions use quick-lime or stone lime. If I could get my ground limestone as quickly and as cheaply as slaked lime I should use it on any soil except that which was very acid. If I may express myself with regard to this doctrine of lime about the size of a buckwheat seed, I think that is all foolishness. It stands to reason that the finer a thing is, the quicker it will be available in the soil. We have seen limestone remain almost unchanged in the soil from the time of the Indians. It ought to be extremely fine. Prof. Hopkins has been quoted as saying that it doesn't make any difference if the limestone was only ground to the size of a buckwheat ; but I have also seen the statement that a limestone that will pass a twenty-mesh sieve is all right, because the most considerable part of that will be ver\' fine. That is true for a limestone which crushes easily, but if you take a hard limestone, you won't have any great amount of it very fine. There are other limestones in western Indiana that are so brittle and fragile that you can almost crush them with your fingers. With those it would be different. A lot of them would pass a two hundred mesh. The limestone ground at Danbury, Connecticut, is called forty mesh ; some sixty or seventy per cent is finer than one hundred. Now, I may say that we have just gone over the limes and limestone which are offered for sale in Connecticut ; and we hope to be able next week to present our results in the Connecticut Farmer. We want to bear in mind, I think, that there is a firm putting in a limestone plant in Massachusetts, which it is confidently expected will be able to deliver limestone ground fine, for a dollar and a 'half a ton; considerably cheap- er than at present. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 151 Shell lime marl is excellent. As far as I have been able to learn, its price is too high in comparison, with the freight rate added — too high in comparison, with ground limestone or slaked lime for us to use it in Connecticut. A ^Member : At the same price would it be proper to use it? Dr. Jenkins: If you could get it at the same price, de- livered, I think I should use the marl, because it is a very soft, thin material. A Member : It is offered at the same price. Dr. Jenkins: The company offers it at the same price but you must figure your freight. I never have been able to see any offer of marl which could be laid down here in central Connecticut for the price of ground limestone. A Member : Do you use the lime in the fall or spring ? Dr. Jenkins: Whenever you can get it on the land most conveniently. It does not waste rapidly. If I used slaked lime I would have it thoroughly mixed with the soil for a couple of weeks before setting or planting, if possible. It can still be put on in the fall. An announcement was made by the Membership Commit- tee that the registration of members had been very large both days of the meeting. All present were urged to avail them- selves of the opportunity of becoming members of the Socie- ty. There had not been a dull moment at the membership desk since the convention opened. As the hour for the noon recess had arrived, at 12:30 the meeting adjourned until the afternoon session. 152 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. AFTERNOON SESSION. The Society came together for the last session of the meeting at 1 :40 P. M. Vice-President Hale in the chair. Vice-President Hale: There are a number of ques- tions on the list that have not been called for. H any of you wish any of those discussed I wish you would call for them now. I have a question here that has been handed in which I will read : "Most peach orchards bore lightly last year, so what shall we do to retard wood growth if this season's crop is a failure? Will a cover crop planted ear- lier tend to mature the fruit buds sooner and make them more liable to start earlier, hence injury another year?" Mr. Henry : Why, I should cut out the fertilizer. That would be one way of doing it; stop fertilizing so much ; and perhaps quit cultivation earlier. I don't know anything else he could do. I don't think a cover crop plant- ed earlier would make any difference. Question 23. "Is there an opportunity for profit in grape culture in this State?" Vice-President Hale: I am not familiar with any of the people here who have been particularly successful with grapes. If there are any such, I wish you would tell us something about it. To my knowledge there have been several instances of foreigners who have come in and grown grapes successfully. Of course, they have grown them en- tirely for making wine for their own consumption. There is only one concern that I know of that has started to make wine commercially. -• Prof. Stevens: I would like to say in regard to that question that we have over in Tolland County at least one grower, J. R. Houston & Son, who is planting grapes. They are increasing their plantings all the time. I believe there is a good future for grape culture in Connecticut ; and there is a great deal of land that is better for grapes than for peaches or other fruits, I think. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 153 Vice-President' Hale: Another concern near Glaston- bury has started .where they hope ultimately to have a hun- dred acres or more. They have twenty-five or thirty already planted more in process all the time. Does Mr. Hous- ton sell his grapes or use them for wine? Mr. Stevens : Houston's are all marketed. Vice-President Hale: It is generally believed that there is little money in it in this State. Question 24. "Is planting apple orchards with peach- es, plums or other fruits as fillers advisable?" Vice-President Hale: I would say that the majority of the larger growers in the State have done so, and are con- tinuing to do so, which would seem to be more or less a sat- isfactory answer to this question. If such men as Mr. Henry and others, after having made a careful study, continue to do that where the soil conditions are favorable, I would think we would consider it advisable to do so. If there is any crit- icism we want to hear it. Mr. Fuller: What are you going to do in regard to the deer? We had a gentleman here from Massachusetts, who said they had an open season of two months. It is get- ting to be a very serious thing in the southeast part of the State. We are overrun with deer in New London County and in the town of Lyme they are doing a great deal of damage; and many are stopping planting orcTiards on ac- count of the deer. One man planted a large orchard last 3-ear and they nearly stripped his whole orchard. I wish there might be something done which would stop this, or get proper damage from the State. They don't seem to recog- nize that people have lost so much by their depredations. A Member : Can you prove whether the deer did the damage ? Vice-President Hale : There is hardly any doubt but what we can identify the deer's work. The deer's tracks and the steer's tracks are very dififerent, and their work is different. 1 think this is somethinc: which should be 154 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. given considerable thought by the Society ; and if I mistake not, the matter will be brought up later by a member who is not now present. There has been a bill introduced in the leg- islature making an open season for deer for one week in the latter part of November. Mr. Savage: How about the human family in the State of Connecticut? It is a very populous State. Suppose we had an open season, what would be the result? It would seem that it would be much better for us to have an open sea- son the year around ; and if we want to protect the deer in the State, fence in one of our forest preserves ; and then let the State raise all the deer it wants to. Vice-President Hale : In the bill that was introduced it was specifically stated that the use of shot gims only would be permitted. I myself would advocate the use of low-pow- ered rifles instead of the shot gun. Mr. Savage: If you have an open season with shot guns you will simply mutilate a lot of innocent creatures. It would be a good object lesson for the Humane Society ta get out and see the result of such action on the part of the State. The only reasonable and sound action for the State to take is to put the deer on a reservation and let it be pro- tected and cared for by the State, not at the expense of the fruit growers. A Member : Who is going to travel over our farms and shoot the deer with a small-powered rifle that will carry a long distance, killing the cattle. Let us have all of that side of it, too. Vice-President Hale: They certainly do a great deal of damage. Mr Savage: Up in Tolland County the conditions are perhaps diflferent from what they are in the orchards around here. You see it at Wells' orchard in Union. Their claim for damage this year was something like fifteen hundred dollars and they have not been able to get a satisfactory adjustment of that damage. You know the conditions there; it is a wild TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 155 country. There is a good chance to do some mighty fine fruit growing on some of those hill farms, and where we have to 'contend with the deer it is mighty discouraging. Vice-President Hale: I think with the clause in the present law that the bona fide employee of the owner of the land could shoot deer at any time when found doing damage, would work out very nicely as it is, if some of the game in- spectors were not inclined to bluff somebody who had shot a deer. I am not in favor of protecting him and by and by having an open season for the sportsmen to come out and slaughter them. A Member : I hear the question of the deer discussed ; and I have been for years quite interested in regard to deer. My experience has been that the deer are a nuisance; and I really think it it too bad that the deer are allowed to go over the country and destroy the crops and property of hard- working men. For instance, last summer, a man had a gar- den ; it was not so much the value of the garden ; but don't you know the heart is set upon the garden ; when people put out a garden it is not so much for the value as it is for the delight in the garden. And when you let the deer come along, that they cannot stop, and they tramp, over it and eat it all up it is a great trouble and annoyance. I tell you, my friends, it is a shame ; it is an insult to allow these deer to go roaming over the country and destroy people's property. Now then, you would say, my friends, that a man would be crazy to turn out seven calves into his garden ; but it is a very frequent oc- currence to see seven deer within sight of my house in the mornings. It has become a nuisance and I wish thev would pass a law that every man that saw one might shoot him. Vice-President Hale: The next number on our pro- gram is a paper on "Good seed and other factors in success- ful market gardening," by Dr. W. W. Tracy, U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. 156 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The Importance of Pure Strains of Seed in Vegetable Growing. By Dr. W. W. Tracy, Washington, D. C. Mr. President and Gentlemen of this Society: It is forty-nine years ago this month since I left Massachusetts, living within twenty miles of Boston, and went to Michigan, in order to attend an agricultural college. It was at that time the College of Michigan ; and it was the only one in active operation. There had been one down in Maryland ; I had been down and I didn't care to go back there just then. And there was one in Pennsylvania under organization, but it did not at that time have an actual existence. So when I wanted to get an agricultural education my only chance was to leave Massachusetts and go to Michigan. To-day there is not a state in the Union whick has not an agricultural college with a larger corps of teachers than there was at Lansing when I went there. Six years later than that I went from Lansing out to Grand Rapids to attend a meeting called to organize the Michigan State Horticultural Society. The meeting was to be held in a banker's office. I went in, by and by a Mr. Fuller came in; and later, Charles Garfield's father and I think three other people came in ; and we started to organize the Michigan State Horticultural Society. I mention this to show you what a change has come about in the last forty years, and how much you ought to expect to-day with your present organizations and the opportunities which are before you. The basic purpose of all cultivation of the soil is control of the character of the vegetative growth rather than a more increase of its volume. At a cost of labor which it is hard for us to fully appreciate, our fathers cleared away the for- ests, that the vitalizing energy of the sun and soil might be directed to the production of the particular kind of plant, and in just the proportions they thought would be most useful. It TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 157 is doubtful if there are more individual plants or those of better development' growing within ten miles of Hartford to- day than there were three hundred years ago, but there has been a gain, and our orchards and fields make possible for us an incomparably broader, fuller — yes, better life, than was possible for our ancestors. In the case of your orchards and vineyards you direct the productive energy of sun and soil to the growth, not only of fruit, but to the particular sort of fruit, which you think would be most satisfactory. With perennial plants like those of the apple and strawberry, we secure uniformity as to the character of the crop by multiplying the vegetative parts of plants of proven desirable character, and thus secure a large culture of what is in reality but a single plant designated by a varietal name that always stands for any vegetative part of that particular seedling, and a definite and unchanging varie- tal character. To accomplish this uniformity of product we do not hesitate to expend no inconsiderable amount of labor to multiply by grafting, by cutting and by runners the vege- tative parts of the desirable plant, and to set them by them- selves in orchard or plantation. A ten-acre orchard of heal- thy and productive apple trees, each bearing fruit of differ- ent form and color, though all of good market quality, would not be very valuable. The fruit of a strawberry plantation which was a mixture of plants of one hundred, or even twen- ty, of the very best sort, of different size, shape, color and time of ripening would hardly be worth gathering. It is true that the volume and character of the market product of different plantings of the same sort may vary be- cause of differing climatic and soil conditions. A Grimes Golden apple grown on your farm may be very different from those grown by your neighbor, or your strawberries ripen earlier and be sweeter than his though his bed was set from yours, but such differences come through cultural conditions, and were we to interchange conditions we would interchange the character of the fruit and you would not claim that such 158 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ' differences showed that varietal character of an apple tree or strawberry plant was of no importance. In the case of grains and what are generally classed as farm crops which are propagated by seed, while there may be va- rietal differences which adapt sorts to different conditions of soil and climate, or call for slightly different cultural meth- ods, in order to secure the best results, yet with possibly a few exceptions such differences are not of such character or so marked that a mixture of sorts in the same culture affects the cost of growing and harvesting or the value of the mar- ket product. With garden vegetables, however, variation as to habit of growth, time of maturity, appearance and quality of mar- ket product, are much greater than in grains, or even in fruits, and have a much greater effect upon the market val- ues. In some cases different varieties of the same species require for their best development double the space, and do not reach edible maturity nearly as quickly as others, and a lot of vegetables which are even in size and uniform in vari- etal character will be more attractive and bring a higher price than one made up of many different sorts, even if the later lot are really of better quality. The addition of a few extra large or brilliantly-colored fruit will lessen rather than increase the salable value of a package of tomatoes. Seed of the Champion of England and American Wonder peas are so alike than even an expert cannot be certain as to which va- riety most of the individual peas in a mixed lot of seed really are, yet the two sorts differ so much in habit of growth and time of maturity that if mixed and planted together, the crop of one or the other sort would be a total loss. As most veg- etables are annuals, at least as far as crop is concerned, it is not generally practical to make plantations of vegetative parts of a single plant, the varietal character of whose market pro- duct, under the same cultural conditions, is unchangeable. Any crop of vegetables is made up of innumerable individu- als, each more or less different from every other, and the TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 159 problem of uniformity of product is not, as in fruits, one of multiplying vegetative parts of an individual of predetermined character, but of multiplying individuals which shall be as like as possible in the character of their market product. In case of most fruits a varietal name stands for a certain immu- table combination of the same varietal tendencies as developed in a single plant. In the case of vegetables grown from seed it stands for a mutable conception and a combination of dif- ferent varietal tendencies as developed in innumerable plants • — each the product of an individual seed, which is simply a minute individual plant packed for transportation. We will leave to wiser heads the discussion of the basic cause of plant variation why no two plants, or even no two leaves, of the same plant are precisely alike, and will consider the fact as an element in our problem of how to secure seed, every use of which will develop into plants of the sort de- sired. First, the varietal character of every plant with all its limitations and potentialities of development was unalter- ably fixed in the seed from which it grew before that seed left the parent plant, carrying within itself a balanced sum of varient tendencies inherited in different relative strength from each of its ancestors of an unknown number of genera- tions. We can predict the varietal character of the plant any seed will develop into, only in proportion to the correct- ness of our knowledge of what these tendencies are and the shrewdness of our guess as to their relative strength, and we have to depend upon a mere guess for even the most per- fect knowledge of the g^eneral working of laws does not ena- ble us to predict with certainty the exact proportionate strength of different inheritances and the resultant character of each seed, for every seed has an individual character and potentiality of development which may not be the same as other seeds from the same plant, or even from the same fruit. I once had an exceptionally fine plant of a certain variety of tomato — I rooted cuttings of this plant until I had enough to set nearlv an acre, which was located where there was little l6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. probability of any of the flowers being- fertilized from other flowers. Although the fruit produced was comparatively small, it was the most uniform lot I ever saw, each one being very like every other. I saved a lot of seed, supposing it would be of exceptional value. I was disappointed, for plants grown from it showed much g-reater variation than those from seed of the variety grown in the ordinary way. Why? Be- cause in my original plant I had a very fortunate combination of the proportionate influences of each of many ancestors, which resulted in an exceptionally fine plant, while the seeds of that superlative plant made up of the same inherited in- fluences but in diflfering proportionate strengths gave me vary- ing results. Although by no means a perfect illustration, a suggestive one of the way the character of two plants made up of the same inherited tendencies but in different propor- tionate strength may vary, can be drawn from the digits — 1654, which in this relative position always stands for sixteen hundred and fifty-four, a number which cannot be expressed by the same digits arranged in any other order, or if we take away or add a single digit, even if it be the one. Variation in all plants is so often the result of conditions of soil and climate and so largely a matter of degree that it is easy for one to find instances where numbers seem to sub- stantiate any claim of variation that may be made, but I will give another illustration from experience of the effect of a for- tunate combination of inherited tendencies. Some years ago there was developed a strain of a certain variety of watermelon in which an invisible, but very desira- ble, quality was correlated with one which was easily seen. A block of about one-half acre was planted with this stock and about three-fourths of all the fruit produced showed the peculiarity. Seeds from the most perfect fruits of about for- ty of the plants in which this was best developed were saved separately and numbered in the order of the degree they showed the variation, although it was so well developed in all of these selected melons that when they were mixed those TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. i6l who had made and numbered the selection were unable to re- place the fruits in the same order as before. The seed from each melon was saved separately and correspondingly num- bered and about one-fourth of each lot of seed was planted and lalbeled with the number given the fruit. The general uniformity of the fruit was noticeable, and most of the lots showed more or less of the desired peculiarity, but in only three of the lots, those numbered 3, 7 and 11, was it well de- veloped in every fruit. All the others contained more or less fruits in which it was absent or imperfectly developed, and, strange to say, the lots from the fruit which in our first year's selection had been marked number 1 and number 5 in order of merit contained the greatest number of fruits in which the desired quality was lacking. The next season the balance of the seed from the fruit which had been marked number 11 was planted where there was little liability of the blossoms being crossed from other melons and a critical selection made of the fruits which not only had this peculiarity well developed, but which were as uniform as possible as to other desirable qualities, and their seed product saved for stock. The next year this seed was used to plant a forty-acre field, and when this was in full fruit, myself and a bright and observant young man spent over two hours hunting in vain through it for a single fruit in which the peculiarity upon which our original selection was largely based was not well developed. It is but fair to say, however, that when the time came to gather and seed the fruit, twenty of them were rejected because they did not show this variation. Further experience with this stock shows the necessity of continued selection. Some nine years later I visited three large fields which were planted with seed which was only the fifth generation from that nearly perfect stock, and in not more than half of the fruits was the desired vari- ation noticeable. The growers had thought that the seed from the original field was so perfect that it needed no attention, and it had gone the way of all neglected things. l62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The characteristic upon the more or less perfect devel- opment of which the selection was made was of itself of ab- solutely no value, but it was very generally correlated with in- visible qualities of the greatest value. Very often one has to rely upon such correlations in making his selections. This calls for fullest acquaintance with varietal differences and their correlations. Thus the shape of the leaves of a strap- leaved turnip or the shade of color in squash which might or might not be of importance of themselves may through cor- relation be the visible indication of invisible qualities which do most materially affect values. We think there is no line of horticultural work which will have more satisfactory or profitable" returns than this de- veloping and breeding of strains of valuable seed adapted to local conditions of soil and climate, and more perfectly satisfying local requirements. First, I want to refer to a con- dition not very generally recognized, and still less understood, and that is the adjustment of plants to local conditions, which adjustment, in some denera at least, is carried in the seed. The Office of Horticultural Investigations of the Department of Agriculture have carried on some experiments which make this seem evident. Starting with a certain strain of two va- rieties of sweet corn — that were grown for five generations in different locations — each year seed grown in all the loca- tions was selected to a common type, the local-grown seed planted in comparison with seed of other lots from original stock grown elsewhere, and in nearly every case, of over twenty-five different plantings, the local-grown seeds gave larger and better yields. Trials that had been made by oth- ers gave similar results with certain plants, but not with others, but they all tend to show the general superiority of seed grown under the same environment as that of the crop desired. How, then, can we secure seed of the most uniform possible varietal character and which is best adapted to our own conditions? TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 163 The first step is to form a very clear and definite concep- tion of the exact varietal form we desire. I think it is essen- tial, or at least very desirable, that this be written out and be frequently referred to in order to avoid the indefiniteness and change in the type selected to, that is the cause of much of the variability now so common. It is a practical impossi- bility to write out a description which will enable the reader to recognize with certainty the exact type of plant the writer had in mind, but I also know by experience that the attempt to write such a description will always sharpen the writer's conception of the exact form he is after and be of great as- sistance to him in holding to that exact model from year to year, as it is essential that he should do in order to establish a strain of seed which will be of the exact character desired. The second step is to select a score or more plants, each of which come as near the exact ideal of the sort as possible, avoiding the temptation to include even superlative plants that differ in any way from the ideal of the variety. We should save the seed of each plant separately, even where two or more of them are so near alike as to be indistinguishable. The third step is to make growing tests of samples of each of these lots of seed — planting a liberal quantity of each lot under uniform condition of soil and culture. As the plants develop they should be carefully studied, and the lot in which each and every plant is the most like our ideal of the sort should be selected, resisting the temptation to take a lot which may contain superlative plants of the sort, but also some which are inferior, or which though superior are of a different varietal type from that aimed at. In order to guard against the possibility of a hidden va- riant in our select plant and the many mishaps to which the seed grown is always liable, it is well to select one or more plants as substitutes for our first selection. It is rarely worth while to save seed of this trial planting, even that of our se- lected plants, at least not as a basis for stock seed. l64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The fourth step is to plant the reserved seed of the plant, which our trial has proved to be the best, and also when prac- tical isolated plots with the substitute lot where the plants will not be liable to cross-fertilization from other plants of the species. If our first selection was as good as our trial indicated and we have in it a plant of the exact type desired, which did not carry a hidden tendency to variation inherited from some earlier generation, the battle is won, for all we need to do is to multiply the descendants of this pure plant without them being contaminated through pollen from some plant of a different varietal character. Human control of conditions is imperfect. Man must still eat his bread by the sweat of his face and it is quite pos- sible that, in spite of our failure to discover it in our trial, our foundation plant did carry a hidden variant which may crop out in some future generation so as to spoil our uniform- ity, in which case all we can do is to try one of the substitutes, or commence over again. Again, it is generally impossible to avoid more or less crossing in succeeding generations, so that sooner or later we are likely to lose any pure strain we may have obtained, but in the case of most vegetables, we can secure several crops before this occurs and, in the mean- time, we should have built up as good or better strain to take its place. Resolutions. Mr. Charles G. Bliss: I would like to make a mo- tion if it is in order. I notice that we had a very interesting discussion last evening from^ Mr. Bassett on practical plans for co-operative marketing. It seems to me a very oppor- tune moment for us to form a marketing association, and I make the motion that we form an association to be called "The Connecticut Fruit Growers' Association," and that the Chairman of the meeting be empowered to appoint a committee of five to look into that matter and report at a future meeting. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 165 Vice-President Hale : My understanding is that your motion is that the Chairman appoint a committee of five, a permanent committee of five for the year, to report at some special meeting at a future date, on the advisabihty of form- ing a co-operative association? Secretary Miles: Mr. President, before that motion is put I would like to suggest that it is along the line of the work which our Publicity Committee have been doing some- thing, and along the line which they intend to do more. Would it not be wise to refer that motion to them and let them take it up for consideration. It seems to me it is only multiplying committees to have another special committee to consider this matter. I suggest that the Publicity Commit- tee attend to the matter. Vice-President Hale : Then the motion now is that the matter of forming a co-operative association within the Society or otherwise, I suppose, be left to the Publicity Com- mittee for them to look into the advisability of it and re- port. Mr. Rogers: It seems to me that if the motion was presented in v/riting, Mr. Chairman, we could get at it in better shape. A good many here do not understand the mo- tion. Vice-President Hale: The motion is very simple to understand. Mr. Rogers: Please state it then. Vice-Prf^ident Hale : That the proposition that we form a co-operative organization be left to the Publicity Committee for investigation. If this is plain are there any remarks on it? The Secretary will read the motion as he has it. Secretary Miles: Voted that the matter of a pro- posedl co-operative association to be formed within the mem- bership of the Pomological Society be referred to the Pub- licity Committee, to investigate and report at the next an- nual meeting, or sooner if possible. l66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A Member: Within a month. Secretary Miles: Report within a month to the Ex- ecutive Committee. The motion was then put to vote and passed.* Mr. C. L. Gold: I have a resolution I would like to present. "Whereas, the conditions of the present deer law are not, satisfactory to the fruit growers of Connecticut, there- fore, be it resolved that the Society go on record as favoring the repeal of the law concerning deer." Vice-President Hale: You have heard the resolu- tion. Mr. C. L. Gold : I think that it has been pretty gener- ally conceded that the fruit growers are not satisfied with the present law. Just what it should be I am not prepared to say. I do not know in my own mind what we want in the way of a law. If we go on record as favoring the repeal of the present law, something can be done towards getting another law. Mr. Savage : I wish to support that motion. It leaves the matter just where it should be left in the repeal of the law. We need no further legislation on the subject. Mr. Wilson : I would like to say that I think not only the fruit growers, but the vegetable growers, are very much in favor of the repeal of the law ; certainly I am. They have done an immense amount of damage, from which there seems to be no recourse. The law reads that you must go to the Selectmen, and they must go to someone else, who must go to someone else to review the damage. I have to get the Selectmen about every twenty-four hours in my locality. Vice-President Hale: That is one way of doing it; get in there often. You have heard the resolution. What is your pleasure? The motion was then put to vote and carried. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 167 PrO'F. Stevens: I would like to understand IMr. Tracy plainly in this matter regarding importation of seed from abroad — whether he meant us to understand that the same variety grown at home produced better crops, as a usual thing, than the same variety of seed imported from different parts of the country. Dp. Tracy : As I understand the question — whether seed of a given variety imported from some other section will give better results in that section than local-grown seed. If I had to answer without any qualification right off, I would say, it will. Local-grown seed will give better re- sults than imported seed. There are exceptions ; and in some varieties it is more marked than in others ; but as I say, if I have to answer yes or no, it would be just along that line. A Member : Where there is home seed and southern- grown seed in this locality, which is the earlier? Dr. Tracy : I once planted a ten-acre field of water- melons; one half of it from seed grown for five generations within ten miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and the other half of the field was seed originally the same stock which had been grown in Michigan, where this planting was made ; with the agreement with the man that if he could find any differ- ence between the two lots of seed, he was to have a hundred dollars — that is, the difference in the crop. ' He never claimed his hundred dollars. We could distinguish no dif- ference. Per contra, in the case of sweet corn I have had seen grown further north, or in a colder season- — corn seed purchased further north planted side by side with that which was grown further south, or grown in a hot, warm season; and that corn in the cold, or to the north, gave earlier corn, earlier edible corn. So that to answer that question I should say that on some things it does make a difference and on other things it does not make any difference. A Member : I would like to ask Mr. Tracy what his experience with potatoes is? l68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Tracy: I do not like to answer that question be cause I have had very little practical experience with pota- toes. My impression is — I don't want to dodge it — that local-grown seed, grown in certain localities, will give bet- ter results that that grown in others. Vice-President Hale : The railroads have a very im- portant part in the business of marketing the crops. Mr. W. H. Seeley, manager of the New England Lines Industrial Bureau, will now speak to us about, "The Railroads' Part in the Better Marketing of Fruit Crops." Mr, Seeley : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I spent about seventeen years of my life in Connecticut, and when I get among Connecticut people I always feel as though I was in about the best spot in the world. I want to speak to you to-day about the relation of transportation of farm products ; and I will perhaps speak on a little broader line than has been indicated on the program. The Railroads' Part in the Better Marketing of Fruit Crops. By W. H. Seeley, Boston, Mass. Transportation is a true criterion of progress, and its history is interwoven with commerce and civilization. Elim- inate the means of transportation from any locality and you immediately place a ban of stagnation and decay upon the territory. In the days of the stage-coach, the time between New York and Boston was three to four days. To-day the time between New York and Boston is five hours. It was not un- til after the construction of railways that freight or heavy materials were transported inland. In 1840, the total steam lailway mileage in New England was 517 miles; in 1910 the total mileage was 7,920, averaging one mile of railway to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 169 every eight square miles of territory in New England, whereas the average number of miles of railways in the United States, including Alaska is 6%o miles for every 100 square miles of territory, in view of which we cannot but admit that New Eng- land is particularly well provided with transportation facili- ties, compared with out country as a whole, especially consid- ering the fact that the United States has more railway mile- age per 100 square miles of territory than all of Europe. In 1835, the total railway mileage in the United States was 1,098 miles; in 1910, 240,000 miles. So much for transporta- tion facilities. An inspection of freight rates shows the average receipts per ton mile of steam roads of the United States for 1910 were less than .0076 mills. The rate per ton mile in the Unit- ed Kingdom, 2.3 cents per ton mile; in France and Germany, i.4 cents, more than double that of the United States. We have more miles of railway per square mile of territory, and much lower freight rates than any other country in the world, Knd it is fair to say that New England is more highly favored than any other part of the United States in regard to nearby markets, transportation facilities and rates. Our conditions in the United States are much different than those in Europe. The cities and manufacturing centers of Europe are largely self-dependent, particularly as to food supplies. Generally speaking, the boundaries of. the source from which their food supplies are drawn do not cover an area exceeding forty miles from the point of consumption. We transport our bacon from Kansas, Texas, and Ne- braska ; our eggs from Ohio and the Central West ; our fruits from the South and Pacific Coast ; a distance of from 700 to 3,000 miles. I am now speaking of the great volume of supplies and food stuffs delivered at the immense markets of the thickly populated centers of the East, and which is only made possible by the low rates in proportion to distances transported by the railways of America. Take, for example, the transportation of milk : New York City consumed in 1912 in raw milk, cream and condensed milk an equivalent of I/O THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. over eighteen million forty-quart cans. It takes a large num- ber of especially equipped cars to care for this product, which iDUst reach New York at a temperature below sixty degrees ; otherwise if it comes under the observation of the New York Board of Health it is dumped into the gutter. Milk is shipped into New York in some instances from a distance of more than 300 miles ; the average freight rate is not over three- quarters of a cent per quart, including the free return of emp- ty cans, bottles and cases to the initial shipping point. I can remember as a boy when the farmers kept no ice for cooling milk, using the best spring they could find on the farms, bring- ing the milk to the trains, with a wet blanket thrown over the cans, loading the milk in ordinary box cars. Within twenty- fi:ve years the supply of milk shipped into the great cities in this manner was consumed in twenty-four hours, and if the railroads were blocked by storms, there was no milk for the consumer in the city. To-day, under the superior transporta- tion facilities, especially equipped milk cars, which are mod- ern refrigerators on wheels, costing as high as $6,000 for a single car, the situation is entirely different. Milk can be kept several days if properly iced, upon arrival at destination. There is received in the city of Boston to-day, by rail, about eight million quarts of milk per month, some of which comes from Maine and Vermont, a maximum distance of 250 miles. The transportation facilities are practically the same as those applying to New York City. It is only within a comparative- ly few years that refrigerator car service has been established for handling fruit and perishable produce, rendering it pos- sible to-day to ship peaches, berries, melons and garden truck from the Pacific Coast, Florida, Georgia and other western and southern territory to our great eastern markets. Scarcely a fall or winter passes without a period of short- age of cars for moving grain or fuel, notwithstanding the lailroads of the United States have over 63,000 .locomotives and nearlv 2,300,000 freight cars, much more than sufficient to meet all requirements of all the traffic of our country were it offered Avith greater regularity, forcing a certain amount of TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 171 equipment to remain idle during some portion of the year, which does not make for economy in the operation of the rail- roads, but which does assist in the marketing of grain pro- duce and other commodities. The total earnings of the railroads in 1911 from all agri- cultural products including animals, was approximately four hundred ninety-five million dollars, or four per cent on thir- teen billion dollars paid by the consuming public for tarm products, the division of which was, it is authoritatively stat- ed, approximately as follows : Received by the farmer 6 billion or 46.1% Received by the railroads 495 million or 3.8% Expenses of selling 1 billion 200 million or 9.2% Waste in selling 1 billion 560 million or 12.0% Dealers' and retailers' profit 3 billion 745 million or 28.9% 100.0% In other words, after the produce left the farm the ex- pense of selling, waste and profit amounted to six billion, five hundred and five million dollars, or 50.1% of the amount paid by the consumer. It is clear beyond argument that the farm- er is not getting his share of the value of the product of the farm, when the consuming public are paying more than as much again for. their food stufifs as the farmer receives. Sell- ing associations and exchanges have, in specific lines, done much to correct- this inequality, particularly the truck garden stufifs of the south and the apple and citrus fruits of the west. As a whole, however, there is a very small percentage of co- operative selling among the farmers. What is the conse- quence? You or I can go to a dozen different farmers and buy live stock, pork, poultry, fruit, hay or grain at as many dififerent prices. I believe the time is coming when farmers will organize and every county will be divided into districts, and each district have its selling organization, and that there n'ill be fewer but larger retail stores in the cities, and that the farmers' exchange will sell direct to the retailer. One can 1/2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. readily see that with an exchange handling the farm produce, the local competition among the farmers is eliminated and buyers are immediately placed in the position of competing with each other or practically reversing the present condition. Frank Andrews, Assistant Chief of the Division of Produc- tion and Distribution, of the Bureau of Statistics for the United States Government, is responsible for the statement that "the most prominent of all classes of occupations which have aided agriculture is that of transportation." The rail- road companies are now making, and for a number of years have made, special efforts apart from their strictly transpor- tation business to promote agriculture. Development, increas- ing revenues by building up the territory is the keynote. No transportation line can exist without business, railroads must build in order to exist, otherwise they destroy themselves. No business man, be his occupation what it may, whether farmer, merchant, railroad official, or otherwise, has any place in the community if he is not a builder and is not working for the benefit of the community in which he lives and serves. It is an unalterable law that if a man is of real value to the community in which he resides and does business, he must personally participate in the benefits. A man who tears down must by the same law injure himself, and to my mind is worse than a quitter, and we believe we know the Almighty's opinion of a quitter. Agriculture is to-day, and has always been, the founda- tion of the prosperity of our railroads, as it is, and always has been, and always will be, the foundation of the existence of nations. Let a state or nation neglect its agriculture, and in time that state or nation is doomed. Land grants to the railroads of the United States have in the past laid the foun- dation for great development, especially in the west and mid- dle west. The first land grant was made by Congress in 1850 for the benefit of the Illinois Central Railroad. The land was originally granted the State of Illinois and by the State to the railroad company. The grant gave the railroad title to two and a half million acres of land. It is needless for me to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 173 comment on the wonderful growth of the State of Illinois, agriculturally and industrially. The total land grant by act of Congress for railroads up to June 30, 1911, amounts to 115 and a half million acres. More than 60 years have elapsed since the first grant, during which period railroads have been vitally interested in promoting agriculture. Among the first departments organized by some of the western rail- roads was the land department, the chief duty of which was to induce farmers to locate along their lines. Many farmers were also induced by the railroads to take up by "Homestead Entry" the undeveloped lands of the United States. To June 30, 1911, 123 and a half million acres of government land has been granted under the "Homestead Act" during the forty-three years of the existence of the Act. The splendid courage of the people of the United States in constructing railroads has made this enormous de- velopment of 239 million acres of farm land possible within the short period of sixty years, less than the allotted lifetime of a man. What would our country be to-day, if our trans- portation facilities had not been developed? Interstate Commerce Commissioner Lane remarked on his return from the International Railway Congress at Berne, Switzerland, in 1910: "I return with much greater enthusi- asm for our American railroads as agencies of transportation than I ever had before. The conference established beyond, question, I think, the supremacy of the American railway, from the standpoint of efficiency. I have seen more freight moving in a single hour at Chicago, Pittsburgh and Jersey City than I saw in an entire month in Europe." It is not my purpose to attempt to convey to your minds the impression that our American railways have reached per- fection. Nevertheless, a comparison of conditions often aids us in passing clearer judgment and helps us to place a truer value on the privileges we enjoy. It naturally followed, espe- cially in new parts of the countr)', that the railroads offered advice and established to a more or less extent an agriculture educational department, agricultural trains, coaches equipped 174 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. as a traveling school, with teachers from the agricultural col- leges, demonstration farms, prizes for agricultural fairs, state hoards of agriculture, ''better seed and live stock" instruction trains, forming farm bureaus in connection with boards of trade, placing prospective settlers in communication with real estate dealers, booklets showing resources and advantages of the country traversed by its line, agricultural agents to visit and advise with the farmer, also aid him in securing a mar- ket, publishing agricultural bulletins for free distribution among those interested in agriculture, organizing fruit and truck growers' associations, reclaiming of swamp lands, good roads, demonstration trains, building produce houses. Naturally you ask what have the New England Railroads done for the development of agriculture, for you are vitally interested in New England. We have in New England 3,600 ^passenger trains each day and 1,500 freight trains per day, but you say that service is largely for commercial industry. No more than for the benefit of our agriculture; our freight trains are carrying all kinds of farm produce ; we are trans- porting milk in our passenger and freight trains. We are run- ning, as you know, during the peach season, special fruit trains from the peach territory to New York and Boston. I have heard my good friend, Mr. J. H. Hale, make the state- ment that it cost him $500 per car to bring his peaches from Georgia to New York, and less than $100 per car from Glas- tonbury to New York. The establishing of The New Eng- land Lines' Industrial Bureau was one of the progressive methods of President Mellen for the purpose of co-operating with others in the upbuilding of agriculture in New England. The Bureau was established May 1st, 1911, during the fall of that year I secured an option on 36,000 acres of land at Cherryfield, Washington County, Maine, in favor of the Maine Central Railroad, and conducted experimental farm work on four different plots, with excellent results. Among other crops, we harvested nearly 5,000 bushels of potatoes from a field of twenty acres, and have, without doubt, opened up a territory which will eventually rival Aroostook County. We I TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 1^5 shall continue the experiment on a larger scale during the coming season, with the possibility of purchasing and coloniz- ing the property. I will venture no other railroad manage- ment in New England has ever attempted the same line of work. We have a list of 300 farms for sale, and have in twenty-one months received and answered 560 inquiries for farm property from all parts of the country. When the Bu- reau was first organized, I became interested in the need of agricultural lime for our New England farms, and deter- mined, if possible, to develop some means of supplying ground lime to the farmer- at low cost. Through the efforts of the Bureau the Grangers' Lime and Marble Company of Dan- bury has been organized, with Mr. Wilson H. Lee, of New Haven, Conn., as its president.. Through the efforts of the Bureau, this firm secured a very fine deposit of limestone at West Stockbridge, Mass., and expect to begin operations in the near future. It is hardly necessary for me to call atten- tion to the great benefit of cheap lime for the New England farmer; restoring of sour land means in many instances dou- bling the present production. If you gentlemen can produce four tons of forage per acre instead of two, you benefit and wt benefit. During 1911 the Bronx Produce House was erected by the New Haven Road at Lincoln and Willis Avenues, Harlem River, N. Y., for the purpose of providing a market in the Bronx for the sale of all kinds of fruits and vegetables, ren- dering one of the greatest markets of the world easily acces- sible to the products of the New England farms. The build- ing is a modern two-story brick warehouse, 1,021 feet long, divided into twenty-four connpartments or sections, with loft, dimensions 35 x -K) feet, served by tracks for its entire length, heated with steam and electrically lighted throughout, and is occupied by fourteen firms. Since September 1912, 1,278 carloads of produce from the New England farms have been handled through this house, comprising 1,162 cars of pota- toes, 96 cars of onions, 1 car cranberries, 1 car cauliflower, 3 176 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. cars of turnips, and 15 cars of apples. Undoubtedly a cold storage plant will also be established at a later date. It is estimated there are from' one and one-quarter to one and one-half million people north of 110th Street, that 75 7o of these people secure their food stuff from the lower New York markets. Millions of dollars are spent annually for food products by this great consuming population, and the Bronx Produce House is a step in the direction of supplying the demandj and is the basis for opening an immense market area heretofore largely closed to the farmers of New Eng- land. The Industrial Bureau has compiled a list of produce shippers, now in the hands of the printer, which includes many farmers throughout the New England States. The commodities are listed with name and address of shippers. For example: All the apple, peach, cranberry, currant, strawberry, garden truck, poultry, poultry products, and live stock shippers are compiled under separate heads by States. We have listed 2,000 apple shippers, 481 potato shippers, 1,600 tgg shippers, 484 cranberry shippers, 764 milk shippers, 889 shippers of small fruits. In this list is also included the retail grocery, retail market, and commission men in towns of five thousand or more. The first issue will comprise 25,000 copies and will contain 175 or 200 pages, covering over 140 different products of the land and sea, and will be re- vised and reissued from time to time, as required. It will be distributed among the retail grocery men, retail market men, and commission men in the cities ; the farmers and produce shippers in the country. Our object is to assist the New England farmer to mar- ket his produce and hope thereby to stimulate production. One of the great benefits we hope to accomplish is to help the small farmer who may have a few barrels of apples, a small quantity of eggs, poultry, or other produce, to secure his mar- ket by correspondence, if he so desires. It is our further in- tention to take up shortly a study of the various market con- ditions as governing farm iproduce with a view of rendering TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. lyy the farmer any legitimate assistance possible from such infor- mation as we may be able to gather. Other plans for assisting New England agriculture are under consideration which have not yet reached a sufficiently concrfte form to be discussed. Election of Officers. Vice-President Hale: Is the Committee on Nomina- tions ready to report? Mr. Putnam : Mr. Chairman, the Nominating Com- mittee beg leave to report the following names as nomina- tions for the Society's officers for the next year ; For President, J. Norris Barnes, Yalesville. For Vice-President, Stancliff Hale, South Glastonbury For Secretary, Henry C. C. Miles, Milford. For Treasurer, Allen B. Cooik, Farmington. For County i' ice-Presidents: Hartford County, L. C. Root, Farmington. New Haven County, A. T. Henry, Wallingford. Fairfield County, G. A. Drew, Greenwich. Litchfield County, E. D. Curtis, Litchfield. New London County, F. W. Browning, Norwich. Middlesex County, Henry H. Lyman, Middlefield. Windham County, E. E. Brown, Pomfret Centre. Tolland County, C. H. Savage, Storrs. For Vice-President Nezv England Fruit Shozn', Charles L. Gold, West Cornwall. Vice-President Hale: You have heard the report of the Committee on Nominations. What is vour pleasure? Mr. N. S. Platt: I move that we accept the commit- tee's report and instruct the Secretarv^ to cast one ballot for these officers as nominated. Motion seconded. There being no objection raised the question was put to vote and carried. 178 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Secretary Miles: According to your vote I have cast one ballot for the following list of officers : President, J. Norris Barnes, Yalesville. Vice-President, Stancliff Hale, South Glastonbury. Secretary, Henry C. C. Miles, Milford. • Treasurer, Allen B. Cook, Farmington. County Vice-Presidents : Hartford County, L. C. Root, Farmington. New Haven County, A. T. Henry, Wallingford. Fairfield County, G. A. Drev^, Greenwich. Litchfield County, E. D. Curtis, Litchfield. New London County, F. W. Browning, Norwich. Middlesex County, Henry H. Lyman, Middlefield. Windham County, E. E. Brown, Pomfret Centre. Tolland County, C. H. Savage, Storrs. For Vice-President Nezv England Fruit Shoiv, Charles L. Gold, West Cornwall. Vice-President Hale: I therefore declare the list of officers as per the ballot just read duly elected. We will take up the proceedings according to the pro- gram. The next matter is an address by Mr. Herman Tice, of Westwood, New Jersey, on "The Successful Culture of Currants and Other Small Fruits." The Successful Culture of Currants and Other Small Fruits. By Herman Tice, Westwood, New Jersey. Mr. President and Members of the Society: I was asked by your Secretary to take part in this meet- ing* and give you a short talk on currants, etc., but now I hardly know what to say. In the first place, we prepare our ground about the same as we do for potatoes and plant the bushes in rows five feet apart and three feet in the row. We generally raise our TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 179 own bushes, plant them in the field when one year old. We raise mostly Fay's. Prolific; they do the best \\ ith us. They are a large berry and the strings often grow six inches long. We have had pickers pick ten quarts every fifteen minutes ; that is forty quarts per hour, and we pay one cent per quart for picking them. We have had them average seven quarts per bush. We have tried the Wilder ; they are a smaller currant than the Fay's Prolific, but they will average longer stems. We have tried the Red Cross, but did not like them, for the reason that the older the bush got, the smaller the currants and strings were. We have also tried the Pomona, and are still fruit- ing them, but they are a very small berry, but good load- ers. We are now trying the London market, which is prov- ing very good so far. We have about six acres of currants which we are pick- ing and expect to put out a lot more this spring. We mar- ket all our fruit at the Paterson market. The season of 1911 we got good prices for them; from twelve to fourteen cents per quart ; but last season they only brought from six to ten cents per quart. Now, the reason they did not bring more last season, I think, was on account of a sliort crop of raspberries, for, as we all know, raspberries and currants go together. So you see with no raspberries the market is soon flooded with currants. We also raise a few raspberries, which pav us very good. We get from sixteen to twenty-four cents per quart for them They are all picked in pint cups. We have always raised the Cuthbert Red, but the} don't seem to do verv good any more, so we are now trying the King, which so far has proved fine. We also have a few acres of black])erries. which do very good, and we get good prices for them in the market. We have mostly the Eldorado, and a few Snyder : and have never known either kind to winter kill. We have also tried Wil- l8o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. son, Jr., Erie, and a number of other kinds, but they will not stand the cold winters ; sometimes they will freeze to the ground. In regard to pears, we have had at one time about eight acres, of different kinds. We had about one acre of Bart- letts doing fine, but the blight struck them and every on,e died. Kiffer is our main pear at present ; we have about two thousand trees of them, all doing good. Some years they bring a very small price, but on the average they bring a fair price. Apples do fine with us. We raise a number of kinds, such as Baldwin, Mammoth, Black Twig, York Im- perial, Mann, Wolf River, Northern Spy, Baker, etc. We have a few trees of Stark's Delicious just beginning to bear, which is a very fine apple, and they bring the highest price in market. You can't buy any to-day in the city of Pater- son for less than seventy-five cents per dozen. It is no trou- ble to raise any kinds of fruit in North Jersey, but then again there are back pulls, such as scale, codling moth, etc., which must be sprayed for the scale. We use lime-sulphur and the trees are sprayed from all sides, which makes them as white as snow. For the codling moth we use arsenate of lead, just after the blossoms fall, which seems to do the trick. At this point President Barnes resumed the chair. President Barnes: Will you question Mr. Tice? He has come a long distance to talk to you. A Member: I would like to ask Mr. Tice his method of cutting back raspberries and blackberries ; how high from the ground should we cut them? Mr. Tice : We have Eldorado blackberries ; we don't cut them back at all ; just take out the old wood and clean out the rows. With the raspberry — just simply take the top off, that is all. A Member : I have raspberries that bend right over to TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. i8l the ground and they will break down unless they are cut back. Mr. Tice: We have to cut raspberries back; always cut the ends of the canes off; if you leave long ends on there will be nothing but small berries. The height is according to the size of the cane; if thick, we cut high; if thin, cut lower. A Member: Are you troubled with the currant blight? Mr. Tice: No, sir; no currant blight with us. A Member: Have you ever tried Perfection currant? Mr. Tick: Yes, we tried it; we got cheated every time. A Member: Have you tried the King raspberry? Mr. Tice: King red raspberry? — yes; they are prov- ing fine. Prof. Stevens: I would like to ask Mr. Tice if in the latter part of the season his Kings get dry and crumbly? Mr. Tice : Not with us ; no, sir. A Member: Do you do any spraying? Mr. Tice: Yes; we generally spray our currant bush- es and apple trees. We generally spray with lime-sulphur; using some of our own boiling and some of the commercial lime-sulphur. We spray currants for San Jose scale. A Member: With what mixture and what strength? Mr. Tice: I cannot tell you now. A Member: Do you use Bordeaux mixture? Mr. Tice: No; lime-sulphur. Lime-sulphur for the San Jose scale. A Member : Clean cultivation for the blackberries ? Mr. Tice: Yes, sir. A Member: What do you use for currant worms? Mr. Tice: Arsenate of lead. We used hellebore, but found arsenate of lead much better. A Member : What strength ? Mr. Tice: No particular strength. T generally put, in about a tablespoonful to a pail of water. 1 82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A Member : How do you fertilize your currants to get that large yield? Mr. Tice : We use nothing but barn-yard manure. A Member: How much? Mr. Tice : Two forkfuls around each plant once a year. A Member : Do you mulch your raspberries and cur- rants ? Mr. Tice: No, sir. A Member: Can you afford to raise currants at six cents a quart ? Mr. Tice: Yes, sir; we can; still it is better to get twelve and fourteen cents. Mr. Platt : I want to say just a word. I have watched the currant business for forty years, looking for a variety of currant that would bear the amount the varieties you have do. I haven't found it yet. Mr. Tice: The Fay's Prolific does the best with us. A Member : One or two-year-old plants ? Mr. Tice: One year old plants. A Member: What do you use for the lice on currants? Mr. Tice: We don't have it. The President then called for remarks from visiting fruit growers but, unfortunately, many of them had left for home earlier in the afternoon. President Barnes: I believe I see Mr. Wheeler of Massachusetts here. Will he please come forward and give us a word or two? Mr. Wheeler: I am very glad to come down here. It is a very great pleasure to me to come to these meetings. I am glad that Massachusetts people feel that your meetings are of such value to them that it pays them to come here. T certainly want to thank you for our reception here', and I am sure that we all get a great deal out of these Connecti- cut meetings. I am sorry that Mr. Frost is not here to re- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 183 spond for the Massachusetts Fruit Growers" Association, be- cause I feel that -he would be able to convey to you a message where I cannot. I hope that at any time any of your mem- fbers are up in Boston that they will come to the State House and see us there. Our headquarters now will be at Room 136, and I would like the members of the Connecticut Pomo- logical Society to feel that they can come there at any time when they are in the city. It certainly would be a great plea- sure to me to see the members of the Connecticut Pomolog- ical Society there at any time. I thank you ven- much for calling on me. President Barnes: We are always glad to hear from Mr. Hale. He was scheduled' to make an address to us last evening but it had to go over. If Mr. Hale is present, will he come forward now? Advertising and Publicity as Factors in Successful Fruit Growing. By J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, Conn. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : They put me on the program to speak last evening, but there were too many others and that put me in the background ; and now that the program has been about completed, they want to take this chance to inflict me upon you. You are perhaps in the position of the man who, having been knocked over by an au- tomobile in the highway, picked himself up alive and was congratulating himself on his escape when a motor cyclist came along and bumped into him from the rear, giving him .another hard knock. When he recovered from his daze, he explained to his friend, "Lord, I didn't know the darned thing had a colt." I suppose they put me on as the colt fol- lowing the automobile to knock you over. The subject on which I was to speak last evening was "Advertising and Publicity as Factors in Successful Fruit 1 84 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Growing." They are very important factors. We can pro- duce as fine fruit as we may, but we must reach the consum- er, and to reach the consumer we must attract his attention in some way. Advertising is really for the purpose of at- tracting attention to our products and eventvially selling them. That is the main purpose of advertising. And any- thing that will tend to do that will, of course, increase con- sumption and distribution. I was talking a few months ago with an expert on advertising, or a so-called expert, and he agreed with me. although he made his living out of advertis- ing, that this high cost of living, or cost of high living, that is so much talked about, he believed was more traceable to advertising than to anything else ; through the sharp, brainy men devoting, their attention and time to illustrating the pro- ducts of manufacturing and farming, or anything else, by choice packing, and in other ways to tempt the people to buy more than they can afford. I have used this illustration be- fore, and I will use it again, how the National Biscuit Com- pany appropriates a million dollars a year to induce the la- dies of this country to buy wrapping paper instead of soda crackers. And they keep on paying it ; it is good business ; but you pay for brown paper and wrapping paper rather than the old-fashioned soda crackers. The ladies say they are cleaner, more hygienic, there are no microbes. It may be true. If you want brown paper and don't care for crackers, fol- low the advertising. But it adds to the cost of food products. To-day there is a great cry for a reduction in the cost of living. I have seen a letter within a few weeks from one of the lead- mg manufacturers of this State appealing to all the other manufacturers of this State to get together, put their hands in their pockets and see if they could not devise some means, whereby the farmers of Connecticut could 'produce more food and sell it at a lower price; for the whole keynote to .successful manufacturing in Connecticut is in our labor; it costs our laborer too much to live, and we must in some way ourselves, as manufacturers, devise some means whereby our TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 185 laborers can live more cheaply that we may go on manufac- turing our products. I was told last night that several thou- sand dollars had already been gathered in for the campaign of education that the manufacturers are planning for to pro- duce cheaper food for their laborers in this State. Cheaper food products — we growers here are looking for higher prices for our farm products. And the question is, how are we going to meet this demand for lower-priced products ? How are we going to do it? The increasing cost of produc- tion has been what has troubled us. On the one hand we have the demand for lower prices of the product all the time, and on the other we have the increased cost of production Tt is not so very long ago that we did not have the expense of sending our boys and girls to the agricultural colleges, or the expense of spraying, or the much improved and more expensive packages in which we now pack our fruit. All these things cause an increasing cost of production to the grower on the one hand, and there has been a tremendously strong demand for a reduction in the price to the consumer. How can we meet that and then pay the cost of advertising? Because advertising must be paid for. Of course, you can get some kinds cheaper than others, but it must be paid for. Tt is publicity ; it must be paid for ; we must have it. The best advertising of fruit in this country up to recent years has been the fruit stand and the window of the. fruit dealer, who had a love for fruit and a taste for display. He was our l>est advertiser, with attractive displays where he could get the good fruit. The next thing in general advertising was that brought, perhaps, from the Pacific northwest in the production of their apples. They were so far away from the market that they could onlv afford to ship the ver\- choicest Oi the pack, packed in the very best manner; and there- fore they had to study methods of production that would produce the most beautiful and ]>erfeGt fruit, and grade and pack and ship in the very best way. That went on our fruit stands and gave us a beautA show in apples, such as we had 1 86 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. never seen before. And that increased the taste for apples more than anything else that has happened in this country. The systematic work and the choice packages and the full, plump package of the California grower was another means of ad- vertising. The old slatted orange box has had to go. Com- pare the box of Florida oranges that comes to market to- day with the old-time slatted packing box. They have had to put it up better because the California people taught them a tricik and would put them on the back side if they did not put up a better front ; something that would attract atten- tion to their fruit. We have had here in the east natural conditions that give the fruit that we grow in this climate a better quality and better texture than anywhere else in America. There are soil con- ditions and climatic conditions — laugh as much as you will at the New England climate — that develop in most of our fruits a finer texture and a finer quality than anything in America ; but the various troubles, fungus, insects and other troubles didn't give us much of a chance; at least we didn't go out and grasp that chance. Consequently we have been advertising against ourselves. We have been putting infer- ior fruit upon the market in comparison with fine-looking fruit from elsewhere. They have taken the market and the prize and the profits because we didn't advertise. In other words, we didn't show what we had on the inside and we didn't make a fine showing of our products on the outside ; we were short on production and growth and of carefulness in grading and packing. We have been cursed with too good markets in New England ; within driving distance of every farm was a good market where we could easily sell every- thing we had, good, bad or indifferent. I was in New York the other day and saw a lot of ap- ples come in from the Pacific northwest. I had the privilege of going into the gentleman's office and running over his freight bills. They ran from $350 to $480 a car; just to bring that product to market. Here in New England you TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 187 hitch up a pair of horses, haul it to the market for the cost of the driver and the feed of the horses; or if by train you can ship it to thirty million people for forty dollars a car against an average of $400. We were not obliged to adver- tise, but we have come up against it. We had an enormous apple crop in 1912, the largest we have had in the history of this country except that some people sa}- that in 1896 we ^ had a much bigger crop. I haven't much faith in fig- ures. They say that in 1896 there were seventy mil- lion barrels of apples produced in the United States. The statistics for last year say fifty million in the country ; but the markets and the storehouses and everything else in the country show twice as many apples as in 1896. So I have lost faith in the statistics and I believe that the larg- est crop that America ever produced was in 1912, which is now on the market. The question has come up about the disposal of that crop, that overwhelming- crop. How shall we sell them? There are very low wholesale prices and to a very large extent the retailers have been reducing their prices to consumers compared with the wholesale prices they have had to pay. So there have been various campaigns for increasing the sale of apples. The International Apple Ship- pers' Association, made up of many of the large dealers in the United States and England, a large number of dealers in both countries, represented by a membership of -some six to eight hundred people, actively interested in the distribution of the apple, seeing that they were not working ofif their pro- duct as fast as they should, have organized a selling cam- paign. They have raised a contribution among their mem- bers of between twenty-five and thirty thousand dollars, have a special agent employed sending out a special circular to twenty thousand grocers in the United States, ofifering to fur- nish them with a book on the uses of apples as a food. There are one hundred and sixty-seven different recipes for the use of apples, in all ways. They are distributing this book all over the United States. Thev have found it hard to eet the l88 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. growers to chip in. The International Apple Shippers' As- sociation have another scheme coming out next year. They are going to sell a series of stamps, something that you put on every package of apples. That will give them a campaign fund and; they hope to get a hundred thousand dollars for such a fund for advertising apples. They believe they will get great results from it. To-morrow there opens in Chicago a great sale of apples. You have heard about the women helping to sell eggs and lowering the price from forty cents down to twenty ; but. as a matter of fact, the old hen did that trick. The weather conditions were mild and she got onto the job, and eggs dropped in a hurry; but the women of Pittsburgh, and New York, and Chicago honestly believe that they lowered the price of eggs to the consumers ; and the dealers were tickled to pieces because it helped them to unload a whole lot that had been in cold storage. Now, in and around Chicago there are cold storage warehouses that are full and overflowing with apples. They are all stuck. Thev are going to sell their product for less than they paid for it. Spring is coming on, so they thought of trying this woman's game; and they got some dear, good motherly women to take a hand in it ; worked it around so they got them interested in these poor people in Chicago who ought to have apples cheaper, so the ladies in the last week have been canvassing Chicago and they had everybody pledged (and one of these men in Chicago you would know if I should name him) ; the dear women say one man has agreed to let us have a 1. 000 barrels for a dollar and a half; another man fifteen hundred barrels for a dollar and sixty cents ; and another two thousand barrels, and we know where we can get sixteen thousand barrels of apples for less than cost. Then we have thirty thousand boxes of Oregon apples promised to us at less than cost. And then they talk with the grocers and get them to take a hand. So they open their great sale to-mor- row in Chicago. The retailers are going to sell for twenty- five cents a barrel more than the apples cost them because the TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 189 ladies asked them to ; and they are going to sell them for twen- ty-five cents a box profit instead of forty cents because the wholesalers are going to let them have them cheap ; and every- body is tickled to death. But it is good advertising for the whole- saler who is trying to unload, for the grower whose product is being distributed, and everybody is going to be benefited — perfectly legitimate ; only there are two sides to it, and I thought I would tell you about it. And they are using the women to do it. Of course, you have heard the old story of the three ways to disseminate information, "telegraph, tele- phone; tell a woman." (Laughter.) That is business. Ev- ery kind of business has to be done in some such way as that. -Here is a good bit of advertising. In Evansville, Ind., a town of sixty to seventy thousand inhabitants, not up to a hundred thousand down in the coal district where many of the peo- ple are laborers, they have a good, live, hustling whole- sale fruit man ; but the best he could do in years past in sell- ing southern peaches in June and July was an average of six or seven cars a year. He sold them by the six-basket crate, and the retailers sold them for fifty cents a basket, for which they paid twenty-five cents a basket ; so they got double their money on them, and sometimes more than that. There was an enormous crop of peaches in the south last year, and Ben- nington, the wholesale man said, "I am going to distribute them in town," and he said to the retailers, "You are to make up a crate price ; sell them by the crate and not by the bas- ket. It will help you ; it will help me-; eventuallv it will help everybody, because the more people you get into the habit of buying fruit in crate quantities, the more they will buy of you later on. If you don't sell them at mv price, I think I will do the selling myself. I think I can fix it so I can whole- sale them to you at one dollar and a quarter. If you won't sell at one dollar and one-half, I will." Very few of them said they could do any business on that basis. Very well — he takes space in the two newspapers there, he advertises that fine, high-grade Georgia peaches should be sold in this town by every grocer 190 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and fruit stand for $1.50 a crate. "If they won't sell them at that price, come to the cars and take them away. Ben- nington has the goods." He sold sixty-seven carloads in a town where five or six carloads was the limit many years be- fore. Advertising, newspaper advertising, faith in your g-oods, and giving the people a chance. That's business. That's business. Now; as to our own advertising, as to personal advertf-S- mg, I have been trying with the apples that we are growing, trying to grow them as well as we know how, grading and packing as well as we know how, trying to do better; and try- ing to get at the consumer. I would rather sell to the dealer, and I do sell a great majority through the jobber to the re- tailer, and also direct to the retailer. But to get them interested you will have to go to the consumers first sometimes. I have been trying to reach them by direct advertising. We have done some of that. Anything we do in getting to the consum- er, finally gets back to the retailer and wholesaler. I asked all the leadmg grocers m Hartford who do any advertising to devote their space yesterday and to-day to advertising this ap- ple show, at this Pomological Society meeting. It would not sell any goods for them directly, but I knew and I thought that the} ought to know that if they would devote this much effort and space to getting their consumers in the State of Connecticut into this hall, it would treble the consumption in the citv of Plartford in three months. Two of our grocers responded liberally. The advertisement in the Times last night of the Cit\- Hail Grocery is devoted entirely to the Po- mological Society. They pay good money for that space in the Times, but they did not advertise their business directly; they advertised the Pomological Society ; indirectly much benefit would accrue to them. Newton, Robertson & Co. have their advertisement in the Courant this morning. (I don't know that you know what the Courant is. but it is a paper that has been published in Hartford for two or three hundred years.) (Laughter.) That is good advertising for TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 191 these two well-known firms ; it makes business ; awakens and engenders interest, in the apple business : that helps everyone. I got out a little special circular and mailed it to a cer- tain carefully selected clientage ( 1 guess that's what you call it) ; picked out the names of the high livers in Hartford and New Haven and all around the State, and sent them special circulars. Verv few of them bit ; about one in a hundred pos- sibly. We sold them a box of apples and they found them so good they gave them to some of their neighbors or friends ; they came back for some more ; one after another the neigh- bors came in. We advertised in the high-class magazines to de- liver a box of first-class apples, anywhere north of Washing- ton and east of Pittsburgh for three dollars. When we had fig- ured everything in, I found that I w^as giving away the apples and two dollars. And yet it was a profitable investment. By and by we got the people interested. One lady in Washington one of the "high ups," (Laughter) took a nibble at some of our apples ; pretty soon Mrs. High-dinky-dink from New- York avenue said that she had seen them at Mrs. So.-and- So's, — could she have a box. She could have a box at a price, if she had the price. We shipped some to her. Then she wanted us to send some to her friend in England, and we sent some. This lady by and by a little bit later bobbed up at Somerville, South Carolina, in December; she would like to try a box down there. It cost a little more express. We lost money on the first box at $3.50 — cost us $7.00 (It costs more than that to catch some girls, I will tell you that). Well, we followed her to Somerville, South Carolina ; and then she bobbed up from^ Aiken, across the river from Augusta ; we shipped her a box down there, and two or three weeks ago we shipped her another ; and some more later. That is five or six that she has had. We are getting even w-ith her on what it cost to sell the first box. Pretty soon she will pay the advertising bill for herself and some others. But really, away back of it all. you have got to have the goods first ; you have got to have faith in them ; you have ig2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. got to put them up in the ven- best manner you know how. Then in a moderate way you should advertise, either in the local paper, in the magazines somewhere in the territory you want to reach, or in the hands of first-class grocers who are advertising from day to day. I believe it is good business to deal directly with the consumer; and any business that the orchardist may do directly with the consumer will certainly not hurt one whit the business of the commission man or the retailer. Anything that will stimulate people to eat fruit of any kind will benefit us all. The best advertising of fruit of any kind and the very best advertising of apples will always be found in the middle and the bottom of the barrel. I thank you. President Barnes : If there are no questions to be asked of Mr. Hale, we will proceed to the next number on our program, which is a discussion of the question, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of New England as a fruit growing section?" by Mr. George N. Creswell, super- intendent of the Hale orchards at Seymour. Discussion — What are the Advantages and Disad- vantages of New England as a Fruit Growing Section ? By Geotige N. Creswell, Seymour, Conn. Mr. Creswell: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I reckon if the east had a little more of the boosting spirit of the west, if they could get someone from their own section to boost it and not go outside of it to get someone to tell them the advanages of it, it would be a mighty good thing for the east. I suppose if we take it up in sequence, we have to begin with the land. And in drawing conclusions, one has always to make comparisons between what they have and what some- TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 193 one else has. Through New England, as I have seen it, there is an abundance of moderately cheap land, well adapted to apples and small fruit culture. There is no two ways about it but what with the same care and attention, the same intel- ligent cultivation that is shown elsewhere, you can grow good fruit in this section of the country. While I do not believe you can get the clear skin and the vivid coloring of the north- west, I should hesitate a little bit in saying that it is any bet- ter in quality ; but it is in many instances of better quality than that which is grown in many sections of the west. They do get fine appearing fruit out there. They give attention to the details of growing it as you people never dream of in this eastern country, or haven't until late years. The matter of markets and distribution has been dealt with so fully here that I do not intend to say anything about it. Everyone says that the close proximity of a market is more of a disadvantage than an advantage. I don't believe that tlie people of Connecticut appreciate their cnances in the way of markets at all. You have an enormous population within a short distance, within wagon hauling distance ; and you have markets which, if properly developed through ad- vertising would consume untold quantities more than they do of a high-class fruit. This is an advantage that ought to be more appreciated. Tlie cost of transportation is very small ; you can reach your market in almost no time. -Your climatic conditions are good on the average. One other thing — you have an annual rainfall in this coun- try. It is a mighty nice thing to control your water supply, but it is certainly a great advantage not to have to worry over it. The good Lord gives it to you, if He doesn't always send it just as you would like to have it. Another thing that should be considered an advantage in some ways, although in other ways I am not so sure about it. is the fact that you are not depending altogether on one crop. In some ways that is a great advantage and in other ways it is not. In the west we specialize, of course, on the 194 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. one crop, which gives opportunities for communities to de- velop along one-crop lines ; it gives them better opportunities for co-operation and the handling of their products in that way. I think that one of the disadvantages in the east is the conservativeness of the people ; their lack of adaptability in taking up new things. The isolation of orchards makes it difficult for co-operation. It ought to be state-wide rather than sectional co-operation. Now I think I have covered the question in a rough way. If anybody will ask questions I will try to answer them. If anybody thinks of an advantage that I haven't spoken of. or if there is any disadvantage to the west that you would like to hear refuted, I would be glad to have it stated. Mr. Platt How about the vigor and life of the apple tree here and on the Pacific coast? Is there much difference in that? Mr. Creswei.l: Why, the commercial orchards of the west are all young, that is, the trees in these highly-tilled, itensified orchards ; the life of them remains to be told ; but you will find in that country old trees that have been living since pioneer times ; some of them, they claim, as old as one hundred years. Of course, they don't have as many orchards in that country as they have here. President Barnes : If you have nothing further for Mr. Creswell in the way of questions, we will pass on to the closing business of the session — the discussion of the ques- tion list and any business. Either one is in order. Mr. E. D. Curtis : I would like to offer the follow- ing resolution ; Voted: "That the proceedings of the Annual meet- ing be issued not later than the month of April and that the Secretary be authorized to draw from the treasury thd sum of fifty dollars in addition to his regular salary if the report can be issued by the first of April." TJVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 195 The above resolution was seconded and dulv passed by vote of the Society. No further business appearing and the program be- ing completed, w^ith the exception of the discussion of a portion of the Question List, at four o'clock President Barnes declared the Twenty-second Annual jNIeeting ad- journed sine die. Although the session closed somewhat early, many remained for several hours for a last look at the exhibits, and the hall was a busy scene until late, with the break- ing up of the displays of fruits and implements, the pack- ing of exhibits and the disposal of the fine show of apples. Much of the fruit went to two of the leading grocers of the city — Newton, Robertson & Co., and The Boston Branch Grocery, where they were to be exhibited and ad- mired as prize-winning fruit, and ultimately to reach the fruit consumers of Hartford. Without doubt the display of fruit in market packages featured at this meeting was the finest ever seen in the State, and as an advertisement for Connecticut apple growers it was of the greatest value. Report of the Special Committee on Fruit Exhibit, with List of Premiums and Awards. The following schedule of premiums was offered for the fruit show held in connection with the Annual Meieting. The number of entries was larger than usual at a winter exhibit, especially in the classes of apples packed for market, for which especially large premiums were ofifered. This feature would have been much more extensive except that growers were unable to arrange for it in time to store their exhibit fruit. However, the number of entries was fairly large, and some remarkably fine fruit was exhibited. Through the lib- 196 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. erality of various firms the Society was enabled to offer sev- eral very attractive prizes, in addition to the regular list, which was much appreciated. SCHEDULE OF PREMIUMS OFFERED. (Competition open only to members and for fruit grown in Connecticut.) Class 1. For the largest and best display of fruit made by a grower, and attractively staged, $6.00 $3.00 It is intended that fruit in this class shall be shown on plates and in barrels, boxes and bas- kets or other attractive packages. , Class 2. Best collection five varieties, Mar- ket Apples, 5.00 2.50 For every entry in this class above five the amount of premiums will be increased 50c. and 30c. respectively. The variety and condition of specimens both to be considered in making award. Class 3. Best collection five varieties Des- sert Apples, 5.00 2.50 (Same rules to apply as in above.) Class 4 — Section 1. Best single plate of fol- lowing varieties Apples, each, .... 3.00 2.00 $1.00 Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Northern Spy, King, Roxbury Russett, and Wagener. Class A — Section 2. Best single plate of fol- lowing varieties Apples, each, .... 1.00 .50 .25 Sutton, Peck's Pleasant, Ben Davis, Grimes, Talman Sweet, Fallawater, Stark, Hubbardston, Mcintosh, Westfield and other worthy varieties not to exceed ten. Class 5. Best single plate Pears, each plate not to exceed six varieties, .... 1.00 .50 .25 Class 6. Best barrel of Apples, any variety, 25.00 Variety and packing to be considered. Entries in Class 8 may compete in this class. N. B. — Five specimens will constitute a plate. General rules of the Society to govern this exhibition. The Society reserves the right to issue a life membership in lieu of cash premiums to any exhibitor not already a life member whose awards amount to $10.00 or over. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 197 Class 7. Best standard box of Apples, anj^ variety, 15.00 Variety and packing to be considered. En- tries in Class 9 may compete in this class. Class 8. Best barrel of each of the follow- ing varieties Apples, ...... 10.00 5.00 Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Northern Spy, King, Roxbury Russett, Ben Davis. Class 9. Best standard box of each of the fol- lowing variety of Apples, ..... 6.00 4.00 Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Northern Spy, King, Mcintosh, Sutton, Wagener, Spitzenberg, Grimes, and Jonathan. Class 10. Special Prizes, ofifered by Firms and Individuals: a. Frost Insecticide Co., Arlington, Mass., offers 1 barrel "Arlington Brand" Soluble Oil, for best 3 boxes apples packed for market — any three varieties, value, ....... 17.50 (Separate entries required here.) b. B. G. Pratt Co., New York, offers a ten- gallon package "Scalecide" for best box R. I. Greening Apples, packed for market, value . . 6.75 c. W. & B. Douglas, Middletown, Conn., of- fer 1 Arlington Spray Pump "Outfit B," with hose, spray rods, etc., for the best box Baldwin Apples, packed for market (fruit to become the proper- ty of the donor.) (Separate entries required here.) d. The Burr Nurseries, Manchester, Conn., offer 25 standard Baldwin Apple trees for the best barrel Baldwin Apples, packed for market. e. Also by the same firm 25 standard Mc- intosh Apple trees for best barrel Mcintosh Apples, packed for market. f. The Barnes Bros. Nursery Co., Yalesville, Conn., offers to the winner of first premium in Class 1: 25 apple trees, 1 yr., 4-5 ft., not over 4 varieties. 25 cherry trees, 2 yrs., 4-6 ft. 20 peach trees, of 2 varieties. 5 plum trees, 5-6 ft. 25 grape vines, 2 yr.. Concord, Worden or Niagara. igS THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. To the winner of first premium in Class 2: 25 apple trees, 1 yr., 4-5 ft., standard kinds. To winner of first premium in Class 3: 10 Jonathan apple trees, 1 yr., 4-5 ft. To winner of first premium in Class 5: 10 pear trees. 5-6 ft. LIST OF AWARDS. CLASS I. No Entries. CLASS II. No Awards. CLASS III. . No Awards. CLASS IV.— Sfxtion I. Single Plates of Apples. Baldivin. First Premium to The Hale Orchards, Seymour $3.00 Second Premium to J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury 2.00 Third Premium to H. E. Clark, Middlebury 1.00 R. I. Greening. First Premium to H. E. Clark $3.00 Second Premium to N. H. Barnes, Yalesville 2.00 Third Premium to A. E. Rich, Vernon Center 1.00 Nortlieni Spy. First Premium to J. H. Putnam, Litchfield $3.00 King. First Premium to F. B. Bailey, Durham $3.00 Second Premium to E. H. Jones, Durham Center 2.00 Third Premium to George W. Florian, Thomaston 1.00 Roxbury Riisseft. First Premium to H. E. Clark $3.00 Second Premium to A. E. Rich 2.00 Third Premium to W. C. Robinson, Columbia 1.00 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 199 Wageiicr. First Premium to -A. A. Moses, Unionville $3.00 Second Premium to Savage Bros., Berlin 2.00 Third Premium to A. J. Clark, Durham 1.00 Section II. Sutton. First Premium to A. J. Clark $1.00 Second Premium to W. E. Frost, Bridgewater .50 Third Premium to J. H. Putnam .25 Peck's Pleasant. Second Premium to F. B. Bailey $ .50 Third Premium to E. H. Jones .25 Ben Davis. First Premium to The Hale Orchards $1.00 Second Premium to N. H. Barnes .50 Third Premium to A. T. Clark .25 Grimes. First Premium to E. E. Brown, Pomfret Center $1.00 Second Premium to A. J. Clark .50 Fallazvatcr. First Premium to N. H. Barnes $1.00 Second Premium to George W. Floriau- .50 Hubbardsfon. First Premium to J. H. Putnam $1.00 Second Premium to N. H. Barnes .50 Mclntosli. First Premium to F. B. Bailey ' $1.00 Second Premium to F. E. Tucker, Vernon .50 Jr est field. First Premium to A. E. Rich -$1.00 Bananna. First Premium to L. W. Bilton, Somcrs $1.00 Second Premium to A. E. Rich .50 200 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Newtown Pippin. First Premium to F. B. Bailey $1.00 Second Premium to E. H. Jones 50 Cnnada Baldwin. First Premium to A. J. Clark $1.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey .50 Golden Russett. First Premium to Henry Spencer, Haddam $1.00 Fall Pippin. First Premium to A. E. Rich $1.00 Belleflower. First Premium to A. E. Rich $1.00 York Imperial. First Premium to L. H. Warncke, Cannon $1.00 Duchess. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Delicious. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Rome Beauty. First Premium to N. H. Barnes $1.00 Baldwin. First Premium to N. H. Barnes $1.00 CLASS V. Walter Pease. No Entries. CLASS VL Best Barrel of Apples, Any Variety. Baldwin. First Premium to J. H Hale Co $25.00 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 201 CLASS VII. Best Standard Box of Apples, Any A'arietv. J*'irst Premium to The Hale Orchards $15.00 CLASS vin. Best Barrel of Apples, Following A'arietie.-; : First Premium to J. H. Hale Co $10.00 Second Premium to Hale Orchards 5.00 Roxbury Russet. First Premium to H. E. Clark $10.00 Second Premium to O. D. Tuller, West Simsburj' 5.00 Ben Davis. First Premium to The Hale Orchards $10.00 CLASS IX. Best Standard Box of Apples, P'ollowing Varieties: Baldwin. First Premium to The Hale Orchards $6.00 Second Premium to J. H. Hale Co 4.00 R. I. Greening. First Premium to H. E. Clark $6.00 Mcintosh. First Premium to F. B. Bailey $6.00 Grimes. First Premium to C. L. Gold, West Cornwall $6.00 Fallaivater. Second Premium to W. A. Stocking & Son, Weatogue $4.00 CLASS X. Special Prizes. A— FROST INSECTICIDE CO. PRIZE. No Entries. 202 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. B— B. G. PRATT CO. PRIZE. To H. E. Clark. C— W. & B. DOUGLAS PRIZE FOR BEST BOX OF BALDWINS, To The Hale Orchards. D— THE BURR NURSERIES PRIZE FOR BEST BARREL OF BALDWINS, To W. A. Stocking & Son. E. No Entries. F— THE BARNES BROS. NURSERY CO. PRIZE. No Awards. ProI'\ F. C. Sears, Indite. The Trade Exhibit. The display of spraying machinery and supplies, fruit growers' implements, fruit packages, etc., made in connection with the Society's Annual Meeting, was the largest and most varied ever shown at a Connecticut convention. It occupied the entire lower hall of the Armory, a floor space of 36x63 feet, and even overflowed into the corridors and hallway, Eve^y inch of available space was rented, being eagerly sought for by the various manufacturers and agents, who were quick to realize the opportunity offered to exhibit their goods and make sales to the Connecticut growers. Most of the exhibitors reported that they did a good business both days of the convention. The Trade Exhibit was a center of interest throughout the meeting, and it was a liberal edu- cation for any fruit man to look over the exhibits, be- cause-they represented all the latest improvements in spraying outfits, the best sprays for insects and diseases, new ideas in orchard implements, power farm machinery, packages for marketing fruits, etc., etc. Certain it is that this feature of TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 203 our meeting is becoming more and more valuable, and cannot well be omitted, although it is a serious problem to find suit- able room in which to display and demonstrate the exhibits.. The exhibition was in charge of Mr. E. Rogers, who efficiently aided the Secretary in carrying out the details. While the many kinds of exhibits were too numerous to list here, a list of the principal exhibitors is as follows: Harrison's Nurseries, Berlin, Aid., trees and shrubs. Grasselli Chemical Co., Boston, Alass., Branch, insec- ticides and fungicides. RuMELY Products Co., tractors for farm pozcer. Mechling Bros. AIfg., Camden, X. J.. liine-sulphur sprays. Apothecaries Hall Co., Waterbury, Conn., agents for spraying supplies. Barnes Bros. Nltrsery Co., Yalesville, Conn., nursery stock. Sherwin-Williams Co., Xewark, N. J., insecticides and fungicides. The Frank S. Platt Col, New Haven, Conn., orchard tools, spraying outfits and supplies. The Thomsen Chemical Co., Baltimore. Md., sprays ing chemicals and agricultural sprays. C. R. BuKR & Co., Manchester, Conn., nursery stock. Paul M. Hubbard & Co., Bristol, Conn., nursery stock. John S. Tilley, Watervliet. N. Y., ladders, etc. Coles & Co., New York City, fruit packages and pack- ing supplies. Frost Insecticide Co., Arlington, Mass., sprav pumps, and supplies, insecticides and fungicides. Brockett Shaw & Lu'nt Co., Boston. Mass., spraying machinery. Goulds Mfg. Co., Boston, Mass.,- Branch, spray pumps and supplies. Cadwell & Jones, Hartford, Conn., fruit groovers' sup- plies, hardzvare, etc. 204 ^^"^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. W. & B. Douglas, Middletown, Conri., spray pumps and accessories. The Cutaway Harrow Co., Higganum, Conn., orchard tools. Hemingway's London Purple Co., New York City, in- secticides and fungicides. Frost & Bartlett Co., Stamford, Conn., spraying ma- chinery and fruit growers^ supplies. BowKER Insecticide Co., Boston, Mass., insecticides and fungicides. E. Tucker's Sons Co., Hartford, ConiL, paper, and pa- per and zvooden packages for fruits. Interstate Chemical Co., insecticides and fungicides. H. B. Cornwall, Meriden, Conn., agent for Jennings &" Griffin high grade tools. B. G. Pratt Co., New York City, "Scalecidc" and west- ern apple grader. F. S. BiDWELL & Co., Windsor Locks, Conn., farm tools. Dupont Powder Co., Wilmington, Del, dynamite. u M -.- o Ph T=sSCs= II — 3C n. aC= i» 3C II 38-:= j P A R T T W O j L , , , I A Brief Record of Field Meetings, Exhibitions, Etc., Held in 1912 Summer Field MeetingSo At a meeliny of the executive committee of the Society, held at the Capitol in Hartford, on May 24, 1912, it was voted to hold at least two field meetings during the summer sea- son, and the secretary was directed to look up places for the same. Outdoor meetings held on the fruit farms of the State have long been a prominent feature of the Society's vv^ork, as its older friends well know,, but of late it has become more and more difficult to find places for such gatherings, owing to the increasing size of the Society and the heavy bur- den of entertaining the large crowds that always turn out for these popular and profitable events. During the season of 1912, however, several invitations were received, and one in particular was very pleasing to the Society, coming as it did from the Connecticut Agricultural College, which the fruit growers delight to. visit every few years. So the invitation was gladly accepted and arrangements were made for holding 208 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Barnes of the Society had been present during the day, but was obliged to leave, and Vice-President Stancliff Hale pre- sided over the meeting in his place. First on the program was the address of welcome by President Beach, who extended the hospitality of the college to every visitor. He expressed the hope that the Pomologi- cal Society would make this outing an annual affair, and feel that the college was open to them at any time for this pur- pose. President Beach referred to the importance of the fruit crops of the country and that the production of fruit does not yet keep pace with the increase in population. Vice-President Hale thought that Storrs was an ideal (place for the Society to gather every suniimer, and he then called on Mr. N. S. Piatt, of New Haven, State Pomologist, to respond to the address of welcome. Mr. Piatt spoke high- ly of the college and its work and told President Beach that the farmers of the State are looking to the college to help them solve many problems in their business. Professor A. G. Gulley, in charge of horticulture at the college, was next called on and received an ovation from his fruit-growing friends. He talked interestingly of what the col- lege is doing in fruit growing and said that there are over six hundred acres being handled and he hoped to show the visi- tors over a good part of it before they left. Charles R. Risley, of East Hartford, responded for the Hartford Market Gardeners' Association. David S. Kelsey, president of the State Asparagus Growers' Association, spoke briefly and said he looked forward to the' organization of a state-wide association of all tl;ie vegetable growers. Mr. G. C. Sevey, editor of the New England Homestead, was intro- duced and paid a compliment both to the college and to the Society, referring especially to the fact that so many ladies grace the meetings of the Connecticut Society. He told of his own experiences as a fruit grower, and remarked that the fur- ther on he got in the work the less he found he knew. Massa- chusetts has some good peach growers and is producing some fine fruit this season. > P-I ANNUAL REPORT. 209 L. H. Healey, Secretary of the State Board of Agricul- ture, was next called on. He spoke of the great progress the college is making in all lines and its valuable influence on farm life in Connecticut. The principal speaker of the evening was Professor H. J. Wilder of the United States Department of Agriculture at Washington. He is making a soil survey of Connecticut in the interest, especially, of fruit growing — and he told briefly of his work and how important a factor the soil is in the produc- tion of fine fruit. Soil survey work is yet in its infancy, but is expected to prove a great help to the fruit grower. Variation in the same varieties of apples on different soils was discussed, and many questions were answered by the speaker. Mr. Wilder said that scale-infested trees near well-cared for orchards are a great menace and should be cleaned up or destroyed. Professor Gulley referred to the prevalence of red rust on certain varieties of apples at the college, and pointed out that the trouble usually follows dr}? and hot weather. He gave a history of his dwarf apple orchard, which is something of a novelty, and said he hoped all the visitors would be sure to visit this orchard and note the fine growth the little trees are making and the crop of fruit as well. Several prominent fruit men from outside the State had been expected for the evening meeting, but as they failed to arrive, the program was brought to a close at this point, after Professor Gulley had distributed to the audience samples of his choice early apples. The fruit men and women were astir bright and early the next morning, ready for more sightseeing and eager to make use of every moment of their "short course" at the Agricul- tural College. The instructors were again called into service and piloted parties through the various departments, the dairy bams, poultry plant, etc. This latter was the center of in- terest to a great many visitors, because of the famous egg- laying contest, now being conducted at Storrs. The quail 210 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. hatching- was a feature that attracted much attention. A shower during the morning kept the company indoors for a while, but soon the sun shone again, and the sight-seeing was resumed, not, however, until all present had been gathered at the Horticulture Building to be photographed. How the crowd looked is shown in the picture accompanying this ar- ticle. The attendance the second day was even larger than the first, many additions having arrived. After luncheon, which included delicious ice cream made in the college dairy depart- ment, the visitors reluctantly began to think of the return home. The pleasant outing had proved all too short, there being- enough of interest at Storrs to hold one's attention for weeks instead of two short days. The company left in relays for the various trains, and with much regret parted from their friends at the college. A hearty vote of thanks was given Professor Gulley for his ac- tive co-operation in arranging the meeting, and to President Beach and others for their hospitality. It was unanimously agreed that the outing had been a great success and should be made an annual feature of the Society's activities. This field meeting will long be remembered by all who participated in it and were so well repaid for the trip. But oh, how hot it was coming home! Field Meeting at the Summit Orchards, West Cheshire, October 4, 1912. While the apple crop in Connecticut in 1912 was not gen- erally a large one, still some of the leading orchards pro- duced some remarkably fine fruit. Probably nowhere was there to be found a finer crop than at the Barnes Bros, or- chards in West Cheshire, and when President Barnes extended the Society an invitation to visit the orchards in apple pick- ing time, the opportunity was eagerly accepted. I ANNUAL REPORT. 211 The arrangements were quickly made and the following notice issued to the members : By invitation of the Barnes Bros., the Society will hold an Apple Field Day at their Summit Orchards, West Cheshire, Fri- day, October 4, and all member and their friends are urged to attend. The well-known Summit Orchards, started by the Barnes Brothers in 1890, on rough neglected hill lands, now comprise over 100 acres planted to peaches and apples — 75 acres in apples and 1,000 trees in full bearing this year — one of the finest crops of apples ever grown in Connecticut and just ready to harvest. Don't fail to come and see this magnificent show of apples! The orchards are located on the Meriden-Waterbury turnpike in West Cheshire, and can be reached by trolley on the west from Waterbury and New Haven at East Farms station, where teams will meet visitors after 9 a. m. Also on the 'north and east by trolley from Cheshire, Meriden, New Haven and Southington at Milldale station, where teams will be in waiting to convey visi- tors to the orchards, about three miles distant. Visitors should come provided with lunch, as dinner will be on the basket-lunch plan, tables, dishes, cofifee, etc., furnished by the hosts. This meeting has been arranged at short notice, as the apple harvest at the orchard is already beginning. Make your plans quickly and attend the best field meeting of the season. The beautiful fall weather brought out a good attendance at this field day, although the busy season of fruit harvesting undoubtedly kept many away. The visitors found a most interesting sight when they reached the Summit Orchards, trees loaded with a full crop of magnificent Baldwin, Greening, King and other apples, beautiful in color and perfect in size and quality. The Barnes Bros, certainly have reason to be proud of their West Chesh- ire orchards, where they first began business twenty-three years ago. These orchards, comprising peach and apple, are well located on the rough, rolling hills of upper New Haven County, ideal in ever}^ way for the growing of the finest fruit. The visiting fruit growers, who arrived in their teams and autos and by busses from the nearest trolley station, spent 212 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the forenoon in looking over the several orchards and admir- ing the wonderfully fine crop of apples, especially the Rhode Island Greenings, on which picking had just begun. The trees were loaded with beautiful rosy-cheeked fruit, and one looked with astonishment at such results amid such apparent- ly unfavorable conditions, rocks and stones without number, making cultivation almost impossible. The orchard of Bald- wins and Kings was equally fine, and as heavily loaded with fruit, so heavy that several pickings would be necessary to relieve the strain and give the best specimens a chance to ma- ture and color properly. Most of the orchards were in sod at the time of the visit, but all were thrifty and vigorous, as cultivation is practiced in alternate years. The peaches, which are now secondary to the apple orchards, were also looked over, and the fine appearance of the trees noted. It was not difficult to understand why this first fruit venture of the Barnes Bros, had attained success. Such magnificent fruit as was seen on this occasion can only be produced on orchards right- ly located, and from the right kind of soil, rough and stony though it may be. One could not help but think that there are hundreds of just such locations on the rough hills of old Connecticut, and why are their possibilities yet unrealized and undeveloped? As the noon hour approached, the company — which ha<.t grown to about 150 — gathered under the big trees near the farm house, and enjoyed a bountiful basket lunch, supple- mented with hot cofifee furnished by the hosts. The beauti- ful fall day, bright and crisp, yet mild enough for an out- door picnic, gave an added pleasure to this feature of the meeting. After lunch some informal speaking was in order, and Mr. J. Norris Barnes, President of the Society, as well as senior member of the Barnes Bros, firm, started the pro- ceedings by extending a cordial welcome to the visitors, and related something of the history of the Summit Orchards Planting began in 1890, when the property was little more than an "abandoned" farm, the land, some of the roughest > Ph H S K OJ OS H M (I, w w C c- :5 I ANNUAL REPORT. 213 to be found in the State. Peaches were set first and ten years later, when the. peaches began to fail, apples were planted, and so there are apple trees of all ages on the farm. Tillage and clover sod alternate in the plan of cultivation. Mr. Barnes went on to tell of the experiences in devel- oping the orchards, and how much thought and labor had been put on their first orchard venture, and how the success- ful results led to the extension of their business and the large orchard and nursery interests they now carry on. Mr. A. B. Pierpont, of Waterbury, referred to the early history of the farm, as he knew it in the days when it was used for pasturing cattle. Its condition to-day shows what can be done on Connecticut soil by energetic young Yankees. Dr. W. E. Britton, State Entomologist, thanked the Barnes Bros, for their invitation to the Society, and praised the fine crop of fruit we were privileged to see. It is a fine object lesson of energy and good management. The next speaker was Mr. W. L. Mitchell, of New Ha- ven, who told of his recent trip through the fruit belt of Nova Scotia, when he saw millions of apple trees. Nova Scotia is a fine apple region, and it would seem that growers there had about reached perfection in their fruit. The next step there, as well as in New England, is to reduce the cost of growing and marketing. Organization is helping to solve that prob- lem in Nova Scotia, and we should be alive to the need of it in our business. Dr. C. D. Jarvis, of the Connecticut Agricultural College, related some interesting facts about his trips through Connec- ticut orchards this season. He had found many good or- chards in the State, but so many growers are indifferent as to spraying. He thought not over ten per cent are now spray- ing their apple orchards. Many are not sure just what to use and how to do the work, and so neglect to do it at all. "A few dollars spent on this, the weakest spot in our fruit grow- ing, will surely pay." He also referred to Prof. Wilder's valuable work in soil survev now under wav in Connecticut. 214 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. E. D. Curtis, of the Publicity Committee, was called on, and spoke of. the chances of the smaller grower as against the larger grower. He thought the markets in the smaller towns and cities were often undeveloped and were many times as good as the larger city market. He stated that the So- ciety would probably take up the matter of buying basic slag for its members next spring, and hoped to be able to make a success of it and secure lower prices. Dr. G. P. Clinton, of the Connecticut Experiment Sta- tion, spoke briefly, and referred to the splendid apple crop of the Messrs. Barnes. Their fruit is free from any injury by wrong spraying methods. The lead arsenate spray alone has produced good results for insects, and up here on these high lands the diseases are not so troublesome. A witty speech was made by Mr. E. E. Brown, a repre- sentative of the Connecticut Farmer, in which he praised the work of the Barnes Bros. The Secretary made announcements about membership and the coming annual meeting of the Society. Foreman Cass of the Summit Orchards was called on, and responded with a cordial greeting to those present. Mr. Spencer, of Waterbury, who sold the first crop of peaches produced by the Barnes Bros., was the last speaker of the session. A hearty vote of thanks was tendered the hosts, and before the gathering broke up a group picture of the company was taken, a reproduction of which is shown herewith. The remainder of the afternoon was spent in further tours of the orchards, and when the visitors left for home it was with feelings of gratitude that they had been privileged to see and study probably the finest crop of apples grown in Connecticut this season. ANNUAL REPORT. 215 Exhibitions of 1912. Peach Show at the Connecticut Fair, Charter Oak Park, Hartford, September 2-7. For the third time the Society was invited by the Con- necticut Fair Association to make a display of peaches at their annual fair. The conditions for making an exhibit at Charter Oak Park are always ideal, and the great crowds that attend always appreciative of a fine fruit display. Manager Butterfield heartily co-operated with us, and the Secretary and the Exhibition Committee working in conjunction got to- gether a fine exhibit of Connecticut's best peaches. Fancy peach- es were not plenty in 1912, but eight or ten of the leading grow- ers of the State supplied of their best and made the show a success. The fruit was beautifully displayed in all sorts of packages and on plates, some twenty varieties comprising the exhibit. The' picture in Plate I shows how attractive this feature of the Fair appeared and why the Society re- ceived so many compliments. A representative of the Society was constantly in attendance and by answering questions and explaining the advantages of Connecticut as a peach growing State, did much to make the exhibition of educational value. The warm and damp weather during the fair made it neces- sary to supply fruit fresh from the orchards each day, but by this means, and also by utilizing cold storage for some of the early varieties, the display was kept in good shape until the close of the Fair. 2l6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of Fruits HELD BY THE CONNECTICUIT POiMOLOGlCAL SOCIETY, At Berlin, Conn., Sept. 24-27, 1912 in connection with the Annual State Fair of the Connecticut Agricultural Society. This is always the largest and best show of Fruits held in Con- necticut. None better anywhere in New England! More than $600.00 Oflfered in Cash Prizes. Competition open to members of the Pomological Society and others who will become members.. Connecticut House-wives are especially invited to exhibit Canned Fruits, Jellies, Pickles, etc. SCHEDULE OF PREMIUMS OFFERED. First Division — Collections. Class 1. Best general collection of fruits by grower, of which not more than two-thirds to be of apples. See Rule 7 $10.00 $5.00 $3.00 Class 2. Best collection, 15 varieties of apples 5.00 2.50 1.00 Class 3. Best collection, 10 varieties of apples 3.00 1.50 .75 Class 4. Best collection, 8 varieties of apples, for general purposes 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 5. Best collection, 5 varieties of apples, for market use.* Special prize. Spraying Outfit oflfered by W. & B. Douglas 2.00 1.00 Class 6. Best collection, 12 varieties of pears 5.00 2.50 1.00 Class 7. Best collection, 6 varieties of pears. 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 8. Best collection, 12 varieties of grapes 5.00 2.50 1.00 Class 9. Best collection, 6 varieties of graps. 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 10. Best collection, 10 varieties of peach- es 5.00 2.50 1.00 Class 11. Best collection, 6 varieties of peaches 3.00 1.00 .50 * Thi.s class is intended to draw out the growers' ideas of value of varieties. In making the award this will be considered as well as the condition of the specimens shown. ANNUAL REPORT. 21/ Second Division — Single Plates. Class 1. Best single plates of following varie- ties of apples, each $2.00 $1.00 $ .50 Baldwrin, Fall Pippin, Gravenstein, King, Mcintosh, Northern Spy, R. I. Greening, Roxbury Russett, Wealthy, Wagener. Best single plates of follovi^ing va- rieties of apples, each $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Ben Davis, Belleflower, Black Gillifiower, Chenango, Cogsv^ell, Delicious, Esopus, Fal- lowater. Fameuse, Golden Sv^^eet, Stark, Green-Sweet, Grimes, Hubbardston, Hurl- but, Jonathan, Lady, Maiden Blush, New- town Pippin, Oldenburg, Peck's Pleasant, Pound Sweet, Porter, Red Astrachan, Rome, Beauty, Red Canada, Shiamassee, Sutton, Twenty Ounce, Westfield, Williams, Wolf, River, Hyslop and Transcendant Crabs. Of other varieties not to exceed ten. Class 2. Best single plates of following va- rieties of pears, each $2.00 $1.00 $ .50 Anjou, Bartlett, Bose, Clapp's Favorite, Clairgeau, Louise Bonne, Lawrence, Seckel. Sheldon, Keiffer. Best single plate of following varie- ties of pears, each $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Angoulenie. Dial, Onondaga, Lucrative, Boussock, Buffum, Howell. Flemish Beauty, Mt. Vernon, Easter, Beurre, Le Conte, Nelis. Of other worthy varieties not to exceed ten. Class 3. Best single plate of following varie- ties of grapes, each $2.00 $1.00 $ .50 Brighton, Cincord, Delaware, Moore's Early. Niagara, Worden. Best single plate of following varie- ties of Grapes each $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Eaton, Hartford, Wilder, Isabella, Aga- wam, Diana, Diamond, Jefferson, Campbell's Early, Clinton, Green Mountain, Catawba, Lindley, Salem, Empire State, Martha, Pock- lington. Of other varieties not to exceed ten. Class 4. Peaches and Plums, each valuable variety $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Class 5. Quince, each valuable variety 1.00 .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 1.00 2l8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Third Division — Canned Fruits, Jellies, Etc. For Table Use. (Wives and daughters of members may compete in this division without payment of any membership fee). Class 1. Best collection canned fruit, 15 va- rieties $8.00 $4.00 $2.00 Class 2. Best collection canned fruit, 8 va- rieties 4.00 2.00 1.00 Class 3. Best collection canned berries, 6 va- rieties. See Rule 8 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 4. Best collection pickles, 6 kinds, one quart each 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 5. Best collection jellies, 6 kinds 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 6. Best single can of the following fruits : . .75 .50 .25 Strawberries, Blackberries, Black and Red Raspberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Huckle- berries, Cranberries, Grapes. Pears, Yellow and White Peaches, Apples, Quinces, Crab Apples, Cherries, Pineapples, European Plums, and Tapan Plums. (See Rule 8) Class 7. Best single jar jelly, made from above named fruits .75 .50 .25 Class 8. Best sample unfermented fruit juice, each kind, not to exceed six.... .75 .50 .25 Fourth Division — Packed Fruits. Class 1. Best packed barrel market apples. Special prize, 10 gallon can Scalecide, offered by B. G. Pratt Co. Class 2. Best box Choice Apples. Special prize, 5 gallon can Scalecide, of- fered by B. G. Pratt Co. Class 3. Best three boxes Choice Apples of any three varieties. Special prize, "Double Forester" Spray Pump Outfit, oflfered by W. & B. Douglas. Class 4. Best standard basket choice peaches Class 5. Best peck basket choice peaches.... Class 6. Best package choice grapes Class 7. Best package of apples, pears, peach- es or plums, of not over one peck, and of convenient size for buyer to carry* $2.00 $1.00 $ .50 1.00 .50 .25 1.00 .50 .25 2.00 1.00 .50 * This is intended to draw out the growers' ideas of an ideal package in size and shape to be easily carried by consumers. ) ANNUAL REPORT. 219 Fifth Division — Nuts, Etc. Class 1. Best specimen any variety of culti- vated nuts $1.00 $ .50 $ .25 Class 2. Best sample of native nuts, any kind 1.00 .50 .25 Class 3. Best collection native nuts, made by boy or girl and correctly named, not less than one-half pint of each kind (exhibitors in this class not required to be mem- bers of the Society") 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 4. Best arranged table piece of home- grown fruits . 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 5. Articles not classified, for which dis- cretionary premiums may be ajvarded. IMPORTANT INFORMATION— READ CAREFULLY! Exhibitors are requested to bring or send their Exhibits as early as possible. Committee will be in attendance and have ta- bles ready on Monday, September 23. Fruit for exhibition may be sent by express to the Society at Berlin, care of the Secretary, to arrive either on Monday or Tues- day. Express charges will be paid by the Society and deducted from your premiums when awarded. Exhibitors should carefully wrap and pack all fruit and put their names and addresses on all packages. Also carefully label each variety. Be sure and have your fruit on hand earl3^ RULES OF THE EXHIBITION. Rule 1. All Exhibits must be received for entry not later than 2 p. m. Tuesday, September 24, and must be in place by 6 p. m., as judging will begin promptly on opening of second day — Wed- nesday. (This rule will be strictly enforced). 2. Entries of collections in First andVThird Divisions should be made with the Secretary on or before Saturday, September 21, using enclosed entry blank for the purpose, that proper table room may be provided. 3. All articles entered, except in Fifth Division, must be grown or prepared by the exhibitor. 4. All fruits shall be correctly labeled (if possible) and ex- . cept grapes and crab apples, five specimens, neither more or less, shall make a plate, either single or in collection. 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 number 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 value of the varieties shown, as well as the conditions of the specimens, will be considered in making the award. 220 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7. Entries in Division 1, Class 1, must not contain over tw^o- thirds apples, or over one-fourth of any other single class of fruit. 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. 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. Competition is open and premiums will be awarded to members of the Society only (except as noted in Third Division) and for fruits grown within the State of Connecticut. 12. No exhibit shall be removed without the consent of the Committee, until the close of the meeting. Exhibitors are re- quested to state whether the fruit is to be returned to them, or donated to the Society SPECIAL FEATURES! Display of Spraying Machinery and Supplies, Fruit Packages, Etc., Etc. Manufacturers and dealers will be given freely space to ex- hibit Spraying Apparatus and Supplies of every description. A splendid chance will be afforded to show the machines in actual operation and reach the Connecticut farmer and fruit-grower, who are looking for the best spray goods on the market. During the exhibition there will be demonstration of Spray Pumps and Spraying Mixtures, and the preparation and use of the latest remedies for insects and diseases. The most approved •packages and best methods of packing fruits for market and ship- ment will also be shown. See these exhibits and gain new ideas! Don't miss these educational features and be sure and come to the great fair and fruit show! The list of prizes for the 1912 Exhibition was revised somewhat, and also extended in certain classes. Greater prominence was given the standard commercial varieties of apples, pears, etc., with the result that some very fine fruit was brought out, and the competition in plates and collec- tions was quite keen. The show of apples and grapes was as fine as any ever made in the State, but the exhibit of fruits in market packages was rather disappointing. We feel that more attention should be given this feature, because packing X Ph -''<. ,.f^ ANNUAL REPORT. 221 is still one of the wealkest points in our ^business as fruit growers. The finest fruit if improper!}' packed and put up in unattractive packages always fails to bring the grower the price that it should. Why more of our members do not participate in these annual shows and also try their hand at up-to-date packing is still a problem to be solved. Those who do make exhibits year after year know from experience that it pays, especially in an educational way. The Exhibition tent was thronged with visitors each day of the Fair, and a large percentage of the members of the Society were in attendance. We believe our members fully appreciate these annual shows, and that they are full all that they cost, but all should realize that their exhibits of fruit are needed, as well as their presence to make the event a complete success. It might be well to consider in the future the addition of individual growers' advertising displays and of such features as demonstrations in apple pack- ing, the selection of prize fruit, etc.. in order to make the exhibition of more value educationally, since the only object of holding the show at all is to educate growers and the gen- eral public. As the full details of the Berlin Exhibit have already been covered in the report of the Exhibitions Committee, a further report is unnecessary here. We will only add that the exhibits of fruit were satisfactorily judged by Prof. F. C. Sears, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and the canned fruits by the well-known expert, Mr. Charles E. Steele, of New Britain. 222 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. NECROLOGY. It is the custom of the Society each year to dedicate the final pages of its report to the memory of those of its mem- bers who have passed to the Great Beyond. It may be that among a membership so large others have fallen by the way, but so far as reported to the Secretary's office, but six mem- bers have been removed by Death during 1912. All were val- ued members of the Society, but unfortunately not all of them were personally known to the Secretary, which precludes more than the briefest mention of their lives here. To their bereaved families and friends we would tender our sincere sympathy, assuring them that their loss is our loss as well. We shall ever hold in loving memory and deepest respect these, our former associates, who are "gone but not lost." "There is no flock, however watched, and tended, But one dead lamb is there! There is no fireside howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair." — Longfellow. Greenwood Dearden, of East Hartford, died in May, 1912. He formerly lived in Tolland, Conn., from where he joined the Society in 1905. 'Mr. Dearden was born in Eng- land, and had the training and love for fruits and flowers of the English gardener. His genial presence was always to be noted at the Society's meetings, until his health failed and he went to live with relatives in East Hartford. P. J. KiLDUFF, of Bristol, a member of the Society since 1908, died in the spring of 1912. He was always interested in the work of the Society and was eager to learn through participation in its various exhibitions and meetings. ANNUAL REPORT. 223 George B. Slater, of Manchester, passed away in May, 1912. Mr. Slater became a member of the Society in 1909. Charles T. Hotaling, of Greenwich, died in June, 1912. He had been connected with the Society only about a year, but had impressed us as one who understood and loved horti- culture. He had been tree warden of his town for several years. James Terry, of Hartford, died October, 1912. He joined the Society in 1909 because of his interest in fruits, and was always in attendance at its meetings. John C. Stirling, of Hartford and Rockville, died sud- denly on October 29, 1912, after a hospital operation. He had been a member of the Society for many years and took a live interest in its work. Mr. 'Stirling was a native of Scotland, and sixty-three years of age. He was well known as the treasurer of the Pratt & Whitney Co., of Hartford. He also had an extensive fruit and poultry farm hear Rockville, where he spent much of his time, and in which he took great fpride. His loss will be much felt in his home, in business and in our Society. 22^ THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1913 This List Corrected to April 1913. LIFE MEMBERS. Ashton, Frank B., Middletown. Talcott, Phineas, Rockville. The Conn. Agricultural College, Storrs. Brown, J. Stanford, Yonkers, N. Y. (Black Hall, Conn., R. D. Box 38.) Shepperd, Walter S., Somers, R. F. D. 2. Brown, Everett E., Pomfret Center. Geer, Everett S., Hartford. Lucchini, Victor E., Meriden. Gulley, Prof. Alfred G., Storrs. Miles, Henry C. C, Milford. Gold, Charles L., West Corn- wall. Gilbert, Orrin, Walnut Creek, Cal. Clark, Arthur J., Durham. Curtis, Ellicott D., Bantam. ♦Bronson, Nathan S., New Ha- ven. Jarvis, Chas. M., Berlin. Repp, Albert T., Glassboro, N. J. Brown, F. Howard, Marlboro, Mass. Rogers, Elijah, Southington. Savage, Theo. M., Berlin. Yale, Arthur C, Meriden. Qark, Chester H., Durham Cen- ter. * Deceased. Cook, Allen B., Farmington. Beaupain, W. F., So. Norwalk, 192 West street. Deming, Nelson L., Litchfield. Clark, H. E., Middlebury. Healey, L. H., North Wood- stock. Frost, H. L., Arlington, Mass. Ripley, Louis A., Litchfield. Allyn, William I., Mystic. Root, Lewis C, Farmington. Root, T. H., Farmington. Burr, O. Perry, Westport. Clinton, L. A., Prof., U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Wash- ington, D. C. Ives, Minor, South Meriden. Tucker, F. E., Vernon. Henry, A. T., Wallingford. Hungerford, Newman, Hartford, 45 Prospect st. Geer, E. Hart, Jr.. Hadlyme. Chamberlain, Fred A., Terry- ville. Morris, Chas. G., New Haven, P. O. Box 1352. Stocking, W. A. & Son, Wea- togue. RoWe, J. Scofield, Hartford, 211 Fern st. Wicks, S. D.. Pomfret. LIST OF MEMBERS. 225 Benham, Wilbur H., Highwood. Robertson, Lafayette J., Jr., Rich. A. E., Rockville, R. F. Manchester Green. D. 1. ' Clarke, David A., Milford. Barnes, John R., Yalesville. Cheney, Louis R., Hartford. ANNUAL MEMBERS. Abbe, Earl C, Windsor. Abbe, Linden S., Hazardville. Abell, Myron R., Colchester. Acton, Harry W., New York City, 519 West 121 st. Adams, E. B., Berlin. Adams. Joseph, Westport. Adams, Thos. D., Westport. Ahern, W. T., Plantsville, R. D. No. 58. Albiston, Jos., So. ^Manchester. Alcott, Dr. R. W. E., West Hartford. Allen, A. R., Winsted. Allen, Chas. L, Pequabuck. Allerton, G. M., Naugatuck. Alsop, J. W., Avon. Alvord, S. M., Hartford, 254 Ashley st. Anderson. Albin, Bristol, R. D. No. 1. Anderson, Seth V., New Can- aan. Andrew, A. M., Orange. Andrew, George F., Farmington. Andrew, Irving A., Orange. Andrews, F. H., Farmington. Andrews, H. W., Brookfield Center. Andrews, J. E., New Britain. Angell, M., Putnam, Box 398. Anthony, Henry F., Walling- ford. Apothecaries Hall Co., Water- bury. Ashley, Dr. Dexter D., New York City, 346 Lexington avenue. Atkins. F. C, Hartford, 711 Prospect avenue. Atkins, Mrs. F. C, Hartford, 711 Prospect avenue. Atkins, T. J., Middletown. Atwater, Edwin B., New Ha- ven, 1825 State street. Atwood, C. B., Watertown. Atwood, Oscar F., Brooklyn. Atwater, Geo., West Cheshire. Atwood, Chas. W., Watertown. Atwood, E. H., New Hartford, R. F. D. Atwood, E. R., New Hartford, R. F. D. Averill, H. O., Washington De- pot. Avery, S. F., New Britain. 215 South Stanley st. Ayer, Robert E., Unionville. Bacon, Eben W., Middletown. R. F. D., No. 1. Bailey, F. B., Durham. Bailev, O. E., Roclaille, R. D. No. 1. Bailey, Robert S., :\liddle Had- dam. Baker, C. H.. Andover. Baker, Mrs. C. H., Andover. Baldwin, N. W., Kensington. Baldwin, Walter H., Cheshire. Barclav, John H., Cranburv, N. J.' 226 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Barker, C. A., Westville, R. R D. Barker, Edward B , West Hart- ford. Barker, J. Harry, Branford. Barker, Leonard, Glastonbury, R. D. No. 2. Barnes, F. A., Mystic. Barnes, Norman H., Yalesville. Barnum, Orrin S., Bethel. Barber, Henry A., Danbury. Barber, Joseph, Rockville, R. D. Barber, Mrs. Joseph, Rockville. Bard, J. Sprague, Brooklyn. Barnes, H. H., New Haven. Barnes, J. Norris, Yalesville. Bartlett, F. A., Stamford. Bartlett, G. M., Andover. Barton, Richard, Thompson. Baskerville, Granville R., Step- ney Depot. Bass, Mrs. M. R., Willimantic, R. D. No. 2. Bassett, George E., Clintonville. Batcheller, Fred E., Lawrence, Mass. Baumgard-t, H. F., Highwood. Beach, A. S., Bridgeport, E. F. D. Beach, Chas. L., Storrs. Beach, J. H., Branford. Beach, Z. P., Wallingford, Beardsley, Mrs. A. M., Rox- bury. Beardsley, C. F., Newtown. Beckwitii, G. C., New Hart- iord, R. F. D. Beckwith, W. M., New Hart- ford, R. F. D. Beebe, C. C., Wilbraham, Mass. Beers, A. B., Bridgeport. Beers, F. H., Brookfield Centre. Beisiegel, Jacob, Woodbridge. Belden, Fred L., Rocky Hill. Benham, Leonard M., High- wood. B'ernhard, Albert, Meriden. Bernhard, Mrs. Albert, Meri- den. Bidwell, A. F., Canton Center. Bigelow, E. W., Litchfield. Bilton, L. W., East Long- meadowy Mass. Birdsey, E. T., Rockfall, R. F. D. Birdsey, Mrs. H. B., Meriden, Pomeroy ave. Bishop, Mark, Cheshire. Blakeman, Frank E., Oronoque. Blakeman, J. H. Oronoque. Bliss, Charles G., Elssex. Bliss, Henry P., Middletown. Bliss, Walter F., Essex. Boardman, Thos. J., Hartford, 77 Buckingham st. Blodgett, M. L., Falls Village. Boardman, F. E., Middletown, R. F. D. Bogue, Nelson, Batavia, N. Y. Bolles, C. P., Wilbraham, Mass. Bonner, Chas. W., Rockville. Booth, H. M., New Haven, 127 Orange st. Bortle, C, 33 Broadway, New Haven. Boschen, C. A., Brooklyn, N. Y., 527 3rd St. Bowdish, Rev. W. W., New Ha- ven, 504 Whitney ave. Bowers, Arthur E., Manchester. Bowman, Harry W.. Torring- ton, R. D. No. 1. Bowker Insecticide Co., 43 Chatham st., Boston, Mass. Bracelin, Richard, Essex. Brackett, Shaw & Limt Co.. Boston, Mass., 62 No Washington st. LIST OF MEMBERS. 227 Bradley, Dr. W. M., New Ha- ven, 520 Whitney ave. Bradshaw, E. I., Bristol, 169 Prospect St. Bray, S. W., Milford. Brewer, C. S,, Hartford. Brewer, Harry R., Guilford. Bridge, Ephriam, Hazardville. Bridge, H. J., Hazardville. Briscoe, C. H., Thompsonville. Britton, Dr. W. E., Experiment Station, New Haven. Brockett, Ernest R., North Ha- ven. Brockett, M. R., North Haven. B'ronson, Geo. H., Northford, R. D. Bronson, Lewis H., New Ha- ven. Brooks, E. D., Glastonbury. Brooks, H. R., Glastonbury. Brooks, John N., Torrington. Brooks, R. W., Cheshire. Brown, A. E., Columbia. Brown, F. D., Hartford, 150 Warrentown ave. Brown, Frank F., North Scitu- ate, R. I. Brown, G. F., Cannon Station. Brown, Jas. F., Jr., North Ston- ington. Brown, Lewis, Sandy Hook Brown. T>. H.. Hartford, 67 Buckingham st. Brown, Ray C, Putnam, R. D. 3 Brown, Stanton F., Poquonock. Brown, T. L., Black Hall. Browne, Louis L., New Canaan, R. D. 32. Browning, F. W., Norwich. Brownson, S. B., Shelton. Brundage, A. J., Danbury. Bruner, Myron L., Wilbraham, Mass. ' Buck, Chas. H., Wethersfield. Buckingham, C. A., Cheshire. Buckley, W. C, Plainville. Bucklin, Edward E., Mystic. Burdick, A. B., Norwich, R. D. 1. Buell, H. B., Eastford. Burnham, C. N., Middlefield. Burr, Algernon T., Westport. Burr, C. R., Manchester. Burr, Eugene O., Higganum. Burr, O. P., New Canaan. Burr, W. H., Westport. Burroughs, Thos. E., Deep Riv- er. Burt, E. M., East Long Mead- ow, Mass. Burton, Fred W., A'lystic, R. D. B'ushnell, Mrs. Huber, Berlin. Bushnell, J. C, Manchester. Butler, George E., Meriden. Button, Elton, Cheshire. Callahan, Thos., New Britain, R. F. D. Calhoun, J. E., Cornwall. Callaway, George W., Hart- ford, 220 State st. Camp, A. A., Bridgeport, 261 Clinton ave. Camp, David, N., New Britain. Camp, W. H., Waterbury. Campbell, L. H., Providence, R. I., 54 Locust St. Candee, Z. H., Sheffield, Mass. Canfield, Wilhelm, Bethany, R. D. No: 3. Canning, William A., Milford. Cannon, C. J., Burnside. Carini, Bartholomew, South Glastonbury. Carpenter, C. W., Munson, Mass. Cartwright, J. W., Hampton. Gary, W. B., Windsor. 228 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Case, E. E., Bloomfield. Cassidy, M. J., Seymour, R. D. Cass, Chas. F., Waterbury, R. F. D., No. 1. Chalmers, John E., Cromwell. Chandler, Dr. W. M., Philadel- phia, Pa., 1939 Federal st. Chapman, Chas. E., North Ston- ington. Chase, F. S., Waterbury. Cheney, Seth Leslie, So. Man- chester. Child, C. YL., Woodstock. Child, Wm. C, Woodstock. Chrisolm, Richard S., New York City, 134 East 78th st. Church, H. E., Hartford, 34 Asylum street. Clark, C. W., Woodbridge. Clark, E. O., Rockville. Clark, F. S., Windsor. Clark, Geo. B., Derby. Qark, Geo. S., Milford. Clark, Geo. T., Beacon Falls. Clark, Merritt M., Brookfield Center. Clarke, Clifford L., Durham. Clarke, Denison W., Middle- town, 491 Main st. CHnton, E. B., Clintonville. Clinton, Dr. George P., Experi- ment Station, New Haven. Clough, F. P., Waterbury, R. F. D. No. 4. Cochrane, Geo. W., West Corn- wall. Coe, Elmer W., Waterbury, R. D. No. 1. Coe, W. T., Northford. Coer, James E., Waterbury. Coleman, M. L., Cheshire. Coleman, M. P., South Coven- try. Coleman, Miss Vernette E., New York City, 420 West 119th St. Coles, John E., 109 Warren street, New York City. Collins, M, J., Hazardville. Colton, F. B., Hartford. Conant, O. L., Hartford, 33 Oakland Terrace. Conn. Fruit and Orchard Co., Hartford, 29 Hartford Trust Building. Comstock, G. C, Norwalk. Conant, George A., Windsor Locks. Cook, Geo. A., Willimantic, R. D. No. 2. Cook, H. B., Noroton Heights. Cook, S. G., Branford. Cooke, H. G., Branford. Cooke, Marcus E., Wallingford. Cooke, L. Morelle, Wallingford. Cooke, Rowland R., Meriden, Spruce St. Cooley, Ernest, South Manches- ter, R. D. No. 1. Cooper, J. M. Wallingford. Copping, Ernest, Vernon. Cornell, Joseph, Norwalk. Cornwall, Horace B, Meriden. Covell, Willis, Abington. Cowles, P. A., Farmington. Cowles, S. M., Kensington. Crabtree, ']. B., Springfield, Mass. Craft, Edward E., Glen Cove, L. L, N. Y. Crandall. Mrs. A. E., Berlin. Crandall, A. E., Berlin Creswell, Geo. N., Seymour. Crosby, George W., New Brit- ain, care Stanley Works. Crowell, David A., Middletown. Crowell, J. W., Burnside. LIST OF MEMBERS. 229 Cullen, John T., EXerby, Box 71. Cushman, G. R., Baltimore, Md., c/o Thomsen Chemical Co. Curtis, H. B., Cheshire. Curtis, Newton M., Sandy Hook. Curtis, Robert W., Stratford. Daniels, H. O., Middletown. Darling, Robert, Simsbury. Dart, E. S., Vernon Center. Davis, Chas. A., Southbury, R, D. Davis, C. T., Middletown. Davis, E., Branford. Davis, Edson G., Torrington. ' Davis, Lawrence C, East Long- meadow, Mass. Davis, Myron F., Somers, R. D. Dav, Henry A. B., West Hart- ford. Dean, E. K., Sharon. Deming, F. J., Rocky Hill. Deming, H. P., Robertsville. Deming, Dr. William C, Georgetown, R. D. No. 4L Dempsey, James, Berlin. Derudder, Peter, Meriden, Eaton avenue. D^Esopo, P. M., Hartford, 91 Ann St. Desmarais, Dr. J. H., Bristol. DIeWolfe, Dr. D. C, Bridgeport. Doehr, Fred, Wallingford. Dooley, W. L, Kensington. Doolittle, Arthur H., Bethany. Douglas, Edward C, Middle- town. Douglass, G. F., Collinsville. Downey, Leonard S., New York, 70 Broad st. Downs, Jerome A., Bethany. Dresser, J. ,S., Southbridge, Mass. Drew, G. A., Greenwich. Driggs, Oliver K., Vernon. Dryhurst, Henry, Meriden. Duncan, R. R., Wethersfield. Dunham, H. C, Middletown. Dunham, Wm. N., New Brit- ain. Dunn, R. S., Middletown. Dunn, Mrs. R. S., Middletown^ Box 911. Dyer, E. W., Berlin Easterbrook, I. Harold, Dudley, Mass. Eddy, J. C, Simsbury. Eddy, S. W., Avon. Ellis, S. K., Rockville. ElHson, E. W., Willimantic. Ellsworth, David J., Windsor. Ellsworth, E. J., Ellington, R. F. D. Ellsworth, F. H., Hartford, 133 Huntington st. Elwood, C. F., Greens Farms. Emerson, J. B., New York City, 40 E. 41st street. Enders, J. O., West Hartford, Box 546. Ennis, Bertrand O., Highwood. Enslin, T. J., Maplewood, N. J. Eppes, H. I\L, New Rochelle, N. Y. Evans, Archie J., Hockanum. Ewald, Simon L., New Lon- don. Fagan, Joseph , A., Forestville. Fairchild, H. L., Bridgeport, R. F. D., No. 4. Fall, E. B., Middletown. Fanning, W. N., Kensington. Farnham, A. N., Westville. Fawthrop, Walter, Cromwell. Felber, John T-, Rockville. Felber. John J. H., Rockville. Felber, Mrs. j., Rockville. Fenn, Benj., Milford. 230 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL. SOCIETY. Fenn, Dennis, Milford. Fenn, Robert M., Middlebury, Ferguson, Wm. E., Hartford, 123 Vernon st. Filley, O. D., Bloomfield. Fischer, E. P., Durham. Fiske, H. B. & Co., Providence, R. I. Fletcher, A. J., Meriden. Fletcher, Mrs. A. J., Meriden. Flight, Samuel A., Highwood. Florian, G. W., Thomaston. Foote, Dr. Edward M., Corn- wall (135 W. 48th street.) Fonda, Arthur I., Kensington. Forbes, John P., West Haven, R. D. Forbes, J. S., Burnside. Foster, Dean, Stamford. Foster, Sylvester M., Westport. Francis, Judson E., Durham Center. Eraser, G. W., Storrs. Fredsall, Frank A., Torrington, R. D. No. 2. Francis, John H., Wallingford. Frost, Frank M., Yalesville. Frost, Fremont, Hartford. ^ Frost, Willis E., Bridgewater. Fruit Growers Nurseries, New- ark, N. Y. Fuller, H. C, New London. Fuller, Wm. H., West Hart- ford. Gager, John M., Willimantic. Gardner. A. H., Meriden. Gardner, B. L., Wallingford. Gardner, R. H., Cromwell. Gatchell. ^Mulford H., Andover. Gaylord, E. W., Bristol. Geer. W. H., Yantic, R. F. D. No. 1. Geissler, Paul, Abington. Gelston, J. B., East Haddam. Gibney, W. H. Berlin. Gilbert, Henry, Middletown. Gilbert, Myron R., Gilead. Gilbert, Thomas, Middletown. Godfrey, Eli S., Tannersville, N.'Y. Gold, Mrs. C. L., West Corn- wall. Goff, H. W., South Canterbury. Goldstein, B., Branford. Goodrich, Mrs. H. W., Berlin. Goodrich, H. W., Berlin. Gorni'ley, J. E., Highwood. Gotta, John, Portland. Gould, L. H., East Hampton, R. F. D. Goulds Mfg. Co., The. Seneca Falls, N. Y. Gowdy, R. W., Thompsonville. Grant, Lucius J., Wapping. Grattan, Walter, Torrington. Graves, Chas. B., M.D., New London, 66 Franklin st. Gray, Chas. A., Norwich, R. F. D. 1 Greenbacker, Chas , Meriden. Greene, A. F., Woodbury, R. F. D. Gridley, E. D., Plainville, R. D. Grif^th, Geo. H., Bristol. Griswold, Chauncey, Farming- ton. Griswold, Harry N., Wethers- field. Griswold, H. O., West Hart- ford. Griswold, J. B., Newington. Griswold, R. S., Wethersfield. Griswold, S. P., West Hartford. Griswold, Thomas & Co., South Wethersfield. LIST OF MEMBERS. 231 Griswold. W. F., Rocky Hill. Gustafson, A., Northfield. Hackett, E. A., Bolton. Hale, George. Westport. -Hale, G. H.. South Glastonbury. Hale, J. H., South Glastonbury. Hale. Stancliff, South Glaston- bury Hale, Mrs. Stancliff, South Glastonbury. Haley, E., Mystic, R. F. D. Hall, Chas. C., Cheshire, R. D. Hall, C. R., Rockville, R. D. No. 2. Hall, Ellsworth, Wallingford. . Hall, Geo. B.. Moodus. Hall, G. D., Wallingford. Hall, G. H.. Manchester. Hall, Wilbur H., Wallingford. Hammer, V. T., Branford. Hammond, Joseph, Jr., Rock- ville. Hanford, Mrs. C. O., Suffield. Harrison, H. I., Waterbury, R. D. No. 3. Harrison. Orlando. Berlin, Md. Hart, E. S., New Britain. Hart, E. W., Forestville. ' Hart, S. A., Kensington.' Hart, Mrs. S. A., Kensington. Hawkins, R. C.. Southbury, R. D. No. 2. Hawley, E. J., Bridgeport, 27 Hough avenue. Hawley, A. D., Bristol. Hayes, S. W., Hartford, Box 335. Hemingway's London Purple Co., New York, 133 Front street. Henry, R. Lyon. Hamden. Hilliard, H. J., Sound View. Hillyer, Appleton R., 91 Elm street, Hartford. Hillyer, Prof. H. W., Farming- ton. Hines, John T., Farmington. Hitchcock, A. L., Plainville. Hitchcock, Lewis W., Walling- ford. Hoflmeister, August F., High- wood. Hollister, Geo. H., Keeny Park, Hartford. Hollister, J. B., Washington. Hollister, Orrin G., Manchester. Hollister, S. P., Storrs. Hollister, W' . O., 650 Clinton avenue, Detroit, Mich. Hopkins, A. B., Windsor, R. D. Hopkins, J, H., New Britain, West Main st. Hopkins, J. E., Thomaston, R. D. No. 2. Hotchkiss, Chas. M., Cheshire. Hotchkiss, William, Bristol. Hough, E. J., Wallingford, R. F. D. Hough, George E., Wallingford, R. F. D. Hough, Joiel R., Wallingford. House, Albert H., Hartford, Conn. Mutual Bldg. Houston, J. R., Mansfield Depot. Howard, A. B. & Son, Belcher- town, Mass. Howard, H. R., Stafford, R. D. Howe, Geo., Winsted. Howe, Geo. A., Winsted. Hoxie, Geo. H., North Frank- lin. Hoxsie, Allen N„ East Green- wich, R. L Hoyt, Stephen, New Canaan. Hubbard, Clement S., Higgan- um. Hubbard, Paul M., Bristol. Hubbard, Robert, Middletown. 232 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Hubbard, W. C, Bloomfidd. Hubbell, L. L., Danbury. Hull, G. W., Bristol. Hulme, Chas. S., Thomaston. Hume, W. M., New Britain, Hunt, W. W., Hartford. Huntington, Chas., Windsor. Hurlburt, H. A., Norwalk, R. F. D. 42. Huss, J. R, Hartford, 1 103 Asy- lum ave. Hutchinson, C. W., Hebron. Hutchinson, M. F., South Manchester. Hyde, W. A.. Berlin. • Innis, A. C, Ridgefield. Ives, C. P., Branford. Ives, E. M., Meriden. Ives, Mrs. E. M., Meriden. Ives, Miss Florence C, Meri- den. Ives, Julius I., South Meriden. Jackson, Edward Q., Middle- town. Jackson, Elmer, Wilton. Jackson, Fred O., Middletown. Jackson, J. C, Norwalk, R. F. D., No. 42. Jackson, Robert F., Middle- town. Jacobs, Arthur C, Mansfield Center. Jarvis, C. D., Storrs. Jenkins, Dr. E. H., Experiment Station, New Haven. Jenks, Albert R., Amherst, Mass. Jennison, E. F.. New Britain. Jente, Paul J. H., New Haven, 133 Broadway. Jerome, F. M., New Britain. Jewell, Harvey, Cromwell. Jewell, Mrs. Harvey, Cromwell, John, H. P., New York City 60 Wall St. Johnson, E. H., Goshen. Johnson, Dr. F. E., Mansfield Depot. Johnson, Geo. P., Bethany, R. D. 3. Johnson, H. D., Highwood. Johnson. W. C, Newtown. Jones, A. M., Ludlow, Mass. Jones, E. A., New Canaan. Jones, E. H., Durham Center. Keeler, Robt. C, Bethel. Keeney, M. H., South Man- chester. Kelley, Edward, New Canaan. Kelley, W. J., New Canaan. Kellogg, Geo. A„ West Hart- ford. Kelsey, Davis S., West Hart- ford. Kelsey, Frederick, Higganum. Kenny, J. P., Glastonbury, R. D. 2. Kilduff, Mrs. P. J., Bristol. Kimberley, Karmi, Torrington. Kingsbury, Addison, South Coventry. Kingsbury, John E., Rockville. King, Horace, Thompsonville. Kinne, Helen, New York Citv, 501 West 120th St. Kinney, C. A., Meriden. Kirk, Fred A., Hamden. Kirkham, John S., Newington. Kling, L. P., Hig'hwood. Klink. W. M., Georgetown. R. D. Knapp, Geo. S., Groton, Mass. Knapp, M. C, Danbury. Knowles, Wm. A., Middletown. Lacourse, Geo. J., Bristol. Lamson, Prof. G. H., Storrs. Lane, Willis A., Hazardville. LIST OF MEMBERS. 233 Lasells, William C, -Kensington, Lay, Chas. H., East Longmead- ow, Mass. Lazarus, Nathan, South Mont- rose, Pa., care London Hill Farm. Lee, Wilson H., Orange. Lewis, Francis O,, Bristol. Lewis, Fred J., Highwood. Lewis, George J., Unionville. Lewis, L. C, New Haven, Highwood Station. Lincoln, Francis F., Mt. Car- mel. Lindabury, H. R. & Son, Frenchtown, N. J. Lindeman, L. H., East Wood- stock. Linsley, I. T., Branford. Loomis, Chas. N., Bolton. Loomis, John, South Manches- ter. Loverin, D. P Huntmgton. Lowry, Edwin W., Bristol. R. D. L Lowry, H. P., Bristol, R. F. D. Lyman, C. E., Middlefield. Lyman, Henry H., Middlefield. Lynch, Wallace, Bucatunna, Miss. MacDonald, A., Yalesville. MacDonald. S. R., Wallingford. Mack, H. H., East Haddam. Mahan, Bryan F., New London. Mallon, James, Rockville, 8 Spruce street. Manchester, E. F., Bristol. Manchester, George C., Bristol. Manchester, Rob't. C., Bristol. Mansfield, David B., Camp- ville. Mansfield, K. W., Westport. Mansfield. Peter, West Hart- ford. Marshall, Jos., Seymour. R. D. Marsland, J. W., New Britain, 169 Main st. Marsh, Wm. T.. Litchfield. Martin, J. A., WalHngford. Martin, W. B., Rockville. Mason, H. B., Southbridge, Mass. Maxwell, W., Rockville. McCormack, Samuel, Water- bury, 1063 N. Main street. M'cQarry, Miss Virginia, Graf- ton, Mass. McKay, W. L., Geneva, N. Y. McKnight, J. T., Ellington. McLean, John B., Simsbury. McLean, S. G., South Glaston- bury. Mead, L. H., Hartford. Mead, Seaman, Greenwich. Mechling, Edward A., Moores- town, N. J. Merz, George, Vernon. Messenger, C. E., North Can- ton. Miller, C. H., Berlin. Miller, E. Cyrus, Havdenville, Mass. Miller, F. B., Bloomfield. Miller. R. W., Bridgeport. 472 State St. Mills, D. E. Bristol. Mills, H. G., Bloomfield. Minor, Geo. N., Bristol. Mitchell, W. L., New Haven, 1505 Chapel street. Molumph)-, J. T., Berlin. Montague, H. E., New York, 109 Warren st. Moore, E. A., New Britain. Morgan, Charles C, New York City, 7 East 44 st. 234 THE' CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Morse, John W., New Haven, Box 748. Morse, H. S., Putnam. Mortimer, Edmund, Grafton, Mass. Morton, E. G., Broad Brook, R. D. Morris, F. S., Wethersfield. Morse, C. Z., Shelton. Moses, A. A., Unionville. Moshier, Charles A., Waterbury, R. D. Mosley, A. W., Glastonbury. Moss, A. E., Ag'l Exp. Station, New Haven. Mowry, Albert J., Centerdale, R. I. Moss, J. W., West Cheshire. Mueller, C. J., Berlin. Munson, W. M., Huntington, Mass. Munson, R. A., Highwood, Station 4, Murphy. John, Newtown. Nellis,'Chas. M., Meriden, 275 W. Main st. Nelson, Ole, Shelton. Nettleton, H. I., Durham. Nettleton, J. N., Meriden. Neuhauser, Frank A., Farming- ton. Newberry, Leslie W., Hartford, 50 State st. Newton, Clarence R., Westville, R. F. D. No. 2. Newton, Robertson & Co., Hartford. Newton, W. P., South Kent. Nightingale, L. J., New York, 30 Church st. Noble, H. C, New Britain. Northrop, Arthur W., Ridge- field. Nott, M. A., Middletown, R. F. D. No. 1. Musante, Peter J., Bridgeport, 125 Middle st. Oehler, Paul, Jr., Bristol. Olcott, W. H., South Man- chester. Olds, A. A., Hartford, 252 Lau- rel St. O'Meara, Edward P., New Ha- ven. Osborn. Chas., New Britain, R. D. 2. Ott, Fred, Cheshire, R. F. D. Overend, Walter E., Worcester,. Mass., 522 Cambridge st. Owen, Robert B., Cheshire. Owen, S. S., Danburv, Starr Plain. Paddock, J.' H., Wallingford, East Main street. Page, B. F., Northford, R. F. D. Pardee, E. L, Cheshire. Pardee, G. F., Cheshire. Parker, G. A., Hartford. Parker, John B., Jr., Poquon- ock. Patterson, Arthur E., Middle- town. Patch, A. Warren, Boston, Mass., 17 No. Market st. Patten, D. W., Clintonville. Patterson, B. C, Torrington. Patterson, George B., West Redding. Paul, A. Russell, Framingham, Mass. Pauley, Geo. A., New Canaan. Payne, Frank C, Portland. Payne, Lyman, Portland, Pease, C. T., Ellington. Peasley, Fredk. M., Water- bury. LIST OF MEMBERS. 235 Peck. Dr. Chas. H-., Newtown (30 W. 50th St., New York) Peck, Henry B., Northfieh!. Peck, J. H., Hawle3a'ille Perkins, Thos. C, Hartford, 36 Pearl st. Pero, Louis, South Glaston- bury. Perry Chas. M., Southbury. Peters, Henry D., Oighwood. Peters, Thomas, Cheshire. Peters, Wm. T., Cheshire. Phelan, Franklin V., Vernon. Phelps, E. J., Enfield. Phelps, Francis. West Hartford Phelps, Mrs. E. J. Enfield. Phelps, G. N., East Haddam. Phenix, Wm., Aleriden, Corri- gan ave. Pickard, P. W., Hopedale, Mass. Pierce, Mrs, I. E., Bristol. Pierpont, A. B., Waterbury. Pierpont, W. L., Waterbury. Pitkin, A. C, Talcottville. Plant, A. B., Branford. Plant, Albert E., Branford. Plant, Alfred, West Hartford, Box 447. Plant, R. U., Branford. Piatt, Frank N., Milford. Piatt, Frank S., The, Co., New Haven, Phtt, Geo. F., Milford. Piatt, N .S., 395 Whalley av- enue. New Haven. Piatt, William F., Milford. Plump, Chas. H., West Red- ding. Pomeroy, E., Windsor. Pond F. H., Terryville, Pond. G. H., New Haven. 61 Lake Place. Porter, G. B., Waterbury. Porter, Marshall, Hebron. Potter, H. F., North Haven. Powell, E. C, Springfield, Mass. Potts, J. H., Dr., New Britain. Pratt, B. G., 50 Church street. New York. Pratt, O. M., Plymouth, N. H. Price, Walter E., Warehouse Point. Pring, Geo. H., Wallingford. Pring, ThOs. J., Wallingford. Putnam, J. H., Litchfield. Quinlivan, J, W., Wallingford, North Orchard st. Race, R. H., North Egremont, Mass. Read, G. P., New York City, 199 Duane st. Redick, L. L., Newington Cen- ter. Reed, Horace B., Greenwich. Reid, Mrs. William R., Hart- ford, 48 Oak St. Rengerman, Wm., East Gran- by. Reynolds, C. C, Slocum, R. L Rhodes, J. L, Tolland. Rice, J. L., Ludlow, Mass., R. E. D. Rice, James F., Plantsville. Rice, J. W., Wilbraham, Mass. Rice, L. W., Wilbraham, Mass. Rich, A. E., Rockville, R. F. D. Rich, C. A., Cheshire. Richardson, J. H., Thornton, R. L, R. F. D. Ritch, B. R., South Woodstock. Riddick, M., Woodstock. Risley, Chas. R., Silver Lane. Roberts, Earl C, Middletown, R. F. D. No. 2. Roberts, E. J., Middletown. Roberts, Silas W., Middle- town, R. F. D. No. 2. 236 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL. SOCIETY. Roberts, Theo., Riverton. Robertson, Lafayette J., Jr., Manchester Green. Robertson, L. J., Manchester Green, Robertson, Ole W., Forestville. Robinson, W. C., Columbia. Rockwell, F. P., East Windsor Hill. Rogers, F. D., Monson, Mass. Rogers, James Simsbury. Rogers, Harold M., Southing- ton. Rogers, Miss Katherine R., New Canaan. Rogers, M. P., West Cornwall. Rogers, Thomas W., New London. Rogers, Mrs. Thos. W., New London. Rooke, J. R., Bloomfield. Rouse, A. D'., Warehouse Point. Rowe, H. R., Newington Cen- ter. Rowe, J. G., Wethersfield. Rowe, J. Scofield, Hartford, 211 Fern st. Russell, B. L, West Cheshire, R. D. No. 2. Russell, S., Jr., Middletown. Ryder, CD., Danbury. Ryther, Orman E., Hartford. 426 Asylum st. Sanderson, Lucien, New Ha- ven. Sanford, Henry C, Bridgewat- er. Sargent, F. D., West Cheshire. Savage, A. B., Meriden. 27 A Liberty st. Savage Clarence H., Storrs. Savage, Willis L, Berlin. Schaap, Peter L., Meriden, Box 318. Schlosser, Dr. R. O., Collins- ville, R. F. D. No. 45. Schmidt, E., New Canaan. Schreiber, Thomas, Southbury. Schrier, Chas. J., Mattapan, Mass., 15 Massasoit st. Schwab, Chas., Yalesville. Schwink, J. G., Jr., Meriden. Scoville, L J., Plainville. Scoville, S. R., West Cornwall. Sears, Prof. F. C, Amherst, Mass. Sears, P. A., Slmwood. Sears, W. M., Stamford. Segur, Dr. Gideon C, Hartford. 67 Farmington ave. Seibert, Phillip, New Britain, Seward, Arthur L, Durham Center. Sexton, P. G., Darien. Shedd, G. V., Preston. Sheldon, A. J., Norwich. R. D. 1 Sheehan, Edward A., New Haven, 605 Orange St. Shepard, S. A., Hartford. Shepardson, W. M., Middle- bury. Sherwood, J. Arthur, Long Hill, R. D. Sherwood, N. H., Southport. Siggins, William H., South Manchester. Simpson, W. A., Wallingford. Sisson Drug Co., Hartford. Skilton, Earl W., Terryville. Skinner, M. G., Higganum. Slater, Geo. H., Glastonbury, R. F. D. Smart, Geo. W., Silver Lane. Smith, E. M., East Hartford. 65 Olmsted st. Smith. Dr. F. Milton, New York City, 40 E. 41st st. Smith, Edward A., Hebron. LIST OF MEMBERS. 237 Smith, Fred A., Ipswich, Mass. Smith, E. W., Cheshire. Smith, Geo. V., Willington. Smith, G. W., Hartford, Box 38. Smith, Hvman F., West Hart- ford. ' Smith, J. EHot, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Smith, J. H., Hartford, 249 Fairfield avenue. Smith, Dr. L. A., Higganurti. Smith, L. P., Burnside, Box 3. Smith, M. B., Hartford. 288 Asylum street. Smith, Xelson E., East Hart- ford, 65 Olmsted st. Smith, R. M., Nev/ Britain, 50 Garden st. Smith, S. A., Cheshire. Soby, Charles, Hartford, 855 Main street. Spaulding, Geo. F.. Newton Center, Mass. Spencer, Henry, Haddam. Spicer, G. W., Deep River. Spicer, Mrs. G. W., Deep River, Stannard, E. H., Wilton. Stauss, Martin, Rockville. Staples, G. W., Hartford. Stack, G. M., Still River. Stark, W. H., Chester, Mo. Steere, Enoch M,, Chepachet, R. I. Steere, Sayles B., Chepachet, R. I. Steinberg, Carl, Terryville. Sterling, S. P., Lyme, R. F. D. Stevens, A. T., Storrs. Stevens, C. T., North Haven, R. D. Stevens, H. C, East Canaan. iSt. John, D. A., New Canaan. Stanley, Theodore A., New Brit- ain. Sto'cking, W. A. & Son, Wea- togue. Stocking, Wilbur F., Stratford, R. F. D. 13. Stockwell, S. T., West Sims- bury. Stoddard, E. M., New Haven, Experiment Station. Stoddard, Jos. E., Abington. Storrs, Benj. P., Cheshire. Stoughton, Geo. A., Thomaston. Stoughton, Lemuel, Ware- house Point. Stout, J. R., Newark, N. J., c/o Sherwin-Williams Co. Street, S. H., New Haven, 33 Crown St. Strumpf, George, Burnside. Sumner, G. H., Woodstock. Sweet, Mrs. Alice E., Berlin. Taber, F. J., South Windham. Tanner, Walter C, Volun- town. Taylor, Edward J., Southport. Taylor, J. M., Kensington. Terrell, C. L., Cheshire. Terry, F. E., Forestville. The Elm City Nursery Co., New Haven. The J. T. Robertson Co., Alan- chester. The Sherwin-Williams Co., Newark, N. ]., Brown st. and Lister ave. The Sterling Chemical Co., Cambridge, Mass. The Vreeland Chemical Co., Little Falls, N. J. Thomas, W. S., Groton. Thompson, Chas. A., Melrose. Thompson, Chas. B.. Moodus. Thompson, Chas. J., Berlin. 238 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Thompson, M. E., Ellington. Thompson, W, H., East Had- dam. Thomson, Jared B., Monterey, Mass. Thomson, W. B., Hartford, 36 Lewis St. Tiley, C. B., New Haven, 82 Trumbull st. Tillinghast, G. G., Vernon. Tillinghast, W. E., Vernon. Tillotson, E. W., Farmington. Tobin, T. J., Southington. Todd, E. A., Waterbury, R. F. D. Todd, Mrs. E. W., New Ca- naan, R. F. D. No. 31. Toland, Ralph, La Crosse, Wis. Tolles, L. G., Southington, Box 256. Tomlinson, R. D., Danbury. Tomlinson, W. F. Danbury. Tomlinson, W. G., Southbury. Toth, A. M., Wallingford, R. D. 2. Toth, John, Jr., Wallingford, R. D. 2. Tracy, M. E., Orange. Treadwell, J. H., Danbury, R. F. D. Trischman, G. W., Middle- field. Tucker, J. H., Providence, R. I., 128 Merser st. Tucker, F. E., Vernon. Tuller, O. D., West Simsbury. Turney, Oliver, Fairfield. Tuttle, A. N., Warren, Mass. Tuttle, S. L., Wallingford. Tyler, S. A., Meriden, 546 East Main st. Underwood, R. F., Mount Tom, Mass. Upson, Waldo L., Meriden, Ea- ton ave. Usher, R. C, Plainville. Viets, R. B., New Britain. Vine Hill Farm, Elmwood. Wakeman, John S., Westport. Wakeman, S. B., Saugatuck. Wallace, E. J., Wallingford, West Quinnipiac street. Walden, B. H., Experiment Station, New Haven. Waldo, Gerald, Willimantic. Waldo, Harold B., Glastonbury. Walker, Geo. C, Waterburv. Walker, C H., Jr., West Sims- bury. Waller, W. E., R. D., Chest- nut Hill, Bridgeport. Walther, Louis J., New Britain. Warncke, Louis H., Cannon Station. Warner, E. C, Clintonville. Warner, Everett E., Highwood, Warner, Lewis E., Highwood. Watrous, J. L., Meriden. Webster, A. E., Beriin. Webster, W. J., Berlin. Weed, T. L., New Britain. Welch, G. H., Torrington. Welch, M. J., Bristol. Wells, Dudley, 2d, Wethers field. Wells, W. A., Middletown, R. D. 1. Westbrook, Richard Ward, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1145 Dean St. Welton, Ard, Terryville. | Wiard, F. S., Yalesville. ? Wiggin, Mrs. C. D., Provi^ dence, R. I., 40 Princetoil avenue. | Wilber, O. V., Meriden, Bol 833. \ I LIST OF MEMBERS. 239 Wilcox, L. C, Guilford. Wilcox, Louis E.,' Meriden, 44 Windsor ave. Wilcox, Paul P., Durham. Wilcox, R. C. & Sons, Guil- ford. Wiley, Clarence H., Hartford. 122 Collins street. Wiley, C. W,, Manchester Green. Wilkes, Geo. E., East Hampton. Wilkins, Edward H., Middle- town. Wilson. Samuel, Waterburv, R. F. D. 4. Willard, S. F., Wethersfield. Williams, A. W., Nev/ Britain. Williams, F. B., Naugatuck. Winsor, Thos. K., Greenville, R. I. Wheeler, Chas. A., Storrs. Wheeler, Wilfrid, Concord, Mass. White, E. D., Andover. Whittlesey, J. M., Morris. Wolcott, R. R., Wethersfield. Woodin, E. P., West Cheshire, R. F. D. Wooding. D. C, Waterbury, R. D. . Wooding, E. M., ClintonviUe. Woodruff, R. H., Guilford. Woodruff, Rollin S., New Ha- ven. Woodward, Madison, Columbia. Woodworth, E. H., South Cov- entry. Wooster, Fred A,, New Britain. 118 Camp street. Young, C. O., Yalesville. Young, C. B., Yalesville. Zala, B., Glastonbury. |iMiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiininiiii)MiiHiiHiiii[iiimiiiimniiiiniiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiii(iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuM • • «i o -IK ti • e* 1 1 " I AUG131S15 I C^U4 siHiMiiiiiiniiimiiiiiHiiiiiiiiMiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiniinniiiiiuiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiynimniiiiiiiiuiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii; is book m T r, and NTS a . dav ind m Oh w p^ H ©imesliciUit V il iLu^a.]l With pTOcnorlTOT:?3 of llhe 'wDBty ■ioairiia Aeeuaal Me© Ling Published by The Connecticut Pomological Society 1915 OFFICERS OF THE Connecticut Pomological Societ)^ FOR 1915 President STANCLIFF HALE, South Glastonbury. Vice-President GEORGE W. STAPLES, West Hartford. Secretary HENRY C. C. MILES, Milford Treasurer MINOR IVES, South Meriden. County Vice-Presidents Hartford— LEWIS C. ROOT, Farmington. New Haven— A. T. HENRY, Wallingford. Fairfield- GEORGE A.. DREW, Greenwich. Litchfield— E. D. CURTIS, Litchfield. New London— F. W. BROWNING, Norwich. Middlesex -HENRY H. LYMAN, Middlefield. Windham— E. E. BROWN, Pomfret Center. Tolland— CLARENCE H. SAVAGE, Storrs. Standing Committees Legislation. C. L. Gold, West Cornwall. Henry H. Lym.^n, Middlefield. J. NoRRis B.vRNES, Yalesvillc. Membership. J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. Frank N. Platt, Milford. Harold Young, Yalesville. Injurious Insects. Dr. W. E. Britton, New Haven. Prof. G. H. Lamson, Storrs. H. B. Reed, Greenwich. Finance. E. Rogers, Southington. J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. N. S. Platt, New Haven. Publicity (and Co-operative Work.) G. W. Staples, Hartford. A. W. Manchester, Litchfield. H. C. C. Miles, Milford. H. J. Baker, Storrs. Howard F. Huber, New Haven. Exhibitions. Sherman P. Hollister, Storrs. L. C. Root, Farmington. Prof. A. G. Gulley, Storrs. W. H. Baldwin, Cheshire. E. E. Brown, Pomfret Center. Fungous Diseases. Dr. G. p. Clinton, New Haven. A. T. Henry, Wallingford. H. E. Cl.ark, Middlebury. Neiv Fruits. Prof. A. T. Stevens, Storrs. John R. B.\rnes; Yalesville. Paul M. Hubbard, Bristol. Markets and Transportation. Charles E. Lyman, Middlefield. J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury. A. N. Farnham, Westville. Auditors. J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. G. W. Staples, Hartford. Contents. Proceedings : Page President's Address 2 Secretary's Report 3 Reports of Standing Committees: On Membership 10 On New Fruits 10 On Legislation and Publicity 11 On Markets and Transportation 13 On Exhibitions 15 Discussion on Reports: Changing Time of Annual Meeting 18 Changes in Deer Laws 20 Proposed Apple Law 21 Report of Committee on Injurious Insects. Dr. W. E. Britton 23 Fungous Diseases in Connecticut in 1914. Dr. G. P. Clinton.. 28 Nut Culture 40 Fertilizers and Cover Crops for Fruits and Vegetables. Dr. H.J.Wheeler 42 Some Plant Food Problems. Dr. E. H. Jenkins 65 Discussion of the Question List 70 Tools for Orchard Cultivation 70 "Baldwin Spot" 70 Soluble Sulphur 72 Grafting Small Apple Trees .• 72 "Black Leaf 40" in Spray for Wooll.v Aphis 73 Controlling the Peach Borer 74 Best Red Apples for Fruit Stand Trade 75 Appointing of Nominating Committee 76 The College Orchards and Notes on the Varieties of Apples Grown. S. P. Hollister 77 The Relation Between the Farmer and the Railroad. President Howard Elliott 84 Horticultural Experience and Prophecies. H. W. Collingwood. 92 Discussion of the Question List 107 Barnyard Manure for Apple Orchards 107 Spraying Program for Apple Scab 108 Right Time to Pick Apples 109 Does Spraying Help to Color Apples? 110 Best Orchard Tools for Low-headed Trees Ill Best Commercial Varieties of Peaches 112 Most Practical Fruit Grader 112 Proposed Legislation Affecting the New England Fruit Grow- ers. Wilfrid Wheeler 115 Results of the Maine Apple Law. W. H. Conant „125 Results of New York Apple Law. L. L. Morrell and A. C. King 127 Discussion on Apple Legislation 131 Report of the Treasurer 138 BY-LAWS. The Treasurer shall give a bond in the sum of $2,000, the ex- pense of same to be paid by the Society. 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 meetings of the Society, to fill all vacancies which may occur in its officers between the annual meet- ings, and to have general management of the aflfairs of the Society. Article VI — It shall be the duty of the County Vice-Presidents to actively represent the Society in its various lines of work in their re- spective counties, to arrange for at least one meeting of the Society in their county during the year, and to report to the Society from time to time the progress of the fruit growing industry in their respective sections of the State. Article VII — The Committee on Legislation shall inform them- selves 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 intro- duced by others, which directly or indirectly affect the interests of the fruit-grower. Article VIII — The Committee on Membership, with the co-oper- ation of the County Vice-Presidents, shall bring the work of the So- ciety to the attention of the fruit-growers throughout the State, and, by such means as they deem best, strive to increase the membership. Article IX — 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 X — It shall be the duty of the Committee 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 mem- bers as far as possible, and, when necessary, promptly lay before the Society timely information on these subjects. Article XI — The Committee on New Fruits shall investigate and collect such information in relation to newly-introduced varieties of fruits as is possible, and report the same to the Society, with sugges- tions as to the value of the varieties for general cultivation. Article XII — The Committee on Markets and Transportation shall inform themselves as to the best method 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 XIII — The Society will adopt the nomenclature of the American Pomological Society. Article XIV — These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the members present at any regular meeting. HJiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin jf the . th A: ^3/ 'O^^^li^iL i^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin Opening Day, February 2, 1915. IN compliance with the provisions of its constitution and according to arrangements made by the Executive Committee, the Connecticut Pomological Society convened for its twenty-fourth annual meeting at Foot Guard Hall, Hartford, Tuesday, February 2, 1915. The Executive Committee decided on a three-days' meeting this year, and the Connecticut Vegetable Growers' Association were again invited to hold their annual meeting in combination with that of the Pomological Society, As in 1914, this plan worked out very successfully, and the result was the largest horticultural convention ever held in the state, and the verdict of the members of both organizations was that it even proved to be the best and most profitable in their history. The early forenoon of Tuesday was devoted to arrang- ing the fine display of fruits exhibited in competition for the splendid list of prizes offered, and the staging of the vege- table growers' excellent show of vegetable products. As usual, the stage was attractively decorated with palms and 2 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. flowers, and a display of choice Connecticut apples packed in boxes and baskets. The large hall on the lower floor was given up to the "Trade Exhibits" and every bit of room was occupied with a larger and more comprehensive display than ever. Almost everything used by the fruit grower, from the largest power spraying machine to a pair of pruning shears, was on exhibi- tion, and formed a very attractive feature of the convention. A goodly number of members were present when the opening session was called to order by President Stancliflf Hale of Glastonbury, at 11 o'clock Tuesday morning, Feb- ruary 2nd. At the same hour the Vegetable Growers' Association were holding a separate session in an adjoining room. The very cold and stormy weather, which blocked transportation lines into the city, prevented the usual large attendance on the opening day, but at subsequent sessions the attendance was fully up to the record of previous years. President's Address. President Hale : Members of the Connecticut Pomo- logical Society : Your program calls for an address by the President. That seems to me to be entirely superfluous. There might be some little personal gratification in it for a man who is a good orator or who had some message to give you. Concerning the year 1914 I find a diversity of opinion and experience ; one grower says he had a mighty good year, another says it was mighty poor; there does not seem to be any uniformity about it. As for the year 1915, if there is any truth in the old adage that limbs loaded with ice mean a fruitful year, we should have abundant crops, for in Glas- tonbury we have had four attacks of ice storms. I want to call your attention to a letter published in the Hartford Courant following our meeting held here last year, and criticising the conduct of our meeting, and I want to TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 3 emphasize the sentiments expressed therein, because we do labor under difficulties here in trying to conduct our busi- ness, see the exhibits and give proper attention to what is being said by the speakers. I mean that time enough should be given during these sessions for everyone to see the fruit and vegetable exhibits, and that there should be time enough for reasonable visiting and conferences with each other, but in fairness to all, the public and ourselves and the speakers, it is not asking too much that you do your share to keep things as orderly as possible, and refrain from moving about or making unneces- sary noises during the speaking. If this is not done it may react vipon us. Some time when we go to the legislature and ask for an appropriation, some of those gentlemen who have been here and found things conducted in such a way as is referred to in the Courant clipping may make such ref- erence to it that it won't do us any good. The first report on the program is that of the Secretary, H. C. C. Miles. Secretary's Report. Mr. President and Members of the Society' Another year has added its page to the record of achieve- ment of our organization, and we are again assembled to consider the problems and possibilities of a new year. Like those in other lines of business, the farmer and fruit grower has had his share of disappointments during 1914. Owing to unfavorable weather conditions during the winter and summer, with which you are all familiar, our first crops were not as abundant nor as large size nor as high grade as they should have been. With most growers, the crop of peaches and apples, the two main commercial fruits of the state, was considerably less than in a full crop year. And yet, taken as a whole, the state produced much good fruit of excellent quality that found a ready demand 4 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. in nearby home markets. Probably less fruit was shipped outside the state than in previous years. The planting of commercial orchards and the produc- tion of fruits has been going on at a rapid pace all over Con- necticut in recent years, and little needs to be said or done to further encourage this side of the industry. Organiza- tions like this society have done much to demonstrate the possibilities of fruit growing in this state, whose advantages are second to those of no other section of the country. What we now face and need to consider, it seems to me, is better methods of packing our fruit and a plan of organized mar- keting and distribution. To grow a crop successfully is only half the battle. To market that crop at paying prices is fully as important, and the final test of the business of fruit growing. The new apple packing law that is being proposed is an important step in this direction, and if car- ried out should lead to better business methods and the packing and marketing under organization brands. Perhaps never before have so many agencies been at work for the benefit of the farmer; all are aiming, no doubt, to bring about great changes for the betterment of agriculture, but should not greater emphasis be given to improving the mar- keting end of the industry, so that the farmer may receive his rightful share of the "consumer's dollar"? That closer relation between the city and the country that is now being realized is a splendid thing and a most encouraging sign, and promises to result in extending a spirit of mutual help- fullness and financial aid from the business man to the farmer. Looking back on the past year, we may fairly say that our society has made progress in the accomplishment of the objects for which it was organized. No new lines of work have been undertaken, but most of our regular fea- tures of activity have been maintained and strengthened. In the matter of Membership the society is holding well up to its usual mark, but we are unable to report any appreciable gain. We started the year TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 5 with 844 members in good standing"; 106 new members were added during the year to February 1st, 1915, making a total of 950 names on the roll for the past year — 67 of these are life members. Six members have died since the last report was made. One member has been dropped by request. One hundred and fifty-eight members have, up to date, failed to renew their memberships for the past year, and deducting these losses, as our By-Laws provide, makes the present number of paid-up members 785. This yearly loss of some of our members is to be re- gretted and hard to account for. It is not because the society fails to do its part, but appears to be simply the result of neglect on the part of these members. It would seem a short-sighted policy for any fruit grower to desert the society at this time, for now, if ever, we all need the help of the organization, and ought to support it willingly. I trust our membership committee will have some plan for a more active membership campaign this coming year, and also that every present member will assist in this work by bringing at least one new member this year, so that we may reach and go far beyond the one thousand mark in 1915. The fact that we have of late held less Institute Meet- ings and Summer Field Meetings has had its effect in cut- ting down the annual gain in membership. Finances. From February 1st, 1914, to February 1st, 1915, I have received and paid to the Treasurer : From annual membership fees $749.00 From life membership fees 100.00 From sales of fruit at exhibitions 108.50 From rental of exhibition space 235.00 $1,192.50 I have drawn orders for the payment of bills to the amount of $2,950.62. 6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. This expenditure is classified under the fono\vin.Cf heads : Annual meeting of 1914 $556.31 Premiums paid, annual meeting fruit show 304.25 Annual Report 597.87 Annual Fall Exhibit: General expenses $151.06 Premiums paid 580.06 731.12 Field meetings 37.47 Institute work 1 50.00 Secretary's office: Salary, balance year 1913 $100.00 Salary on account year of 1914 150.00 Expenses and supplies 138.57 388.57 Expenses, President's office 15.90 Expenses, Treasurer's office 19.26 Miscellaneous printing, postage and stationery 109.73 Sundry expenses 40.14 $2,950.62 Meetings and EiXhibitioins. In addition to the annual meeting and fruit show in February, which excelled any previous annual, the society held two field meetings and two exhibitions during the year. The field meeting at the Agricultural College, July 22nd and 23rd, was a notable event, and was enjoyed by a large number of our members. It has become our custom to hold a gathering at the college about once in two years, and the visit always proves exceedingly pleasant and profit- able. The amount of knowledge gained in our visits can hardly be estimated at its full value. The past season the college conducted a series of field meetings, comprising all agricultural organizations of the state, and the results must prove very beneficial, both to the college and to the farmers who availed themselves of the opportunit}^ The second field meeting was held at the home farm of Mr. Charles G. Bliss, in Essex, August 18th. Owing to unfa- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 7 vorable weather conditions, the attendance was not large, but those who. were present saw a fruit farm, newly estab- lished in one of the beauty spots of Connecticut, overlook- ing the Connecticut River, and enjoyed the hospitality of one of our most enthusiastic members and fruit growers. The society had its usual display of peaches at the Con- necticut Fair, Charter Oak Park, the first week in Septem- ber. While show peaches were not abundant last season, yet, with the co-operation of a few of our largest growers, we were able to stage a fine show that did us credit and proved a notable feature of the big horticultural exhibition at this fair, which is making horticulture a stronger feature than most of the other fairs. The State Fair at Berlin was again the scene of our annual exhibition of fruits, and the time was September 30th to October 2nd, when the fall fruits were at their best. This exhibition was fully up to the standard set by exhibits of previous years, both in quantity and fine quality of the fruit shown. A wonderful improvement in the fruit shown by those of our members who exhibit from year to year is to be seen, thus demonstrating the value of these shows and the profit to be derived by participating in them. The general pub- lic is also being educated by means of these exhibitions, and the entire fruit-growing industry of the state gains thereb3^ The amount of premiums awarded at the exhibi- tion was $581.75. Full details of the event will be given you in the report of the exhibition committee. It has been suggested that a larger show, especially of apples, and better results could be gained if the annual exhi- bition was to be deferred until later in the season, say, late November or in December, and changing the time of the annual meeting so as to combine the two events. A big event of this kind properly planned and carried out would undoubtedly be of immense value to commercial fruit grow- ing in our state. 8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Institute Work. As has been the case for several years past, the society has carried on no institute meetings of its own, but has been represented on the Advisory Board of Institute Work, which directs and conducts the institutes of the state. This season the experiment is being tried of having the Exten- sion Department of our Agricultural College manage the institutes under the direction of the Institute Board. Our society, however, . reserves the right to hold purely fruit growers' institutes under its own auspices whenever the opportunity arises, and it is hoped that several such meet- ings may be carried out in the more important fruit-growing centers of the state this winter and spring. There is no bet- ter way for the society to get in close touch with those inter- ested in fruit culture and aid them in their business. Dem- onstrations in fruit packing and spraying might well be features of such institutes. In spite of the multiplicity of organizations and agencies for the aid of agriculture, there is just as real a need for such a society as ours as ever there was — ^our pioneer and mission- ary work have largely been done, it may be, but in develop- ing and protecting the business side of fruit growing lies our future usefulness. We need to get closer together in a business way, to co-operate in every possible manner, but especially in buy- ing and selling — in short, to learn tO' work together for our mutual interests rather than to strive alone for the indi- vidual interest. After nearly twenty-five years of organization, is there any body of farmers that ought to be better prepared to work together in a business-like way and improve and pro- tect themselves at every point? The times are ripe for a decisive step forward along co- operative lines. If your officers perfect the plans, will you members — growers, large and small — support them heartily and avail yourselves of the benefits? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. g At this season we are in the midst of the meetings of horticultural and agricultural societies, farmers' institutes and conventions in which farmers are interested. These meetings are of tremendous value. To attend them is worth much more than the cost of the trip. Every farmer should attend the annual meeting of the society in which he is most interested. It will broaden his viewpoint, and en- able him to get a better look at his own farm and his own home, as well as to learn how his neighbor does things. It is the earnest hope of those who have planned this meeting, with its many features, that it may give pleasure and profit to every fruit grower, market gardener, farmer and city man or woman who attends, and at its close, we may all feel thoroughly repaid for coming. Let me, as your Secretary, thank the members for their kind co-operation in the past and extend best wishes for a season of prosperity in the year to come. Respectfully submitted, H. C. C. MILES, Milford, Conn., Secretary. February 1st, 1915. Secretary Miles: While we have 950 total member- ship, perhaps I ought to say that 158 of our members have not renewed for 1914, and unless we can induce those members to remain with us we shall be obliged to cut them oflf our list, according to our rules.* President Hale: You don't send the report to any of those who have not paid their 1914 dues? Secretary Miles : No. We keep the member on the list a full year, giving him notice of all the meetings, tickets to * Since the annual meeting 40 of the 158 unpaid members for 1914 have been heard from, either with renewals or requests to be dropped from the roll, thus making the number to be deducted for the past year about 100. — Secretary. lO THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. our exhibition, and so on. We do not send him the annual report until he has paid his annual fee, which I think is fair. I am able to get most of them to renew, because they appre- ciate the annual report and are willing- to pay the dollar, which they think it is well worth. The report of the Secretary was voted accepted and ordered printed. President Hale : The report of the Treasurer will have to be deferred until to-morrow morning, as Mr. Putnam cannot be here until then. Reports of Standing Committees. Report of Committee on Membership. Mr. Minor Ives: I don't know that I have any report to make except that I am busy taking in memberships, and that is what I like. 1 think the Secretary has made report enough, and I hope that all who attend this meeting will be sure to become members or renew expiring member- ships. President Hale : I have no doubt the report of your committee will show more in the number of memberships than in anything you might say. Next we will have the report of the Committee on New Fruits by Prof. A. T. Stevens, Storrs, Chairman. Report of Committee on New Fruits. There have been numerous varieties brought before us this past year that we would not care to say anything about ; and I don't know but what we are a bit sorry for some things we have said about varieties commented on by us in the past. The reports of our committee, I find, are being very thoroughly searched for information as to new varieties, and we are being regarded so much as a guid- ing star in this field that I think we ought to be a little more TWENTY-FOVKTH ANNUAL MEETING. u careful perhaps than we have been in the past. I wrote a short time ago to Mr. Barnes and Mr. Hubbard, the other members of the committee, but as I have heard nothing from them, I presume, even with their great opportunities, that nothing of importance has come to their attention. About the only thing I can say as to new varieties is that in our blackberry plantation Mersereau has not done very well. It is very much addicted to the attacks of the orange rust, which I think is very objectionable. I can say also that the St. Regis "ever-bearing" red raspberry on our plantation does not warrant the title "ever-bearing." It cannot be spoken of as ever-bearing any more than the Phoe- nix or Cuthbert. Perhaps it did ripen a few days before the Phoenix, and might have continued a few days after- ward, but as far as having any crop on any small bushes is concerned, I do not think there is any better chance with it than with some of the established varieties. And if any of the members of the society are hoping to get a red rasp- berry to last from April to December they should be a little careful in making their selection. We will have to wait a little for that. The report was accepted and ordered printed. Report of Committee on Legislation and the Publicity Committee. By C. L. Gold, Chairman. The principal matter that has come before the Legis- lative Committee is the bill in regard to grading and brand- ing apples. Doubtless it will be further discussed at this meeting, and perhaps some committee will be appointed to consider the matter and endeavor to whip the proposed law into better shape, so that it will be satisfactory to those interested throughout the state. I think it is a matter of high importance, and I hope we can do something about the bill, which has already been introduced into the legislature, that it can be amended to make it more satisfactorv. Your 12 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. State Entomologist has introduced two bills in regard to the gypsy and brown tail moth. He will discuss that mat- ter this afternoon, and when that is done we would likewise ask this meeting to pass a resolution endorsing all these bills and urging the legislature to pass them. I think they are very important indeed, and affect the fruit growers as much as any people in the state perhaps. Your committee has also introduced a bill asking for an appropriation of $2,000 for the biennial New England Fruit Show, which has been held in Boston. Some people may think that we are having too many fruit shows, but the apple business is very prominently before the people, and I think everything that can reasonably be done should be done to keep up the interest in these matters. We can certainly learn a lot by attending these fruit shows and observing what others are doing. The other New England States are forging ahead, and Connecticut has got to get busy if she is going to keep in the race. I think that is all we have done in regard to legislation. Regarding the Publicity Committee, I am sorry to say that your committee, as far as I know, has done nothing. It is a mistake. I hope your President may appoint a com- mittee this coming year that will take hold of that matter. There is a large opportunity for someone who has the time and the ability to work up the matter of more co-operation and unity in the buying of our fertilizers and supplies, and also looking up markets for our products. I don't know but what the Publicity Committee and the Marketing Com- mittee might to some extent come together. There is an opportunity for a large amount of work for someone who has the time and ability to give to it. I would like to ask that the President consider that matter pretty thoroughly, and appoint a new committee on publicity another year. Secretary Miles : Will you add to your report a few remarks about the deer bill? Mr. Gold: Any quantities of bills have been intro- duced into the legislature in regard to the control, destruc- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 13 tion and care of the deer ; and we, as horticulturists and pomologists, surely ought to be in favor of having the deer curbed quickly and effectively. I hope that some resolu- tion can be passed here that will tend to encourage the adoption of a proper law by the legislature ; and as a mem- ber of the legislative committee I should be very glad to appear before the legislative committee having the matter in charge at the capitol to urge the adoption of some posi- tively drastic law. The deer are getting altogether too plentiful. Reports of Committees on Legislation and Publicity were voted accepted and ordered printed. The report of the Committee on Markets and Transpor- tation was then made by the chairman, Mr. Charles E. Lyman. Report of Committee on Markets and Transportation. The year 1914 will be remembered by the apple and peach growers of Connecticut as particularly unfortunate and disappointing. The low temperatures which prevailed over the state in January and February were very destruc- tive to peach buds, except in a few favored localities. This, added to the unfortunate conditions of drouth arid bad mar- kets at harvest time, produced results which were very dis- couraging. This was especially true in regard to the early varieties of peaches, which came into competition with the southern crop. The European war and the high price of sugar were depressing factors in the market situation. Comparatively little early fruit was sent out of the state. So far as I have information, very little fruit sent to outside markets brought satisfactory prices. When we consider the inferior quality of the fruit, it is not surprising that prices were low. The Elberta crop was particularly short. Those who had them realized fair prices. The experience of this year 14 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. seems to point to the fact that there will be little or no profit to the peach grower unless he raises a superior grade of fruit, particularly in years when there is a large crop pro- duction. It is generally conceded that the 1914 apple crop was one of the largest the country has ever produced. Connecti- cut certainly had a big crop, but I venture to say not in many years have prices be-en so low and the crop so unsat- isfactory. The primary cause of the trouble was drouth. A few growers with young trees well fertilized and cultivated may have had good fruit, but the majority of us have been very much disappointed with our apples this year. Practically all of New England and eastern New York suffered by the unfortunate drouth conditions, and only a small percentage of the apples produced in these sections would grade No. 1. Under the conditions now prevailing, the farmer who has storage of his own and can market his fruit at small expense will probably get tiie best net returns for his fruit. It is my opinion that it will be many years before Con- necticut can produce more apples than her population can consume, not at fancy prices, but at prices the general pub- lic can afford to pay. Report was accepted and ordered printed. The report of the Committee on Exhibitions was pre- sented by Mr. S. P. Hollister, Chairman. Report of the Exhibition Committee. There have been three fruit exhibits the past year, the one in connection with the Annual Meeting held a year ago, the peach exhibit at the Charter Oak Fair, and the regular fall exhibition held at Berlin in connection with the State Fair on September 30th and October 1st and 2nd. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 15 The exhibit of fruit at the Annual Meeting a year ago was not quite as large as that shown the previous year, but it was fully up' to standard in quality. The plate exhibit was very good, and a creditable showing was made of boxes and barrels. Part of the box exhibit had been held in stor- age since the Boston show in November, and it came out in very good shape. The Vegetable Growers had tables along one side of the hall, where a good exhibit was made of win- ter vegetables. At the Charter Oak Fair your committee arranged an exhibit, consisting mainly of peaches, in the center of the large fruit and vegetable exhibition hall. The Fair Asso- ciation wished something attractive, and gave us the best location on the floor, h^our tables eighteen feet long formed a hollow square, and in the center was another table upon which was built up a pyramid, and the top was cov- ered with a solid layer of peaches ; below this were crates of peaches packed for market and also a few boxes of apples. Upon the tables were fancy baskets of fruit, jars of show peaches, and the remaining space was occupied with plates of peaches. Owing to the very cool weather the fruit stood up exceptionally well, and only a part of the exhibit had to be replaced. As last year was a poor peach year, we did not try to make a large variety display. The varieties shown consisted of Champion, Carman, Reeves^ Elberta and Belle of Georgia. The growers who furnished this fruit are Hale, Baldwin, Henry and Drew. The show at Berlin was certainly a good one, especially of apples ; only a few peaches were shown, and not as many pears as were exhibited last year. Nearly one hundred more plates of apples were shown than last year, and the quality was certainly better, showing that the growers are profiting by their experience. The box and barrel classes were nearly all filled. The canned fruit and jellies were of the same high quality and called forth favorable comment from the visitors. The fruit exhibit of the State Fair was held in a tent next to the Pomological Society exhibit, and 1 6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the character of the fruit was much the same in both tents. This is explained by the fact that many of the growers exhibit in both places. The Connecticut Agricultural Col- lege had their usual large exhibit for educational purposes only ; this year there were shown 140 varieties of apples, and as an added attraction, part of a bunch or branch of dates was exhibited. These had been grown in the greenhouse and were edible at the time. Several varieties of apples were shown in boxes. Mr. F. E. Rupert, of Batavia, N. Y., judged the fruit, judging it more from the commercial standpoint than from a score-card, and the growers were pleased with his work. Below is a partial list of the exhibits at Berlin, and the comparisons with last year are interesting: 1913. 1914. Class 1. General collection of fruit, number exhibit- ors 1 1 Class 2. Collection 15 varieties apples, number ex- hibitors 2 3 Class 3. Collection 10 varieties apples, number ex- hibitors 3 4 Class 4. Collection 8 varieties apples, number ex- hibitors 2 2 Class 5. Collection 5 varieties apples, number ex- hibitors 5 6 Class 6. Collection 12 varieties pears, number ex- hibitors 3 1 Class 7. Collection 6 varieties pears, number ex- hibitors 3 4 Class 8. Collection 12 varieties grapes, number ex- hibitors 2 4 Class 9. Collection 6 varieties grapes, number ex- hibitors 4 4 Single plates Mcintosh 22 Single plates Baldwin 21 Single plates King 18 Single plates R. I. Greening 17 Single plates Fall Pippin 15 Single plates Wealthy 15 Single plates Fallawater 14 Single plates Roxbury 14 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 17 Single plates Pound Sweet 12 Single plates Ben Davis 11 Single plates Pecks 11 Single plates Hurlbut 10 Single plates Northern Spy 10 Single plates Sutton 10 Single plates Gravenstein 9 Single plates Wagener 9 Total number plates of apples 371 Total number plates of pears 108 Total number plates of grapes 160 Total number plates of peaches 34 Total number plates of plums 18 Total number plates of all other fruits 56 Total number plates entered for competition 747 1914. 1913. Mcintosh 6 2 boxes Gravenstein 4 1 " Wealthy 2 — " Fall Pippin 2 3 " 14 7 1914. 1913. Barrels Fall Pippin 3 3 Barrels Mcintosh 3 — Barrels Baldwin 2 1 Barrels King - 2 — Barrels R. I. Greening 1 2 Barrels Gravenstein — 1 11 7 Collection 15 varieties canned fruit 3 exhibitors Collection 8 varieties canned fruit 3 " Collection 6 varieties canned berries 3 " Collection 6 varieties canned pickles 2 " Collection 6 varieties jelly 4 " Total number jars of canned fruit and pickles 174 Total number jars of jelly 51 Total number bottles fruit juice 15 240 l8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Some of the results and lessons of the shows as con- ducted by the Pomological Society are : First : Many of the fairs and agricultural societies about the state have used our premium list to a certain ex- tent in making up their lists. Second : The standard of fruit exhibited has raised, in the last few years. (I sometimes wonder if it-has gone so far as to scare some growers from exhibiting). Third : A certain amount of rivalry is developed be- tween the growers. Fourth : One result which is not working out to the advantage of the show is that not enough of the growers are taking the time to put up an exhibit ; they either sell all their fruit or else put it in storage. Now this may be partly the society's fault, especially at the winter meeting and also at the fall meeting. Perhaps the show should come later in the fall, after the crop is harvested and the work has let up a little, also instead of having two shows, have one big one late in November or early in December. In any case, if the Pomological fruit show is to be a success each mem- ber must step in and do his part. Begin in the summer, if need be, and get ready to save some of your best fruit. The society puts out a very liberal premium list, and while it may not pay all your expenses in dollars and cents at the time, it is bound to come back later. So let's all get togeth- er and make the next show the best one ever held by the Pomological Society and show the people of Connecticut — yes, and people from other states — that we can show the goods as well as produce them. Respectfully submitted, S. P. HOLLISTER, Chairman. Report was accepted and ordered printed. President Hale: This is a convenient time if anyone has any resolutions to offer or remarks to make in the way of discussion. The resolutions can be presented now and discussed any time during the meeting. Secretary Miles: One matter I should like to mention — the proposed change of date of our annual meeting. I have no resolution prepared, but I trust some of our mem- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 19 bers will prepare one before our session is over. You prob- ably understand- that if we make this change definitely it will be necessary to change our by-laws. The suggestion is made that a resolution be put before this assembly, giv- ing the Executive Committee power to arrange our next annual meeting, say in December, and combine with it the annual exhibition of the society, and if that experiment proves successful, later on the by-laws can be changed and the plan made permanent. I trust the members will consider this matter. President Hale : Your proposition is simply that the Executive Committee act under suspension of the by-laws? Secretary Miles : Yes. For the first time, if they think wise to attempt it. Mr. E. M. Ives: Does that mean that we would give up co-operating with the annual fall fairs of any of the agri- cultural societies? President Hale : Probably it would keep us from ex- hibiting to any great extent. At the same time, there is no fall exhibition which covers all of our apples. For the fall exhibitions we can get in a few of the summer and early fall apples, peaches and grapes, things of that kind. The idea started, I think, in a meeting of the Executive Committee when we were talking of the probabilities of the. amount of fruit that we would get for this show. It requires consid- erable effort and considerable waste and shrinkage in put- ting up apples in November in the picking season, to try to keep them for this exhibition. The difficulty is not so great, of course, for those of us who are in the business and send- ing apples to the cold storage all the time, but there are a great many people to whom it would be a considerable ex- pense and a considerable bother to send to cold storage, so they don't do it. If we have the show in December, prac- tically every one can keep their fruit at home and put it in shape there. The idea was that it would encourage a great many more people to bring their fruit to the exhibi- tion. There is no greater stimulus. I think, than that some 20 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of us have had in the competition we have seen in the fruit here. It has improved greatly in a few years. Mr. Ives : To be independent, have our own show, under our own direction? President Hale: That is what we propose to do. At the same time, if some fair comes along with a very good proposition to us in the fall, we would consider that, too. Secretary Miles: I would state that we are under no expense when we make our peach show at the Connecticut Fair. They pay us for doing that. We offer no prizes. I take it, we wouldn't if we went to any other fair under this same arrangement. President Hale: Is there any discussion on Mr. Gold's deer bill report? What is the deer bill as put into the Leg- islature now? Mr. Gold: I have not read those that were put in ex- cept the one I introduced. There have been very many in- troduced. I can tell you in a general way of the one I put in. In the first place, it provides for an open season of the first two weeks in December, when anyone can shoot deer. I also provided that those who shoot deer should shoot them in the town where they resided or owned real estate, so that we won't have a horde of fellows from outside towns scat- tering bullets all over our places. I also provided that the owners of real estate, if they found deer doing damage could shoot such deer at any time. I neglected to specify that they should use a shot gun ; simply provided that they shall have the privilege of shooting the deer. President Hale: Did you purposely leave out the limi- tation as to the use of the shot gun? Mr. Gold: I did. I simply said they could kill deer, and stopped there. At the present time we are restricted to the use of the shot gun. That is all right, but the deer isn't always within range of the shot gun ; they get out of range pretty quick. When he starts to run he can run fast. I am perfectly willing that the bill should be amended if it TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 21 is thought desirable, in any way. Whether the bill as I introduced it would get through the committee, I couldn't say. There are any quantities of them that have been intro- duced. I haven't seen the wording of them ; I don't know just what they are. When this bill comes before the committee anyone that is interested, I hope, will take the pains to come before the committee and express their views, and back up the com- mittee in passing some law. Undoubtedly there will be a lot of opposition. People residing in certain parts of the state don't see the deer even, and they don't see the neces- sity of getting rid of them. A few years ago I was in favor of them. Now, on my property, we can scare up a dozen or twenty any day ; there are tracks around my orchards as if there was a flock of sheep there. President Hale : I think Mr. Gold may have trouble in convincing the legislators that only the property owners of a town can kill deer in such town, but who feeds them? I should take issue, I think, on the use of the high power rifle. I have no objection to shooting them with the ordi- nary rifle, but some of those high power rifles would be objectionable. Mr. Gold: They use high power rifles to shoot wood- chucks. They are awfully wicked things. I use a common gun, with common black powder. I wish there' was some law to restrict them, but I don't know how it can be done. President Hale: Mr. Gold referred to the apple grad- ing law which has been introduced into the Legislature, and for which I am responsible, in a measure. As some of you are aware, there have been conferences held by a group of men consisting of commission men, fruit growers, horti- culturists and representatives of allied branches, at the in- stigation of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and repre- senting the different New England States, and the result of these meetings has been the formulating of a bill along the lines of the Maine and New York laws, and with some of the good points of the Sulzer United States law. This bill 22 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. was introduced into the legislatures of three of the Xew England States. It was simply a uniform bill, and it was expected that it would be cut up and picked to pieces and remoulded to suit the conditions of the various states. Printed copies of the bill, as introduced in the legislature of Connecticut, will be in your hands a little later in this session, when we expect to have a full discussion concerning it. At this point the discussion of business was closed, and at twelve o'clock a recess was taken until the afternoon session. I I TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 23 Afternoon Session. The afternoon session was called to order by President Hale at two o'clock, with an attendance much larger than that of the forenoon. President Hale : We are now going to have the reports of Dr. Britton and Dr. Clinton, both of them invaluable to us ; highly important to us in all of our work in the orchards. Dr. Britton will now make his report and give you an ad- dress on "Injurious Insects and Latest Methods for Their Control." Report of Committee on Injurious Insects. By Dr. W. E. Britton, State Entomologist, Chairman. The chief entomological feature of the year has been the discovery of the gypsy moth in a number of towns in eastern Connecticut. The former isolated infestations at Stonington and Wallingford were wholly eradicated, but late in the summer of 1913 a few caterpillars were discov- ered at Stonington. This indicated a reinfestation, and the federal authorities sent scouts to examine surrounding towns, with the result that ten towns were found to contain scattering egg-clusters, one or two in a place. These were destroyed, and in the summer tanglefoot bands were applied to the trees around them. Further scouting has recently been done by the federal force, showing that the pest is now present in eighteen towns, as follows : Windham County — Thompson, Woodstock, Pomfret, Putnam, Killingly, Eastford, Hampton, Brooklyn, Canter- bury, Plainlield, Sterling. New London County — Voluntown, Griswold, Lisbon, Sprague. North Stonington, Stonington, Groton. This wide and scattering spread of the gypsy moth, is considered due to a severe gale from the east which blew 24 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the newly hatched caterpillars long distances, thus infest- ing the towns in western Rhode Island and eastern Con- necticut. During the past few years, the importance of wind- spread as a distributing factor has been established. For- merly this means of distribution was ignored, or was con- sidered negligble. In this gypsy moth work the Bureau of Entomology has expended in Connecticut during 1914 more than $22,400.00. The state funds of $4,000.00, available for the purpose, seems rather small in comparison. Had it not been for the co-operation of the federal authorities, Connec- ticut would now be at a great disadvantage. The state would be thoroughly infested in its eastern portion, but we should not have known it, or, knowing it, would be power- less, without funds, to control it. Connecticut should meet the federal authorities at least half way in this matter. They are willing to co-operate, but cannot be expected to bear the whole burden. There are now before the General Assembly two bills relating to this subject. One of them makes an appropria- tion of $30,000.00 for two years, $5,000.00 becoming imme- diately available. The other was intended to supersede our present law, which it repeals, and also provides that cities, towns and private owners shall suppress these pests on their own land, thus relieving the state of much of the expense of the work in future years, particularly of controlling the brown-tail moth, which soon is bound to cover the state. With an adequate appropriation, the gypsy moth can be held back, so that it will not, for many years at least, spread over the entire state. The prizes offered to school children by the Extension Department of the Connecticut Agricultural College result- ed in the destruction of more than 10,000,000 tent-caterpil- lar egg-clusters, yet in some localities at least, the tent-cat- erpillar was never more abundant than in 1914, and many TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25 apple and wild cherry trees contained from 15 to 25 nests per tree. It is needless to state that they were stripped. There was the usual amount of injury from canker worms in neglected orchards, while the bud-moth and cod- ling-moth in some cases were unusually injurious. The false red-bug (Lygidea mendax Reut.) was rather abundant on young non-fruiting trees at the Station. The bugs suck the sap from the leaves, greatly distorting them. Damage from red-bugs has been reported from the south- west corner of the state for the past three seasons, but we do not know whether the injury there was due to the red- bug or to the false red-bug. Persistent and thorough spray- ing with "Black Leaf 40" is the remedy against both. In some orchards aphids were responsible for consid- erable injury during the season. The rosy apple aphis is found especially on the fruit clusters inside of the head of the tree. The green apple aphis attacks the new shoots and their leaves, and its chief injury consists in checking the growth of young orchard and nursery trees. "Black Leaf 40", or some other form of nicotine solution, is effect- ive against these insects. For the former, a thorough spray- ing is necessary, but for the latter it is frequently more ef- fective if the shoots are bent over and dipped into a pail of the liquid, to which soap has been added. The pear psylla was particularly abundant "in 1914 and caused a blackening of leaves and fruit where the black fungus grew in the honey-dew excreted by the insects. Spraying with lime-sulphur just before the leaves appear is perhaps the best control measure. Yet if this was done, or not done with sufficient thoroughness, and psyllids are abundant, it is quite feasible to spmy with "Black Leaf 40" and soap, in July or August, to clean up the fruit. Every insect hit by the spray will be killed. The San Jose Scale still injures trees in some cases, but it is being reduced by a minute four-winged parasitic fly (Prospaltella perniciosi Tower). This beneficial insect is present in Connecticut and occurs from Massachusetts, 26 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. where .it was first described, as far south as the 13istrict of Columbia. It is also common in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. The cherr}' or pear slug was common late in the fall. This is the larva of a saw-fly which feeds upon the upper surface of the leaves. Spraying with fresh hellebore or with lead arsenate will prevent damage. The currant stem girdler was reported as common in some parts of the state. There is no remedy except to gather and burn the shoots attacked. Though not a fruit insect, the army worm should be mentioned as one of the most important injurious insects appearing throughout the state in 1914, causing considerable damage to crops of corn, millet, grass and grain. As regards nursery stock imported from foreign coun- tries, during the year ending September 30th, 1914, 303 shipments containing 1,477 cases and 1,646,132 plants were inspected. Fifty-eight of these shipments contained insects or plant diseases, some of which are pests. Respectfully submitted, W. E. BRITTON, Chairman. Discussion. A Member: Isn't it expected that the tent caterpillar will be controlled by some parasite, without artificial treat- ment? Dr. Brittoin : The tent caterpillar as a pest abounds but about once in every ten or twelve years. I fully expect- ed that before this time it would be on the wane again. Prob- ably five or six years from now it would be hard to find a nest in the orchards. President Hale: Is there any difference about killing this pest when you spray with lime-sulphur a little late? We found a line between the two lots just as plain as day. Is there some reason for it? Just simply concentrated lime- sulphur? TWENTY-FOURTH AXXUAL MEETING. 27 Dk. Britton : Had the buds opened a little? President Hale : I should say maybe they had ; it was a late spraying. Dr. Britton : Lime-sulphur is known to be a fairly good stomach poison for young caterpillars. If the buds were open so that it actually caught some of the young leaves, presumably the caterpillars were killed. President Hale: The contact with the egg masses wouldn't make any difference? Dk. Britton : It hasn't with us. It might be that con- tact with the young caterpillars just hatching might kill them if they fed on the foliage sprayed with it. Mr. Gold: Where I use.lime-sulphur late in the season I kill nearly all the tent caterpillars. The trees that were not sprayed had the caterpillar, but where I put on the lime- sulphur very few caterpillars. It was the winter spray put on late in April, no arsenate in it. I have an idea that the lime-sulphur on the branches made their feet sore, among other things, and they fell off ; they would get more or less of it on them. Dr. Rritton : I think that must have been the reason, because it was applied near hatching time. We have tried it in the middle of winter and they hatched just the same. A Member: What progress has been made in introduc- ing enemies of the gypsy and brown-tail moth ? Dr. Britton : I neglected to state that we have several natural enemies of each. The most important of the brown- tail is the fungus, which attacks the caterpillars in the nests and also when they are nearly full grown. In some years nearly sixty per cent of the caterpillars will be killed by that fungus. It needs a moist season like other fungus dis- eases ; in a dry season sometimes it will not be effective. The United States, in co-operation with the state of Massachusetts, have sent all over the world where these in- sects occur, to Europe and Asia, and have brought to the United States a great many different \arieties, some two, 28 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. some four-winged flies ; have reared them at the laboratory, and some of them have been found to have survived our winters and have been reared in large numbers. We have some in Connecticut. We hope that some time these will control both of these insects in this country, but I believe it wise to keep the gypsy moth back just as long as we can. The President: We will next listen to the very im- portant report on Fungous Diseases, by Dr. G. P. Clinton, Botanist, of our State Experiment Station. Fungous Diseases in Connecticut in 1914. By Dr. G. P. Clinton, New Haven. When Secretary Miles asked me to enlarge somewhat on my annual report of Fungous Diseases and present it at this joint meeting of the Pomological Society and Vegeta- ble Growers' Association, I told him I would give a short outline of the botanical problems now under investigation at the Experiment Station, dealing especially with those of general interest to the fruit and vegetable growers. How- ever, when I started out to do this, I found that my depart- ment has so many problems which are being more or less fully investigated, that I could not deal satisfactorily with so large a subject in the time allotted to me. I have, there- fore, confined myself largely to the spraying experiments with fruit trees carried on by myself and my assistant, Mr. Stoddard, and have treated the vegetables somewhat simi- larly in my report to the Vegetable Growers' Association. We may best consider that part of the investigations now under consideration by grouping them under the following heads : Apples, Peaches, Cherries and Plums. Apples. Spraying Experiments for Scab. At present we have no extended experiments seeking to control any particular fun- gous disease of the apple. In our previous spraying work TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 29 we have never had any very serious cases of apple scab to combat, but as our attention has recently been called to several orchards where scab was serious on certain varie- ties, we undertook last year to control it in one of these, the Plant orchard at Branford. For some years Mr. Plant had not been able to raise Mcintosh apples without their scabbing badly, most of them, in fact, being unmarketable, although the trees had been sprayed more or less for this trouble, partly according to our suggestions. Last spring we undertook directly the spraying of these trees to control the scab. Certain trees were sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, others with lime-sulphur, and others were left as checks. The sprayed trees received three treat- ments, the first upon the unfolding leaves before the blos- soms opened, the second just after the petals fell, and the last between three and four weeks later. The second and third treatments contained lead arsenate for insects. The first treatment was with Bordeaux of the 4-4-50 strength, and the second and third of the 2-4-50 strength on half the trees, and the 1-4-50 strength on the other half. The lime-sulphur was used at the rate of 1^ gallons to 50 gallons of water in each treatment. Scab showed a very little on the checks at the time of the second spraying. May 25th, and at the time of the third, June 18th, it was becoming rather prominent. At the time of picking, September 22nd, the unsprayed trees had dropped most of their foliage, and that remaining was largely scabby. Likewise, the unsprayed trees had dropped considerably more scabby fruit than the sprayed. Counts of the free and scabby apples at this time from all the trees showed 3.2 per cent scabby from those sprayed with lime-sulphur, 11.4 per cent from those sprayed with Bordeaux, and 59.3 per cent from those unsprayed. In the latter case, besides having a much higher percentage scabbed, the individual apples were much scabbier than those from the sprayed trees. The trees sprayed with the 1-4-50 Bordeaux at the second and third sprayings were as free from scab as those sprayed with the 30 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. stronger 2-4-50 Bordeaux. The Bordeaux did not cause any conspicuous russeting on any of the apples. From these results it would appear that the lime-sulphur was more effective in preventing scab than the Bordeaux, but this was due to the fact that the trees sprayed with lime- sulphur were on a higher level in the orchard, where scab did not cause so much injury as on the lower level, while those sprayed with Bordeaux were on both the higher and lower levels. The percentage of scab on the trees sprayed with Bordeaux on the higher level was about the same as that on those sprayed with lime-sulphur. In another orchard of Mcintosh trees sprayed partly according to our directions more injury was caused by scab than in this orchard. The reason for this seems to have been that the first treatment on the unfolding leaves was omitted. For scab infection this is usually a critical period, and apparently this treatment is very necessary to keep the scab from getting its first start on the leaves, from which it later spreads to the fruit. With such susceptible varieties as Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, Fall Pippin, etc., all three treatments are essential to success. Efficiency, etc., of Various Fungicides. In connection with Dr. Britton, we have already published two bulletins dealing with the results obtained in a number of orchards with various sprays, as regards their control of the different fungi and insects, and their possible injury to foliage and fruit. For the past three years our work in this line has been limited to the old orchard at the Experiment Station farm. The past year, in addition to the usual winter spray- ing for San Jose Scale, four different fungicides were used, giving three treatments with each, as follows : (1) Bordeaux mixture (4-4-50) for the first treatment and (1-4-50) for second and third treatments, using the weaker strength on the young fruit, to avoid, if possible, russeting; (2) Bordeaux and lime-sulphur, using the 4-4-50 Bordeaux on the unfolding leaves before blossoming and the lime-sulphur, 1% gallons to 50, in the two following treat- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 ments, aiming to get the fungicidal value from the strong Bordeaux, and using the lime-sulphur on the young fruit to avoid russeting; (3) copper lime-sulphur, consisting of 2 lbs. copper sulphate, l^/^ gallons lime-sulphur and 50 gallons water, a new fungicide mentioned last year; and (4) straight lime-sulphur, l^i gallons to 50 gallons. Each spray contained lead arsenate in the last two treatments. This year fungi were not serious in this orchard, so that we did not have as good a test as desirable. Likewise, due to favorable weather conditions, leaf injury and russeting from spraying were not as common as usual. However, we noticed some leaf injury and subsequent leaf fall from the use of the straight Bordeaux, also from the copper lime- sulphur. These two sprays also gave the most russeting. While the copper lime-sulphur seems to be a very good fungicide, and did not this year cause any considerable in- jury, either to foliage or fruit, it seems to be similar to Bor- deaux in its liability to injury, and I think that with favorable seasons it might cause considerable leaf fall and fruit rus- seting. Bordeaux, followed in the second and third spray- ings by lime-sulphur, showed no injury and gave good re- sults on the whole. From a single year's experience I think very favorably of this combination of the two sprays. The straight lime-sulphur gave the best results on the whole, judging by percentage of perfect fruit. The following condensed table gives the average results of the spraying with these different fungicides : Treatment Lime-sulphur Copper lime-sulphur Bordeaux and lime-sulphur. Bordeaux Checks Russet 0)1 •d Chewing Perfect Scald Fungi Insects Other* % 80.3 % 4.0 2.2 o^Q Troubles 10.9 -1- 79.8 8.3 1.0 8.8 + 74.6 5.3 2.7 12.8 + 67.9 6.8 3.8 17.2 + 43.1 5.5 16.4 35.3 + * These percentages do not total 100 because when more than ,one trouble appeared on the same apple a separate count was made. 32 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In 1913 only Bordeaux and lime-sulphur were used on this orchard. Three sprayings were given, using 4-4-50 Bor- deaux in the first and 1-4-50 in the other two, and lime-sul- phur, 1% gallons to 50, in each of the three treatments. For 1913 the results were as follows : Russet and Chewing Perfect Scald Fungi Insects Other Treatment (y^ c^^ <^^ cy^ Troubles Lime-sulphur 78.9 8.7 3.2 10.4 -|- Bordeaux 50.6 41.9 1.6 6.3 -|- Checks 68.8 9.3 8.9 15.3 -f It will be seen from the second table that the Bordeaux caused very considerable russeting, so that the percentage of perfect fruit was even less than on the checks, though, of course, much of the russeting did not seriously mar the ap- pearance of the fruit. The lime-sulphur gave about the usual percentage of perfect fruit, and took care of the fungi fairly well. In 1912, also, only Bordeaux and lime-sulphur were used, but only two sprayings were given, both after the blossoms fell. Both Bordeaux treatments were of the weak strength (1-4-50), and the lime-sulphur V/^ to 50. The re- sults again showed the lime-sulphur leading the Bordeaux, but not so much, since there was comparatively little rus- seting that year: Russet and Chewing Perfect Scald Fungi Insects Other Treatment % % % % Troubles Lime-sulphur 77.4 2.4 7.9 11.9 + Bordeaux 61.0 4.6 11.2 17.6 -f Checks 47.0 1.2 23.6 28.2 + The results of these three years' tests on the same or- chard show : First, that the lime-sulphur has led the Bor- deaux each year in the percentage of perfect fruit, which has been nearly 80 per cent each year. Second, that it has shown equal fungicidal value with the Bordeaux (though fungi have not been especially prominent). Third, that its TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 33 advantages over the Bordeaux has been largely due to the greater amount of russeting produced by the latter, w^hich, in certain years, becomes quite serious. Fourth, that evea weak Bordeaux ( 1-4-50) used on the young fruit tree, will^ if conditions are right, produces russeting similar to that produced by strong Bordeaux on certain varieties. Fifths there is a probability that Bordeaux can be used in the first spraying, before the blossoms open, with good effect, if the later sprayings are made with lime-sulphur. Peach. Fertilizer Experiments, etc. Dr. Jenkins spoke to you last year concerning our experiments at Barnes Brothers' orchard, which deal chiefly with the effect of fertilizers on the health and bearing of the trees. This past year there was a very poor yield from the orchard, due partly to winter injury of the buds, and partly to leaf curl, which largely de- foliated the trees and undoubtedly cut down the fair yield promised by the bloom. Each year this orchard has been treated with lime-sulphur for San Jose Scale and leaf curl, but last spring the owners thought the spraying might be omitted with safety. As the season proved very favorable for leaf curl, this omission was quite unfortunate, and showed the necessity of spring treatment each year for this fungus. The inability of the trees to withstand these adverse conditions, as shown by their dead twigs, general appear- ance of unthriftiness, etc., was most noticeable later in the season in the plots which had previously had the least care in cultivation or fertilizaton, or were most exposed, and es- pecially in the places where all three of these unfavorable factors were combined. As a result we expect that from now on there will be an even greater difference in the yield for the different fertilizer plots, influenced in part by the length of life of the trees and in part by the thriftiness of those finally remaining. 34 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Peach Yellows. Our peach yellows experiments have also been reported previously by Dr. Jenkins and myself. The past year an experimental yellows orchard was set out, using native seedling stock from the south, on which had been budded partly healthy and partly yellows and "little peach" buds of known derivation. A few of these now show symptoms of disease. As stated before, we have as yet ob- tained no data showing that yellows is communicated other- wise than through budding ; nor, in the orchards under ob- servation, have we yet noticed any spreading as if from definite centers of infection. Apparently yellows has not been so noticeable during the past two years as several years ago. What effect along this line may be produced in certain orchards by last winter's injury to the trees is yet to be seen. Spraying Experiments. At present we are testing sever- al different sprays in the young peach orchard at the Ex- periment Station farm, to see which are the safest and best. Some of them we have been testing for several years, while others were tried for the first time last year. They are as follows : Calcium Benzoate, Fine Sulphur Paste, Atomic Sulphur, Commercial Lime-Sulphur, and Self-boiled Lime- Sulphur. Except on rare occasions we do not find that it is desirable to add an insecticide (such as arsenate of lead) to these fungicides, as the combination is objectionable in some cases because of injury to the trees, and insect injuries occurring here, with the exception of the sawfly, are not very effectively controlled by them. Calcium Benzoate is a chemical powder sent us by the Dow Chemical Company, which we have used for the first time the past year on both peaches and cherries. Two pounds are used in fifty gallons of water. It requires hot water to dissolve this, and it dissolves slowly. On the whole, we are not much impressed with it, and, used at this strength we doubt if it is a very efficient fungicide, though on peaches we did not have a fair chance to test its real value. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 Fine Sulphur Paste, from the Union Sulphur Company, was also tried for the first time, at the rate of 8 pounds to 50 gallons of water. While this, also, did not have a fair chance to show its fungicidal value, since fungus troubles were not bad in our orchard this year, we believe that it has, and that this and similar mixable sulphurs are likely to come into more general use on peaches, and, if cheap enough, may supplant the self-boiled mixture in time. The various sulphur pastes are probably somewhat similar to Atomic Sulphur, made by the Thomson Chemical Company. We have tried Atomic Sulphur, 8-50, for several years on peaches, and find that it has excellent fungicidal value. We have had no injury with it when used alone, and comparatively little injury when used with lead arsenate. On the whole, it costs considerably more than commercial or self-boiled lime-sulphur, and is more trouble to use than the former, since the paste tends to cake in the kegs, and has to be stirred considerably to mix thoroughly with the water before placing in the spray barrel. It does not leave as much sediment, however, as the self-boiled lime-sulphur, and is just as good a fungicide. Commercial lime-sulphur, when used with lead arsen- ate, is very likely to produce rather serious injury. Even when used alone, it sometimes causes more or less shot-hole effect on the foliage. However, when used alone at the rate of 1-150, we ourselves have never had any serious injury from it. It is certainly the easiest spray to handle, but besides this possibility of injury, it does not, at this strength, have as good fungicidal value as either Atomic Sulphur or self- boiled lime-sulphur. So we do not as yet recommend it for general spraying of peaches. Possibly it may be used to advantage in the place of the self-boiled in certain cases for the last spraying, where sediment might prove objec- tionable. Self-boiled lime-sulphur, 8-8-50, is what we still rec- ommend for general peach spraying, because of its cheap- ness and efficiency. However, the sediment is more or less 36 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of an objection, especially for late spraying". Also; many growers are adverse to the bother of making spray mixtures such as this. Summer spraying of peaches has not as yet come into general practice in Connecticut, but in the case of those varieties which are much injured by scab or rot, it cer- tainly merits more extended use, since scab can be largely controlled, and rot at least partially. Late winter treat- ment of the trees, especially Alberta, for peach leaf curl (tak- ing care of the San Jose Scale as well), certainly is desir- able. While the leaf curl was serious this year, our young orchard, which was sprayed for it, did not suffer at all. Some of the older orchards that were sprayed, of course, showed some leaf curl and subsequent dropping of foliage, but this was nothing like that in similar unsprayed orchards. Cherries and Plums. Black Knot. In 1911 experiments in controlling black knot were commenced in a young Montmorency cherry or- chard then owned by the late Mr. F. W. Gray, but now by Mr. J. Strockbine, at Watertown. This orchard had been seriously infested with black knot, and Mr. Gray had al- ready attempted for a year or two to control it by cutting the knots out and ofif. For four years, now, we have been at work on this orchard.- Spraying experiments with Atom- ic Sulphur, self-boiled lime-sulphur, and commercial lime- sulphur, have been made with certain of these trees. The trees have received from one to four treatments each year, and on most of them, as well as the other trees of the or- chard, the knots have been yearly cut out or off. For the last two years we have tried to eradicate the trouble from the orchard, going over all the trees late each fall and again in the spring or early summer, and cutting off all visible knots. This has made necessary severe pruning of some of the trees, often seriously affecting their symmetry and caus- ing considerable water sprout growth. Last fall, however, we made a thorough search for the few knots remaining, and TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 37 pruned the trees with reference to giving them their final shaping. Our experience with this orchard leads us to the following conclusions : 1. Black knot, when once well established in a tree or an orchard, is very difficult to eradicate. 2. A large proportion of the new knots are secondary outbreaks from the mycelium of previous infections, grow- ing .within the tissues and breaking out at a little distance from the old knots, whch are then past their prime and gradually crumbling away. 3. Cutting out these infections is usually useless, since the tissues cannot ordinarily be removed for a sufficient distance around the stem without nearly girdling, or at least seriously weakening it, and even then the knots fre- quently break out again at the edges. We have given up the cutting out of knots except on large branches of older trees, where the removal of the branch would seriously in- terfere with the shape of the tree. 4. Cutting off the infected branches is usually suc- cessful, provided the cut is made low enough to include all of the mycelium within the tissues. Some indication of its presence may usually be seen by the darkened streak in the cut surface of the wood extending down some distance below the knot. 5. Outside infection of the twigs probably takes place in early spring through the unfolding buds, or possibly in- jured places in the bark. As yet, however, we have never been able to artificially infect a twig in this way, either by the use of artificial cultures or with spores taken directly from mature knots. 6. Summer sprayng with Atomic Sulphur or self- boiled lime-sulphur helps very materially in preventing the knots from forming either the superficial summer spore stage or the later winter stage, which is protected by a special covering of fungus tissues, within the cavities of which the spores finally mature during the winter. These 38 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. sprays have in no case produced any injury to the foHa^e of the sprayed trees. Our experience with black knot leads us to recommend the following- treatment: Undertake the removal of the knots from the trees as soon as possible, that is, prune the young trees rather than wait until they become older, when more severe pruning- is necessary. Do not hesitate to re- move all infected branches. Late in the autumn, after the leaves have fallen, go over the trees and cut off at a safe distance below the knots. Repeat this again in the spring, about the first of June, in order to catch any knots missed, or new infections just appearing. Be sure to make these inspections each year until the knots fail to reappear. Gath- er and burn all knots removed as soon as the pruning is fin- ished. Destroy any infected wild cherry trees in the neigh- borhood that may serve as breeding grounds for re-infec- tion. In late spring, just before the buds begin to swell, spray with lime-sulphur as for San Jose Scale. If thought advisable, give one or more sprayings, beginning the first of June, with Atomic Sulphur, 8-50, or self-boiled lime-sul- phur, 8-8-50. Brozvn Rot. The control of brown rot of cherries and plums is a more difficult problem than with the same disease on the peach. This is largely due to the smooth surface of the former, which does not allow the spray to adhere so readily, and to a less degree to the great numbers of fruit produced in close proximity, so that infection of one means the final infection of all those close to it. For a number of years we have carried on spraying experiments with differ- ent fungicides on these fruit trees, chiefly at the farm of E. M. Ives of Meriden. We have not been entirely satisfied with the results obtained, partly because the rot has not al- ways done enough injury to warrant the cost of spraying, and partly because of the inefficiency of some of the sprays used, and the failure to make part of the applications at the right time. Among the sprays tried have been various TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 brands of commercial lime-sulphur, self-boiled lime-sulphur, Atomic Sulphur, and Calcium Benzoate. Self-boiled lime-sulphur and Atomic Sulphur have proved the best fungicides so far, and have given no particu- lar injury. As the last spraying has to be made within seven to fourteen days of the ripening of the fruit, however, the sediment left on the fruit proves objectionable. From our present data, we would advise for the control of rot the use of these sprays, beginning on the green fruit when about half grown, and giving one or more subsequent treatments at intervals of ten to fourteen days, making the last two weeks before the fruit ripens. If the sediment is objection- able, the latter spraying should be made not less than three weeks before picking, with a final treatment with commer- cial lime-sulphur, 1-150, a week before picking. It is hardly advisable to use lead arsenate, since it increases the danger of spray injury, and has not proved very satisfactory so far in controlling the insects that work in the fruit. If there are any questions regarding the diseases of fruit which have been troublesome this year but are not in- cluded in the above presentation, or any relating directly to the statements made, I shall be pleased to hear them. Discussion. A Me.mbek: What harm would it do to follow up that black knot business more than two or three times a vear? Dr. Clinton: You don't want to prune out your trees too much in the summer time. If you go over them carefully in the fall and the spring you can catch most of them. By tak- ing it in the fall }0U probably get the stage that spreads it most. Then you probably wouldn't want to prune them in the summer when there may be a good many limbs with cherries on them that you want to save. If it is after cherry time you take oflf the foliage that might add to the strength of the tree. President Hale : You spoke about the mycelium — how are we to know when we have cut out all of it? 40 THE CONNECTICUT POMOWGICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Clinton : Usually by the color of the wood. You will see that the wood is dark in places. You cut down to where the wood is clear. That darkened wood indicates the presence of mycelium. A' Member : Plum wood is white. Every little thread of dark below and above the knot is the infected place. If you don't go over all of it you will have the knot. The closer you get to getting out every thread the surer you are not to have any new knot on that place. A Membek: Does that mean sawing the tree right down? D'R. Clinton : Not necessarily. Some trees you have to do that. These trees were pretty badly infected with knots ; we have pruned off some pretty big branches, have been prun- ing them for three years. I expect they will soon shape up pretty well. There was another orchard near there badly in- fected, and they tried to cut the trees down to mere stubs ; most of them finally died. Of course, there are varying degrees of susceptibility to the knot ; some trees will not be susceptible at all ; some very susceptible. When you find one tree very sus- ceptible and the rest of them not, you can let it go ; if you have other trees very susceptible, cut the tree off to protect the others. Nut Culture. President Hale: The Secretary informs me that Dr. Deming, Secretary of the Northern Nut Growers' Associa- tion, wishes to make an announcement. Dr. W. C. Deming : I am Secretary of the Northern Nut Growers' Association. We believe that there is a great future for the nut-growing industry right here in the east, as there is in the south and on the Pacific coast. Among our objects is the encouragement of the planting of nut trees in a commercial way where conditions are favorable, and otherwise in an ex- perimental way. The reason for this neglect of nut growing is because of the difficulties of propagation. These difficulties of propagation have been largely overcome. It is not yet TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 41 quite as easy to propagate nut trees as fruit trees, but it is simple enough. for commercial growers, and even possibly for anyone who gives a little attention to it. I have some speci- mens of different methods of grafting which I should be glad to demonstrate afterwards to anybody who is interested. The Northern Nut Growers' Association is offering prizes for the best specimens of the shag bark hickory, black walnut and hazelnut. I was in hopes we should receive a great many specimens from Connecticut, because I think Connecticut pro- duces the best shag bark hickory nuts, but there have been very few receipts from Connecticut. Iowa is a long way ahead of Connecticut. I would like to ask anyone here who knows of a good nut if he will not send a specimen to me and enter the competition ; especially do I ask those who live in the Connec- ticut Valley to give their attention to the shag bark. President Hale : Dr. Deming, is there anything in pros- pect or any advantage or profit to be gained by any of us people here trying to grow the Persian or English walnut ? Dr. Deming: The commercial growing of the Persian walnut cannot be recommended, but it can be recommended in an experimental way. There are a great many Persian wal- nuts growing in Connecticut. They are grown even commer- cially as far north as Rochester, N. Y., and hundred of Eng- lish walnut trees on Niagara Peninsula, but we .are not ready to recommend them for commercial growing yet. They are hardy, they will bear, but we don't know the proper varieties to recommend for commercial use. President Hale: Conditions in the Connecticut Valley are very similar to those on the Niagara Peninsula. Dr. Deming : I supposed that the Niagara Peninsula was not quite so subject to violent changes of temperature. President Hale : I know they grow very much the same line of peaches that we do. I was wondering if they could grow nuts if we couldn't. We don't want them to get the best of us if there is any profit in it. 42 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Dk. Deming: We want to find the best specimens and propagate them. It is easy to propagate them. We can do just as we can with the apples and peaches. If the people who own the trees will send in the specimens of the nuts they will be judged by the experts to determine if they are proper nuts to propagate from. We should have records of the trees, whether they are annual bearers or not, whether they are early bearers or not, and so forth. President Hale : We are now to take up the important subject of fertilizers for our crops, and to discuss this topic. We have with us Dr. H. J. Wheeler, former director of the Rhode Island Experiment Station, who will make the princi- pal address of the afternoon, on "Fertilizers and Cover Crops for Fruits and Vegetables." Fertilizers and Cover Crops for Fruits and Vegetables. By Dr. H. J. Wheeler, Boston, Mass. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Perhaps I should state at the outset that what I shall say at first is given by special request, for I have been asked to speak of materials which could be used as partial sub- stitutes for potash, and also on the subject of basic slag meal. Substitutes for Potash. The most thorough scientific investigations by Euro- peans have proven conclusively that there is nothing which can entirely replace potash in plant nutrition. Without it plant production of all kinds is impossible. It is neverthe- less true that if the supply of potash is deficient, many kinds of plants, including even the cereals, will show some bene- fit from the use of sodium salts, such as Glauber's salt (so- dium sulphate), common salt (sodium chlorid), and soda ash (sodium carbonate). Among the plants which show such TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. '43 benefit may be mentioned beets, turnips, radishes, perhaps to a lesser degree carrots, and probably cabbages, cauliflower, and a large number of other vegetables. Chicory very strangely does not shov\' as great a degree of benefit from sodium salts under such circumstances as certain other root crops, and hence it is not safe to assume that because one root crop is benefited, others will necessarily be helped in a like degree. Potato tubers rarely contain more than traces of soda ; it is found chiefly in the tops, and it may be of some aid, if potash is greatly lacking. In one experiment which was conducted at the Rhode Island x\gricultural Experiment Station in 1899, where 300 pounds of carbonate of potash were used to the acre, the addition of soda ash at the rate of 202 pounds to the acre raised the yield of Norbiton Giant Mangels 43%. In anoth- er instance, where 332 pounds of muriate of potash were used to the acre, the addition of 232 pounds of common salt to the acre raised the yield between 32% and 33%. Where only one-fourth as much carbonate of potash was used, the addition of soda ash more than doubled the crop, or, in other words, it gave an increase of considerablv over 100%. Notwithstanding what has been said, it is never wise, if enough potash is available to suppl}- fully the needs of the plants, to attem])t to substitute sodium salts for the potash compounds, for the reason that there is alw^ays danger, if this attempt is made, that the saving on account of the lower cost of the soda will be far more than ofifset b_v a serious les- sening of the crop. At present no one can sureh' say just how nuich soda is beneficial. It may be, in part, on account of its neutral- izing organic acids which are produced within the i)lant in the process of building up protein compounds. By supplying all of the required elements excepting pot- ash, it is possible to determine just how much potash is re- quired for the formation of a given amount of dry matter of definite kinds of plants. Similarly when everything else is supplied in abundance, it is possible to determine the 44 • THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. amount of phosphoric acid required for the production of a given amount of organic matter. By a similar procedure, the amount of nitrogen, lime, magnesia, iron and other nec- essary elements which are required can be ascertained. If, however, these minimum amounts are added together and used, it is impossible to produce the theoretical amount of dry matter. In other words, plants require in excess of these minimum amounts, a certain quantity of basic ma- terial, such as potash, soda, lime and magnesia, and they do not seem to be particular as to the proportions in which this excess or, as the Germans call it, "luxury consumption" is supplied. It is possible that sodium salts (common salt, sodium sulphate, and soda ash) may often be helpful by vir- tue of their helping to supply this demand for an excess of material of this general character. On exceedingly acid soils, which are not too clayey or silty, soda ash, if used for plants which are sensitive to acid- ity, is a somewhat better substitute for potash than common salt. If one uses a fertilizer containing nitrate of soda, the plant removes the nitric acid, and sodium carbonate is formed in the soil as a residual product. If one has to deal with a heavy, clay or silt soil, and attempts to use large amounts of nitrate of soda successively, this residual sodium carbonate will de-flocculate the soil, thus making the par- ticles smaller than before, so that it will bake and partially exclude the air and water which are essential to plant growth. Hence, though nitrate of soda is a good fertilizer, too much of it used consecutively on certain soils may bring about serious conditions. This is well illustrated by some experiments at the Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion at Popplesdorf, near Bonn, Germany. Basic Slag Meal. Very little basic slag meal is now being produced in this country, although a little has been made here from time to time. It is doubtful if such basic slag meal as has been TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 45 produced in this country is of as high a grade or is as highly available as much of that produced in Europe. Some basic slag meal of very low grade has been received in the past from England. This meal is not only of low grade, as far as concerns its analysis, but also apparently as concerns the availability of the phosphoric acid. Even the phosphoric acid in the best basic slag meal is less readily available than the phosphoric acid of superphosphate (acid phosphate). Formerly, basic slag meal contained a considerable ex- cess of uncombined lime, but at present the amount seldom ranges above from 2% to 6%. While the basic slag meal industry was being devel- oped, Hoyermann, Wagner and others in Germany made a careful study of the factors affecting its availability, and it was then found by them that with a higher percentage of silica in the materials present during the fusing process, the degree of availability of the phosphoric acid was increased. When this was learned, extra silica was introduced at the outset for the purpose of increasing the availability of the phosphoric acid, and as a result much of the lime was changed into silicate of lime. In this form it may not be quite as effective and active in some ways as when it is present as carbonate, and it may not perhaps be as readily available when present as such artificial silicate of lime, as it would be in silicates formed naturally in- the soil from limestone or marl. Nevertheless, the presence of a con- siderable amount of lime, even in such silicates, is probably of material aid in maintaining the proper chemical reaction of the soil, and where it is used repeatedly in large quanti- ties, it is not likely that the soils will long remain injurious- ly acid. It should not be depended upon to correct highly acid soils quickly, and in such cases lime should be em- ployed. Much uncertainty has prevailed in the past as to the exact combination in which the phosphoric acid exists in basic slag meal, and the former views concerning it have changed materially in recent years. 46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In Europe, wherever phosphoric acid of the highest availability is sought, superphosphate is chosen in prefer- ence to basic slag meal. Germany produced in 1913, 2,200,000 metric tons of basic slag meal ; France. 700,000 ; Belgium, 500,000. Next in order of production stands the United Kingdom, Luxem- burg, and Austria-Hungary. The latter country produced in 1913, 100,000 tons. The production in Italy was 20,000 tons; Russia, 32,000 tons; Sweden, 15,000 tons; while the amount produced by all the other countries of the world amounted to but 25,000 tons. In the year 1913 Germany exported 713,878 metric tons of basic slag meal. In the same year she imported 53,193 tons of superphosphate. She also imported 928,798 tons of raw phosphate for the manufacture of superphosphate, whereas her total exports of superphosphate were but 282,- 653 tons. The raw phosphate which she imported yielded, when manufactured into superphosphate, a far greater ton- nage of the latter than is represented by the raw phosphate. It is seen, therefore, that many hundreds of thousands of tons of superphosphate were used in Germany in prefer- ence even to basic slag meal. It appears, therefore, that the Germans appreciate the advantage of superphosphate wherever early maturity, quickness of action, and maximum crops and economy are sought. Is THE Color of Fruit Affected by Fertilizers and Manures? A careful study of the effect of fertilizers and of various manures upon the color of fruit fails to reveal any consist- ent and positive evidence that any one, or, in fact, that any special combination of manures or fertilizer ingredients is capable of materially affecting it, although there have been some claims that basic slag meal is favorable to the high color of apples. There seems, however, to be no doubt but that superphosphate, or other phosphates, potassium TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 47 salts or combinations of the two may be equally or more efiFective, particularly if it cannot be worked into the soil. The lack of color, as well as the frequent depression of the keeping- quality of certain fruits is usually due to an ex- cess of nitrogen and consequent excessive leaf development, rather than to a lack of any particular mineral ingredients. It is perhaps true, nevertheless, if there is a very abundant supply of nitrogen, and if potash, phosphoric acid, lime, magnesia or certain combinations of these are deficient that their use will tend to increase the color and the quality of the fruit, even though the amount of available nitrogen re- mains the same. It is probably due to effects of this kind that some observers have concluded that certain phosphates have a direct, specific effect upon the color, whereas the result has been an indirect one. Cover Crops. There is probably no question concerning which great- er difference of opinion exists than that of the best cover crop to use in orchards. There is really no "best" cover crop for all locations and conditions. This is well illustrat- ed by the fact that one of the best orchards of the state of New York is kept in grass, whereas many or most of the orchardists in that state consider that as the worst possible practice. Many orchardists desire to lessen the depth to which the land freezes in winter. It is hoped in this way to lessen the danger of injury to the roots of the trees.- Studies were made by Vernon and Craig at the Iowa Experiment Station of the depth of freezing under various conditions. Bare land froze to a depth of 21 inches ; land covered by grass sod froze but 12 inches ; covered by hairy vetch it froze 16 inch- es ; under a cover of crimson clover, 15 inches ; and where a soy bean cover crop was used, 21 inches. Observations of the same kind were also made by E. P. Sandsten at the Wisconsin Experiment Station. He found, for example, that bare land froze to a depth of 16 inches ; 48 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. under a cover crop of oats, 8 inches ; under hairy vetch, 7^ inches; under rape, 15 inches; and under Kentucky blue grass sod, 18 inches. It should be pointed out here that under like conditions, a soil will probably freeze deeper when it is fairly dry than when it contains the greatest pos- sible amount of water. This is for the reason that water, when it freezes, becomes a poor conductor. This may fur- nish an explanation of the fact that Vernon and Craig found that the soil froze less deeply under sod than with any cover crop, and also that Sandsten found that it froze deeper under a grass sod than under any of the cover crops. If the rains in the first place came early, it is possible that the growing grass would naturally continue to pass off large quantities of water into the air, whereas a crimson clover crop or par- ticularly a soy bean crop, after injury by frost, would not act as efificiently in this particular. Probably the same would be true of a crop of hairy vetch, if not planted so early as to become vigorous and firmly established. On the other hand, if the rains fell late, and freezing set in promptly, the "run-ofif" from the grassland might be less, and the con- ditions would, therefore, be reversed. It is possible that certain cover crops which furnish excellent protection against deep freezing in certain cases in the north' may be far less beneficial or of no particular benefit in the south. The effect of a cover crop on soils of a clayey or silty character might be entirely different from that on a more open soil, for the reason that the former would naturally heave more violently, if fully saturated with water. In the east it is often desirable to plant, in the late sum- mer, a crop which will exhaust the water from the soil to as great an extent as possible in order to favor the falling of the leaves, and therefore the ripening and coloring of the fruit. What is a good practice in the east, in this particu- lar, is likely to be the worst possible practice in portions of Nebraska, Kansas and other sections of the middle west, where more nearly semi-arid conditions prevail. Emerson TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 49 has pointed out, for example, in Nebraska, that any method of soil treatment which leaves the ground moist in the fall has an advantage over those methods which leave it dry. The chief consideration, in such regions, is to leave as much water in the soil at the beginning of winter as possible, in order that it may benefit the crop of the next year. Some interesting observations have been made on the effect of the treatment of the soil upon the amount of mois- ture which it holds. Determinations of this kind were made at the Iowa Station in midwinter, and the samples of soil were taken to a depth of 6 inches. Beneath a soy bean cover crop, which is usually killed by frost, the moisture content was 28.7%; beneath a cover crop of crimson clover, which naturally grew for a long period, the moisture content was 21.5% ; and beneath a blue grass sod, it was 21.8%. These tests were made after a dry and open season. Tests of the same kind were made by Cavanaugh at the Cornell Experi- ment Station in 1901. He found that the bare ground, sam- pled at a depth of 12 inches, contained 6.5% of moisture; under hairy vetch, the moisture content was 12.2% ; and under cowpeas, 9.3%. Determinations were also made at depths of from 12 to 18 inches, and from 18 to 24 inches. The variations were quite similar to those in the surface, al- though the percentages of water were all much lower. Ex- aminations in this case were made after a period jof extended drought. The land, which was bare, was badly cracked. This condition was highly conducive to loss of moisture, and in this case a cover crop of any kind, which prevented the cracking of the soil, had a tendency to conserve rather than to lessen the moisture content. In the case of an orchard which is growing too vigor- ously and too late in the autumn, a quick-growing cereal or turnip cover crop is usually superior to a legume. If, how- ever, the legume is a rapid-grower, and if the soil and seed are uninoculated so that it cannot take its nitrogen from the air, it may even draw more heavily upon the combined ni- trogen of the soil than certain of the cereals and other cover 50 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. crops which naturally have a lower nitrogen content ; yet, when it is cut and removed from the soil it will leave rela- tively more nitrogen behind in its roots. The Experment Station at Orono, Maine, has cautioned particularly against the use of certain legumes on rich soils, assuming that they will assimilate atmospheric nitrogen, and hence enrich the orchard too much in nitrogen, where- as on lighter soils, which are very deficient in nitrogen, the use of legumes has been highly commended. Wherever the moisture content of the soil is low, it is obviously poor policy to use a cover crop, or at least one which grows rapidly. Some crops, however, grow so slowly that they make for some time but small demands upon the soil moisture. A dust mulch is even preferable in regions where irrigation is necessary or wherever the rainfall is usu- ally too meager. Although bearing only indirectly on this point, it may be of interest to state that in certain sections of the middle west where semi-arid conditions prevail, the use of a cover crop, even in the corn fields, is decidedly disad- vantageous, whereas, in the east, under more humid condi- tions the use of such cover crops is highly desirable. In fact in certain of the semi-arid regions of the middle west it has been found that if Indian corn is planted twice as thick as usual in the row, and every other row is omitted, the mois- ture between the rows is able to carry the corn through to maturity far better than when it is planted in every row. Here again the requirements in the east are quite the re- verse. Another interesting feature connected with cover crops is that frequently two cover crops, neither of which will succeed alone, may prove satisfactory when sown together. This was the experience of Craig at Cornell University, for in January, 1896, he sowed mammoth red clover and com- mon red clover, both of which winter killed completely. Al- falfa succeeded better, but where the crops were intermin- gled, some of the clover survived, and the alfalfa was far better than where it was grown alone. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 51 Evidence is presented by Stewart, of Pennsylvania, to the effect that the treatment which is correct for an orchard at one stage of its growth may be entirely wrong at another. He found, for example, in the case of a young orchard, that the yields were 30% better with a sod mulch than when the land was subjected to clean cultivation. The yield was also 18.5% better with a sod mulch than with a cover crop. In the case of a mature orchard, on the contrary, the results were 40% better with a cover crop than with a sod mulch. Alfalfa. Considerable attention is now being paid to alfalfa as a cover crop. Here in the east we are just beginning to ap- preciate its great economic value. In Europe it is known as the "imperial forage crop" in recognition of its great worth. In New Jersey its popularity is growing rapidly, for the acreage has been increased from 1,000 to 5,000 acres in three years. As yet only about 218,000 acres are devoted to alfalfa east of the Mississippi River, whereas the state of Kansas alone has over 1,000,000 acres. In general, sloping land is preferable for alfalfa, and neither ledges nor a water table should be within from three to four feet of the surface. Soils filled with slaty and shaly rock are less adapted to it than others, but if the alfalfa succeeds on them, it is found to be very helpful. Many soils in the east are too acid to produce alfalfa until they have been well limed. Determinations should therefore be made in all cases of the lime requirement of the soil before attempting to grow it. In New England one should use a hardy alfalfa, such as the Grimm and other variegated types. These usually show a range in the color of the blossoms from pale blue to dark purple. The crowns are lower, the roots are more branching, and frost injures them much less. The common alfalfa, which has only dark purple blossoms, higher crowns and a prominent tap root, is not fully hardy, where the win- ter conditions are severe. The freezing of a thin layer of 52 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. water over the alfalfa often destroys it, particularly when the temperature remains at or just below the freezing point for some time afterward. In such cases the ice does not readily crack and allow the air to gain access to the soil below. The freezing of slush under snow may sometimes cause similar injury. A fine uniform seed bed is of the highest importance. If the seed is drilled, from 10 to 15 pounds of seed to the acre will answer, but if it is broadcasted, one should gener- ally sow from 20 to 25 pounds to the acre. One advantage of fairly heavy seeding, in the east, is that it enables the al- falfa to aid in keeping out weeds and grass the first season, which are its worst natural enemies. If the seeding is too thin, the weeds and grass are likely to gain a foothold at the outset, when, on account of the small size of the alfalfa plants, it is more dangerous to attempt to eradicate them than when the alfalfa is better esablished. Inoculation may be needed on some farms, and on others not at all. The only way to know is to test the land. Soil from an old alfalfa field or from locations where sweet clover is growing may be used for inoculation. It is usually applied, for this purpose, at rates ranging from 500 pounds to two or even three tons to the acre. In such cases the soil should be harrowed in as fast as it is sown, for exposure to direct sunlight weakens or kills the useful bacteria. Arti- ficial cultures have often been used successfully with this crop, in which case the seed is inoculated before sowing it. On highly manured soils, it may not be necessary to fertilize at the time of seeding, but on very poor soils a gen- erous application of manure and fertilizer, or a heavy appli- cation of complete fertilizer, is desirable at the outset. More is needed, for the additional crops, if the seed is sown in the spring, than when it is sown in midsummer. The al- falfa should be top-dressed annually, after the first year, with a suitable mixture of superphosphate and potash salts. If the alfalfa is sown in summer it should never be cut during that season, but it should be left to hold the snow TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 53 and protect the roots and crowns. The proper time to cut is usually indicated by the appearance of buds or sprouts around the base of the plants. In rare cases it may be cut before these buds appear, as, for example, in the case of a severe attack of "leaf spot" or in the case of a long con- tinued drought, which would cause the crop to become, in the meantime, too woody and dry. After alfalfa is thor- oughly wilted, it should be placed in cocks. These should be turned daily until it is thoroughly cured. The cocks should be kept covered with hay caps during the entire period of curing. Clover Cover Crops. The following clovers have been used as cover crops : 1. Crimson or scarlet clover (annual). 2. Mammoth and common red clover (biennials). 3. Alsike clover (perennial). 4. Sweet clover (biennial). Notwithstanding the fact that crimson clover is an annual, it will often make a splendid growth the follow- ing spring, provided it is sown late in the summer. Where the climatic conditions are severe it frequently fails to sur- vive the winter. This is true even in southern New Eng- land, although occasionally it will pass through a winter in good condition or it will be only partially destroyed. This clover is particularly valuable where a quick growth is de- sired. For such purposes it is far superior to mammoth and common red clover. The value of crimson clover as a cover crop as com- pared with rye, is indicated by experiments made with it in Rhode Island in connection with Indian corn. In the course of twelve years the total net gain, to the acre, from the use of rye was but $4.32, whereas where crimson clover was grown between the corn, the total net gain for the twelve years was $45.96. Hairy vetch has since been sown with the crimson clover with still better results. In some cases the vetch doubtless serves as a protection to the clover, and 54 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. possibly the clover may be somewhat protective to the vetch. The common sweet clover has been favorably men- tioned by many people who have experimented with it, and it may yet find a useful application here in the east. It is at least worthy of further experimentation, for it is hardy and grows vigorously when once well established. If cut for hay, it must not be allowed to grow so large that the stems become woody. Mammoth and common red clover seed should usually be sown in the spring. Crimson clover for winter cover is generally sown in the latter part of July or early in August. If the soil is very dry, it is often difificult to secure a catch of clover, and in such cases winter rye or winter wheat and hairy vetch may be preferable. In such instances, the wheat and vetch seed should be covered, if possible, with a weeder, light harrow, or with a peg-toothed cultivator. Some or- chardists in the east who have experimented with mammoth and common clovers assert that too little moisture is trans- pired by them the first season to affect seriously the supply of moisture for the orchard crop. According to Craig, of the Cornell Experiment Station, the amount of nitrogen returned on an acre by a three- months' growth of clover and other legumes was as follows : Pounds of Nitrogen in Stems, Leaves and Roots. Alfalfa 136 Mammoth red clover 130 Crimson clover 104 Common red clover 87 Vetch 256 Cow peas 53 At the Delaware Experiment Station Close examined the roots of several different legumes which had grown for four months. Most of the roots were, nevertheless, found in the first 8 inches of soil. The cowpea had a greater per- centage of its roots below the first 8 inches than any of the TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 other legumes which were grown. This was followed in order by the crimson clover, soy bean, hairy vetch, red clover, and alfalfa. The crimson clover in this case was particularly shallow-rooted, and even the tap root seldom extended more than a foot into the soil. Between 8 and 12 inches in depth, 18 pounds of alfalfa roots were found on an acre, as compared with 1,972 pounds in the first 8 inches of soil. There were but 32 pounds of crimson clover roots between the depths of 8 and 12 inches, whereas in the first 8 inches of soil, there were 381 pounds. Between 8 and 12 inches in depth there were only 27 pounds of red clover roots, whereas in the upper 8 inches there were 1,185 pounds. Hairy vetch had 16 pounds of roots in the layer of soil between 8 and 12 inches, as compared with 584 pounds in the first 8 inches. The total weights of roots in the upper 12 inches were as follows : Pounds. Crimson clover 413 Red clover 1,212 Alfalfa 1,980 Hairy vetch 600 Cow peas 394 Soy beans 756 It should be remembered that a smaller quantity of the seed of Alsike clover is needed, for a given area, than of common red or mammoth clover, for the reason that it is considerably smaller. The germination of clover seed may be widely different in different seasons. This is due to the varying thickness of the seed coat. When it is very thick it may protect the seed for many years or centuries, particularly if it reaches a considerable depth in the soil. Attention has been called previously to the fact that if leguminous crops are not inoculated, they can, and do, use combined nitrogen. Even if they are inoculated, they are less likely to assimilate atmospheric nitrogen when an abun- dance of combined nitrogen is present in the soil, and in a 56 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. case of this kind, Close, of Delaware, found that but few nodules developed on the roots, and Hellriegel, of Bernburg, Germany, who first discovered that certain plants were able to take up their atmospheric nitrogen by the aid of bac- teria, was well aware of the fact that they do not develop nodules to a great extent unless the initial supply of com- bined nitrogen is greatly restricted. Vetch. The common or summer vetch should usually be sown here in New England only in the spring months. Wherever it is desired to carry vetch through the winter and secure a growth the next spring, hairy vetch should be used. A ton of cured vetch hay removes from the soil about 56 pounds of lime, and a ton of alfalfa hay from 60 to 70 pounds, whereas only 8 to 12 pounds are removed by a ton of the hay of mixed grasses. All of the legumes, including vetch, remove large quan- tities of phosphoric acid from the soil, and also considerable potash. Hence, where they are harvested and removed, particular pains must be taken to maintain an abundant supply of these substances. Hairy vetch should usually be sown not later than the last of July or early in August, in order that it may secure a good foothold before winter. If vetch can be left on the land late enough in the spring, it will produce seed, and as the pods are easily shattered, it will reseed itself during the cutting. In fact, this is a common practice in many places in the south, as, for instance, where vetch is rotated with Johnson grass, but it would be inadvisable here where or- dinary grass crops are grown to sell. If the vetch were present in the horse hay, it would probably lessen its selling price, for New England horsemen are but just beginning to recognize the merits of good clover, vetch and alfalfa hay. Hairy vetch is able to grow into the late autumn and make a vigorous growth in the early spring. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 57 It should be remembered that vetch hay ranks in actual feeding value slightly above alfalfa hay, and the latter is almost as valuable for feeding as wheat bran, which costs at present about $30.00 a ton. Vetch has wide adaptability and can be grown on soils ranging from sandy to clayey. It has been utilized to great advantage for pasture purposes, especially in England. Sometimes inoculation is necessary in order to make vetch succeed, and it has been resorted to extensively in the south with great profit. In an experiment conducted in Connecticut, the yield of uncured vetch without inoculation was 2y8 tons to the acre, and with inoculation, 7}^ tons. In Alabama the yield of vetch hay without inoculation was 232 pounds to the acre, whereas the yield of inoculated vetch was 2,548 pounds. There has been gross adulteration and misbranding of vetch seed in this country in the past, and hence great care should be taken when purchasing it to make sure that the larger, lightly colored spring vetch seed is not mixed with, or sold for, the seed of the hairy vetch. Sometimes vetch may be turned under to good advan- tage when sown alone or when sown with winter rye or win- ter wheat. In some cases vetch has been cut and left on the land over winter in order that it may be turned under more easily the following spring. Usually frora 12 to 20 pounds of hairy vetch seed are sown with from 6 to 12 pounds of winter wheat or winter rye. Heavy seedings of rye or wheat with vetch are not usually desirable. If vetch is not successful at first in a given locality, one should make a second trial on the same land after the inocu- lation of the soil has been more completely accomplished by means of the first crop. The seed of hairy vetch can be separated from tlic straw by merely drying it and forking it over. If a threshing machine is used special care should be taken to avoid crack- ing the seed. 58 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. What the Colleges and Experiment Stations Report About Vetch. At the Ontario Agriciiltiiral College hairy vetch, alfalfa, mammoth clover, common red clover, and winter rye were tested as cover crops, and the vetch was found to be superior to the others. The soil in this case was cold and wet in the spring, and the cover crops were believed to have aided materially in removing moisture. At the California Experiment Station vetch has been found to yield 16^^ tons of green, uncured material, and at the Wisconsin station 3 tons of vetch hay have been har- vested to the acre. The average yield of hairy vetch seed secured at the Ontario Agricultural College for four years amounted to 8.6 bushels to the acre. The maximum yield for that ])eriod was 18.2 bushels. In Europe it has been found that the residue of nitrogen left in the soil by alfalfa after growing it for four succes- sive years amounted to 267 pounds to the acre ; that left by red clover roots at the end of two years was 172 pounds; and that left by a single crop of vetch and oats was 89.2 pounds. In Connecticut hairy vetch has been found to be less subject to winter killing than winter rye. These observa- tions are in accord with similar ones made elsewhere in New England in cases where the vetch seed was sown early enough in the summer to insure its thorough establishment before winter. According to Jarvis the clovers and vetch serve as desir- able cover crops in Connecticut, whereas cowpeas and soy beans fail to furnish adequate protection during the winter. He speaks particularly of the excellent results secured with hairy vetch when sown during the first week in July. It was found at the Cornell experiment station that hairy vetch contained 200 pounds of nitrogen to the acre, which had been accumulated within a period of three and one-half months. The plants, however, did not make vigorous growth in the { TWENTY -FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. -g autumn, while the ground was still shaded, but improvement was noted as the leaves began to fall. At the Maine experiment station, Munson found hairy vetch and spring vetch most satisfactory as cover crops. In case the seeding is not made in the spring, hairy vetch should be used exclusively. It has been suggested by Drew to sow vetch seed in Aug- ust in orchards, and the next spring to plow onlv in one direc- tion, so as to allow some of the plants to mature and drop their seed, thus insuring another crop without reseeding. The Michigan experiment station has reported that hairv vetch is a most satisfactory cover crop. The seed was sown in that instance at the rate of from 25 to 30 pounds to the acre. It is said by McKee of the United States Department of Agriculture that common vetch and field peas are among the most promising crops used for green manuring purposes in this country. Miscellaneous Cover Crops. In the case of heavy clay and silt soils, which are naturally too wet in the spring, either winter wheat or winter rye ( where it will endure the winter conditions) is an excellent cover crop, for the reason that they begin to grow early in the season, and therefore remove large quantities of water from the soil. Where only a moderate addition of nitrogen is desired, the clovers may be used as cover crops, but if larger amounts are sought vetch and other legumes are preferable. If it is desired to dry out the ground in the a.utumn, crim- son clover is superior to winter rye. If this drying out can be accomplished sufficiently early, maturity is encouraged : the leaves are more likely to fall at an early date : and higher col- oring of the fruit is insured. Turnips have been found to be particularly effective in removing water from the soil in the autumn, and the flat or "Cowhorn" varieties would doubtless be excellent ones to employ. Barley is often used for this purpose, and even though 6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. it is finally killed by frost, it still affords considerable protec- tion during the winter. Where it is desired to remove water from the soil in the autumn by the use of an early cover crop, Indian corn, sorg- hum and millet have frequently been used to advantage. In Michigan, on heavy, clay soils, mammoth clover was found to be superior to hairy vetch, but this may have been due to the vetch having been sown too late. In the state of New York, where clover is often an uncer- tain crop, hairy vetch, if sown early, gives greater promise of benefit. In Michigan Taft found that where oats were used as a cover crop the land remained moist much longer in the spring than where crimson clover was used, and less cultivation was required during the growing season. It should be remembered that soy beans and cow peas are readily injured or destroyed by late spring and early autumn frosts. The first autumn frosts cause the leaves to fall, after which they afford but little protection during the win- ter. In this respect clovers and field peas are far better. Fur- thermore, peas are especially good for holding the snow in the winter. In the case of cover crops great care should be taken to turn them under at the proper time in the spring, for if large amounts of organic matter are turned under late on light, dry soils, the consequences are likely to be serious. The closest observation and the best of judgment are demanded of the orchardist in connection with these features. Frequently the advantage of a cover crop consists far more in the protection which it affords during the winter than in the nitrogen which it gathers from the air. No one should expect that the growing and turning under of a cover crop in the spring can take the place of proper till- age during the summer. None of the clovers are of much use as cover crops unless they are sown early enough to get a good start before winter. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 6l At the Ontario Agricultural College, Macoun recom- mends a grass sod or a clover crop for the protection of trees from winter freezing. Where the shading is excessive, field peas are particularly useful. Soy beans have the advantage of being resistant to fungus diseases. Hairy vetch and winter rye, and hairy vetch and winter wheat have the advantage of withstanding trampling exceptionally well during the harvest- ing period, and they are not tall enough in the autumn to in- terfere with the harvesting, as is the case with Indian corn, millet, sorghum and other tall plants. Attention has been called by Professor Bailey to the ne- cessity of avoiding too much nitrogen in connection with the growth of peaches, apricots and grapes, but doubtless the same precaution is equally warranted as concerns currants, goose- berries, raspberries and blackberries. One advantage of Alsike clover over the other clovers is that it is more likely to succeed on moist land. It may be said, in conclusion, that no one should think of growing these various cover crops without first making sure that the soil contains enough lime to adapt it to them. With the possible exception of very heavy clay and silt soils, which need immediate flocculation, ground limestone is by all means preferable to air-slaked, hydrated, or burned lime. The use of an abundant supply of superphosphate and potash salts is usually essential to complete success in the growing of these legumes, for if these fertilizer ingredients are lacking the plants cannot take the maximum amount of nitrogen from the air. It will be observed that no attempt has been made to lay down definite rules for the government of New England or- chardists. The chief purpose has been to awaken a general interest in the subject of cover crops; to attempt to explain the reasons for some of the conflicting experimental data relating to them ; to point out the necessity for careful observations of the growth, soil and moisture conditions ; and to emphasize the necessity of determining in a judicial way what should be done in each individual orchard. 62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Wheeler's address was a lengthy one and of intense interest to those present, who gave him close attention, and upon its conclusion man}^ questions were put to the speaker. Discussion. Question : Is it necessary to inoculate hairy vetch ? Dk. Wheeler : No one can surely tell in advance. The best way is to inoculate a part of the field and leave the re- mainder uninoculated. If there is no difference in the growth, and if there are as many nodules on the roots of the plants in one part of the field as in the other, it is evident that inocula- tion is not necessary. Question: Can we grow Grimm alfalfa seed here? Dr. Wheeler : The seed can be grown here, but 1 pre- sume not as favorably as in the drier sections of the middle west. It is difficult to separate alfalfa seed and for this pur- pose a clover huller should be used, but one of these hullers costs several hundred dollars, and hence none of our farmers have as yet undertaken to save seed in an extensive way. Question: How often should alfalfa be cut? Dr. Wheeler : In New England it should seldom be cut more than three times in the same season, even where it is already well established. If sown in the spring, it should usually be cut but twice the first season. If sown in the latter part of July or early in August, it should not be cut at all that year. If there is a considerable growth of alfalfa at the be- ginning of winter, it will help to hold the snow and protect the crowns from injury by heaving. Question : What would be the effect on alfalfa of a water table or of a clay hardpan near the surface ? De. Wheeler: If a water table, ledge or a tight hard- pan is near the surface, it is not a suitable place to grow alfalfa, although the Grimm and other types of alfalfa, which have branching roots, have in some cases been known to suc- ceed where such a hardpan existed at a depth of but from one TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 63 to two feet. This must, however, be looked upon as an excep- tional happening. Question: What top-dressing for alfalfa? Dr. Wheeler : Alfalfa which is well established should be top-dressed annually with a mixture of superphosphate and potash salts. If the soil is not well limed, sulphate of potash is preferable to the muriate of potash. It may also act better in some cases on well-limed soils, for it contains sulphur as well as potash. In the case of very poor and but partly inoculated soils, top-dressing with a complete fertilizer ma}- sometimes insure a greater crop, but on general principles it is unwise to use nitrogen on such leguminous crops as are well estab- lished and are especially able to get it out of the air. The nitrogen requirement, however, may be dififerent with a market crop of string beans or early peas. Question : What inoculating material for hairy vetch ? Dr. Wheeler: There are several commercial cultures which have been used with marked success. This is especially true in the south, where vetch is much more extensively grown than in New England. When a field is well inoculated soil may be taken from it for inoculating other areas. Question : Is hairy vetch hardy in northern New Eng- land ?~ Dr. Wheeler : Yes, usually, if it is sown sufficiently early in the season and is well inoculated, but otherwise it may not be. Recently two instances of failure with hairy vetch have been brought to my attention, but in both cases it had been sown late. In one instance it was not sown until from the 10th to the 15th of September, whereas it should have been sown not later than the first week in August. Question : How much lime should be used to the acre in an apple or peach orchard? Dr. Wheeler: Very little. It is doubtful if there are many orchards where the application of more than one to one and one-half tons of ground limestone should be made, even at the outset. For the peach one should use less or none at all, 64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. unless a small amount is required in order to grow cover crops, which are essential, in other respects, to the success of the orchard. Question : When alfalfa has been introduced into a soil, how long before that soil is suitable to be used for inoculating? Dr. Wheeler : Probably in from two to three months, although it probably will improve for that purpose the longer the land is occupied by the crop. Question : How much limestone for clover and when to apply it? Dr. Wheeler: One cannot answer this question defin- itely. It depends upon the degree of acidity of the soil. Clover will thrive on soil which is slightly acid. Usually from one and one-half to two tons of ground limestone are sufficient, but in the case of exceptionally acid soils much more may be required. The ground limestone should be very thoroughly worked into the soil as long as possible before seeding. If the land is to be seeded while in Indian corn, the lime should be worked into the soil before the corn is planted. Question : Would you lose the bacteria in one or two years if kept for that time in cultivated crops before you at- tempt to grow alfalfa again, assuming that the soil was well inoculated ? Dr. Wheeler : I do not think so, although it may pos- sibly be true of some kinds of legumes. As concerns clover, I have yet to find an upland field in New England which needs inoculating in order to produce it, for after liming and ferti- lizing nodules develop on the roots everywhere in abundance. In view of the fact that this has been found to be true in old fields where practically no clover was present, good evidence is furnished that at least the modified type of bacteria which acts in connection with the clover must be exceedingly resistant. This is a matter which can be settled definitely on any farm by a few carefully planned experiments. Question : Is waste lime from a lime kiln, at twenty-five cents a ton, as valuable as ground limestone at $2.50 a ton? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 65 Dr. Wheeler: If fine and fairly dry, it should be far more economical.- If very wet, the content of lime will be low, the material will be difficult to handle, and if it requires screen- ing, its value will be still further lessened. Question : Can you get any potash from the soil with lime? Dr. Wheeler : You probably can release some potash by the use of the lime, if the land has been generously fertilized with potash fertilizer in the past, and if it has not been severely drained by potash-loving crops. On poor soils which have been robbed of their potash for years, most of that which re- mains is present in compounds which are not readily or effec- tually acted upon by lime. In my early experiments in Rhode Island, on soil of that character, a deficiency of potash devel- oped nearly as soon where lime was omitted as where it was used. Question : Can waste lime be exposed for a year and not be carbonated? Dr. Wheeler : Probably it can be exposed for even a longer time without becoming fully carbonated, if it is in a fair- ly tight cask. If, on the contrary, the lime is spread out in a thin layer on the floor, it will probably become very largely carbonated in even a shorter time. Everything depends upon the closeness of the contact of the air and lime, and upon the access of fresh supplies of air. President Hale: We will now have a further discussion of the fertilizer question by Dr. Jenkins, who will speak on "Some Plant Food Problems." Some Plant Food Problems. By Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Stations. Dr. Wheeler, as I knew he would, has covered the whole subject so completely that there is little left to be said. It is mighty poor gleaning after he has been mowing; and I 66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. only want to consider a single problem, which will only de- tain you a very few minutes. Of course, fertilizer prob- lems of orchards will never be definitely settled. There will never be uniformity in method and handling of trees and soils, nor in the amount or kind of fertilizers used in differ- ent orchards. Nor is that desirable, because differences in soils and in market and labor conditions make differences in orchard management necessary and desirable, because one or the other is more profitable according to the special conditions prevailing. There is one special problem before the orchardists of this state which has got to be settled within a few weeks, and that is the problem I wanted to make a few remarks about. That problem is : Shall we use potash in our or- chards this year on peaches and apples? It is certain that most of us, if not all of us, cannot get potash sufficient for our annual demand except, perhaps, in mixed fertilizers. An advertisement has lately appeared in the agricultural papers from the potash syndicate, cheerfully announcing, to be sure, that potash from Germany was moving. That re- minds me of a simile that the old sailors used to use that "So was a lame toad in warm tar." It is moving but it doesn't arrive. In 1913 importations of potash from July to January were 560,000 tons ; in the corresponding months of 1914 they were 184,000, about one-third of the normal amount ; and about two-thirds of that left the other side before war became general in Europe. To make up the shortage of potash which there is already in this country and to meet the normal demands until the first of May would require about 16,000 tons a day; and I only learn of one day's sup- ply, or less, on the water. Potash in general cannot at present be bought except in mixed fertilizers, containing a maximum of four per cent. Pot- ash would cost from $36 to $40 a ton, in a 4-8-4 formula. We got large amounts in the old days from Canada ashes, but the potash has not faded out of the so-called hard wood ashes, and TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 67 its place is taken by charcoal, old nails, false teeth and other things of that sort, all of which we have found in samples which have come to us, and the highest potash we have found was one and nine-tenths per cent. We have to buy it in mixed fertilizers or else we have to go without. Let us see what happens if we go without. An acre of peach trees, with a crop of four hundred baskets, will take from the land 47 pounds of nitrogen, 14 of phosphoric acid and forty of potash. To add just that amount of plant food in a mixed ferti- lizer will cost eighteen to twenty dollars an acre. The question is : Will that pay ? The reasons I think we can do better are these : In the first place, if we have been putting on for the last four or five years more potash than the crop takes off, eighty pounds of muriate -or its equivalent, we have been accumulating a certain surplus of potash in the soil, which, we believe, for the most part stays there until used. In that peach experiment which I spoke of last year, we put on 250 pounds of muriate to the acre for five years, an excessive amount. In that five years we took off two crops of peaches, only 611 baskets. We now have a surplus of 496 pounds of potash, which we put on in the last five years. Obviously there is no sense in putting on any more potash this year, when we have to pay high prices. If we have good crops it would take three years to use that surplus. Of course, if no potash is used for a term of years it may be expected that a continued lack of it will have its effect on the trees, but where fertilizing has been done by intelligent orchardists in this state wth plenty of potash for a term of years, I don't believe that going without it for this year is going to have any deleterious effect on the crop. Fruit trees have a longer period of growth than any other of our crops. They grow from the time they first start in the spring until frost. They are foraging in the soil over an extensive area, because of their very wide root sys- tem. Therefore, they would suffer less when fertilizers are withheld for a single year. It is common observation how long an orchard which has been cared for will run of itself 68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. without serious failure after fertilization has been discon- tinued. The bacteria left in the soil, which is encouraged to start by tillage and by green manures, is constantly at work extracting potash, and that will go on whether potash arrives on these shores or not, I suppose a good many of us heard the very interesting talk of Professor Hopkins last week, and I believe he was certainly right in urging the use of larger amounts of phos- phates and of the nitrogen rather than increasing the sup- plies of potash. His point was, and I think it is true, that on the average soils here we are more likely to run short of available phosphates, and certainly of available nitrogen, than we are of available potash. Therefore, my advice would be for orchardists who have taken good care of their land, who have used commer- cial fertilizers intelligently in past years, to drop the use of potash this year as a war measure. Don't misunderstand me — that I think we can give up the use of potash in our orchards entireiy. That would be foolish. But as a war measure I don't think we shall suffer any loss if we drop it entirely for the present year. Don't hoard the money you save from the potash, but put it into increased supplies of nitrogen and of phosphates. I was interested in Dr. Hopkins' attitude towards raw phos- phate and acid phosphate. He has used raw phosphate on soils which were filled with vegetable matter, in Illinois, and he has come to entirely disbelieve in acid phosphate. I thnk I noticed a little change in his attitude in his last talk with us, where he acknowledged that raw phosphate was much cheaper with them at the west than with us ; and on the other hand acid phosphate was much cheaper with us than with them. I think if he had more observation and experience of our thin soils, destitute of humus, he would come around to our own feeling that we cannot afford to •permanently improve our land wholly for the sake of poster- ity, but that we have got to improve our land and improve our income at the same time ; and that acid phosphate, rath- J TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 69 er than raw phosphate, is the best means for us at the pres- ent time to do it. When we have g-ot our lands with the same amount of vegetable matter in them that they have in those western soils, then we will begin to think of our great grandchildren, and go back to raw phosphate, particu- larly if the government takes hold of the railroads and gives freight for almost nothing. That will be some years from now. I was interested in what Professor Wheeler said about the influence of soda. You will remember that in this five- year experiment with peaches at Barnes Brothers' we got from our crops during the five years only two full crops, almost as large a yield of peaches where we used nitrate of soda alone as where we used a complete fertilizer, which rather astonished me, and I begin to think of Dr. Wheeler's suggestion that it is possible on that soil, which had been well handled for many years, there was a considerable accu- mulation of potash, and that the nitrogen, with the potash and with the aid of the soda, really met the potash demands of the crop, so that we really had the nitrogen and the potash, whereas the potash alone applied to the soil did not produce any great increase. As to the use of lime — we have put on for the five years in the orchard three hundred tons to the acre ever year. Our crops were smaller on the limed portion than on the un- limed portion treated otherwise in the same way. This last year we think we have observed a lack of thriftiness in the trees on the limed portion, and certainly in that one experi- ment on that soil lime, I feel, there in the last five years, has been a detriment rather than a help. This, of course, does not establish any general rule. I don't know what the his- tory of the soil was before or how much lime was put on it. Certainly the lime we have put on has not been helpful, but rather a detriment. A Member : How about Peruvian guano? yo TEE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Jenkins: It has a horrid smell. It is a good fer- tilizer if you can get it cheap enough. I haven't seen any quo- tations that look tempting to me. I would rather stir up my own fertilizer. There is one favorable thing this year — nitrate of soda has been very cheap. I think the price has begun to go up. I think well of Peruvian guano. I don't think it has any special value greater than the same amount of plant food in other forms. It is a quick acting fertilizer. If you can get it at a price that would compare at all with that which you have to pay for chemicals I would use it. On motion of Mr. Gold, duly seconded, it was voted unanimously that a nominating committee be appointed by the chair to bring in a list of officers to be voted for at the closing session of the meeting. President Hale : We will now take up the discussion of the question list, which will be conducted by Mr. G. A. Drew of Greenwich. Discussion of Question List. Conducted by Mr. G. A. Drew. Question No. 2 : What are the best tools for orchard cultivation where trees are headed low ? Mr. Rogers: I don't know. Mr. Root : I don't head low. Mr. Drew : If I had an orchard headed low I wouldn't try to go in under the branches, especially in the older orchards. There are a lot of implements that can get under the heads ; ex- tension harrows, cutaways and spring-tooth harrows ; the Forkner Harrow is good. You can use the extension heads to get in very easily. Question No. 3 : Is there any successful treatment known as yet for the "Baldwin Spot"? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. yi Dr. Clinton : It is a brownish spot that early in the Hfe of the apple is entirely hidden ; later it comes to the surface. It can be distinguished from the fungus disease because the fun- gus disease goes from the outside in. The Baldwin spot is not due to fungi. It is a disease that some have thought is due to dry weather. Recently they have come to separate the two types of disease. One they call the Baldwin spot; the other they call stigmonose. One type is caused by an insect; possibly the rosy aphis. It has been my idea, as demonstrated by my work with Mr. Ives, that possibly the Baldwin Spot is the result of a sucldng insect attacking the fruit when it is very young. We have come to that conclusion because every other year the Baldwin Spot is worse, and in these years the rosy aphis is worse. We at least recognize that part of the Baldwin Spot is due to an insect. That being the case, those sprays that are used for that purpose will help to control the trouble. If the other part is due to drouth, probably there is no method of control. In some sections where they can irri- gate, perhaps thev can lessen it by irrigation. The Jonathan Spot is a trouble different from the Bald- win Spot. It is on the outside. There is a little confusion because the Jonathan Spot is applied to both a fungus disease and a disease not due to fungi. We think the Jonathan Spot here due to a fungus. Mr. Drew : It is a rather puzzling thing, because it is pro- duced under so many different conditions. Mr. Rogers: We get more Baldwin Spot on trees bear- ing few apples than on the full producing trees. We hardly ever get it on the full tree. Dr. Clintoin : That may be true. If it is due to insects that might be true, because trees that bear few apples are usu- ally infested more by insects. I didn't know that was the case with the Baldwin Spot. Mr. Drew : I can bear out Mr. Rogers in that statement. I found the same thing in the Baldwin Spot. I have always thought some climatic conditions had something to do with it ; it was one of the disadvantages of the Baldwin variety. 72 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Clinton : You can't blame this on me. I have taken cultures time and time again and have never been able to get fungus out of it. Question No. 39: Has the so-called soluble sulphur proved a success in the dormant spray? Mr. Conant, of Maine: Soluble sulphur has been used quite extensively in Maine as a dormant spray and has been a success for control of the blister mite, and the dark sucking insects. Mr. Drew : What advantage has ii over the commercial lime-sulphur? Mr. Coinant: It is more economical, giving the same results. Dr. Britton : We use more than a ton a year of sodium sulphide in making a dormant spray to kill the San Jose Scale. We found it would kill the scale; it was fairly satisfactory, but very much more costly than the lime-sulphur to handle. That on the market contains about 35% or more sodium. I should think it could be used for spray, although I was told by one entomologist a month ago that he didn't find it as satis- factory as lime-sulphur. Question No. 15 : Which is the better place to graft a small apple tree — on the limbs or on the trunk? Mr. Drew : You should graft in comparatively small limbs, generally not over two inches in diameter, and smaller if possible. I suppose it would have more to do with the forma- tion of the tree. You can graft successfully a small tree, whether you cleft graft into the main trunk or small limbs. It would depend some on the size of the limbs. Of course, every- one knows if they are grafting a small tree that they don't want to graft in the limbs and then graft in on one limb and the trunk, and then cut off all the other limbs. You have got to do that gradually. I have even grafted in a small tree any- where from two to three years old at least, and left the lateral branches to grow. Grafting always wants to be done gradu- ally. On the other hand, for a tree five or six years old, I TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 73 should suppose almost invariably you want to graft into the branches, leaving, of course, a sufficient amount to prevent sun scald, and to bring up the sap from the roots. I don't think there should be any trouble in grafting over the fifteen or twen- ty-five-year-old tree, provided you take small enough branches to do it. If you try to take limbs large in diameter that is where you get trouble. Canker is going to start in. Mr. Kelly: If you are going to handle the small tree of less than an inch or an inch in diameter, bud them. Then you can cut off the top in the spring and the tree bud will take all the sap you have got. Mr. Drew : Once in a while you will get canker into the trunk of your tree, and it will go. Mr. Gold: Most of the favorable results of grafting come from the skill of the operator doing it. A tree of any kind can be grafted if proper care is taken. A Member : Is it understood that the tops must not be cut off the tree until the buds have well started? Mr. Drew : I suppose it depends somewhat on the size of your tree. If you have never budded our tree you have to cut off the tops to force the bud. A Member : I have left them on until they were in blos- som. Mr. Kelly : We always cut the tops off before we set the buds. Question No. 40: Will Black Leaf 40, used in connec- tion with lime-sulphur spray in early spring, kill the Woolly Aphis ? Has anyone really succeeded in cleaning up apple trees of lice when badly infested. Mr. Rogers : I would say that in some places I had good success ; in others I did not. I would like to know the reason why I didn't have good success in both places. In one orchard I had good results ; in the other orchard I didn't have good re- sults ; done by the same man almost at the same time. For the aphis alone I think Black Leaf 40. if taken in time, will surely kill them. 74 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Drew: If you kill them more keep on coming. Mr. Rogers : They keep coming-. Mr. Ives: What time did Mr. Rogers do his work — in the midsummer? Mr. Rogers: Just as the leaf bud unfolded. We sprayed the same day in the two orchards, got the results in one, didn't in the other. Mr. Drew : In the control of the aphis the thing is to prevent them, to get ahead of them at the time. If they once thoroughly infest a large tree it certainly is hard work to kill them off. I would like to hear from somebody who has suc- cessfully done it after the tree was infested. We haven't been able to do it. President Hale: To-morrow morning we are to have an address on this subject, and we will have further discus- sion of it then. Question No. 27 : Is there a practical method of con- trolling the peach borer other than digging out ? Dr. Britton : Mr. Scott has just applied for a patent on a collar to put around the tree. It covers the ground, extend- ing out from the trunk fourteen inches or so, the same as a collar tied around the trunk of the tree ; he claims that his ex- periments show that the borer lays his eggs on the soil. President Hale: Has that got anything on the method of banking up in the early spring? Isn't that the same thing as some people do now ? Dr. Britton : I don't think so, because the eggs might hatch on the ground and get into the tree in the meantime. The egg cannot be laid where it will hatch. Mr. Drew : I used to apply tar to the trunks of the tree, and I know an orchard where they are doing that. The or- chard looks pretty shady. I wouldn't dare do it. I don't believe many of our orchardists in Connecticut would tar the base of the tree with the mineral tar product. The bark under- neath is beginning to look a little shady, in the case I refer to. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 75 I am sure it is going to hurt the tree. I think there is no doubt but the tar would keep out the borer, but I wouldn't do it. A Member : Have you ever tried white lead ? Mr. Drew: I never have tried white lead. If you keep using it it would be pretty expensive. Dr. Britton : We are making some experiments on it. Mr. Drew : I think a number of Connecticut growers are digging the earth from the base of the tree and spraying with a concentrated solution. It is a very, very serious problem, and I doubt if there is any practical method except to dig them out by hand once a year, or twice a year if necessary. A Member : Has anyone, ever tried putting a mesh wire around the tree ? Mr. Drew : All those things resolve themselves into the question of expense. Can you get anything cheaper than dig- ging them out? It is a question of dollars and cents. A Member : What do you find best for digging them out ? Mr. Drew : Either with a wire or knife. With a knife care must be taken to dig up and down, and not horizontally. If you are not careful you will have your peach trees girdled. Question No. 20: What are the five best varieties of red apples in Connecticut, for the fruit stand trade, season Septem- ber to April ? Mr. Drew: Most of the commercial growers don't" grow five varieties probably. Mr. Brown: Mcintosh, Baldwin, King, Northern .Spy, Gravenstein. Secretary Miles : Would you not put Wealthy on the list? Mr. Gold : You can't beat Mr. Brown's list. Mr. Drew : I would put in Wealthy instead of Graven- stein. It does better with us. A Member : Would you put Somerset in there ? 76 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Brown: It is an apple that peels clean; it is quite popular in Massachusetts ; it resembles the King in color ; comes a little ahead of Gravenstein in season. Mr. Drew : We grow the Mother apple ; it is a good fruit stand apple. It is certainly a wonderful apple, and it is a fall apple. Mr. J. H. Hale : The question about apples for the fruit stands the whole year around, it seems to me, should run like this : Williams Favorite, Gravenstein, Mcintosh, Spy and Baldwin. The Baldwin will carry you from January to July, and that gives you a whole year round supply. Mr. Drew : A lot of people would be in favor of the Wagener ; it is a mighty fine apple, but not so generally grown. A Member : How about the Red Astrachan ? Mr. Drew : It is good, but it goes down mighty quick on a fruit stand. Nominating Committee. President Hale: In accordance wiith the vote just passed, I will appoint the following nominating committee, to report Thursday afternoon : Hartford County — ^J. C. Eddy, Simsbury. New Haven County — Walter H. Baldwin, Cheshire. Middlesex County — Robert Hubbard, Middletown. Fairfield County — J. C. Jackson, Norwalk. Litchfield County — C. L. Goijd, West Cornwall. Tolland County — A. G. Gulley, Storrs. Windham County — Oscar F. Atwood, Brooklyn. New London County — F. W. Browning, Norwich. At five o'clock the afternoon session was closed, adjourn- ment being taken until evening. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 77 Evening Session. The session on Tuesday evening- was called to order by President Hale at 7 :30. The attendance of fruit growers was especially good, and many city men and women were present, being attracted by the prominent speakers on the program and the opportunity to see the fine display of fruits, etc. President Hale: The first thing on the program this evening is a paper by Mr. S. P. Hollister, of the Connecticut Agricultural College, on "The College Orchards and Some Notes on Varieties Grown." The College Orchards and Notes on the Varieties of Apples Grown. By S. P. HoLixsTER, Mortic^dtural Department, Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs. There are four apple orchards on the college farm which have been planted since the institution was started. The first one, which is located on a western slope back of Storrs Hall, was planted in 1882. The trees were set thirty • feet apart. The original orchard consisted of sixty-five trees of the following varieties, arranged in order of ripen- ing: Golden Sweet, two trees; Sweet Bough, two trees; Early Penndck, one tree ; Stump, four trees ; Gravenstein, four trees ; Hurlbut, eight trees ; Hubbardston, six trees ; Jersey Black, two trees ; R. I. Greening, eight trees ; North- ern Spy, two trees ; Baldwin, eight trees ; English Russet, four trees ; Roxbury, four trees. Some of the trees have died and others planted in. Three of the English Russets were top-worked in 1901. The Jersey Black were both top- worked. As you will notice, this orchard is over-balanced with early apples, the Stump does not get up in size, and also drops badly. The Golden Sweet is not a good apple to sell, and it has the bad fault of dropping badly. Early Pen- nock is of no account, it's poor in quality and a poor bearer. The Northern Spy have not yet produced good crops. 78 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The trial orchard is, as the name indicates, an orchard to test or try out new or uncommon varieties. The first planting was done in 1895, and since 1898 trees have been added or grafted over every year. The orchard now con- tains about 190 varieties of apples, 100 of which are in bear- ing. This orchard is not intended to settle whether a cer- tain apple will do well in Connecticut, or whether it will do well on your farm, but it does settle whether it is a profit- able apple for us to plant. There are some varieties which we feel safe in saying will not do well in Connecticut from our tests here. Probably the greatest benefit to you of this orchard is the fact that we grow these new varieties and you can see for yourself if you want to plant them ; on the table down there are over sixty varieties of apples. You can't afford to give up your land and test them out, but we feel that it is our duty to do it for you. Some of the varie- ties which have already proven themselves of little value under our conditions are : Bietigheimer — shy bearer, too large, drops badly. Ribston — a shy bearer, not high color, more like a dull Hubbardston. York Imperial — shay bearer, uneven in size, not high quality. Sops of Wine — very light crops, ripens unevenly. Missouri Pippin — very liable to over-bear, needs much thinning, poor quality. Northern Spy — a high quality apple, but very slow to come into bearing, no good crops of fruit have been har- vested from these nineteen-year-old trees. Smokehouse — thrifty growing, spreading tree, but drops badly and the fruit is often not well colored. Jefiferies — rather of a light cropper, not a very thrifty growing tree. Ohio Nonpareil — has been a shy bearer up to the past season, apple of high quality and fine color. Salome — of inferior quality and shy bearer. Gano and Paragon or Mammoth Twig — do better far- ther south; we can grow something better than either of these two. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 79 Beauty of Bath — the earliest apple in the orchard, very attractive bright red with the green calyx. It is a fine cook- ing apple and sells on its color, but it is not a heavy bearer. Apples ripen for some time. Delicious — we have three trees, two growing side by side ; one has produced several crops ; the other has produced only a few fruits, but has made a much larger tree. Opalescent — a very attractive red apple ; it is making a strong tree and has fruited well. Colvert — a very promising market or cooking apple, in- clined to drop and rather low in color, but gets good size, and the trees bear heavily. Sweet Winesap — a good red striped, high quality, me- dium sized fall sweet apple, tree upright grower. Shiawassee — an apple of the Fameuse or Mcintosh type, tree a heavy bearer, and bears rather young, inclined to overbear. Yellow Transparent — an early-bearing upright-growing early yellow sour apple ; its color and tenderness spoil it as a market apple, bruises too easily. Good for home use. McMahon — large yellow sour apple, shows bruises too easily. Cooper's Market — good cropper, not as attractive as the Ben Davis and not as good. Mexico — a local red summer apple for home use. The commercial orchard was set in 1901 and comprises about ten acres. The permanent trees are two rods, or thirty-three feet apart. The following varieties were set : Baldwin, Sutton, R. I. Greening, Hurlbut, Roxbury, Ben Davis, Red Canada, Jonathan, Esopus and a few trees of Jacob Sweet. On about three acres peaches were set as fillers, a peach between each tree, and a full row of peaches between the apple rows. Several crops of peaches were harvested before the trees were pulled out. The apples may have been uninjured by having the peaches planted with them, but I doubt if anyone here could pick out in that orchard by the looks of the trees where the peaches were planted. If they had been left in longer there would have been dam- 8o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. age to the apples, but we were careful to keep the peaches headed in, and often took out a tree if it crowded an apple. I would not recommend the peach as a filler unless the grower will pull them out before they crowd the apples. Japanese plums were used as fillers on a small part of the orchard, and a few crops were harvested, but the trees were all badly infested with black knot and had to be pulled and burned. There is at present a block which has apples and. pears as fillers. The following varieties are used: Oldenburg, Wealthy, Hubbardston, Wagener and Mcintosh. With the exception of the Wealthy, which has not grown as strong as the others, and has also been badly affected by rust, all the fillers have produced paying crops. The Oldenburg is a good filler. It makes a medium sized tree, bears young, and the crop is off before the winter fruit comes on. Hubbard- ston has done very well. Wagener is another good variety to be used as a filler. It is compact and somewhat upright and has borne very well. Mcintosh has grown too rapidly for a good filler. If we were planting again it would be used as a permanent, and that is what we are doing, using some of the fillers and moving them into the places where some of the permanent trees have died. I feel safe in say- ing the Mcintosh has returned more per tree than any other in the orchard. The pears which we have used have been Louise, An- gouleme and Bosc, which was worked upon Keififer stocks after they were well established in the orchard. The Bosc on Keififer has made a strong union, and they have borne good crops nearly every year. If we were resetting this orchard to-day we should probably set only the following varieties : Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Roxbury, Red Canada and perhaps Ben Davis, but I doubt it, and Mcintosh, using it for both permanent and filler, and Oldenburg and Wagener for fillers, leaving out Sutton, Jonathan, Esopus, Hubbardston arid Wealthy and Jacob Sweet. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. gl The dwarf orchard is our smallest orchard although it contains over 340 trees and over 200 varieties. This or- chard was set from 1903 to 1907, w^hen the last trees w^ere put in. althou.^h since then we have grafted some. This orchard was planted for two or more reasons : First, to test out the practibility of using dwarf trees in a commercial way ; and secondly, to have an orchard where it would be possible to cut scions of almost any variety or to gather a few specimens of any common variety. Regarding the first point, we feel it is not practical nor l^rofitable to try to grow apples commercially on dwarf stocks ; some varieties will not produce well under our con- ditions. We feel the place for the dwarf tree is in a garden where there is not room for a standard. DiSCUSSIO'N. Question : How about the York Imperial ? Mr. Hollister: The York Imperial apple with us has not borne very heavily ; fruit is uneven in size. I think it would do better further south ; that is my impression of it. Question : How about Crimson Beauty ? INIr. Hollister : We haven't that variety. Question : What about Rome Beauty ? Mr. Hollister : It has the advantage of hanging on to the tree. You can leave it until the last to pick. We have only two or three trees of that. Personally, I am not very much in favor of it. Question: How about the Baxter? Mr. Hollister : We have that, but not enough fruit yet to tell what it will do. Williams Favorite is a very good early red summer apple. QuESTiO'N : What about the Winesap? Mr. Hollister : Better not tr\ to grow it. They can grow it to better advantage further south. The Stayman Wine'- sap and the Winesap are two distinct apples. 82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Question : What about the Delicious ? Mr. HoLLiSTER : The Delicious ; I mentioned our experi- ence with it. One tree bore heavily, another did not. In re- gard to quality, the first time I tasted one I thought I would like to eat it right along; after I had eaten them for a day or two. honestly, I didn't care whether I had any more or not. I passed the Delicious around in a class of twenty-five or so ; sev- eral of them didn't like it. Those who have eaten it know that the fiavor is rather peculiar; sort of banana, pear and apple taste. Oldenburg is a good apple for a filler and colors up very well ; our market has been very good for it. Question : Will Sutton Beauty winter kill ? Mr. HoLLiSTER : Not regularly, but it did when the or- chard was first put out. We lost several trees, but also other varieties, too. The trouble with the Sutton is that it is too much of an upright grower. It is a good apple ; comes in just before the Baldwin and after the Gravenstein ; it is a very at- tractive apple, but it has that disadvanage of going up in the air. Question : Did you get a satisfactory yield from the Sutton ? Mr. Hollister : On young trees, yes. Perhaps we have had to thin more heavily in some cases on the Sutton than the others. If you allowed it to grow you would have long arms with no branches on them. We cut off half the limbs in some cases. Question : How about the Wagener ? Will it keep firm ? Mr. Hollister : With us it is a very fair keeper ; it doesn't lose quality in cold storage as quickly as some other apples. It is not a rank grower; something on the order of the Sutton in that it doesn't produce many side branches ; more inclined to grow long arms, and the fruit spurs grow from the main branches. It is inclined that way ; it ought to be headed low. Question: What about the Gravenstein? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 83 Mr. Hollister : The Gravenstein with us does not hang on to the tree ; it drops badly. Question: The Somerset? Mr. Hollister : We haven't got that in bearing. Question : What kind of apple is the Bismarck ? Mr. Hollister : Very bright colored, attractive apple, conical in shape, gets good size. It is not high quality. It is more on the type of the Russian apples, rather a little bit coarse- grained. With us it has borne fairly only. It is attractive. Other than that I don't think I would plant it. Question : About the Gravenstein — wh) do they drop on one tree and hang on to another right close to it ? Mr. Hollister : I don't know. For two or three years our Gravensteins dropped so badly we picked them early ; of course they were not high color, so we couldn't get so much for them. Question : What were your doubts about the Opales- cent? Mr. Hollister : The doubt in my mind is as to whether the quality is going to be attractive. The color is fine, but whether it is going to have the quality or flavor that people are going to take to is another question. It is keeping verv fairly with us, although last year was the first time. Question: How about Grimes Golden? Mr. Hollister : Grimes Golden is one of the best yellow apples, but it has the disadvantage of being yellow all through ; it will show the bruises much more readily than a red apple. It is a high quality apple. If you have a market where you can dispose of it without putting it into barrels it is all right. Question : What of the Winter Banana? Mr. Hollister : We have one tree : not bearing very much. President Halk : This society feels highl\- honored to have as its guest this evening the President of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, who will now address vou. 84 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. President Elliott's subject is "The Relation between the Farm- er and the Railroad." Mr. Elliott's address was, in part, as follows : The Relation Between the Farmer and the Railroad. By Howard Elliott, President oj the New York, New Haven and Hart- ford Railroad. I feel that apart from the natural interest that any citizen takes in the production of good fruit, I have a special reason for being with you at this meeting. While I was president of the Northern Pacific I was twice president of the national apple show at Spokane, and I am the owner of a fifty-acre orchard in the Yakima valley of Wash- ington. Like many other apple orchards at the present time, the returns on my orchard are very disappointing, but I be- lieve in time there will be a change and greater use of the apple as a food by our rapidly increasing population, and that well-managed orchards will produce reasonable returns. But the business — like all successful business — must be conducted along proper lines and most efficiently and economically, or it will fail. The day of the commercial orchard has come, not only in the West, but all over the country, and men are giving the same careful and thorough attention to the production of apples that they are giving to the production of steel, and making of agricultural implements, or to any other business that is conducted with skill and intelligence. The study, attention and care given to the production of fruit, by the grower, must, as that production increases, be supplemented by greater publicity as to the use of apples, greater efforts for wider and wider markets, and improve- ments and additions to the methods of packing, storing and transporting the fruit. The West has done much in this di- rection and raises very good fruit, and so does the South. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 85 The New England Apple. But New E'ng-land grows as good apples as are raised any- where. New England has the best markets at the producer's door; land in plenty to produce the best fruit under proper methods, and the best of transportation facilities for quick marketing. New England is the home of the Baldwin apple, a. chance seedling found at Wilmington, near Lowell, Mass. The Hubbardston, Seek-no-Further and the Sutton Beauty are also products of Massachusetts. The Rhode Island Greening is said to have originated near Foster, R. I. There are men in New England who are proving what can be done in New England not only with apples, but peaches and other fruits ; latter-day pioneers in an old country. Among many who have done good work are C. E. Lyman of Middle- field, Barnes Bros., A. T. Henry, Pring Bros., and others at Yalesville and Wallingford ; J. H. Hale with his splendid or- chards at Glastonbury and Seymour; the High Rock orchards of New Britain; Mr. Converse of Greenwich, who has had wonderful success in cutting back old apple trees ; T. K. Win- sor of Greenville, R. L, and Mr. Marshall of Fitchburg, ^Nlass., who is securing- Baldwin apples four years from planting. All these are progressive fruit growers and men who are doing much for the revival of fruit culture in New England and proving that New England can produce good fruit at a profit to the grower. That the golden promise held out by New England for the fruit grower is beginning to be appreciated is indicated bv the figures for the apple crop. The government estimates the crop in these states to have amounted to 19,938,000 bushels. This compares with an apple production in 1913 of only 9,- 200,000 bushels. The value of last year's apple crop is placed at $10,098,700. There should be gratification in the fact that while in 1913 New England produced 6.3 per cent of the na- tion's apple crop, last year this was increased to 7.7 per cent. Although this is a meeting of the Pomological Society, I shall take the opportunity to say something about the im- portance of agriculture generally and its relation to New Eng- 86 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. land and to^ the transportation business, in which I have spent all my life; because the subject is of such vital importance to this section of the country engaged so largely in the manu- facturing business and needing an abundance of good food at minimum prices. In New England agriculture has been neglected some- what in the past forty years, but it is the greatest business in the United States, in the number of people employed and in its importance to the whole country, and we should all help to put it on the soundest possible basis and encourage people to engage in it. The United States, must cultivate more acres^ and more intensively ; and must raise more farm products or be unable to feed its own people. A movement which began about the time of the war co- incident with the growing demand for technical education has somewhat changed the nature of farming in this country ; it is becoming an important business, rather than an occupa- tion. Population has grown rapidly, and the demands of the people for food have become great. More and more the at- tention of intelligent men, in the farming ranks and without, has been directed towards the future and the question of providing the necessities of life to a population now of at least 100,000,000. Better Farming Methods the Solution. The present conditions of life are in many ways most comfortable, and younger men should remember the hard work of the last forty years in overcoming obstacles, and re- alize their responsibility for the future. Changes that are taking place in the land values west of the Allegheny Moun- tains, the increase in population there, the necessary raising of long-haul rates on food products because of the greater expense and complications surrounding the railroad business, all point directly to the necessity of using- to a greater extent the land areas east of the mountains and producing a greater quantity of food nearer to the congested centers of Xcw F-ng- land. New York and Penns\l\ania. ("an am one dnuht that TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 8/ the same energy, intelligence, and industry that has built up the finance, commerce, and education of this section will fail to overcome the agricultural obstacles of this region, if at- tention is given to them? Of course not, and the important thing is to help in every proper way to direct attention to the matter and to awaken public interest to its importance. If only ten men farm well, and their fellow farmers in a county farm poorly, the proper average production is not ob- tained. It is the consistent result rather than the occasional exploit of a brilliant man, that counts. In the New England states there are men who are making good profits out of farming, producing yields far better than the average, and not only maintaining, but in some cases increasing, the fer- tility of their fields. They are demonstrating what has been proven in New England and Germany, where some of the cultivated land has been cropped for ten centuries, that con- stant cultivation, if it is wise cultivation, does not exhaust the soil. In those countries, and on this old land, the crop yield is much heavier than in this country. The soils of Eu- rope have no peculiar characteristics to account for this better production ; on the contrary, there is every reason to believe that the same methods of cultivation with nourishment to the soil from dififerent forms of fertilizers which resulted there, from the pressure of larger demands for the products of the farm, will produce much better yields in the N^ew England states. The New England Situation. The states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachu- setts produce annually about $105,000,000 worth of crops and animal products and receive from territory beyond the bor- ders of New England about $220,000,000 worth per annum, making a total of S325.000.000 worth of farm and animal pro- ducts, of which the three states mentioned produce about ?>2.?) per cent. If the actual figures were obtainable we would un- doubtedly find the amount produced is actualh- less than 30 B8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. per cent of the consumption. New England must raise more -farm products, cattle, fruit, vegetables, etc. The value of the manufactured products of New Eng- land in 1910 amounted to $2,670,065,000, of which Connecti- cut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts produced. $2,261,145,- .000, or 84; 7 per cent.; Compare this enormous: amount with the relatively small amount of farm output, $105,000,000. There is ai big economic question involved "in the "reViVal of agriculture in New England which has a direct bearing on the industrial future of the New England states. New Eng- land is in a unique position compared with other manufac- turing centers of the United States in that it produces no raw material or fuel. It is compelled to import most of its raw material, its fuel, and to manufacture its goods and reship them largely to markets beyond its territory. New England food markets are and have been considered for many years the best markets in the East, if not in the United States, and there are thousands of cars per year of food products now being shipped into New England which should be produced here. This non-production has naturally increased the cost of living, which imposes an added burden upon the great manufacturing business of this section, so dependent upon well-fed and satisfied employees. The revival of agriculture here is most important to the life of New England. It is to be regretted the dairy interests in New England are not in the best of condition. The state of New York, with its 47,000 square miles, has 145,000 more dairy cattle than the total number of cattle in New England, with its 66,465 square miles, with no better natural advantages and not as good markets or transportation facilities. New England must produce more milk. New England is carrying 385,000 sheep; the wool pro- duced in New England in 1913 amounted to 3,077,530 pounds, of which Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts pro- duced 409,615 pounds. New York state carried for the same period 875,000 sheep and produced 5,469,750 pounds of wool. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 89 New England is virtually a land of specialties. While the cereal crops can and undoubtedly will be increased, it is more difficult, for the farmer in New England to compete as to those with the broad fertile acres of the West and Mid- dle West. We can, however, supply, I believe, profitably a much larger part of its beef, mutton, pork and poultry. Tinere is no logical reason why New England should not produce ail the fruits and vegetables adapted to its climate, that it re- quires, and have a goodly supply left for its neighbors — New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. Market gardening is attractive and remunerative for the man who is willing to work with his brain and his muscle, and men are making good in this line in the vicinity of Bridge- port, New Haven, Hartford,- Springfield, Worcester, Boston and Providence. Farming and Railroading. The business in which the farmer is engaged is the most important in the United States. The business of second im- portance is that of transportation, which T represent. The two are very closely related, and the success of agriculture means the success of the railroad, for it hauls what the farm produces and consumes. The farmer is equally dependent upon the railroad, for without transportation he could not market his product, and his success depends up'on the regu- larity and adequacy of the transportation available to him. When one sees the ordinary operation of the railroad going on without much interruption, except from heavy weather, one does not always realize the great work that has been done in creating the railroad machine in the United States, and the really vast amount of expense and work to keep it going day by day. It seems very simple to see the passenger trains run in and out of the station ; to order the freight car and send the produce to the market ; to telegraph to the nearest large town for supplies, and in twenty-four or' forty-eight hours have them delivered. But it is not so easy and simple as it seems, and there is danger to-dav that 90 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the next great uplift in business in the United States will find the railroads, as a whole, sorely taxed to furnish the trans- portation needed for the commerce of the country. Why? Because a misdirected public opinion has been demanding rates too low, taxes too hi^^h, wages too high, service too elaborate, too many rules and regulations, and there are not cents enough in the dollar to meet all these obligations and still permit the business to be attractive enough so the man with the dollar will invest it. The New Haven road has been going through a difficult period and is in distress now in trying to fulfill its obliga- tions to the public, the owners — probably 45.000 in all — and the vSO,000 employees. These owners and employees represent, with those dependent upon them, at least 350,000^ — a very sub- stantial part of New England population, whose welfare must be considered in working out this railroad i)roblem. All rail- roads are having- great difficulty in sustaining themselves at the present time. Even the great Pennsylvania system, with its enormous coal and mineral tonnage, is having its troubles as well as the New Haven, which has no such concentrated business to help it carry the burden of elaborate and expen- sive passenger business. Our problem is with the present and the future, and the directors and officers and employees are all earnestly trying to make the best of a difficult situation. One of the urgent needs now is to have some law passed by Connecticut. Rhode Island and Massachusetts that will permit the development and adoption of some broad, sound, stable financial plan to take care of the present floating debt of the company — $53,- 000,000 — and to furnish a basis for obtaining new funds for needed improvements. You can help in that work by friendly co-operation with your banker, your representative, your news- paper man. Until this difficult financial problem can be settled and settled right, there can be no real stability and progress about the railroad business, and without that progress in other dir'ec- tions is checked somewhat. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 91 What is true of New England is true of the railroad situ- ation in the whole country, only the difficulty here is more complex and more acute. Need of a Fair Public Opinion. Sound public opinion can help both the farmer and the railroads in the important work of the farmer and the rail- road. It is important that fairness and consideration be shown to both — to the farmer that he may have every encourage- ment and the assistance of the best agricultural education, scientific research and extensive work so as to produce a larger food supply ; and to the railroad that it may help the general prosperity by being able to provide sufficient transportation when it is needed. The people can have good farming and good railroading, but it means hard work and plenty of it. Men who stand otf on one side and find fault, criticise and embarrass those who are reall\- doing the constructive work in the country, by nu- merous petty foolish restrictions, are not helping, l)ut are really hindering the work of better farming and better rail- roading, and the country will sooner or later wake up to this fact. There never was a time in the histor\- of the United Stales when there was more reason to encourage greater agricultur- al activity or when a greater responsibility rested on the farmers of this western world. With increased demands for corn, wheat and beef products by Europe, now in the gigantic struggle of a horrible war, its producing population threat- ened with extermination and much of the country devastated, drawing heavily on this countr\- for its staple food, with our own ra])idly increasing population and corresponding com- mands upon our resources, responsibility of our government and those engaged in American agriculture is very great. That there will be some shortage in the world's food supply is to be one of the results of the war. How serious this may be can only be inferred from the facts that in normal times Eng- land onl\ produces 27 per cent of her requirements, dermany 92 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 82 per cent, France 93 per cent, while Austria-Hungary is barely self-sustaining, leaving only Russia of the great bel- ligerent nations normally producing a surplus. This country can produce more; New England can pro- duce more, and can feed her own people and have a surplus for the unfortunate people on the other side, if we will de- vote ourselves to that important work and waste less time in interfering with and criticisino- business. President Hale: We also have with us to-night our old friend, Collingwood, of Flope Farm fame, known and beloved by all of us. He missed our meeting last year by a slight mis- take, but he is here to-night and will, I am sure, make up for that mistake. Horticultural Experiences and Prophecies. By Mr. H. W. Collingwood, Editor The Rural New Yorker, New York City. I think I owe you an apology for my last year's perform- ance, and I want to give that first. It was a foolish thing to do. When I left New York I said to myself: "Now, I am going to make the speech of my life;" so I pulled out my pen- cil and I began to work as hard as I could on the talk on the "Ideals of Horticulture." And I got so busy with the ideals that I forgot all about the practical side of life ; I didn't get off at New Haven, as I ought to have done. The train started on, and the conductor came along; and I was still busy with those ideals ; and I put my hand in my pocket and reached out my ticket ; the conductor said : "Why, we are going- to Boston a mile a minute. That ticket is for Hartford." I said: "All right. Put me off at Hartford." He says : "You will have to go to Boston and then come around by Springfield. Sev- enty-five cents, please. First stop. New London." I told him he better stop the train, but he said the only thing that would stop it would be to run off the track. I didn't want that. I got off at New London, and I went into the station feeling sick TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 93 enough ; I went back to New York about twelve oclock that night, and one of the first things I did when I got on that train was to open the car window and throw my manuscript as far as 1 could. I wasn't greatly surprised a few weeks later to read in one of the New York papers that Brother So-and-so, somewhere around Willimantic, had preached a wonderful ser- mon. He had found my manuscript. You have got me down- to speak to-night on "Horticul- tural Experiences and Prophecies." The fun about such a sub- ject is that you can say anything you like; you can wander up and down and all over, and no one can say you are not talking to your subject. I have been putting in all my spare time latel)' reading the history of English fanning. It is the most fascin- ating thing in the world to go back a thousand years and see how the English farmers, step by step, have grown up from what amounted in the beginning to a system of slavery. Years ago the farmer, so-called, of England, was a little peasant, liv- ing in a mud hut. His real chief lived up on the top of a hill in a great moated castle, and he kept around him a gang of cut- throats, robbers, bandits ; and he called them soldiers ; and the only thing on earth that was left for the farmer to do was that he was expected to pay for it all. He does now pretty much. (Laughter). In those days the farmer was expected to culti- vate the little piece of ground and provide food and clothing and money for those cut-throats.. And when a boy was born into the world in those days the chief had his eye on him, and if he grew up to be big and strong and lusty he took him to be one of his soldiers, to be food for the sword. That is all that the farmer amounted to in those times. What did he get in return for it? Why, he w^as protected from his enemies. Who were his enemies? Other farmers who lived twentv or thirty miles away doing exactly the same thing. And these big chiefs up on the rock at the top of the hill protected these farm- ers, and took care that they didn't meet each other, because if they ever got together they would have found out that they were the masters, and that those fellows up on the hill were really the slaves. 94 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Now, beginning with that state of affairs in the early his- tory of farming, their progress to this time was not a matter of more protection, but a matter of coming together, man to man, farmer to farmer, and understanding what human rights were, and taking hold of them and putting them over. Year by year that became true, and it wasn't long before gunpowder was invented, and these fellows up on the hill were blown to pieces, and their power was gone. And yet there has always been in this country and in England the so-called ruling class, which has come down from that old hill, the old robber baron upon the hill, with some kind of superior power, keeping men apart, making them think that the other men of the other kind over beyond the hill were their enemies rather than their friends. I hope that some day some man or woman— I don't care which — will in like manner write the history of American farm- ing. What a marvellous story that will be! What a wonder- ful thing it will be to relate how the freest and the most inde- pendent class of men that ever lived in this world, the old New England settlers, have come to a time when they look about and wonder how it all happened ! But they are no longer the masters they were when they started. How did it happen? If any man or woman can figure that out, and figure out how the tenth generation of the men who stepped first on Plymouth Rock must go to Tom, Dick and Harry in order to find out how he shall bu}- or sell or how he shall be carried or how he shall be served — if some man or woman can bring that out so that American people can understand it, it will be the most marvellous thing that ever happened. I suppose you realize that in those older days, when your ancestors were so strong and free, that this thing was true — that the blue smoke rising out of the chimney of a farmer's home stood for as much in New England as the blackest smoke that ever poured out of a Hartford factory ; and it is because we have fallen away more and more from that idea that it is necessary in these days for the farmers to get together and prove themselves, to hold and have and possess their own. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 95 This question of the past and the future is a marvellous thing ; it is a wonderful thing. Applying- the proposition to my own little farm, and my own little home in New Jersey, I ran upon this strange proposition, that in the last fifteen years the hardest thing I have had to do is to make my farm produc- tive; the mechanical part of it; the farming part of it; taking hold of it, and by the use of lime and cover crops and ferti- lizers and other means to make that soil so that it will produce profitable crops. That, as I take it, has been the problem of the past ; it has been the greatest problem for the eastern farm- er to know how to take poor, run-down land and make it once more productive. But, as I look at the proposition to- night, I think we are coming to a time in our history when that is no longer the greatest problem before the eastern farm- er. If I am not mistaken, we are now face to face with this proposition — that any man who has brains, any man who has vision and courage, can learn how to produce a maximum crop — and I think I may state without fear of contradiction that we have come to a point in our agricultural life in this country when any man who wants to do it can learn how to produce a maximum crop, can learn how to improve his soil, can learn how to spray, can learn how to pick, can learn how to do those mechanical agricultural things if he wants to do them ; the problem is no longer how to produce ; but the prob- lem is how to sell, and how^ to dispose to advantage of what we now produce. Do you realize what you are up against — you men over here in Connecticut? I found, in looking up the census, that you have got growing in your state, at the last census, half a million of peach trees of bearing age, and you have 490,000 more two years or under coming into bearing, and there will be a lot more of them planted this year. Do you realize how the influence of this societv alone has been ooinsf on vear after year, inducing people to put in fruit, inducing people to put in peaches, and apples, and plums and small fruits and straw- berries ; all based on the theory that here we are in the cast, right up within arm's length of our markets, or so near we can 96 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. put out the tip of our finger and touch the finest markets in the country? Now, what are we up against? Perhaps I can il- lustrate it no better than by telling you something that has come under my own notice, concerning the potato growers in this country. On the street where I work every day people are paying one dollar and thirty cents and one dollar and forty cents a bushel at retail for potatoes. They buy in small lots because they have no good way of holding them. At Dans- ville, New York, I know a man who has three thousand bush- els of the most beautiful potatoes you ever saw, and the most he can get for themi is twenty-seven cents a bushel. I know dozens of growers in Maine who have in their storage to-day the most wonderful potatoes you ever heard of, and seventy- five cents a barrel is all they are offered for them ; and they pay for the barrel. I know a German man who has speculated and had five thousand bushels of potatoes which cost him every cent of fifty cents a bushel. He is offered twenty-five cents a bushel to-day. Unless we folks in the east start a potato campaign those men face ruin. That is all there is to it. It is one of the most remarkable things in the world that this should be so, with wheat going to two dollars a bushel, broad leaf getting smaller, flour rolling up all the time; I can take you to New York to-morrow and show you twenty to twenty-five thousand men in the bread lines fed upon bread, expensive bread, bread the price of which is going up day by day. In order to make a practical illustration of what I say, we have got to encourage people to eat more potatoes. This is a practical proposition. Fifteen years ago I came over here and I told about my Apple Consumers' League. Everybody laughed; good joke; one of Collingwood's jokes; nothing to it ; nice pleasant thing to talk about. I went into a restaurant fifteen years ago in New York ; I wanted a baked apple ; looked over the bill of fare and couldn't find it. I pounded on the table, and the waiter came in a hurry, and said : "What's the matter?" "Everything is the matter. You haven't got your bill of fare half made up." TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 97 "What can we get you?" "I want a baked apple. I don't see it on the bill." He asked to be excused a minute and went into the kitch- en. Then he came back and said : "We haven't got it to-day. We don't happen to have it." I told him I wanted to see the proprietor, and the pro- prietor came, a nice, amiable looking gentleman, better dressed than I ever expect to be now, I think ; and he asked what was the matter. I told him everything on earth was the matter. "There isn't any baked apple on your bill of fare." And I rubbed baked apple in good. The next year I went there, and they had "Baked Apple and Cream, fifteen cents'' printed in red ink. And they sold out all they had within an hour. Next day they had a display of baked apples in the window. You know how that has spread, that little idea of talking "apple" and working it up. It is my honest opinion that in the last fifteen years this talk of "apple, apple, apple" has increased the consumption of apples in our large cities by fifty per cent. And we have simply got to get busy with potatoes and help out those men in Maine, and in Michigan, and in New York. They will face ruin unless we can take hold of this thing quick- er than you would drop a hot potato. That is all there is to it. It is a case where we people in one line of business must help those in another line. The potato is all right. I would give the men in the bread line in New York half of the bread they now get and a hot baked potato with a little salt. You would see them going down the street gnawing that potato and swal- lowing the skin. I just speak of that to show you some of these simple little things that you and I, this man and that man, can take hold of. I had lunch the other day with a big fertilizer dealer, and he was bewailing the fact that his money was tied up with the potato farmers, and he was skeptical of their abil- ity to pay promptly unless there was a better market for pota- toes. He ordered our dinner. I said : "Why don't you order three potatoes?" He said: "I didn't think of it." I tell you we have got to get busy on these things. Let us help that fellow up in northern Maine and elsewhere, depending far 98 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. a living- on his potato crop ; and not be concerned with helping out the wheat speculators in Chicago, bent on shoving the price of wheat to $2.50 a bushel. You can better afford to buy baked potatoes than bread. I am talking to you in a practi- cal way; I am telling you what you can do if you want to. I tell you that this thing has got to come down to plain dollars and cents, man to man, basis. I read in the paper the other day how Sears, Roebuck & Company of Chicago had just paid a dividend of twenty mil- lion dollars. What does that mean? It means that the busi- ness that Sears, Roebuck & Company has been doing has saved the buyers from that big company, money order store, so they claim, from fifteen to twenty per cent; and it has driven a whole lot of country store-keep srs out of business, on account of their inability to cope with the prices of that big concern. Do you realize that when they cut down the prices they still make twenty million dollars in a couple of years? What does that mean? It means that we need to get together and pull together, to combine and do business on a large scale; In the New York Senate last week a man said this: "I -represent one of the thousands, if not millions, of small investors, who, with our hundred, two hundred or three hun- dred dollars, have bought stocks or bonds; we have put it into railroads ; we have put it into the steel company ; we have put it into this and into that; we are little men; five hundred dollars is a large amount for us. Are we ever con- sidered, we little meUj with our few hundred dollars? No. The steel company passed its dividend. Why? In order, they say, that the workmen might still be paid higher wages, yet the money that pays the workmen comes out of the little fellows scattered here and there, with our two or three or four hundred dollars invested. When the dividend is passed we write the president of the company, and we receive a polite reply, which, being interpreted, means to mind our own business. We are powerless to do anything. What is the remedy?" I answer that man. I said: "I will tell you the remedy." The remedy is all right. You represent, with TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 99 your little two or three hundred dollars, a single rain drop. If you want to drive a farmer into the house you drop on his nose. If but a single raindrop, your are not noticed at all, not even brushed off, but if you and ten million other rain- drops can get together and pelt him persistently and for- cibly, he speedily makes for the barn or the house. If you little men, with your hundred or two hundred dollars can corn- bine so that in the ag'gregate you represent a considerable, sum, you can then go to the president of the railroad or the, president of the steel company and be -mighty certain thait you will be heard respectfully and your demands given con- sideration. But you won't get it until you do." , : , And if I am not mistaken that is another thing that we little fellows have got to learn, and which we have got to build up. Now, when the strawberry season opened I had at my place the largest crop I had ever grown ; not a big crop, by any means; orchard is young; plantation not large; but with me it represented a whole lot; the first fair crop that any man raises represents a whole lot ; when he has slaved a long time and he sees things coming his way Ke wants to get all there is to it. War broke out, and every- body was afraid ; everybody said they couldn't buy things; put their money in their stockings, put it here and there, and wouldn't buy fruit. I said to the boys: "We have got to do something unusual to get rid of the crop.j What shall we do?" We didn't know. My wife saved me, as those good ladies generally do. She belonged to the board of management of an old ladies' home. They didn't provide the market; they didn't do anything of the kind ; but on the board of manag;ers was a woman who had tried to organize in the town of Hackensack a Chapter of Ruth, or whatever they call it, the Housewives' League. There was just a few of them that wondered how they could get hold of a fool farmer who would give them good goods at fair prices. And I was the fool farmer, and I was mighty glad to be fooled by such people. And the Housewives' League came to me ; they said they wanted thirty crates of strawberries to b'egin lOO THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. with. I said : "See here, here is an opportunity for us to establish a little business. Now, we can get $3.50 to $4.00 a crate for our berries, crate by crate, peddling them out in Hackensack. You can have thirty crates at $3.00 a crate." I supplied those women ; we took them down a load at a time. They came back for peaches. We kept that going. And it was astonishing to me to see how much fruit and how many potatoes and how many vegetables and all those things the women demanded. The Housewives' League grew like a mushroom just as soon as they found a fool farm- er. What do I mean by a fool farmer? Let me analyze the kind of farmer they had been dealing with. They made a contract with a wise farmer for ten barrels of potatoes. They had found an awful nice, splendid, elegant man ; and one woman wanted half a barrel, one wanted a peck, another wanted a bushel ; and they called the wise farmer, and he says: "All right, I will be down Thursday." Thursday morning this sure wise farmer called the woman in charge on the telephone, and he says: "How much did I tell you you could have those potatoes for?" "Two dollars and seventy-five cents a barrel." "I am awfully sorry. I have an order for them at $3.50, and unless you pay that figure I can't bring them down." He was a wise farmer. So the women got together. What did they do? Those women were spunky; they had more life and spunk than their husbands had. They said they would eat corn and cabbage, or anything else, before they would come up to the wise farmer's figures ; and they did. It broke up the Housewives' League. The wise farmer is the farmer who, when he doesn't put the price up, puts the little measly potatoes or apples in the middle of the barrel. But I am a Cape Cod Yankee, and I think I can see beyond the end of my nose. I thought I saw there the de- velopment of a business. And I sent peaches, and straw- berries and other things down there ; and I know I sent a lot of things that I could have got ten or fifteen cents more for elsewhere. I told my boys: "I will have this farm TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. jqi ruined ; I will have everything I raise here rot and go to the dogs before I will have you or anybody else connected with my farm break faith with a customer in the slightest de- gree." I was a fool farmer, but I got my reward. I did. There came a time when we had a whole lot of peaches come upon us in a bunch. We had planted them as fillers among our apple trees. I was a fool to do it, but I did it, and like a good many other fool farmers I put peaches in among apples. There comes a time when you have to cut them down, and I let them stay two years longer than I should, so I had a lot of little peaches, nice, high color. El- bertas were plentiful that year, didn't bring but about fifty or sixty cents a basket, beautiful peaches ; price had gone to pieces. So the chances were rather good for my little peaches going to the dogs. I said to my wife : "What are you going to do now?" She went to the 'phone and called up the women and said that canning time had come and the war was on (they knew that before she told them), and we had some nice late peaches, very small, about two-thirds of what we had been giving them, high color, nice ; they may go further because when you put them in your spoon you don't have to cut them in two ; and we would let them have them for forty cents a basket. The women wanted to see a sample, and samples were sent that day by parcel post. Next day we got an order for eighty baskets of those little peach- es, and we sent more later on. Those women were glad to accommodate us ; and I made more on that sale of usually unsalable peaches than I ever lost by cutting down the price to those women. At the end of the season they wrote me a letter — and I wouldn't take fifty dollars for it — thanking us for what we had given ; they hadn't found one single rotten apple, nor a single inferior potato, nor a single anything else that was ofT color, in any package we sent them. We have got to come to the little simple things under our noses. New England is coming back. Why and how? She is coming back finally because at last the New England people as a race and as a class have found that they cannot I02 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fight their battle with their sword and their fist any longer. The great big corporations have got to be handled in the old familiar, standard New England way, with honestv and vision and spirit. Look into the future a moment. I tell you that this war in Europe and this canal which has just been dug across Panama, are going to make the eastern part of this coun- try, particularly that part of it east of the Hudson River, for the next fifty years the dominating spot upon the world. Take it from me that your children and mine will live to see the day when if a man say he is from New England he will command respect in every corner of this country. Why is that? New England is coming back. There is an oppor- tunity in Yankee land which our children are going to take hold of and make the most of. Don't worry about it at all. Don't worry about the future of New England. It is all right. Think for a moment at the mouth of the Hudson River to-day, including the cities of Jersey City, Newark and Elizabeth, there are close to six million people. Out of thi.s. six million people not five per cent ever produce a single pound of food ; and out of the six million, on the other hand, there are now three hundred thousand who never stop to question the price of food or an article which they like. If they see something which appeals to them they simply say : "Let me have it." They don't ask how much it is. And that class of people will grow, and grow, and grow. Those men who have followed the growth in this country from the very beginning tell me that twenty years from now there will be at the mouth of the Hudson River not six million people, but seventeen and a half million people, crowded into that little narrow stretch of land within thirty miles of the city hall_ of New York; and at that time it is estimated that in Phila- delphia there will be seven to eight million people. Those of. us who are happy enough to live in New Jersey know that in that dav New Jersey will be almost one connected village with three or four hundred thousand people stretched along through the state between New York and Philadelphia. And every TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 103 year, in addition to that, eight to ten milhon people will come to play along the Atlantic coast, coming down from the in- terior to play there. When you think of that and think what it means to the producer of food, you understand what is opening up for our children in the way of developing a busi- ness in food products. The time is coming when your children and mine will be face to face with that mighty problem of getting away from some of the old ideas which have been handed down to us from our ancestors, like a big nose, or a large, or a promi- nent chin. We have a lot of those things which have come down to us from our ancestors and we cannot get away from them. When we come to this great big problem of disposing of fruit we shall also be up against a lot of individual habits and a lot of other things that are going to make trouble for us, in order to get together, as we shall have to do in the future, and turn over our products to the best advantage. For, say what you will, the day of the great individual in farming in any sense I believe is gone. There are a few strong men who can survive and take care of themselves without trouble as individuals, but the plain, ordinary, common man with the plain, ordinary, common farm, will see the time within ten years — and you mark what I tell you — when it will be an ab- solute necessity for him to find some way to co-operate with his brothers or take a back seat. It is in the air, -my friends; you cannot get away from the fact that the time of the indi- vidual is gone, except the big men who have enjoyed some special advantage, either natural or otherwise. The time is at hand when we actually must find some way of getting to- gether; find some way of honest and fair co-operation; in order to reach the consumer properly ; in order to grade and standardize our goods: in order to get them on the market to advantage ; in order to put our money together ; to keep our labor together ; and our produce together. The time has come, in my judgment, and particularly in New England, when that thing has got to be w^orked out. And New^ England, in my judgment, will be the hardest place in the world to put it IC>4 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. through. I think so because the Yankee has always felt that he is particularly strong when it comes to paddling his own canoe. As a pure-bred Yankee, I say that you and I and our children and children's children have simply got to get to- gether on some fair basis of co-operation if we are going to hold our own in the world. Think of what is coming to New England — think of what is spread out before our children, the possibilities of it, our water power alone ! I used to wonder why New England was set up on edge. I know now. I think I understand it. I think it was because in this country and in this age the Yankee, with a sharp, acute brain, might realize the force of the water falling down those hills. When I was twenty years old I left New England for Colorado, because it seemed to me in those days it was useless for a boy or man to try to make a living on the New England hillsides. Now I see this water pouring down the hills and I have faith to believe that in God's good time man will harness those streams and do untold wonders with their power. Don't laugh at me ; don't think I am vision- ary. My old Uncle Daniel was laughed at fifty years ago for telling of those things that would come to pass and which have been seen by all of us. I am a fool farmer, but I am not a fool in this. Your children will live to see the time when the water tumbling down that hill will take your nitrogen out of the air, will develop potash in the granite rock ; make it available for fertilizer. It has been done, but not on a profit- able scale. They will live to see the time when wise scientists will do things but now dimly conceived of. And you folks up on that hill will light your houses, you will have your power; you will make your fertilizer; you will do marvellous things with this water tumbling down the hill, which your grand- father and mine cursed and said was a nuisance. The only regret of my life, and the only reason why I should like to be a boy again is that I might live in the full vigor of fifty years more to see some of these things develop in actual work which I know in my heart will come. I wish I could make you men, you younger men and you older men, have the faith TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 105 in the future of New Eng-fand which I have to-night ; have that glorious solemn faith in the future of what these rugged hills are to mean for your country and for you. It makes me thoughtful as I look over this audience to- night and see you men grown gray in the service ; I have been coming to these meetings for twenty-two years ; it was or- ganized two years before I came ; when I first came there was only a corporal's guard. They talked to themselves ; they told big stories to each other in those days ; nobody else came to hear them; but they stuck by the job and they did their best; year after year they fought and they toiled ; year after vear there was a little improvement ; now they have got their re- ward ; now they see they have built up this marvellous society, this great, big, far-reaching institution, reaching beyond the borders of the state, and always telling a good, useful lesson. So I say to these younger men who are coming on to enter into the work with eagerness, to assist those long in the service and carry the work forward to even greater success. You will never regret your work. All over England to-day, in this terrible war, they are singing a song, "Fall In." The story of that song was that the English recruiting was falling off; they were not filling up their armies as they wanted to ; they had tried every other appeal, and finally to this man came the sudden inspiration and he made this appeal to the younger men : "If you don't fight for your country how will you feel when you come to the age when in the course of nature you should tell other men what you did at a crisis?" It filled out the ranks. I am going to give you the last verse of that song, because it fits in so well with what I have just said to you: "How will you fare, sonny, how will you fare, In that coming winter's night ; When you sit at last in an old man's chair, And your neighbors tell of the fight? Will you slink away as it were from a blow. With your old head shamed and bent ; Or will you say, T was not of the first to go, But I went, thank God, I went.' " lo6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Collingwood's delightful and i;'-i>iring- address was a rare treat for all and was a fitting close o a very profitable evening's program. ; At 9:50 the session adjourned to Wednesday morning. At the close of the evening session a large number of the men folks got together at the Garde Hotel and a "smoker" was held, during which the many prominent fruit growers discussed the proposed legislation to control the packing and branding of apples, a subject that was uppermost in the minds of all during the convention. A number of growers from other states were able to give their experiences working under apple grading and branding laws in force in their states, which, in the main, was in favor of such laws. The discus- sion was a lively and practical one. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. SECOND DAY. Wednesday, February 3. 107 Morning Session. The second day of the Annual Meeting opened with a large attendance, which increased steadily despite the unfa- vorable weather. The Vegetable Growers' Association were holding a busi- ness session at the same time the morning session of the Pomo- logical Society, which was called to order by President Hale at 9:30, was going on. The President first called on Prof, (lulley to conduct the discussion of the question list. Discussion of Question List. Question No. 7: Is barnyard manure the best ferti- lizer for apple orchards? Prof. Gulley : Don't you have lots of use for it any- how ? How many of you have barnyard manure to throw away on the orchards? Question: What is its effect on peaches? Pkof. Gulley : How many of you use it on peaches to any extent? President Hale: We use every bit we can get, and if any man feels that he doesn't want to use it we will take it at the price of manure at Glastonbury. We see good results on 'btir lighter land certainly. That, with judicious use of the commercial fertilizer, I believe is the best, especially on light land. Question: It won't hurt, will it? President Hale: No. You might put on so much you would have a tree with a lot of foliage, but if you know how to summer prune you can take care of that. Io8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Prof. Gulley : The general opinion on the matter is this : There is no question but stable manure is valuable on any land or orchard almost; but whether that is the cheapest fertilizer is the point ; whether we cannot get something else and have a better place to use the stable manure. Question : How about ground bone ? Prof. Gulley : There is no question about that being good. That is a commercial fertilizer. Mr. Morrell: I should put stable manure on fruit trees if I had it. Prof. Gulley: That is just my fix. Some of us are handling land without it ; we don't have the stock. Question : Would you put it around the young trees now? How much would you lose by drainage? Prof. Gulley : If the land is naturally level you wouldn't lose much. It wouldn't do to put it close to your trees because you might have trouble with mice. I don't think there would be any trouble about it staying there, unless it is on very sloping land ,1 I should not want to do it when it is icy or on very sloping land. The general opinion is that there are no objections to the use of stable manure if you don't have some other place where it could be used to better advantage. If you overload a young peach orchard with it, the fruit would be too soft, but I don't think that is very apt to hap- pen. Question No. 6 : What is the best program of spray- ing for the control of the apple scab? Mr. Morrell : In the Hudson River valley we spray with lime-sulphur ; and a spraying in June is the only one we make, unless under special conditions. In western New York they have to spray three or four times. We have more sunshine and we have very little scab. I think the consensus of opinion is that the lime-sulphur is the best spray for the scab, all thingsi considered. Prof. Gulley : We have found the lime-sulphur to work pretty well on everything except one or two white varieties. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 109 We have been more successful in keeping the Fall Pippin free from scab with the Bordeaux than with the lime-sulphur. We have a more temperate climate than you do, Mr. Morrell. We cannot keep the Fall Pippin clear from the scab with the lime- sulphur alone, but the use of the Bordeaux will do that ; one or two applications late in the season ; that and the Newtown Pippin and one or two more that we watch verv close. We have no trouble in keeping the Mcintosh entirelv clear with the lime-sulphur. What it may be in a few years more, T don't know. Question No. 8: How can we tell when an apple is just right to pick? Mr. Morrell : The Baldwin is the hardest apple to know just when to pick. I am guided by what I know about the apples I am growing. We pick our Greenings before we do our Kings ; we used to pick the Kings first. We pick our Baldwins before the Suttons. When the apple seed begins to turn black, generally speaking, is the time to begin picking. Sometimes seasons differ; sometimes if they come ofif easv T go and pick. I don't think there is any cast-iron rule. QuESTiQiN : Have you done anything as to picking more than once? Mr. Morrell: Yes. Our Wealthy we pick three times. Pick the biggest apples ofif first ; eight or ten days later we pick the biggest ones again. Prof. Gulley: The last ones are the biggest of all? Mr. Morrell: Yes, sir; largest of all. Get good prices for all of them. Prof. Gulley : I think we have that thing to learn — picking apples more than once on most kinds. Certainly some work we have been doing in the last year or two demonstrates pretty thoroughly that it pays to pick apples more than once, just the same as peaches or plums. I think you can on the Baldwin ; I am sure you can on the Wagener and! on the Wealthy ; Mcintosh certainly. It is only a question of labor. It will increase the size and color, too. The only question is no THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to be sure and have enough labor to do it. T think we will all come to it gradually. Question No. 9 : Does the excessive use of arsenate of lead help in coloring the apple; if not, what does? Prof. Gulley : Dr. Wheeler told us yesterday that noth- ing helps it but the sun. I can't see myself any effect that would come from the arsenate. Mr. Morrell: The only thing we have got is the sun. The more you cultivate the less color you get. Prof. Gulley: Fertilizers might work the other way by giving you too much foliage. I suspect that much of the dull color is due to the cultivation. If you are cultivating well you are pretty sure .to have a good deal more foliage, .1 suspect that has something to do with the fact that apples on well-cultivated land have not so high a color. I don't think any of the fungicides or insecticides have anything to do with the color. President Hale: I think possibly it does have in the peaches. T£ you- hit it just rig'ht you can get considerable red on the peach, but it is pretty risky work. Prof. Gulley (to the Chairman) : How did. you get . ^hat color there (indicating-apples on stage) ? ■ ', President Hale: We do use arsenate. . Prof. Gulley: I guess good care had as much to do with the color as arsenate. President Hale : The color proposition, I think, is regulated by the last question you asked, about pidcing apples several times. We usually go over the Baldwins twice. rSome of the trees we get all of them the first time because we are rather late. We find that makes a lot of difference, with .the color. I don't think apples will color up after they are picked. I don't think you can get in storage one iota of ripening , color ; you will get a little red, of course. Question : Does excessive spraying in July or Aug'ust ; really affect the growth or size of the apple? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. m Prof. Gulley : I don't believe any spraying affects the color of the apple, except when it rusts, or something of that kind. If you take the Fall Pippin and Newtown, some of those, you have to spray to keep the fungus oft', and I don't imagine it would hurt the size of the apple. Question : Is Bordeaux the best for that ? Prof. Gulley: Yes, I think so; although lime-sulphur will work very well. Mr. Drew : Speaking of color, I would like to ask Chairman Hale if cultivation or lack of cultivation doesn't have something to do with the color? Were those apples grown on soil that was cultivated a great deal. President Hale: Most -of the apples highest "in color were grown not exactly in sod, but laid up every year or so in clover. The Glastonbury sample we have here was grown right in cultivated land in the peach orchard, and we got good color. It is a question of foliage a good deal. Prof. Gulley : Put on more foliage and you don't get quite so much color. Mr. Drew : If you seed down to grass you don't get so much foliage. Occasionally people seed down to clover sod. They are more and more doing it if they want to get good color. Question No. 2: What are the best tools- for orchard cultivation where trees are headed low ? Mr. Morrell: I don't want the tree over three feet. You can get under with an extension harrow. ■ The Forkner harrow is good. We work as close as we can and not hurt the tree. Prof, Gulley: Does it make two cents worth of differ- ence whether you cultivate under the tree or not? Mr. Morrell: I would rather cultivate up close to the tree. I don't think you are quite so apt to get the collar rot or so many root troubles. We think we find more collar rot where we don't cultivate than where we do. We are not sure of that. I don't think it is quite so important to come up right 112 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. close to the tree. That is the generally accepted opinion of the growers in New York state. Mr. Dkew : As a rule I don't see any advantage in get- ting underneath low-headed trees. Especially on trees that are bearing; most of the feeding roots are outside of the branches or beyond. If the trees are very low you will do dam- age by trying to get underneath them. I have always thought that collar rot was caused by some disease or on land of ex- cessive moisture. I don't see how cultivation can have any- thing to do with it. Prof. Gulley : I have felt that the matter of cultivation under the trees was more a matter of looks, except a little trouble from borers or something of that kind. The feeding roots are outside the limbs. Certainly with a proper harrow you can do it all right. If you keep the spaces between them clean I should not worry very much about what is under the tree. Yes, they do look better clean. I am somewhat doubt- ful about it paying to try to go under the trees further than you can with the tools ordinarily used now. Question No. 26: What are the best commercial peaches, not including Elberta in the list ? J. H. Hale: Belle of Georgia. Prof. Gulley : Probably it will be a matter of opinion, according to the market. The Elberta, of course, is the great commercial peach. The only "trouble is that everybody is planting Elberta, and for about a week in the season you have ten times as many as you can handle, and then you haven't any. Mr. Wheeler : Carman is doing well with us. Prof. Gulley : Carman is especially good. There are some coming in later to lengthen the season. You will inter- fere with the southern peaches some if you have varieties ahead of the Carman. Question No. 53 : What is the best practical fruit grader for the small grower? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 113 Prof. Gulley : I guess your hands. There are several graders that work more or less successfully, gut the great dif- ficulty with apples is to grade with many different shapes. The orange crop is a very easy one to put into graders ; the peach is better than the apple. Mr. Morrell : We have only one that is called the West- ern grader, a very simple affair; if it gets out of order you can repair it yourself. It grades much better than you can by hand ; grades two barrels in five minutes easily ; a boy ten years old can run it. It is very satisfactory ; it is turned by a crank. It is a little hard to explain. We have our apples in a hopper, and they run down through channels ; the holes are 2 inches, 2%, 2^, over 3 inches; the apples drop down through these holes ; the grader is jerked back and forth. The grader that is used further west is the Trescott ( ?), which is very satisfactory, doing real good work ; it works with chains ; one man has 20,000 barrels in storage ; all went over this grader; he says they are keeping well; the only objection is that it is a little rough. If it is not too rough it is all right. Prof. Gulley : I saw it at work in Rochester. It cer- tainly did fairly good work. They had another one more ex- pensive. What was the name of that? Mr. Morrell: The Hardy. I don't think it is as prac- tical as the Trescott. I haven't one, but if I was going to get another grader I would buy a Trescott ; it grades pears better than any grader that I know of. Mr. Staples: I have a grader ; all my apples go through it. I don't know the name. President Hale: Is it a Schellinger? Mr. Staples : The apples come down a hopper and drop into a cup of some soft material ; the hole is two inches ; if it fits that hole or pretty nearly fits it, it will go through; the next time the crank goes around that cup is turned over into another cup: if it hasn't gone into the first and it fits the sec- ond it goes into that, and so on. Five different compart- ments, half an inch apart. It is a very satisfactory machine. 114 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. as far as grading is concerned. All my apples that go to the shows come through that grader. Unless some very serious thing happens they will not show any bad effects. Mr. J. H. Hale: In a trip I made this last fall to the Pacific coast, including Oregon and Washington, I took some pains to look into the matter of graders, and I found that the men out there had tried this Schellinger and a dozen others, which they considered better, but in no case were they thor- oughly satisfied that they had a perfectly satisfactory grader. They told me that there had been one recently invented by a couple of Swedes that might be on the market this winter; a few who had used it seemed to think it better than any hith- erto made. I came home satisfied that I wouldn't borrow any money to buy one just yet. Prof. Gulley : The difficulty is in the shape of the apple, and any principal that is going to allow them to drop through holes is going to be difficult to establish. The Hardy grader worked on another principle, of two rollers spreading wider as they went ; that looked to me the most feasible, but they are very expensive, three or four times the cost of the Trescott. I never have quite believed that any of those sys- tems that require apples to drop through holes would work quite right. The grading of the apple is very hard to manage with a machine. President Hale: We planned that this session should be devoted in large part to the proposed legislation affecting the New England fruit growers, and the results of such legis- lation in other localities. A law has been introduced into the General Assembly of this state regulating the grading and packing of apples. Copies of it will be passed among you. It differs in some minor details from the law which Mr. Wheeler is to discuss. That of Mr. Wheeler is the result of the conferences held in Boston. Mr. Wilfrid Wheeler of Mas- sachusetts will now address us. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 115 Proposed Legislation Affecting the New England Fruit Growers. By Wilfrid Wheeler, Secretary Massachusetts State Board 0} Agricul- ture, Concord, Mass. I realize that I am down here on rather an unpopular subject; at least a subject which may be unpopular if it is ap- proached in the wrong way. Looking- over your program list last night I saw I was down for an address on apple legisla- tion for New England. I didn't suppose I was expected to make an address ; simply was asked to come down and discuss in a general way the proposed uniform apple law for New England, and that is practically all I am going to do, because I think that we ought to have a real discussion. The copies now being distributed among you are copies of the general bill which has been introduced, I think, into all of the legisla- tures of the New England states. I notice on your program a question relating to this propo- sition : "This Society has spent many years in instructing members in the art of producing fruit. Should it not now aid its members to secure better markets and fairer prices for their fruits?" And I see by your banner hanging here that "The next step of this Society is co-operation in marketing and distribution." It seems to me that uniform legislation for fruit growers in New England is one of the first and most essential steps toward better marketing. Mr. Collingwood told- you last night that all of these societies in the eastern states had for years been teaching their memibers, and the people and the farmers, how to grow better crops ; and that they have all taken hold and learned how to grow better crops. We are producing more from the soil than ever before, although we can go much further: we are never going to get to the end of better production, I believe. But the question novv' comes, the big main question before us to-day is that of mar- keting. I believe while we as independent farmers do not get together in co-operative societies, we have got to have some Ii6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOWGICAL SOCIETY. form of legislation, not to require us to pack our fruit thus and so, but to educate us to pack our fruit thus and so ; and I believe any law passed in the New England states ought to be a law of education rather than a law of force. It should be thoroughly understood by the people having this proposed law in charge that for a number of years this law has got to be a law of education rather than one of enforcement or pun- ishment, save in extreme cases. That is the whole theme I am going to talk on. This is a law for an educational purpose in New England. The question of New England as a whole comes into this very vitally ; and with New England, especial- ly in the apple question, I think we ought to include New York. Last fall, during the very extreme apple situation that we had all over New England, when apples were hardly paying enough to send them to market, a number of men from all over New England conferred as to what they thought ought to be done with the apple crop. Remedies were suggested and means discussed ; the "Buy a Barrel of Apples" idea was talked over. The trouble we were up against was the fact that apples were not put up so that we could go into the market and say to the dealers or the consumer : "We can supply you a thousand or a hundred barrels of apples of a uniform and standard grade," and be sure that they would measure up to the requirements. People were packing thir apples in differ- ent ways ; and we could not be sure that one way was uni- form with another, or be sure when sending one man's apples onto the market that we were getting something like the pro- duct of some other man. The upshot of the matter was that we thought it would be a good idea to suggest that we have a uniform grading law for the New England states. So that this question came down to a matter of law. It was decided by the Boston Chamber of Commerce that it would be a good idea, and the Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to carry it out ; a committee as nearly as possible representative of the New England states ; and you have before you the final draft of the law which thev framed. After a number of meetings of the committee, discussions with the growers, witli open TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 117 meetings held in Boston, where growers and fruit dealers, and all those interested got together and discussed it, it was the general concensus of opinion that we needed an apple grading law ; some kind of a law to regulate the packing and mar- keting of apples in New England. The main essentials of that apple law are defined in this bill. Another thing that has got to be considered in this whole question is not only the present situation, but what we have to face in the next twenty-five years in apple production in New England. If half of the apple trees that have been plant- ed lately come into bearing- we will have an enormous crop to take care of in the next twenty-five years. Large quantities will, of course, be shipped to other countries, but in order to do this it will be necessary for us to standardize. The great trouble with foreign shipments is that there are no standards. Certain associations, it is true, have established a brand and they can send their apples to London and Liverpool and get good prices ; but when it comes to the general run, they don't sometimes bring in any more than the freight, or a very small profit over the transportation charges. The example of other countries in other products might be followed by us with profit. For instance, Holland established a grade in the cheese busi- ness a few years ago ; and it has worked out so that American cheese is not known now in the South American countries. Denmark has done similar work, and Germany has established a trade mark of "Made in Germany," which has ruled the markets of the world for some products. And possibly there is some connnection between the great war and the capture of the markets of the world by Germany. Why shouldn't we establish a standard for Competition? Our apples are competing with the association rules of the western states : and we cannot begin to compete with them unless we do something to pack in a uniform way. If we are going to compete in our own .markets with the products of the rest of the world we have to adopt the standards and rules of the rest of the world. The question of advertising our apples in the markets of the rest of the world will be much ii8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. simplified if we have a uniform grading standard to go by. the buyer will have the satisfaction of knowing that he will get somewhere near what he wants when he buys. The vital question, perhaps, which arises in connection with this whole thing is: "Do we want such a law here?" It seems to me that we do, without any question ; and I want it thoroughly understood by this audience and by everyone in New England who is interested in this law that it is not an attempt to put something over on the producer by the apple exporters of the commission men or by the Boston Chamber of Commerce, or by any other outside interests whatever. This law. if it is going to become a law, should come from the farmers or producers themselves ; and this attempt at get- ting uniform legislation is simply an attempt by the Boston Cliamber of Commerce in conference with the apple people to get something which we can work under. There is no idea on anyone's part of putting something- over on the producers or growers. T think we have examples enough to show that this law has been satisfactory in other places. Canada has been working under such a law, and I have it from several responsible authorities that it has raised the price of their apples in the foreign markets from fifty cents to a dollar and a half a barrel. Tn New York, while it has not been thorough- Iv tried out vet, I understand that Hudson River valley apples packed under this law have sold anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar better than Massachusetts apples, which go in without any special packing. Wherever it has been thoroughly tried it has been satisfactory. I think the law, in the first place, will increase the demand for apples in this way, that the buyers will be surer of getting a uniform grade. The present situation is that if a man buys a barrel of apples, unless he know^s absolutely where they come from, he is likely to find apples of all grades in the same barrel ; it is hard to dispose of them : and the demand de- creases. I am sure it will make the demand greater ; it cer- tainly will open up new markets, as soon as we establish these grades. It will make prices more stable. T am not going to TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 119 say that it will increase prices, but I think it will in some in- stances. We won't see the conditions we had last year, with apples selling for hardly enough to pay for picking and pack- ing, and another year selling for four or five dollars a barrel. And as the public becomes better acquainted with the value of this law I am perfectly certain that apples of the lower grade will be used in some other way than dumped on the open market. And. more than anything else. I am sure that confi- dence will be created in the buyer's mind, just as soon as our public is educated to the use of these grades and marks. It will not be at first, because it will take a few }ears to get them educated and familiar with the thing. You will see on the first page of the leaflet you have an outline of the bill. I will not refer to the proposed Connecticut law just yet. I think it corresponds to this entirely. There may be one or two minor changes in the Connecti- cut bill which has been introduced, as compared with the final draft of the bill made by the committee in Boston. On the first page you will find the principal features of the proposed bill ; the definition of the standard barrel and the box. We don't have to standardize the barrel because the government bill just passed does that. Perhaps it is just as well to have in your bill the size of the barrel, so that the packers would know what it is. Possibly state laws can elimi- nate that. The United States law, now awaiting the Presi- dent's signature, has established a United States government standard barrel ; and it will not be afifected, of course, bv any state law. We propose to standardize the Oregon box as a standard box. which will simplify the box question a great deal. Then it comes to the grades. Four classes. It was the consensus of opinion gathered from the conferences held by the Chamber of Commerce that there should be four grades at least: Fancy, Standard A Grade, Standard B Grade. Un- graded or Unclassified. Then follows a description of the quality of each grade. No tolerance in Fancy, but five' per cent in A grade and ten per cent in B grade ; this minimum J20 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. size to be determined by the grower except in the Fancy grade. It is provided in section 7 on the third page of this folder under "Enforcement of the Act" that the Commissioner of Agriculture or Secretary State Board of Agriculture shall make uniform rules and regulations for carrying out the pro- visions of this Act ; and he shall publish on or before the first day of September following the passage of this Act, and after a public hearing, rules for the grading and packing of apples, specifying for each variety the minimum size which shall be admissable to the grade designated as "fancy." So that while there was a great deal of discussion over this question of the minimum size for Fancy, it was determined by the committee practically to leave that to the several states, although I do believe personally that this minimum size should be fixed as nearly as possible alike in all the New England states. That question was gone into very thoroughly and it was decided not to do it, because the size varies so in different sections and in dififerent varieties. A two and a half inch King would not be considered Fancv King, whereas an apple of that size in the Baldwin under certain circumstances might be considered Fancy. Paragraph three gives definitions and provisions. Paragraph four enforcement of the act. The law answers for three main purposes : 1. That each closed package of apples should be marked to show the grade, the variety, the minimum size of the ap- ples in the package, the name of the grower or packer, and name of state where grown. 2. That the contents of the closed package come up to the above markings within a reasonable tolerance. 3. That the system of marking in the several apple-pro- ducing states should be uniform. Tt is not the intention of those advocating the law that it should be to prosecute the growers and handlers, but that it should be an educational measure to gradually accomplish the three purposes mentioned above. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 121 On the next page of the folder you will find under Section 1 the definition of the barrel and the box. The barrel is ab- solutely according to the government standard. The Oregon box only is defined, because as a rule it is more largely used in this country than anything else. Under Section 2 is given the grades. It needs to be thor- oughly understood that this law only deals with closed pack- ages. You can market in open package of any kind in the local market and you will not come within the meaning or scope of this law at all. It does not in the slightest degree affect the man who drives from the farm to his market and sells in an open hamper or basket or box or anything- of that kind. There has been a great deal of question and a great deal of discussion about this matter of tolerance, as to whether we should have tolerance in the Fancy grades ; and for the pur- pose of getting the law started I should be perfectly willing to sa}' three to five per cent tolerance in the Fancy grades, three to five per cent for all defects ; increasing possiblv on the A grade to ten per cent and on B grade to fifteen per cent, for all defects ; some such arrangement as that. That will have to be threshed out in all the various states. I have a letter from Mr. Phillips, secretary of the National Apple Shippers' As- sociation, and he says by all means have a tolerance in all the grades ; he considers the question most important that we have tolerance in all grades. Maine started out with tolerance, but they found that they were not getting anywhere. Where there was ten per cent allowed by the inspector the courts gave ten more, so thev got twentv per cent. They thought the best thing was to remove the tolerance altogether and make it lee- way with the courts rather than the law itself. This is a ques- tion which had better be decided perhaps in the individual states. T think the law ought to be started with as few restric- tions as possible, and with as few points where you can fine a man as possible. We use the word "Ungraded" instead of "Unclassified" as required by Maine and New York laws. "Ungraded" in a 122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. way seems to fit the situation better than "Unclassified," be- cause "Unclassified" as a rule means nothing. Section three deals with definitions and provisions. "Every package which is repacked shall bear the name and address of the repacker or the name of the person by whose authority it is repacked in place of that of the original packer." If you send 100 barrels of apples to the market and they are repacked you are not responsible for that second packing. That is a very important point. Then follows the sections dealing with the enforcement of the act, already referred to in part, and the penalties for violations. I hope the penalties will never be enforced unless for violations by persons done directly to deceive the buyer. Section 12 says : "No person shall be prosecuted under the provisions of this act who has acted solely as a distributor, etc." That is, that the person who merely sells shall not be responsible for the brand. That puts it right back on the per- son who does the packing, whoever he may be. I think that covers the points that I wanted to bring up to you to-day. And I do feel, as I said in the first place, that this act should be looked upon and thoroughly understood by the persons who are to enforce it as an educational measure ; and I feel personally that there is no way in Avhich we can get an educational measure of this sort going quicker than by put- ting it into law, which can be utilized in this way, where the state Department of Agriculture can have a certain number of inspectors whose primary business is to educate the people in the packing of apples rather than to prosecute for violations which are reallv not violations against the law, but which per- haps arise from misunderstanding of the meaning of the law. Discussion. Question : Does that barrel hold three bushels ? Mr. Wheeler : Three bushels ; yes, sir. Mr. Drew : Supposing Massachusetts apples are sold in Connecticut or Connecticut-packed apples sold in Massachu- setts, how does that work? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 123 Mr. Wheeler : A Connecticut packer couldn't be prose- cuted in Massachusetts for not packing- apples in Connecticut according to the Massachusetts law. Mr. J. H. Hale: The majority of apples are sent to the market in a closed package ; the package is opened before the apples are sold ; it is open when they are sold. Does the man who is careful enough to fairly well grade and pack his apples, nail the head in the package, see that they go all right ; yet the head is opened when they are exposed for sale, stand for the penalties of that law just the same as his neighbor, who simply puts them into the package with little or no care at all? One is free from prosecution and the other gets it in the neck ? Mr. Wheeler : The man who puts his apples in the bar- rel and puts the head in tight is amenable to this law. Mr. J. H. Hale: He takes the head out before he offers it for sale. He is selling that simply as a sample of the whole lot? Mr. Wheeler: As long as he has the head out at the time of sale I should say it was an open package. Mr. J. H. Hale : That would let out three-quarters of them in the state of Connecticut. Mr. Wheeler: It would. If a man simply takes a bar- rel of apples, heads it up simply to hold the apples in shape while he carries it to market, and opens it up himself and of- fers it for sale as an open package, he would not come under that law. Mr. J. H. Hale: We have a good many thousands of barrels of apples for sale in the hands of commission mer- chants. They take out ten or twenty barrels and sell them. In practically every instance they open the barrel. Mr. Wheeler : I think that would come under the law, because those have been enclosed as closed packages ; and he simply sells that as a sample of the lot. I think you misun- derstand the meaning of the law. 124 ^'^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. J. H. Hale: I think I understand it. I was trying to find out where it left the neighbor who didn't care to pack properly. I would like to get after everybody. Mr. Wheeler: I don't see how you can possibly touch the person who sells in an open package. The buyer can see what he has got. I don't believe that the law, under any cir- cumstances, is going to do away with the buyer inspecting the goods. I think he is going to inspect just the same. I think the person who starts out to buy under this law, simply say- ing send me a carload of apples, without seeing them, is going to be in the same kind of trouble that he has been for a few years, until we get established. Mr. Rogers : Here is my situation. My first deliveries would be in peach baskets ; a little later we deliver them to the stores and consumers in small lots, one or two or three barrels ; in the two grades they are headed ; in the lower grade they are not headed. Would I have to unhead my apples be- fore I delivered them to avoid coming under this law ? Mr. Wheeler: Couldn't you mark them "Ungraded?" Mr. Rogers : Mv customers don't care for the ungrad- ed. Mr. Wheeler: What would be the objection if they knew what they were ? There are a great many apples com- ing into the Boston market marked "ungraded." They stand up to the grades, and the people know it. You say it. is neces- sary for vou to send them in headed? Mr. Rogers: We can carry more to a load that way. Mr. Wheeler: What is the objection to marking them as A grade? Mr. Rogers : If they don't come up to this grade I would be liable under the law. Mr. Wheeler: That is the whole question, I think, of teaching the grower to grade and pack. Mr. Rogers : I aim to get my apples up to a certain grade, but I don't always do it. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 125 Results of the Maine Apple Law. Mr. W. H. Corant, of Maine : This is a very important matter. It is very evident to those who are ahve to the de- velopment of the apple industry in New Enghmd that we are going to be up against considerable of a proposition. Other states and Canada have passed laws in regard to the grading and branding of fruit, and it seems that competition is going to increase in time to come. There seems to be quite a demand for an honest package in apples in all the markets of the world. It is up to us to meet that demand. The previous speaker has outlined the situation in New England thorough- ly ; I can say a little in addition. I will say just a word in re- gard to conditions in Maine. Probably there was no state in the Union that needed regulations in regard to the grading and packing of apples worse than the state of Maine. I doubt if there is a state in the Union that had a more miserable reputation. The word "Maine" on a barrel was enough to condemn it even if they were fancy on the inside. In the first place, we enacted a law allowing ten per cent tolerance. That law had no enforcement behind it ; as a matter of fact, it amounted to nothing. It was practically optional with the growers whether they packed an honest or otherwise. Rut there were those who were interested in raising the standard of Maine throughout the apple market, and we believed it could be done ; and we kept agitating all over the state until we were able to pass this law giving no tolerance, which you heard about. I am not going to claim that any law to-day is lived up to in every particular, because it is not. In case you should pass a law at this session of the legislature in Con- necticut would you live up to it in every particular for five years ? It is a campaign of education which will probably take ten years and longer to get the people behind this sentiment of better fruit and an honest pack. So that any law you might pass would only be a step in the right direction, looking to a clean, honest pack in years to come. Now, in regard to the results in Maine after two years of enforcement. The first vear our commissioner of agricul- 126 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ture was very lenient ; put as many inspectors out as the appro- priation would allow, with instructions to make it a campaign of education all along the line. He could have put that law into contempt inside of six weeks, but he didn't do it. He started in to educate the packers, the growers, the shippers and the buyers up to this idea of a clean, honest pack ; and after two years, with the reputation that we had in the mar- kets of the world, we have lifted the standard of Maine fruit and placed the state of Maine on the map, at least in the for- eign market, as a state producing some of the finest fruit reach- ing- the English shores. This campaign of education is going on every week; we are agitating it at our institutions, and the college and the experiment stations are doing what they can to agitate for clean, honest pack, better fruit, better pack. At the present rate of success we have had in these two years, in ten years we will take the dust of no other state, Washing- ton or Oregon, or any other, in the way of making a better pack of honest fruit. I don't think it would be possible for any state in New England to pass at its first attempt a perfect law. Defects will develop, which can be remedied as time passes on. But I do think, with the competition which is staring us in the face and which will increase in the next twenty years, that we want to get busy at once and establish a cleaner and more honorable pack. There is a tendency among the growers in discussing this subject to express some fear that they feel that something is going to be put over on them. That same feeling prevailed in Maine, but I assure you to-day that very few honest, hon- orable men have any fear of a law giving no tolerance what- ever. Mr. Staples : I never have paid much attention to that Maine law, because my package that I have sold for twenty years has been better than that required by the law. Every package I have ever sent away to market has had my name on it ; and I have calculated to have the apples live up to the brand. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. * 127 Results of the New York Apple Law. Mr. Morrellv, of New York: Perhaps I have been as instrumental as any one man in passing the law in New York state, and I became very unpopular by reason of my ef- forts. They said along' the Hudson River that they hoped the man responsible for that law was at the bottom of the river. However, if you have to give up your life it is in a good cause. I propose to say a few words on the law in New York state. In the first place, they elected me president of the New York Fruit Growers' Association against my will. I said if I was president of the society we were going to get the best law that we could get on the apple situation. There are two important things to the fruit grower in this country, hon- est packing and distribuion. H you don't believe it now you will by and by. We have solved these other problems ; we are growing the best fruit. I went to a large Italian seller of fruit the other day and I asked him if he would as soon have New York state apples as western apples. He said he would rather have them if he could buy them, but he couldn't buy them. The first law that was introduced in New York was that the apples should be packed from two to two and one- half inches, from two and a half to three, and beyond three; and that the plate of the barrel should show what was in the barrel ; but we couldn't introduce that in our law ; they wouldn't stand for it. Aside from that, if you didn't pack according to those specifications, you could pack as you pleased, but the plate must show what was in the barrel. That has been my idea. I have lived up to it in the last ten years, and I have profited by it. I have taken my fruit away from the dealer ; I don't want him ; I am independent of him ; and I have my own trade ; I send thousands of barrels to New York, and to the grocers, too. Why ? Because I guaranteed all the barrels of apples as good as the face. In the first place, I believe it is morally sound. That is the first thing to be considered. I know this thing is unpopular here. I am going to say where I stand whether it is liked or not. I believe in expressing your opinion. So they condemned that law ; and eventually the 128 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. other law was passed. It wasn't known to the fruit growers. If it had been it might not have been passed. It is very un- popular among many growers to-day ; but the best growers are very favorable to it. Mr. King, who is here to-day, is fa- vorable to it. He has packed his apples honestly and he has orofited by it. Our law is quite similar to the proposed law you have before you, with the exception we have five per cent of allowance for the Fancy grade in size only. So much fault has been found with that, we propose to make five per cent allowance for all defects in that Fancy grade. I don't know whether that is right or not, but there is a demand for it. Our A grade has ten per cent allowance in color and all defects. It has been proposed that we take one-half or one-third of the apple for color. I don't know whether that is best or not. I am satisfied with the present law. We propose to change the B grade and take out the color entirely, say nothing about color. In western New York most of the Baldwins have no color ; they are good sound apples. They can pack most of their apples that have no color in the B grade ; and the high- colored ones in the A and Fancy grades. You must put on the barrel just what is in it. Wormy,, scabby apples, all sorts, must be branded on the barrel. That is what we do. I don't think it makes much difference what you put on the barrel ; it is what you put in the barrel. That is my idea. I believe you can put unclassified pack and marked unclassified, put them on the same market, and the same buyers,, and you can get as much as for the Fancy. The whole trouble in the past has been that a man could pack his own apples, and use stove-pipe or anything else, and send it to New York ; nobody but the man who packed it and the man who sold it knew it. The first thing we did was to require the man's name and address on it. Neither you nor I nor anyone else wanted a dishonest thing traced back to us. It has been simply dishonest for a number of years. I venture to say now before you people that no industry in New York or in New England could prosper under those conditions. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 129 We are g-etting into new conditions now, and we have got to meet them. Mr. Wheeler struck the keynote of the whole thing; we want to pack a uniform pack. We have a German buyer who comes through our place. He came to my place last year, and he would have bought 10,000 barrels of A grade if he could have found them. He paid big prices for them ; he came back the next year. That is what we want, a uniform pack; and the only way I see of getting it is to establish co-operative packing houses. That is the proposition we have before us in our little association at Kinderhook. I objected to that. It is a selfish objection I admit. I have my own market and my own men ; and I didn't feel like taking that away and putting it into some other people's hands ; but I thought — well, four or five of us will get together, and let one man have charge of the packing;, house, pack it a uniform grade, and you will never have it any other way. You can have all the laws you want, but every man has a little dififerent idea and you won't have the uniform grade. The greatest trouble is the question of color. I believe our law will go through as it is, with those few amendments. We have many men on this committee and we are going to meet on the 9th of February, and perhaps they have got different ideas. We have a very strong organization in the International Apple Shippers ; they buy the apples largely from western New York, and they are subject there to considerable influence. You sell apples A grade to the buyer, and he puts them in cold storage as fast as he buys them, and he neglects them and they develop defects ; the apples are taken out and your name is there ; and he says you have been dishonest in the pack when you haven't. That is the subject that has got to be consid- ered. You may say that you cannot live up to this law or to that law. Is there a law in the whole country that we live up to? Every man breaks the law more or less. That reminds me of the legislation in New York state. We have passed in late years three laws ; the Commission Men Bill, the Nursery- men Bill, and the Packing Bill. As long as we worked at the commission men and the nurservmen thev said : "Sick him. I30 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Go for him !" That was all right. When we took up our own sin, greater than all the others combined, it was an entirely different proposition. We had the greatest kick you ever heard. Same conditions here ; same old story over and over again. It reminds me of the man who had committed a crime ; he didn't believe in law ; and he was very nervous over the situation. His lawyer said, "Don't worry. I will see that you get justice." He said, "That is just what I don't want." That is the way with all of us. There is no question we are going to have a law here ; we have got to have it. There are two things we have got to consider, two parties here. The producer — he has his rights ; in the next place, the consumer ' — he never had any rights before, because the only right they had was to reject our apples, and that is what they have done. When we gain the consumer's confidence he is going to buy our apples. When we pack our fruit honestly it will adver- tise itself. Mr. a. C. King, of New York : I am not going to talk very much this morning, although I feel very strongly on the matter of the packing law. Mr. Morrell and I have been associated in the New York Fruit Growers' Association very closely and we have also been very closely associated in our practices. It is simply a matter of good business. It has paid us to put up our fruit and grade it honestly and label it what it was and make the plate of the barrel repre- sent the entire barrel ; it is good business. We don't deserve any credit for honesty. We have our pay already for doing that thing. It has paid us to do it. That is why we have done it. This New York state apple law is not particularly going to help us, because people can go and buy- Jones' or Smith's apples, or anybody else's and get as good a pack as the law demands ; we have got to figure out something a little bit better than the law, so that we can keep ahead. We are going to try to keep ahead because it pays. Just one specific thing in regard to the law, and then I will leave this matter for discussion. A little station in Ni- agara county, known as Alberta, shipped last year in one TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 131 week forty-one cars of bulk apples. Probably in years past two cars a week would be the average of bulk apples that would go out of there, five would probably be the limit. That place is just the station, store, packing house; that is all there is there. That same thing has been true of the apple-grow- ing counties in western New York, from all their stations. What does that mean to New York apples and New England apples ? It means that a tremendous amount of the lower grade apples have gone out in bulk, the way they should go, and have not come into direct competition with fruit that has been packed under the New York state law. Now, I think that one instance is enough to show you what the law has meant not only to New York state, but to New England and all of the apple-growing states, in this last year when our production was very heavy. I am going to leave you with that one specific instance. I want to say that I dislike very much to see the stand- ards of our New York state law lowered at all. I would like to see them kept where they are, and, if anything, made stronger. If we want those standards lowered, it is because we want to put our apples up below that standard. Let us hold the standard up just as high as we can. Let us define the defects which keep an apple out of Fancy or out of A or B grade, so that we will know definitely where we are at; and let us have a uniform law which shall be -fairly liberal for a few years to give the people a chance to be educated, not only in the matter of packing, but in the matter of grad- ing. Whether we want it or not it will come. Commercial pressure alone will force it on the apple growers of the East, because you all know of the new settings that have been made in the past few years, and you all know that the supply of fruit is going tO' be very much stronger that it has been ; com- mercial pressure is going to be stronger, stronger all the time. President Hale : There are one or two changes that I didn't get into the printed draft of the bill introduced into the Connecticut legislature. Mr. Wheeler allowed five per cent tolerance on the standard A grade. That you won't find 132 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. in the proposed Connecticut law. That would be a matter for us to thresh out among ourselves or before the legislative committee. And there is one other item — a stricter definition of the closed package. Mr. Deew : I think this has been one of the best dis- cussions we have ever had at a Pomological meeting. In the first place, I will say at the outset that I believe in an honest pack. I think it is a thing we want to discuss very carefully and thoroughly ; I think we have got to go to work and have some law ; we have got to adopt some standard if we are .going to hold our own in New England with the other states. We are very fortunate in having with us the gentlemen who have given us the experience of other states. As Mr. Wheeler said, if we are going to enact a law, we want to enact a law that the growers get up themselves, and for the benefit of the growers. I think we should consider that very carefully. I think the growers want to realize if they pass a law it has got to have teeth in it ; if we pass a law we want to live up to it ; we want to realize what kind of a law we have here. We put a large power into the hands of the secretary of agriculture or the dairy and food commis- sioner, whoever has charge of it. The one point I want to bring out is this: If we pass too drastic a law isn't there danger that the growers will get so disgusted that they won't want any law at all and will want to repeal it. Hadn't the Pomological Society better appoint a few representative growers to get together and discuss this thing pretty thorough- ly? There isn't much money in apples this year, and if we were soaked a hundred dollars by the authorities for wrongly packing or branding of apples it would be a hardship. I be- lieve we want to pass a law, but we want to look out that it is not too drastic the first year, be a little lenient the first year. If it works out well, make it a little stiffer. Mr. Mor- rell spoke about the face of the barrel being representative of the barrel. I believe if we could pass a law to put on the name of the grower and where he lives it would be a great step. If the law should require that the barrel should cor- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 133 respond to the face, we have taken a long step. The only point I want to emphasize is that we do not get a law so dras- tic that it will disgust everybody so that they won't want any law at all. Mr. J. H. Hale: Mr. Drew said if we have the rest of the barrel as good as the face of the barrel that is all we need. If we had that law we would have the whole thing. Mr. Wheeler : It seems to me if Mr. Drew's proposi- tion were carried out in whole it would defeat the object of the bill ; that is, to establish the same grades uniformly here in New England, so that standard Fancy, A and B would mean the same thing all over New England. To pass a law that the face of the barrel shall be representative of the whole barrel gets at it partly, but it does not get at it wholly. I think the thing we are after and the thing we have to do is to establish a grade through New England that will mean some- thing throughout the world ; I think we ought to establish a uniform grade. President Hale: This was simply to get around the question of tolerance more than anything else. Mr. Drew^ : That is my idea. Mr. Wheeler: Your idea is to simply include in the bill that the face of the barrel represent the whole barrel? President Hale : And possibly leave all reference to tolerance out. Mr. Wheeler: That might cover it all right. You would not do away with the grades ? President Hale : I think we would make the grades the same. The tolerance seemed to be the bone of Contention. Mr. Morrell of New York : They have had a law in Canada for the past five years. They passed through' the same process we are passing through, the same objections. Their bill requires that the face of the barrel shall show what is in the barrel. I think that is sound. I think that is where they have beaten us. On the other hand, they say nothing about the sizes in the barrel. That is where I think we are 134 1'HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. beating them. The public have got a misunderstanding in regard to a good apple. They think the biggest apple is the best apple. That isn't true. If you will grade your sizes you will very soon find a fine market for the small grades. That is what we found. To my surprise, last year my small apples went first; apples two to two and a half inches first; next size next ; the biggest ones last. Mr. Wheeler: I have a letter here from Professor Sears of Amherst, commenting on some of the features we have been discussing. He says : "Tn the Fancy trade I think too much emphasis is put upon size and would suggest that it be changed to read: 'Fancy fruit shall consist of apples of one variety, or normal shape, of good and reasonably uniform size and above aver- age in color.' "I think 'A' grade ought also to have a provision as to uniformity of size. "I want to raise the question as to what 'practically free' may mean in 'B' grade. "I do not like the wording of 'B' grade where it has speci- fied that the apples must be '100 per cent or 90 per cent good.' I think it would be much better to say 'not less than 90 per cent free from,' etc. "I think in both 'A' and 'B' grades we should follow the Canadian law, specifying that they contain no culls. Their law says 'Number 1 quality, unless such fruit includes no culls and consists of well-grown specimens, etc' It seems to me that this is an important point. "I think by all means we should have some regulation in regard to over-facing. The Canadian regulation strikes me as excellent. It reads as follows : " 'No person shall sell, or offer, or expose or have in his possession for sale, any fruit packed in any package in which the faced or shown surface gives a false representation of the contents of such passage ; and it shall be considered a false representation when more than fifteen per cent of such fruit is substantiallv smaller in size than, or inferior in grade to. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 135 or different in variety from, the faced or shown surface of such package.' . "In Section 8 (Proposed Uniform Law for New Eng- land States) I think the inspector ought to take the entire package rather than samples. This point was urged by Mr. G. H. Vroom, chief inspector for Nova Scotia, recently at their fruit growers' meeting." President Hale: One of the things that the growers seem to fear is the situation they would be in if there were no tolerance or a limited amount of tolerance, and after they had sold and shipped their fruit there should be a drop in prices — a falling market — whether the purchaser would not take advantage of the law to throw the consignment back on the shipper by reason of some perhaps little defect which would put the law on his side. It was stated in the hall that probably none of these five barrels here, if sharply scruti- nized, would pass under the proposed bill as Fancy. They might pass as Fancy in any market, but on a very close scru- tiny and a strict interpretation of the law there would prob- ably be some defects that would render them ineligible for the class of Fancy. That would probably be standing up so straight that we would fall over backward, but it is a consid- eration. Mr. Samuel Frazer, of New York: I come from the political storm center of New York. We have the \vhole thing in our county ; we furnish them with the United States Senator, we have the state senator, and we have the county judge ; and also we have quite close to^ us the promoters of the changed apple packing law. I am not in sympathv with these men who want to draft this new law, because I feel that their object is to make it legal to pack a barrel wrong; and I think that we don't want to do. I also feel per- sonally that the present law is not what we need ; I feel that there are two many things which have not been thought out ; too many complications which are unsolved. Then, as you probably know any way, our present la\y Avas not workable, because there was no cash to enforce it and if wasn't put into 136 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the hands of anybody to enforce. We have the abihty in New York to draft legislation which has a joker in it. If the in- terests feel that the public wants a law and the pressure seems so great that they must be accommodated, at the last minute they just slip in a word or two, and the whole thing doesn't amount to a hill of beans. You don't want that. If you are doing anything- you want to know what you are doing. And the shorter it is the better. If they would allow us^ in New York to merely state that the package shall be as the face is, give the name of the grower on the package, and the size of the fruit, I believe that that would be adequate for a cam- paign of education; only we have so many interests involved that do not want it that our whole thing is a compromise. From what I heard last night, it seems to me that your Cham- ber of Commerce and your commission men are together and are drafting a bill for you to live up to. You don't want it. You want to have something to say in it. I think that is the important point. In New York we have a milk bill which has been drafted by the doctors and there wasn't a farmer con- cerned in it. It is all very well to let them go through, but remember you may get some men in power who can use a tool both ways. That is the thing I am afraid of in the whole busi- ness. Once you surrender your right it is not the easiest matter to get them in control again ; and the law can do a lot, and it can put a man out of business mighty quick ; it can pull you and hold you up; it can make a criminal of a man who to all intents started out to be honest. Our law means if you packed your apples Fancy and they are marked Fancy and there is a wormy place in it, you are a criminal. It is not a misdemeanor; it is a crime. When you have a law read- ing that way you better be careful about putting your neck in it. We want a law we can work under. Personally I didn't know what they were going to do with the law, and I marked every blessed barrel unclassified right through — on the bottom. The law didn't state where the branding was to be, so. I put it on the bottom of the barrel; I thought when TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 137 it stood up it didn't matter. All the legal branding was on the bottom ; we did that first. Then we put the marks we had been using and packing under on the face. It doesn't matter what the law is — the rascal will run through it anyway. But you do need a law of education. I believe we need grades. I was much interested in what Mr. Elliott said last night. Many of the things he mentioned were long-distance ship- ment products ; they are all sold on grades ; they all have been standardized. You are not concerned with wheat; you are not concerned with wool ; you can't bother with those to- day ; land that is worth $200 an acre or $12 rent cannot touch wheat. You are concerned with a whole lot of little things which are still ungraded and unclassified and unstandardized. You need them standardized, but when you standardize them you standardize them. Don't let the Chamber of Commerce come along and standardize anything and say : "This is the grade you are going to live up to." The public thinks a fancy apple is a big apple, but there are small apples that are fancy ; a two-inch apple is fancy in some types. The man that is trying to run into a bill the idea that standard fancy apples should be three-inch don't know his business. You want to be careful. Now, suppose you put a lot of apples in cold storage, as we do in western New York; the man has packed them grade A, apparently free from scab and fungus and any- thing of that, kind. It is a common thing for defects not no- ticeable at the beginning to develop in storage. Suppose the apples change hands the first of December; the purchaser de- cides to let them stand until March ; then he opens them up, and even on the face there are one or two apples showing fungus. According to the law those should be marked so ; they are no longer grade A; what are they? We have no provision as to any designation as to where the law is in such a case. All we have got is a lawsuit. We don't want law- suits. I believe the name of the packer and grower should be on the barrel — that is a good thing; make it a misdemeanor for anybody to take it oflF; the size of the apple should be on the barrel ; that is a good thing ; and the apples shall be packed 138 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. according to the face. And then if you only have the grades as to sizes, and call them size two to two and a half, and so forth, I think for the present it would be adequate. As soon as you find that you can stand more, put it on yourselves. Don't let anybody put it over on vou. President Hale: Our Treasurer, Mr. Putnam, is pres- ent this morning" and ready to make his report. Please give your attention to the Treasurer's report. Report of the Treasurer. Mk. J. H. Putnam : Unless someone calls for the read- ing of all the items, I will simply give you a summary of the receipts and expenditures for the past year, which is as fol- lows : Balance on hand February 5th, 1914 $287.23 Received from annual memberships 749.00 Received from state appropriation 1 ,531 .04 Received from rent of hall space for trade exhibits 271.00 Received from Berlin Fair Association 100.00 Received from ladies' committee 7.50 Received from sales of fruit 108.50 Received from Agricultural Fair Fund 450.00 $3,504.28 Paid on orders drawn by the Secretary for bills approved by the Finance Committee $2,950.62 Leaving balance on luind February 1st. 1915 553.66 $3,504.28 Available Resoukces Fehkuaky 1, 1915. Invested in Berlin Savings Bank $602.86 Invested in Society for Savings, Hartford 267.90 Due from State Agricultural Society 100.00 Due from state appropriation 297.05 Balance on hand ...i... •..;!. .:-..,...... ;■/,, 553.66 " ""•=* '■ ' $1,821.47 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. U9 Permanent Invested Fund. Life Membership Fund, Represented by the Deposits in the Two Banks. Berlin Savings Bank $602.86 Society for Savings, Hartford 276.90 $870.76 President Hale: You have heard the report of the Treasurer, which is very gratifying to your Executive Commit- tee. Unless there is objection we will accept the report and order it printed. I hear none and the report of the Treasurer is accepted. I will call now for the report of the Auditors. Report of Auditors. Mr. J. C. Eddy presented the following report : Hartford, Conn., Feb. 2nd, 1915. We have examined the books of the Secretary and Treasurer of the Connecticut Pomological Society for the year ending February 1st, 1915, and find them correct. J. C. EDDY, J. NORRIS BARNES, Aiiditors. Report was accepted by vote of the meeting. Treasurer's Report. For Year Finding February 1, 1915. J. H. PUTNAM, Trcamrer, In Account with The CoNNErTiciT Pomoi.ogical Society. 1914. Feb. 5. To balance on hand $287.23 Cash from E. Rogers, account trade exhibits.. 36.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for annual memberships 454.00 19. from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for annual memberships 30.00 from Connecticut State Agricultural So- cietv 100.00 I40 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mar. 9. Cash from L. C. Root, account ladies' commit- tee $7.50 19. from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, account trade exhibits 157.00 from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 27.00 from H. C. C. Miles, account trade ex- hibits 43.00 from H. C. C. Miles, for annual mem- berships 45.00 from State appropriation 200.00 from H. C. C. Miles, account trade ex- hibits 15.00 from H. C. C. Miles, account annual mem- berships 20.00 from State appropriation 128.09 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 28.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 30.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 42.00 from State appropriation 621.20 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, account sales peach exhibit 100.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 34.00 from State appropriation 581.75 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, balance account trade exhibits 20.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 30.00 Feb. 1. from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, for an- nual memberships 9.00 from H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, account sale of exhibition fruit 8.50 from State Agricultural Fair Fund 450.00 June 13 19 July 30. Sept 7. 22. Oct. 1. 29. Dec. 10. 12. 1915. Jan. 25. Total receipts $3,504.28 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 141 1914. Feb. 10. By check ' to Garde Hotel, expenses of officers, speakers, etc., annual meeting $119.15 13. Clarence H. Ryder, printing, annual meeting.. 4.00 O. M. Taylor, expenses, speaker at annual meeting 18.30 Milford Post Office, postage, annual meeting. . 5.00 H. S. Ellsworth, manager, rent of hall, annual meeting 100.00 K. Bingham Kraus, music for annual meeting 17.00 R. S. Bascom, lantern for lecture at annual meeting 10.50 B. Gordon, rent of tables, etc., for annul meet- ing 12.00 21. United Lithographing. & Printing Co., adver- tising cards 4.89 The Fair Publishing House, entry books 2.74 The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., order book for Treasurer 4.50 Bastian Bros., badges for members 14.27 Calhoini Show Print, advertising for annual meeting 2.50 F. B. Skiff & Co., decorations for annual meet- ing 15.00 J. B. Burr & Co., membership envelopes for an- nual meeting .75 Edward Van Alstyne, expenses as speaker at annual meeting 34.36 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, expenses and .sup- plies at annual meeting 23.00 Clarence H. Ryder, programs for annual meet- ing 23.80 The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co.. printing membership receipts 8.50 J. Norris Barnes, expenses President's office, 1913 15.90 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, paj'raent on account of salary, year 1913 50.00 Mar. 3. G. H. Vroom, expenses as speaker at anniial meeting 61 .35 Samuel Eraser, expenses as speaker at annual meeting 50.05 Willis A. Lane, services at annual meeting 3.00 Allen B. Cook, expenses at annual meeting.... 2.95 142 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mar. 13. R. W. Rees, expenses as speaker at annual meeting $6.50 John Coombs, flowers for decorations at an- nual meeting 5.00 Kilborn Bros., envelopes 3.75 20. Charles L. Gold, Treasurer, assessment for In- stitute Fund 150.00 30. Dr. E. H. Jenkins, expenses as speaker at annual meeting 2.15 Duffie & Clark, Treasurer's bond 5.00 Clarence H. Rj^der, printing for Secretary's office 2.25 Milford Post Office, postage on notices 11.04 May 1. Raymond W. Smith, reporting annual meeting 80.25 14. Clarence H. Ryder, payment on printing an- nual reports 200.00 June 13. Milford Post Office, postage on annual reports 15.00 E. L. Wiggins, manager, lettering signs, annual meeting 6.75 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, office expenses and supplies 48.08 22. H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, last payment on salary for 1913 50.00 The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., binding reports 17.50 July 11. H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, first payment on salary for 1914 50.00 Aug. 1. Milford Post Office, postage, field meetings 15.50 27. Clarence H. Ryder, payment on account print- ing annual reports 100.00 Sept. 9. Clarence H. Ryder, payment on printing an- nual reports 100.00 14. Clarence H. R3^der, printing for field meetings 9.75 Milford Post Office, postage, field meetings. . 9.00 Charles G. Bliss, expenses field meeting 10.62 Oct. 1. Frank E. Rupert, expenses as judge, annual exhibition 31 .65 Milford Post Office, postage, annual exhibition 20.08 J. Sutta, ribbons for annual exhibition 7.50 29. H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, second payment on account salary, 1914 50.00 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, office expenses and supplies 40.33 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING: 143 Oct. 31. The Fair Publishing Co., entry books, annual exhibition $2.71 Clarence H. Ryder, balance of bill for printing annual reports 92.62 Prof. O. M. Taylor, lectures at annual meeting 20.00 E. Rogers, paper plates for annual exhibition. . 1.50 Adams Express Co., express, annual exhibition 4.83 A. G. Gulley, expenses at annual exhibition. ... 11.19 S. P. Hollister, expenses at annual exhibition. . 13.25 L. C. Root, expenses and supplies for annual exhibition 4.60 W. A. Lane, services and expenses at annual exhibition 4.49 Clarence H. Ryder, printing premium lists .... 16.50 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, expenses and supplies, annual exhibition 13.08 Union Tea Co., rental plates, annual exhibition 6.00 J. R. Clark, incidental printing and supplies.. 52.85 Nov. 12. H. S. Ellsworth, manager, advance payment for rent of hall for 1915 meeting 20.00 30. Kilborn Bros., stationery 4.03 J. H. Putnam, Treasurer, traveling and office expense. 11.31 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, third payment on ac- count of salary 50.00 Dec. 5. Premiums paid as awarded at annual meeting, February 3 and 4, 1914 ; W. C. Robinson $ .25 W. A. Stocking - 1.50 J. H. Hale & Co 128.00 Arthur J. Clarke 2.75 E. G. Davis 1.00 L. W. Bilton 7.00 A. B. Smith 1.00 F. H. Pond 2.50 W. I. & T. M. Savage 5.00 E. F. & A. W. Manchester. . . . 2.00 Arthur A. Moses 5.00 Kirk Jones 1.00 C. O. Hanford .25 Thomas Callahan 2.00 Charles M. Perry 3.00 F. E. Tucker 2.00 ClifTord L. Clark 1.25 144 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. L. J. Grant 7.50 Henry Spencer 2.00 Charles E. Lyman 4.00 E. Rogers 10.00 F. B. Bailey 16.25 E. E. Brown 33.50 J. T. Ciillen 4.00 A. F. Green 4.50 H. E. Clark 23.25 Minor Ives 2.00 J. W. Moss 1.00 Charles E. Lyman 10.00 Arthur Moses 10.00 W. C. Robinson 10.00 Dennis Fenn .50 W. P. Newton -. . .25 304.25 Dec. 14. J. R. Clark, postals and printing for annual meeting, 1915 10.25 21. Premiums paid as awarded at annual exhibi- tion, September, 1914: F. Milton Smith $4.00 A. B. Pierpont 1.50 N. S. Piatt • 5.50 A. N. Farnham 5.25 Thomas Callahan 4.50 F. B. Bailey 50.00 Gulley 1% Bonner 38.50 Clarence W. Savage 49.75 G. M. Stack 2.00 Conyers Farm 11.00 L. J. Robertson 1.00 Harriet B. Ellison 2.00 Henry Dryhurst .75 Theodore A. Stanley 2.00 O. K. Driggs 1.00 A. J. Clark 23.50 S. F. Avery 2.00 W. E. Frost 1.00 W. E. Tillinghast 1.25 H. C. C. Miles 1.50 J. H. Putnam 4.25 W. B. Martin 2.77 E. F. & A. W. Manchester ... 1.00 Samuel R. McDonald .75 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 145 A. E. Crandall 13.50 W. H. Baldwin 22.00 George W. Florian 3.45 Thomas Griswold & Co 11.00 G. F. Piatt & Son 21.50 E. M. Ives 5.75 F. H. Pond 2.50 William B. Rice 3.75 L. H. Warncke 12.25 A. E. Bro\\'n 2.25 John A. Martin R9 50 E. Rogers 52.00 Peter Derudder 6.50 T. H. & L. C. Root 14.25 C. L. Clark 2.75 W. I. & T. M. Savage 11.00 Mrs. C. 0. Hanford 15.50 Mrs. F. B. Bailev 19.00 Mrs. Harvey Jewell 12.50 Mrs. Fred H. Hill 3,00 Mrs. E. W. Ellison 38.25 :\.Irs. H. R. Bird eve 6.25 Rowland R. Cooke 2.74 H. P. Deming .21 E. W. Gavlord .25 Arthur J. Fonda .50 Karmi Kimberlev .14 F. B. Ashton .50 L. J. Grant .75 John L Pavne •9.75 S580.06 1915. Jan. 9. Milford Post Office, po.stage, account annual meeting 1 1 .04 H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, office expen.?es and supplies 50.16 28. Clarence H. Ryder, stationery for officers.... 5.50 Feb. 1. Milford Post Office, postage on notices 9.10 Total expenses $2,950.62 Balance on hand 553.66 $3,504.28 146 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. AVAILABLE RESOURCES FEBRUARY ] . 1915. Invested in Berlin Savings Bank $602.86 Invested in Society for Savings 267.90 Due from State Agricultural Society 100.00 Due from State appropriation 297.05 Cash on hand 553.66 $1,821.47 PERMANENT INVESTED FUND. Berlin Savings Bank: Amount on deposit January 1, 1914 S476.93 Life memberships deposited during the year . . 100.00 Interest to January 1, 1915 25.93 Society for Savings (Hartford) : Amount on deposit January 1, 1914 188.20 Life memberships deposited during the year . . 70.00 Interest to December 1, 1914 9.70 $602 86 267.90 S870.76 President Hale : The next address will be given by Mr. L. F. Strickland of Lockport. N. Y., who will tell us "How New York Growers Successfully Control the Apple Aphis. Red Bus: and Other Pests." The Control of Apple Aphis in New York State. By L. F. Strickl.'VND, Horticultural Inspector, De-partment 0} Agricul- ture, Lockport, N. Y. The last decade in particular has been full of changes in the methods of fruit production. In fact, so rapid has been the development in the past twenty years that it has leaped from an insignificant place in agriculture to a great commer- cial industry. In many particulars there has been great strides, and es- pecially they may be noted in the past and present methods of .control of plant diseases and insect pests, as in the case of the TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 147 pear psylla and apple scab. Needless to say. we still see ahead of us a large field for study and improvement. A pest which has been causing our growers a great deal of trouble is the apple aphis, and it is in relation to our work against this pest that I speak. Through the courtesy of our Commissioner of Agriculture, two of us horticultural inspect- ors for the past four years have been allowed to assist Pro- fessor P. J. Parrott, entomologist of our state experiment sta- tion at Geneva, in co-operative experimental work with various fruit growers. Not only has the pear psylla. false tarnish plant-bug and other pests received our attention, but we have been intenselv interested in working out the problem of finding the period when the ap])le aphids would be most susceptible to spray. History. Against preceding entomological records we find that the aphis is apparently establishing itself as a yearly pesi in the commercial apple sections of our state. We have noted instance after instance where the pest has appeared several vears in succession and produced a financial loss in fruit. We hope the pest is not to become a yearly one. However, it is certain that with us the past season of 1914 made a record in regard to aphis infestation. It was generally bad throughout western New York. We had been working on the problem during three preceding seasons, so the season of 1914 found us estab- lished in several badly infested orchards, with plans to carrry out what appeared to be the most practical method to control the aphis. A brief review of the life history of the apliis afl:ecting the apple crop will perhaps freshen your memor,. In the first place, there are three particular species of ri;)his which help to deform fruit, the common names given to ihem being tlK^ rosy, the green and the grain aphis. TnK Rosy Apiils. The rosv aphis is of the most im 'ortancc . althoui^h' we have seen manv specific cases of severe damag'; done bv either 148 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. species. The eggs of the three species are deposited on the bark in the leaf scars and other obscure protected places on the new growth and bud spurs, late in the fall. Early in the spring, about the time the fruit buds are bursting through the bud scales, and are just beginning to show green, generally the latter part of April in New York, the eggs hatch. The lit- the dark green lice crawl to the tips of the opening buds and feed upon the green tissues. As soon as the tips of the leaves in each bud begin to separate the aphids crawl into the unfold- ing leaves, where they are protected from the cold and wet. Now, it will be remembered that when the leaves first get unfolded they have the tendency to roll from the tip toward the stem for a very brief period. It is at this time that the rosy aphis seeks these rolled leaves, and it is due tc their feeding that the leaves never unroll normally. In these rolled leaves the first brood of young are born. Two more broods follow, the young becoming step-mothers in each case. When the third brood is mature, which is early in July, they leave the trees and go to their summer food plants, plantain being one of their hosts, and do not return to the apple until fall. Green and Grain Aphids. The life history of the green and grain aphids is quite similar in many respects. The green aphis may or may not become a serious pest, in some instances leaving the trees early in the season and in other cases being a great pest throughout the growing season. The grain aphis is not such a large fac- tor. Thev leave the trees and go to the grains and grasses after the second and third broods and do not return to the apple until late in the fall. Egg Laying. During October all three species return to the apple, where the sexual stages of the insects are produced and where they deposit eggs during the remaining part of October, No- vember and possibly in December. The egg stage is the only form of these insects that lives over the winter. Plate II. Fig. 2. Fig. i— Aphids on Green Bid Tips; Pekiod fok Spkaying. Fig. 2— Apple Buds Too Far Advanced for Aphis Spraying. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 149 Damage to Fruit. Either species is capable of severe damage to the fruit. It may be said, however, that the rosy and green aphis cause the greater part of the deformed fruit. They begin to injure the Httle apples when the blossom cluster is separating. The feeding punctures found over the surface of the aphis apple is the work of the rosy or green aphis, or both together. The grain aphis does its work particularly during the blossoming period and before the calyx closes. They puncture the little apples almost entirely around the blow end. The Early Experimental Work. When our work was started in 1911 it became necessary to determine the relative value of several theoretical views as to the proper time to control the aphis. After two years" work it was apparent that only two out of five periods re- mained for a fruit grower to spray effectively against this pest, and even then one of these periods was suspicious. We con- tinued our efforts against the pest until after blossoming time in 1913, but due to the fact that most of the aphids were grain aphids, we could not continue with our experiments during the summer. The Decisive Tests. However, in 1914, another very favorable season ap- peared, and our decisive tests were made. In describing the experiments I will not go into the entire detail of each case, but I wish to lay particular emphasis and draw your closest attention to two thing, namely, the time of the application, and second, the results obtained. In the orchard of Mr. F. Cothran, Gasport, N. Y., a block of sixty trees, badly infested, were sprayed on May 4th, while the aphis were on the tips of the bursting buds, with lime- sulphur (1-8). plus nicotine (three-quarters pint per one hun- dred gallons of spray). Four check trees standing in the mid- I50 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. die of the orchard were sprayed with Hme-sulphur alone. No further spray for the aphis was used in this Ijlock, with the result that when th orchard was examined on May 11th, the checks were badly infested, while the trees sprayed with nico- tine showed only scattering lice. On June 4th the checks were still very badly infested, and the sprayed trees were practi- cally clean. The sprayed trees remained clean throughout the season. In the orchard of Mr. J. A. McAuley, Lockport, N. Y., a single row of twenty-three trees of Cranberry Pippin were sprayed under our direct supervision, while the balance of the orchard, consisting of 172 trees of various varieties were sprayed by Mr. McAuley himself. The spraving was done while the buds were green and before they bursled. Lime-sul- phur, plus arsenate'of lead, plus nicotine, was used. Four trees of Cranberry Pippin and four trees of Baldwin were left as checks, being sprayed with lime-sulphur plus arsenate of lead only. The results were practically the same as in the Cothran orchard. The checks were very badly infested late in June, and on the sprayed trees only an occasional aphis was found. It was apparent, however, that Mr. McAuley Vv-as not quite as thorough in his work as we were, but nevertheless he had con- trolled the pest. In two other large orchards similar experiments were tried out with highly satisfactory results. A co-operative experiment with Mr. A. H. Ernest, Lock- port, N. Y., was conducted to determine the value of applying a spray against the aphis before the blossoms opened and again following the drop of blossoms. Lime-sulphnr (1-40), plus arsenate of lead (two and one-half pounds per fifty gallons), plus nicotine (three-quarters pint per one hundred gallons of solution) was used. Very little, if any, difiference could be noted between the blocks treated and those untreated. The orchard of Mr. R. E. Heard, Lockport. N. Y., con- sisting of 800 apple trees, was very badly infested with rosy aphis, followed bv green aphis during June and July. He made no early application against the pests, but a week before TWENTY-FOURTH ANXl'AL MEETING. 151 the rosy aphis left the trees he made a very thorough applica- tion with lime-sulphur plus the nicotine. The results were as we had had in previous years' work. It was almost impossible to tell the difference between sprayed and unsprayed trees. While all the lice which could be hit with spray were killed, it was impossible to get the spray to the insects, due to the great number of protected places when the foliage was ex- panded. When the green aphis was at its height of infestation in July Mr. Heard again made a similar application on twenty- three trees. He also tried out kerosene emulsion and a carbolic acid solution. Neither one of these three solutions gave the slightest visible control over the pests, amid the fact that as high as twenty-eight gallons of spray was applied per tree. On the other hand, very much burning of foliage followed the application of kerosene emulsion and the carbolic acid solu- tion. No burning occurred from the use of the nicotine in anv of the experiments. Other Sprays. In regard to the relative value of kerosene emulsion, the so-called carbolic acid solution and other missible oil sprays, I mav say that while good mixtures are effective when applied while the young lice are on the opening buds, we find that it is not safe to recommend oil preparations to the average grow- er, due to the danger from such mixtures so varying in their make-up. Furthermore, it is a matter of great economy for the fruit grower to use combined sprays and eliminate as many applications as possible. Factors of Success. There are a few points which can well be metitioned in m\ closing remarks on this subject. In the first place, the trees should be properly trimmed. If there are cross limbs and the branches are very thick they should be trimmed out, so that light and air can readily enter, high centers which can never be thoroughly sprayed should gradually be thinned out, leav'ng the l)ranches open for' easy 152 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and rapid handling of the spray nozzle. ■ That is essential, because to control aphis, as well as scale, thoroughness is a prime factor. Another necessity in this work is the use of angle nozzles. In fact, the man who is trying to control the aphis or the pear psylla should not be without them. You will recall that excel- lent results against the aphis was obtained in the Cothran or- chard, and this was done despite the fact that the spraying was made against the wind. Angle nozzles are a necessity in such a case. And then steady high pressure should be n^aintaincd. A drifting misty spray cannot be expected to give good results in fighting the aphis or any other insect. A pressure ranging from 175 to 225 pounds will enable the operator of the nozzle to drive the spray where he wants it, saturating the fuzzy opening buds. Do not depend on drifting sprays to control the aphis. You will meet with failure if you do. Now, from our four years of experimental work you see the evidence points bery strongly to the fact that there is but one time to spray for the aphis. That time is the most import- ant, because later applications will not place tiie pest in con- trol. In our spraying work we should try to eliminate work by combining as many sprayings as possible. So we advise our growers to delay their dormant application of lime-sulphur until the buds begin to show green and after the aphis have hatched. If a grower does wait till that time, he can deter- mine the degree of infestation, and if there are plenty of lice on the green buds he can add the nicotine to the lime-sulphur solution, and thereby kill two birds with one stone. The principle objection we find among growers is the added expense of the nicotine. To point out that the added expense is not an exceedingly high one, I have the following ngures, compiled by Professor Parrot in our work. A careful study of this table will show that the average cost for nicotine is approximately 11^ cents per tree, the trees ranging from twelve to forty-seven years of age. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 153 Nicotine Cost in Dormant Spray. Cost 0} Affc 0} Cost per Tree Extra Cost Combined Treeti. with Lime-Sulphur. for Nicotine. Spray. Years. Labor. Lime-Sulphur. Cents. Cents. 35 12 13 32 35 7 16 10 33 35 10 10 9 29 i" 4 3 4 11 12-35 4 8 6 18 47 13 19 14 46 33 39 23 18 80 30 14 28 21 63 Discussion. liy8av( srage cost for nicotine per tree. Question : Have you had beneficial results from the use of lime-sulphur with the addition of the nicotine against the young aphis itself? Mr. Strickland : We have had no success whatever with it, due to the fact that it is not caustic enough. I don't know what else to say about it, with the exception that I know this — ;> ou can put on the spray at that time and you will find young lice crawling around with the dry portions of the lime-sulphur on their backs when that one-eighth strength i,s used. The men who have been fighting the aphis and making the spray at the time the aphis have just hatched have not been able to con- trol the pest. Question: How much nicotine? Mr. Strickland: Threc-ciuarters of a pound to one hun- dred gallons of solution. Question : What is the commercial name of the nict)tine ? Mr. Strickland: We have at the present time three mixtures of the nicotine sulphate on the market. The "P)lack Leaf 40" people put out the first nicotine sulphate. It seems to be necessarx to use nicotine sulphate, in which nicotine had 154 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. been combined with the sulphur, for this reason — that it holds the nicotine, which is very volatile in itself. Question : Do you treat the cherry trees in the same way and at the same time ? - Mr. Strickland: Yes, if the cherry trees are sprayed at the time the buds are in that condition, because as soon as the aphis have hatched, with that preparation of nicotine solution you will control them. Air. Rogers : Will the lime-sulphur destroy the eggs to any great extent, do you know? Mr. .Strickland : In our work that was one of the points first taken up ; and we found that neither the oils nor the lime- sulphur solution would control the egg situation at all. Dr. Fletcher of Virginia : We have some trouble in Virginia, but our fjrowers have had verv beneficial results from the use of the straight lime-sulphur in controlling the aphis^ applied at that stage as the winter buds are bursting. We find, unless the infestation is very serious, that the winter strength lime-sulphur, applied as the buds are bursting, will practically control it. Our growers are able to get tobacco stems very cheaply, and quite a number are now .making their own nicotine extracts. It is not necessary to boil these; all that is neces- sary is to soak it over night, or twenty-four hours, and yiu will get out from sixty to seventy-five per cent of the nicotine. Of course, you don't have a standardized strength. You can only tell how much to use by first trying it and then diluting accord- ly thereafter; but some of our growers have been able to make their own nicotine at a cost of about half of the expense of the "Black Leaf 40." Moreover, the tobacco stems, after the nicotine has been extracted, are practically as valuable for fertilizer as they were before. The matter of the preparation of that extract is a subject you will have to investigate. There is no danger of getting it too strong. Question : How much water should you have in which to soak a hundred pounds of stems. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL, MEETING. 155 Dr. Fletcher: It all depends on what kind of stems you use. In Virginia we find that about fifty or sixty pounds of stems to one hundred gallons of water is about right. You can't lay down any rule about that. That is the difficulty of home preparation. You have got to experiment with your stems and with the concoction first. Mr. Strickland : What proportion do you put in your lime-sulphur solution? Dr. Fletcher : When it is used in that v/ay it is used separate from the lime-sulphur, not used with the lime-sulphur when it is home-made. It is, of course, not strong enough to put in with the lime-sulphur solution. Mr, Strickland: That is the difficulty \\ith that home- made nicotine in New York. We have such large commer- cial orchards we should have to have a carload of tobacco stems to soak to control the situation. It is a matter of econ- om\-, just as I said in m\- paper, to use the sprayings together as much as possible. President Hale: If we could get the nicotine from ihi- tobacco stems and still have them to use for fertilizer it iT'ioht be worth looking into. Mr. Rogers: After this bud is opened, blossoms fallen, if you spray with this nicotine, cutting out the lime-sulphur — nicotine and arsenate of lead — what is the result on the codling moth ? AIr. Strickland: We had no results. That is. on very, vcrv badlv infested orchards. Mr. Dre\\- : How about the red bug? Mr. Strickland: The red bug with us is confined to the central ])art of the state, severe infestations in the small lake region, although it is well scattered over western New York. There are two species. It is pretty hard, almost impossible, for the average grower to determine the difiference between them. One does its work just before the blossom opens : and the other just as the blossom is dropping, so it is necessary for us to make two applications as a rule where they are in large num- 156 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. bers ; one just before the blossoms open and one following the dropping of the blossoms, using nicotine in the same propor- tion as with the aphis. President Hale: What about using the tobacco stalks? Could we get any nicotine from them? Dr. Fletcher : There isn't so much, of course. Stems are better. Secretary Miles : Will you say a word about dust sprays ? Mr. Strickland : The college at Geneva has been doing a great deal with the dust sprays. It appears from two years' work that it is indefinite as yet. The best I can give you is this — out of three experiments tried this past summer only one was successful. That is in the experimental stage yet. We Avant to be pretty carefulwhat we experiment with, not going into it in a commercial way, but to try it out first. The very interesting program of the morning session having been completed at 12:15 the meeting took a recess until the afternoon session at 2 o'clock. TWESry-FOVETH ANNUAL MEETING. ict Afternoon Session. The meeting was called to order by President Hale at 2 o'clock. The attendance was the largest yet, as the fruit grow- ers and the market gardeners joined forces at this ses- sion. President Hale said this was to be a joint session with the Vegetable Growers' Association, and he called on President A. N. Farnham of that association to take the chair. On taking the chair, President Farnham made an inter- esting address, in part as follows : Members of the J'egetable Growers* Association and Ponio- logical Friends: Again the march of time has brought us to the end of another year, the second of our life as a state association, and I am sure that many have seen and felt the benefit of it already in various ways. One of them is in getting acquainted with each other, and through this acquaintance we liave gained as well an imparted useful information. Don't let anyone think that just joining the association is all there is to it, for, though we certainly want you all to join, we also want you to get to work and boost the association in every way possible. For one thing, help to get new members, to give us additional strength ; and then see what you can rlo to make .this a lively and beneficial association. I think right here we can take inspiration from the results accomplished by the Pomological Society. There is certainlv just as much need for a strong vegetable grov.^ers' society in this state as for a fruit growers' society. The Pomological Society has justified its existence by the results it has accom- plished. As a younger society, and in a way an ofifhsoot from it, we feel the need of the fullest and most hearty co-operation with our pomological friends. Tn our line of work there are questions constantly coming up that need careful thought and investigation. Much is yet to be learned about vegetable growing; how to make it profit- 158 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. able by saving labor and by growing the best paying varieties ; how to market to the best advantage, etc. By meeting up-to- date growers one can oftentimes learn what would take several seasons of experiment to gain otherwise; for instance, how to combat the various fungous troubles and insect pests ; concern- ing irrigation, how, when and where to irrigate, also how mucli or how little and how often. This method of growing vege- tables is still in its infancy, and experiments are probably nec- essary to demonstrate some of the above questions, but we can gain much by conversation with others. So, 1 say, we need this association to get us together to hear the various opinions on these different subjects. If the suggestion of Air. Stokes, the veteran seedsman of Philadel- phia, now of Alorristown, New Jersey, were to be taken up, it would need the support of all associations like ours. He pro- poses an advertising scheme to educate the housewives and cooks in the wider use of vegetables and in their health-giving properties. This has also been spoken of right here in Con- necticut, and I believe it could be done to advantage, but. as I just stated, it is one of the many problems to be worked out. Manufacturers and merchants have always advertised, and they find it pays. Why should we not try to educate people to use our products and thereby assist them to cheapen their liv- ing expenses and perhaps benefit their health as well? We should at the same time be advancing our own interests. The question of marketing our produce is one that inter- ests and aft'ects us materially. When some ]:lan is devised wherebv the producer can deliver his goods more directly to the consumer, it will be of essential advantage to both. An association like ours can think out, and then tr}- out, methods that will 'bring the producer and the consumer closely together, and not benefit the middleman so largely as now. I have visited many of the vegetable-growing sections of the central and eastern states, each year for the last four }'ears. I have attended the national vegetable growers' con- ventions in Boston. Rochester. Toledo and Philadelphia, and I find just as good opportunities for our industry here in Con- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 159 necticut as anywhere. From my observations we can grow as good vegetables as are grown elsewhere, and 1 know of no place where I liad rather locate, We have quite a variety of soils — some particularly adapted to early vegetables. We certainl\- have local markets, as well as two of the largest re- ceiving and dispersing agencies in the east, namely, New York and Boston. That vegetable growing as an industry is in- creasing is shown by the fact that, whereas some years ago only two or three dozen growers entered the Waterbury mar- ket, there are now a dozen growers selling there ; it is further shown by the fact that last season the Hamden vegetable and •berry growers shipped as many as seven cars in one day to out- side markets ; and, also, by the cultivation of considerable areas in market gardens which were formerly yv^aste and low land in the vicinit}- of New Haven. Much of this land has been de- v'eloped by foreigners, and here especially we see the need of cooperation and help that our society might give them. Most of this land is in the vicinity of East Haven, Xorth Haben, Westville, and to a less extent in Centerville and Mount Carmel. No doubt there has been a somewhat similar spread- ing out in the vicinity of Hartford. We can see the need of closer co-operation with the fac- tories that place on the market our canned products. We have several of these already in the state, in the vicinit\ of Xew Haven. Hartford, Guilford, and elsewhere. Some of them grow their own products in part, and all of them contract for more. More of such factories may prove useful to relieve a glut in local markets. There are certain crops the growing of which needs re- newed stimulation, such as potatoes, onions and melons. We seem to be losing ground on some of the cro])S on which we once specialized. How can we bring these bark to their old- time prestige? We feel sure that the state stands readv to give us such assistance as may be necessarx' to help and instruct the pro- ducer of foodstufifs. Whatever it ma\ do for us along thi« line, we know the commonwealth will be more than repaieting your Baldwins in the New York and English markets, and outselling them, yet I am frank to say thai: I consider the Baldwin a higher grade of apple than the York. The last * As this subject was of special interest to the vegetable growers, and the matter will be published in their report, it is therefore omitted he' e. — Secretary. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. i6i census ranked Virginia sixth in number of apple trees, there being over 10,000,000 in the state. According to the last report of the Office of Crop Estimates, U. S. D. A., Virginia produced over 5,000,000 barrels of apples in 1914, as compared with about 6,000,000 barrels from all New England. Apple growing in Virginia is almost altogether wholesale. The carload is the unit. There is little retail or local market trade by the barrel or box, such as you practice to advantage in Connecticut. Our chief markets are Europe, the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and the cities of the south. In normal years nearly one-half of our apples are exported. The fact that we grow apples for the wholesale or general mar- ket, while you grow them largely for the retail or personal mar- ket, should be kept in mind, when considering the following statement of Virginia methods. Location. The Virginia apple orchard that is far from the shipping point, over poor roads, is finding this a heavy handicap in these years of low prices, when apples must be grown cheaply to be profitable. Thousands of barrels of Virginia apples are grown more than fifteen miles from the shipping point. It is not uncommon to pay forty cents a barrel for hauling. On the other hand, many cars are loaded at a cost of five cents or less. Here is a difiference in the cost of production of thirty-five cents, which is a nice little profit in itself. In some cases labor is cheaper or more stable back from the railroad, and land cheap- er, but these hardly offset the handicap. ]\Iotor trucks, and traction engines hauling a carload at a trip, are being used and help considerably ; but in view of the necessity for cutting down expenses wherever possible, I do not believe new orchards should be planted more than six miles from the shipping point, no matter how favorable the site or soil. Site. Virginia is the land of sky-scraper apple orchards. No- where else, except in parts of West Virginia, do we find so l62 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. many orchards set up on edge. This is particularly true of the older Winesap and Pippin orchards in the Piedmont. These mountain sides were selected primarily because they have the Porter's Black Loam, a famous apple soil. Many of them are so steep that the apples have to be brought down from them on sleds ; wagons could not be used. But our growers are begin- ning to question whether one is justified in growing apples at an angle of forty-five degrees, even for the sake of being on "Pippin Soil." The steeper the land, the higher the cost of production ; it is much more inconvenient and expensive to perform all the necessary orchard operations, especially spray- ing. Good fruit can be grown on gentle slopes that perhaps have equal immunity from frost. It does not seem that smudge pots will be generally useful in Virginia. We have plenty of orchard sites where the air drainage is such that frost injury is unknown or rare. It cer- tainly is cheaper to utilize these than to plant where smudge pots are necessary for frost protection. Varieties. Our leading varietes are York Imperial, Winesap, Albe- marle Pippin and Ben Davis, in the order named. The York is the Baldwin of Virginia. It is a lop-sided apple of good but not high quality ; as usually grown it does not have high color, and it is not a good storage apple ; yet in spite of these defects it is outselling the Baldwin at home and abroad. It bids fair to remain the dominant variety west of the Blue Ridge. Winesap is the Spitzenburg of Virginia; of rich flavor, high color, and an exceptionally good storage variety. It is the dominant variety east of the Blue Ridge. No market glut was ever so serious that a car of fancy Winesaps would not bring a fair price. It will keep perfectly until April. It is not, however, as heavy a producer as York. Albemarle Pippin is a sort of glorified Newtown Pippin. We call it Albemarle to distinguish its unrivaled richness, as grown in Virginia, from the indifferent flavor of the common specimens grown elsewhere — in Hood River, for example. It TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 163 requires special conditions, and is not fully at home except on "Pippin Land," in the coves on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. Most of our Pippins go to England. It costs at least thirty per cent more to raise Pippins than Yorks or Winesaps, largely because they require extra spraying for bitter rot; but they sell for more than enough to make up the difference. A good "Pippin" orchard is the surest thing in apple growing that I know. The Ben Davis, that much maligned but irrepressible va- riety, has been and still is a money-maker in Virginia. For shipping to southern points, especially in March and April, after more respectable varieties have gone, it has a distinct field of usefulness in Virginia. But what shall we say of the man who grows it in Connecticut, for a personal market ! Care of Young Orchard. Unquestionably it is best to grow a hoed crop between the rows of young trees, if practicable. But it is not always practicable. As a matter of expediency many Virginia grow- ers, including myself, follow the standard rotation of corn, wheat and grass between the young trees. The first year corn is planted to within four feet of the trees, followed by wheat seeded to within five feet of the trees, this followed bv grass seeded to within six feet of the trees. The strip in which the row of trees stands is kept tilled, and sown with cover crops. After another round of the rotation, when the trees are six years old, the land is given up entirely to the trees. Truck crops, with an occasional green manuring crop, would be bet- ter, if expedient. Tillage of Sod. Forty years ago most apple orchards were in sod. This was one extreme. Then came an ardent tillage propaganda, in which it was claimed by some that all apple orchards, without exception, should be tilled. This was the other extreme. Un- doubtedly tillage is best for most orchards but there are many exceptions ; and in no state are the exceptions more numerous l64 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. than in Virginia. These exceptions are of three types : Very rocky land, very steep land and very rich land. We have many profitable orchards on land so rocky that plowing would be out of the question. Most of the untilled orchards in Virginia, however, are on steep mountain land. If kept tilled these lands would wash to pieces. There are also many orchards, mostly in mountain coves, where the land is naturally very rich, and kept moist by sub-watering from the adjacent higher land. Tillage may not be necessary, and may even be injurious, in these orchards. Probably eighty per cent of Virginia orchards should be tilled more or less for best results, but the exceptions should be noted. Pastured and Mulched Orchards. If not tilled, the orchards are either pastured or mowed. Sheep and hogs are used successfully, care being taken to re- move the animals while the arsenical sprays are being applied, and for a week or more thereafter. The browsing of the lower limbs is not a serious objection, although it is best to take the stock out of the orchard after July first if there is a heavy crop. Cattle, except young stock, are rarely used to advantage. Most untilled orchards in Virginia, especially those on the steeper lands of the Piedmont, are not pastured, but are simply kept mowed. The strong soil produces a rank growth of herb- age, which is mowed two or three times a year. Supplemental mulching material, as straw, is rarely used. The results of this method of soil management on the steep orchard lands of Vir- ginia fully justify the practice. In thousands of acres, includ- ing some of the most profitable orchards of Virginia, the scythe is the most practicable implement of tillage. Tillage Methods. If the orchard is tilled, our growers believe in early plow- ing, at least a month before blooming time, on account of the greater danger from frost on newly-plowed land. The disk harrow is supplanting the plow in the orchard wherever the land is not too stony. We have come to believe that "good til- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 165 lage" in the apple orchard is not necessarily the stock advice to "harrow every ten days." On soils having a high moisture- holding power, as our Apple Pie Ridge shale, or our black "Pippin Soil,'' one tillage is as effective as three on lighter soils. In my own bearing orchard I have adopted the plan of tilling one year in three, working it in cow peas or soy beans the next year, and in red clover the year following. I believe this is enough tillage for bearing orchards on moist soils. Pruning Problems. I prefer a modified central shaft system of pruning to the open head, for Virginia conditions. The first year three or four well distributed limbs are left, and the center one, or lead- er, is cut about twelve inches longer than the others. The sec- ond year a new whorl of three or four limbs is left, above the others, and the leader cut out. Thereafter the pruning is de- signed to open and spread the tree. The advantage of this method is that there are eight or ten scaffold limbs, instead of three or four, so that any breakage from ice or weight of fruit will not seriously mutilate the tree. The limbs are cut back one-third for two years only ; after that the pruning is entirely that of letting in the sunshine. Fertilizing. Very few Virginia apple orchards are fertilized. Experi- ments for several years at Winchester failed to show any de- cided benefit from fertilizers. I'ut where the trees are sub- normal in vigor, excellent results have been secured with ma- nure, or with a mixture of one part nitrate of soda, one part muriate of potash and three parts acid phosphate or basic slag, used at the rate of ten to twenty pounds per tree, just after the petals fall. This is used only on weak trees. Spraying. Spraying is more general and more thorough in Virginia, I believe, than in most of the eastern states. West of the Blue l66 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Ridge three applications are required beside the winter spray ; the first and second codling moth sprays, immediately after the petals fall, and again nine weeks later, to catch the second brood of moth. East of the Ridge two or three later applica- tions are usually necessary to control bitter rot, Bordeaux being used for this purpose. Bordeaux is no longer used except for bitter rot, lime-sulphur having supplanted it for the earlier sprayings. The San Jose Scale is under control, and seems to be dying out in some places the last few years. Scab gives little or no trouble west of the Blue Ridge; in the Piedmont a scab spray, just before the blossoms open, is usually necessary for Winesaps and Pippins. Green and rosy aphis have played havoc the past three years. "Black Leaf 40", one-half pint to fifty galUvns, is used efifectively, preferably just before the blossoms open, in the scab spray. It is quite expensive, and our growers are now beginning to make their own tobacco decoctions, which can He done by soaking the stems over night in water. The amount of stems to use, and the dilution for aphis, depends upon the amount of nicotine recovered, which varies with different to- baccos. Details on the home preparation of tobacco decoction are given in a recent bulletin of the Virginia Experiment Sta- tion, Blacksburg, Va., available on application. After being soaked the stems are worth practically all they cost for fer- tilizing purposes, as but little of the plant food is lost in soak- ing. Cedar rust is one of our most serious diseases. It has caused a loss of several hundred thousand dollars some years in the valley of Virginia, especially on York Imperial, which is very susceptible. Community co-operation for cutting down all cedars within half a mile of apple orchards has given some re- lief, but it became necessary to enact a state law making de- struction of cedars adjacent to orchards compulsory, on com- plaint of orchardists. This unique law has been declared con- stitutional, and is now being invoked b}- fruit growers for their protection. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 167 Spray Materials. Many apple growers now make their own lime sulphur so- lution, at a cost of about $3.00 per barrel on an equivalent to a 32 degree test, which is less than half of what it usually costs in the market. For three years I have made all the lime-sul- phur for my 140 acres of orchard, 100 of which are young trees, with an outfit that cost only $50.00. It is a "steam feed cooker," which is a small one and one-half horse power boiler sold by dealers in farm supplies for about $40.00, to which is attached coils of perforated pipe. It boils a barrel of solution at a time. I have found the formula of 50 pounds of quick lime, 100 pounds of sulphur and water to make 50 gallons of solution the best to use. It makes a solution testing about 29 degrees. Hydrated lime is better than quick lime for this pur- pose, as it goes into solution better. It is necessary to use 67 pounds of hydrated lime instead of 50, as it is one-third water. Dry arsenate of lead is rapidly supplanting paste, being equally effective, just as cheap and much more convenient to use. Spray Machinery. Virginia apple growers are beginning to realize that 20 to 30 acres is about the spraying radius of one power outfit. No outfit should be expected to cover more, especially in the hurry- up time after the petals fall, while the calyxes are closing be- fore we can put poison in them. It is a good investment, in a large orchard, to pipe water to different parts of it, since the concentrated lime-sulphur and the lead can be distributed through the orchard at the water taps, and long hauls avoided, thus increasing the spraying radius of a machine. The gasoline power spray outfit is most commonly used. The old style compressed air outfit, with compressor detached, has been used considerably on the steeper land, but is open to the objection of a high first cost, and the long trips back to the re-loading stations are a decided objection. The new line of compressed air spray outfit, with compressor and engine mounted with tank, marks an important advance in spraying l68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. equipment, and will become a close competitor of the gasoline outfit. Harvesting. In handling the crops of the large Virginia orchards it is often difficult to get and keep an adequate supply of help. For several years I have brought in a force of men and camped them on the farm. I find this by far the most satisfactory method, as the men are always on hand, even for an hour's work between showers, and the cost is somewhat less. I pay $1.00 a day and board them. A few growers pick by the piece, paying 10 cents a barrel, but most of them pay by the day, some keeping track of the number of baskets picked by each man through the use of pickers' checks, such as are used by straw- berry growers. This has proved an excellent method of elimi- nating the drones. The advantage of making at least two pick- ings from each tree, so as to secure larger size and higher color on the inside fruit, has been fully demonstrated. Packing. While most Virginia apples are "run over the table" right in the orchard, an increasing number of growers are now haul- ing to a central packing house, using a double-deck wagon hold- ing about 75 of the half-bushel baskets, into which the apples are picked from the trees. Unless the haul is quite long, apples can be barreled at less cost in a central packing house than in the orchard, and the work is done better. It also permits the use of a sizing machine. A large proportion of Virginia grow- ers packed under the Sulzer law last year, which requires care- ful sizing as well as careful grading. It is inevitable that there shall be further efforts towards the standardization of the apple pack, barrel as well as box, by means of state as well as federal laws. All this will make a sizing machine almost indispensable to the large apple grower. A sizing machine — note that it is not and can never be a sorting machine — takes ofif the mind of the packers the entire operation of sizing, leaving them free to give undivided atten- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 169 tion to the elimination of the off-color and blemished fruit. The result is a much better grade than is usually secured when apples are run over a table. I used a 1913 model Schellinger machine the past season and was thoroughly satisfied with its work. Many others are in use in Virginia. It is operated with ■the gasoline engine from the spray outfit. All my apples are barreled; I made three sizes, 2^ to 2^. 2^/^ to 2^, and 2^ up. We packed 200 barrels a day easily, and 250 one day. The fruit was not bruised ; the grade was greatly improved ; the packing was done a little more cheaply than in former years, and there was a slight gain in price as a result of the sizing, as well as a considerable gain in bulk. My machine cost $225.00 ; the Hardie, which I have seen doing good work, costs $125.00, I believe, and is adapted for smaller operations. I be- lieve the apple sizing machine has come to stay. Practically all Virginia apples are packed in barrels ; we have little of the retail box trade that is, or should be, a con- siderable feature of your apple market. In fact, the market for box apples during the past three years has been distinctly lower than the market for the same grade of apples in barrels, so that fewer Virginia apples are boxed now than four years ago. The barrel will continue to be the almost exclusive pack- age of the wholesale apple grower. For several years I have effected a considerable saving by making my own barrels. The stock can be bought for 20 to 25 cents, and it costs 5 cents a barrel to make them. Marketing. Virginia apples are sold in five ways : On the trees, to buyers, on consignment, F. O. B., and out of storage. The cheerful gamble of selling the apple crop "on the trees" still prevails in Virginia, although not as popular as formerly, I am glad to say. The buyer, representing a distant wholesale apple dealer or speculator, comes along in August, sizes up the crop, and offers a price for it as it hangs on the trees at that time, the buyer taking all the risks of hail, drought, disease. wind, etc., from then until harvest, and often ]>icking and al- I70 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ways packing the crop himself, the grower only hauling it to the depot. Of course, the price is low, because of the risks taken and because the buyer cannot harvest the crop as cheaply as the owner could. Moreover, the buyer is usually much shrewder in estimating the probable size and condition of the prospective crop than the grower, because he has had more practice. Occasionally a buyer gets "stuck," but nine times out of ten the grower loses heavily by this premature sale. A more common and much fairer way is to sell to apple buyers at a fixed price per barrel delivered at the depot, the grower to do the picking, and usually the packing also ; but the latter is often done by the buyer, and always is under his super- vision. The chief disadvantages are that the grower has no op- portunity in this way to work up a reputation for his pack ; and in years like 1914, when buyers could not get money at the banks to speculate in apples, very few appear in Virginia. This forces most growers to consign, which is a very good way of handling a crop, provided it is followed year after year, dealing with the same firm ; but a very poor method when used inter- mittently, as a last resort when no other way of handling the crop is available. • F. O. B. sales to distant apple dealers, with privileges of inspection on delivery, is a very precarious method of selling apples ; if the market declines while they are in transit, the grower is likely to receive a wire, "Cars rejected," and be obliged to attempt the almost impossible task of selling them again to advantage, when they are hundreds of miles away, and deteriorating every hour. Many Piedmont growers of Pippins and Winesaps, which are both excellent storage varieties, put their entire crop in storage in the fall, selling it out themselves from, time to time during the winter. There has been no effective co-operation in marketing Vir- ginia apples as yet. It is not likely that there will be as long as most growers are able to get fair prices from individual sales. When forced to it by ruinous prices for a series of years — and that time has not yet come — they will co-operate, but not till then. That is human nature the world over. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 171 The Outlook. Apple growing in \'irginia has been, is now, and is going to be profitable for the man who makes it a business. The city folks and speculators who planted apple orchards with feverish haste in the years of 1906 to 1910, with visions of easy money, have mostly fallen by the wayside, as was inevitable. In growing apples for the wholesale market we do not expect the higher prices per barrel or box that you often get in your local markets. Our aim is to produce good apples, in large quantity at a low cost of production, so that they can be sold cheaply and still leave a fair margin of profit. I find that dur- ing the past six years it has cost me $1.15 to produce, pack, and put at the depot a barrel of apples, while the average F. O. B. selling price during this period has been $2.45. This leaves a reasonable profit, which I believe is fairly representa- tive of conditions generally in Virginia. The outlook for apple growing, whether in Virginia or Connecticut, is bright for the man who makes it his business ; who is not altogether discouraged by the years of low prices, nor unduly elated by the years of high prices ; but who is con- vinced that an average of the fat years and the lean years will vield him a fair return for his investment of capital and toil. 172 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Wednesday Evening Session. When President Hale called the meeting- to order at 7 :30 the hall was well filled with members and their friends. The program for this session had been arranged with a view to making it interesting to a general audience. Good music was provided and the addresses covered topics of gen- eral and timely interest, not along any special lines of fruit or vegetable culture. The first speaker was Miss M. E. Sprague, assistant in club work in the extension department of the Connecticut Ag- ricultural College at Storrs, and her subject was "Popular Methods of Canning Fruits and Vegetables." This interesting and suggestive talk appealed especially to the many ladies present and the speaker was asked many questions at the close of her address. Popular Methods of Canning Fruits and Vegetables. By Miss M. E. Sprague, Extension Department of the Connecticut Agri- cultural College, Storrs. At present we hear much about "balanced rations," and we begin to realize that the subject of balanced rations is to be considered in connection with the family, as well as the live stock. Unless a "balanced ration" is provided, the health of the family cannot be maintained, neither can its members do ef- ficient work. To provide a balanced ration, fruit and vegeta- bles have a prominent place in the diet each day in the year and not spasmodically or during the growing season only. These foods supply the mineral salts which are so essen- tial if the blood is to be kept in good condition; the organs kept working, but not overworking, and the waste eliminated from the system. Unless these mineral salts are provided in this way, we resort to drugs and medicines after the system has become so depleted as to require immediate relief. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. ^73 This is not nature's way of introducing- these elements, and even if it were, it is a very expensive and unpleasant way of taking- them. Most of us would prefer our phosphorus in a serving of green peas or spinach ; our iron disguised in a dish of luscious strawberries and our calcium in a rosy-cheeked apple. At present, if one's bank account is sufficiently large and he lives where he can patronize a city market, he may procure fresh fruit and vegetables during the entire year, but most of us must resort to the canned product or go without. Statistics show that in the United States each year there are $5,000,000 worth of garden and orchard products raised, and of these $2,500,000, or fifty per cent, go to waste. This being the case, if we conserve this waste we shall take one step towards solving the question of the "high cost of living" ; we shall be able to can for our own and commercial purposes and greatly benefit the health of the community. Many canning clubs are being organized throughout the countrv and they have adopted the slogan: "A can of fruit, a can of vegetables, and a can of greens every day in the year." We are told that in sections where this is carried out. there is a marked improvement in the health of the people. Canned goods may be bought at a fairly reasonable price, but why buy when by taking care of the waste in our own gar- dens and orchards, we can have a superior product for much less money? Canning is really a simple process, involving two steps ; first, destroy all bacteria present, and secondly, securely seal the product, that no further entrance of bacteria is possible. This is such a simple process that girls eleven and twelve years old are raising tomatoes, canning them successfully in tin, and marketing the product. The average cost of a can of tomatoes which sells for 15 cents is 4 cents. If these products can be raised, canned and marketed at home, we can keep the monev in the community. This is another strong argument for canning. 174 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ■ Acid fruits and vegetables are less likely to spoil and for that reason housewives believe that corn, peas, beans, etc., will not keep. They have a non-resistant form of bacteria, but can be canned successfully if the heat is continued a sufficient time to destroy this bacteria. The old recipes advised an intermittent cooking for a cer- tain period for three successive days. This was a tedious pro- cess and discouraged canning, as the housewive dislikes to handle the same product so many times. The more recent recipes give a time schedule which provides for a finished pro- duct with one cooking. For canning in small quantities for home use, only a sim- ple equipment is required. A wash boiler or any kettle suffi- ciently large to hold the cans and a tight-fitting cover to pre- vent the escape of steam will answer all purposes. These must be provided with a false bottom of pieces of wood tacked to- gether, chicken wire or some such substitute, as glass cans should not rest directly on the bottom over the fire. A plumber at a small cost will make, to fit the w^ash boiler, a basket with a wire bottom and handles. This will save many steps, time, and lessen the danger of being burned. Use any reliable glass cans and carefully examine them to see that there are no nicks in the top and that the cover fits. The tiniest opening will allow the entrance of sufficient bacteria to spoil the product. The matter of rubbers is the most important, for many failures are due to defective rubbers. They should not be used a second time and we do not advise using the ones which come with the cans. A good rubber must be thick and soft enough to make a cushion, also tough enough to prevent the top from cutting it. They should be elastic so they will stretch to go over the top and fit securely. . We use only the "Cold Pack Method." This means the product is to be packed in the cans and cooked afterwards. This method has many advantages over the open-kettle meth- od. If the product is transferred to the cans after it is cooked, great care must be taken that the cans, tops, rubbers TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 175 and all utensils used are thoroughly sterilized ; that no air bubbles are allowed; and the product must fill the jar to over- flowing. With 'all this carefully observed, it is very possible to have enough germs enter to spoil the product. With the cold pack method, it is necessary from a sani- tary standpoint to have everything thoroughly clean, but the cans and contents, w^hether it be fruit, liquid or air, are a\\ cooked, so any bacteria is destroyed. The cans are not opened afterwards, so there is no opening for bacteria. Another advantage — the product is more attractive, as it is not crushed in cooking ; the color and flavor are not de- stroyed and there is no waste of the product. Another argument which will appeal to the housewife : After the product is prepared, packed in the can and partially sealed, the hard work is over. The cans may be put in the boiler, nearly submerged in water and the water brought to a boil. As soon as it reaches the boiling point, set the alarm clock for the time it is to be done, and the w^ork is over. The cans have simply to be taken out, tops tightened, and inverted to cool. With the old method, the hot, hard work of filling cans, etc.. had to be done after the housekeeper is tired from the day's work. Steps in Canning. 1. Making a selection of the ])roduct. grading for uni- formity in color, ripeness, and size. 2. Blanching or scalding. This means dipping the pro- duct in boiling water for the required time. This brings the color to the surface, loosens the skin of the product to be peeled and also eliminates the objectionable acids found in some products. 3. Cold dip. The product is plunged into cold water to set the color, make the product more firm and easier to han- dle. 4. The produce is then peeled or otherwise prepared and packed in the jar. Add the syrup, salt, or whatever the recipe calls for. 176 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 5. Partially seal. The can must be partially sealed, as the product will expand and there must be an allowance for this and an escape of steam, or the can, if glass, will be likely to break. 6. Process, which means cook the required length of time. 7. Remove from boiler, finish sealing immediately, and cool as rapidly as possible and not risk breaking of cans. For commercial purposes it is more practical to can in tin. This is a simple process, but necessitates having a capping steel, a soldering iron, a force flame, and some other equipment simple and inexpensive. There are many good and inexpen- sive outfits on the market. These are supplied with a full set of directions and are not difficult to use. With one of these it is possible to take the work out into the garden or orchard, thus simplifying the work and hastening the process. The government issues a Bulletin, No. 521, which will be sent to anyone applying to the secretary of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, and they have other material relative to canning. As a matter of health, of the convenience to the housewife in having her supply of fruit and vegetables cooked and ready to serve, and as a commercial proposition, canning should be carried on extensively in Connecticut. We should then have less reason to patronize the doctor and druggist. Next was interspersed a delightful musical program fur- nished by the well-known Patten Trio of Farmington, com- posed of Miss Natalie Patten, violin; Miss Margery Patten, 'cello, and Mr. Elliott Stanley Foote, piano. The selections were enthusiastically received and a number of encores were given. President Hale: We have with us to-night the mayor of Hartford, who will give us words of welcome. I am pleased to introduce to vou His Honor, Mayor Joseph H. Lawler. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING, jyy Mayor's Address. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : I wish, first of all, to thank the members of this Society for asking me ta come here and say a few words. To look around this hall at the splendid display of fine fruits and vegetables one would almost think it was the pleasant summer time instead of weather approaching a blizzard. I asked Mr. Hale if there were any of his peaches here, and he said : "None but the ladies present." Of course, I knew that, but I dispute the fact that all the ladies here come from Glastonbury, because 1 would be very much worried indeed for the future of Hart- ford's welfare if some of the ladies present didn't belong to this city. In running over your program I see several things upon which I might be able to give valuable advice and information, I notice a question as to whether the "red bug" has become a serious pest. If that bug is a "political bug," such as afiflicts mayors, senators and the like, I might be able to say something about it ; but if it is not a political bug, but the ordinary red bug, I hope it is caught and killed. Now, I do not wish to take your time to the exclusion of the addresses that are to be given this evening. I feel that a great deal more infortnation will be gotten from other speak- ers. I am very glad that you are to have an address this eve- ning from one of Hartford's finest citizens, ]\Ir. Macomber, who is a member of our Commission on Public Markets. As you know, the city undertakes various activities ; as a rule we are engaged in building schools and things of that sort, but a public market in Hartford is a novel idea, and I think it is indeed a good thing for such a society as this to come to Hart- ford and give us the benefit of its advice and views upon the matter of a public market, for unquestionably you will play a considerable part in this plan when it gets under way. I thank Vou for vour interest and kind attention. Miss Janet Chesney of Hartford gave a reading, which delighted the audience. Miss Qiesney responded to an encore. ~I78 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Believing- that the subject of marketing and distributing of our crops is of the highest importance both to the producer and consumer, just at this time, it was proposed that this topic be made a feature of one session of the convention. The question of the public city market is especially pertinent, and has aroused popular interest in many cities, where an effort is being made to bring producer and consumer closer together to their mutual advantage. President Hale explained that the city of Hartford is con- sidering the matter of establishing a municipal market, and at this point he introduced Mr. Frank G. Macomber of Hart- ford, who spoke on "The Public City Market and Its Advan- tage to the Producer and Consumer." The Public Market and Its Advantage to Producer and Gonsumer„ By Mr. Frank G. Macomber, Member of ihc Hartford City Commis- sion OTk Public Markets, Hartford, Conn. Ladies and Gentlemen: Your president has said that my attitude toward the public market was probably that of the city man; that I looked at it from the point of view of its advan- tage to the city rather than the advantage it holds forth to the producer of various farm products. It may seem strange to you, possibly, for me to say that my position is directly the opposite. I look at the public market and its value to the man who is producing food products, and through its becoming valuable to the man who is doing that it becomes by indirection, it is true, valuable to the city man. The conception very gen- erally held by city people, and a great many country people, too, is entirely wrong; and a public market based on that con- ception would ultimately, in my judgment, fail. It would fail for the reason that the producer proposes to get a little more of the consumer's dollar and the consumer proposes to get a little more for his dollar. The consumer expects, regarding the public market as he does, to get all there is for the dollar TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. lyg he pays, or he beheves he will get it, and that producer will not get any more of his dollar. In other words, the theoretical view of the public market on the part of those who have not considered the subject, is one in which the producer and the consumer are brought together, and the producer eliminates all of the profits that lie between him and the consumer; and sells his product at exactly the same figure as he would sell it to the storekeeper. Many of you who are producers of food products know very well that if you were brought into touch with the ultimate consumer you would honestly do that thing which all business men do ; that is, demand and get, if possible, the high- est price your goods would command. Therefore, the bring- ing of the consumer and the producer together simply through the medium of a public market will not be productive of any- thing more than a possible cutting out, to a very limited ex- tent, of the peddling of produce through the public streets. The public market has its great value, its economic value, to any city that establishes it, in the fact that it encourages production. It encourages those men who are already engaged in producing certain lines of food products, — -vegetables, fruits, and so on — ^to enlarge their methods, increase their ef- forts ; and it encourages others to enter the field. The mysterious thing to me is that you gentlemen who produce food supplies will permit yourselves to be treated by almost every city and almost every village into which you go, not as a business man dealing with other business men, but as solicitors and oftentimes beggars for the opportunity to sell your product. You are producing that thing which the cities and towns cannot exist without ; and yet the cities and towns, for the most part, absolutely refuse to give you that outlet for your product which they grant to almost every other line of business. The creation of railroads throughout the country has been mainlv with the idea of developing commer- cial life. Of course, in the far West, largely agricultural ter- ritory, the railroads were built with the object of developing the agricultural resources ; but in the East it was development for the commercial interests, for the manufacturer ; and wheth- l8o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. er you are willing to grant it or not, the fact still remains that the good roads of which we are so proud in Connecticut and the good roads, we have through a large portion of New Eng- land and the eastern states were not given to you so that you might bring your product into the city, but they were laid so that we city men could go out and ride over them and watch you doing your work. The public market renders its service through encourage- ment to production. It will not encourage production, in my judgment, if a public market be created which is simply a cen- tralized or restricted spot within the city where you are asked to peddle goods at retail to all such consumers as are willing to come to you. If it affords you an opportunity to so dispose of your products that you can deal as business men with busi- ness men it will encourage you to produce more. If it doesn't encourage you to produce more, in a sense at least, it will give you time to produce more ; and through increased production prices will naturally fall in the city to the benefit of the city. The question may be asked: If the public market is to bring about such a condition of increased production as to pull down prices, wherein does it benefit the producer? It will benefit all those who come in contact with the public market in the opportunity it gives you to produce considerably more. If the present plans of the Commission on Public Markets work out, we believe that for those engaged in the production of food products within a radius of fifteen or twenty miles of Hartford the time they now spend in selling their stuff will be cut down almost one-half, if not more. The time thus saved can be utilized in increasing the production. As a general proposition it is probably true that the producer's time is about equally divided between producing and marketing; and I im- agine the difficulties of marketing are about twice those of producing. A material increase in production will result in substantial decrease in prices, and both the producer and the consumer will benefit. I think this is demonstrated in the re- sults of last year, when, in this particular territory, at least, there were never so many vegetables at so low a price or of TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. i8i such excellent quality. I think we have to go back eight or ten years to find a similar situation. We had fine goods, plenty of them, and the price was low. It was simply that there was a very heavy production throughout this territory. If we can so arrange to encourage the production throughout this terri- tor with our public market that we may have a similar condi- tion year after year, of large supplies coming into Hartford, that is where the city man gains. It is primarily in the minds of the Municipal Market Com- mission of Hartford to develop the agricultural territory around Hartford, with the intent to bring into the city of Hartford a large proportion of food products, to greatly in- crease that, and to increase the prosperity of that territory, through the finer market conditions offered. The increased profits through the larger volume of business ultimately comes back to the city of Hartford to be spent again as the marketing center of this territory. In other words, we are going to help you get money, for you are going to spend it here again. That is, in brief, the way in which the commission figures out the proposition as concerning the city of Hartford. We think the benefit will be very real, and we sincerely believe it will be substantial. I am not at liberty to divulge to you any particular site that is under discussion by the commission. The market will be located in the center of the city of Hartford.^ The Public Market Commission will make an effort to bring into that public market all lines of business that are now engaged in food handling. By that I mean that we are going to try to de- velop a spirit of co-operation, not only on the part of the men who are producing the stuff, but on the part of the commission men handling it. The public market will be so located as to have, if possible, not only railroad, but trolley facilities. A very strong feature is the fact that the Connecticut Company has now proposed to the commission — :ind there seems to be no objection to it at this time — the running of a track into the market ; and in connection with that the development of a trol- lev night service radiating- from the center of the citv of Hart- l82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ford that will leave terminal points at a given hour, will travel across various lines — I think seven or eight — through the rural district ; and each one of these lines will bring' in a trolley car, which will pick up the farm produce where offered to them and deliver it at the public market. The Connecticut Company has guaranteed to the Public Market Commission that the price that will be made, for this service will be so low that no man who produces stuff on the farm can afford to bring it in either by automobile or team. In connection with the public market we propose to have what might be called an intelligence service or information bureau. We are going to seek co-operation on the part of every store in Hartford that handles food products. It is our purpose at a certain time in the day to gather together from all these distributing points in Hartford information as to what the next day's needs may be. That information will be quickly compiled and we propose to telephone it out along the lines of this troJley service and into the producing territories in the district, so that each territory will know what is wanted. If a certain product comes largely from one section the infor- mation concerning market conditions in that product will be sent there, in an effort to keep the market level. The advan- tage of a stable market over alterations of glut and scarcity needs no comment from me. The success of this scheme will depend in large measure upon the co-operation of such societies as yours with the Pub- lic Market Commission in the establishment of standards. There must be absolute standards in regard to every product that comes into the market ; and those standards must be so thoroughly established, and they must be so well recognized and consistently lived up to by everv^ producer, that when the public market sends information out to a town or section that one hundred barrels of No. 1 potatoes are wanted that one hundred barrels of No. 1 potatoes will reach the market, and nothing else. If this is trifled with, if there is any four-flush- ing on it, the whole scheme will fail and fail lamentably. And if it fails it will be the producers who will be the greatest suf- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 183 ferers. I will tell you why. The Municipal Market Commis- sion of the city of Hartford has at its disposal $100,000 to in- augurate this public market. I say inaugurate and I mean in- augurate. The city of Hartford will come forward with more money and come forward with it more readily and more gra- ciously if the market is made a success. The Municipal Mar- ket Commission does not propose that this market shall be a failure by reason of any acts of commission or omission on its part ; and that we may feel perfectly sure in regard to it, and that we may protect ourselves against you gentlemen of the country, the Municipal Market Commission has pledged itself absolutely to so spend this $100,000. and so invest it in site and in equipment, that if it fails as a municipal market it becomes a real civic asset to the city of Hartford. It remains absolute- ly and distinctly up to you gentlemen who are producing farm products if you want that market, if you want it to benefit you to see that those things are done which will tend towards mak- ing it a success. Any one of the most important of all those things is that you establish a set of standards ; and then see that every man who produces farm products lives absolutely and honestly and constantlv up to those standards. The public market, like the public market of Cleveland, will probably carry with it a cold storage plant, available to even- citizen of Hartford and to every man who ships into the public market, at a price slightly above the cost of the service and under conditions of limitation as to the length of time stuflf may be left there, so that it might not be used for the purpose of establishing a corner. In that way we propose to give you who are producers of perishable products an opportunity to come into the market and not to have to go up against a glutted market and have all the profit on your product taken out of it ; giving you a chance to hold the market on such perishable pro- ducts as berries ; and in holding it I think the city will gain as much as you will. The one thought that I want to leave with you, even at the expense of repeating, is the urgent necessity that every or- ganization such as represented by you fruit and vegetable i$4 'l^HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. growers shall work hard to establish standards and live up to those standards, else in the final analysis a municipal public market in the city of Hartford, as in many other cities, must prove itself an abject failure. Miss Chesney favored the meeting- with several more ex- cellent humorous selections. President Hale : The next speaker is one who needs no introduction, because you all know him so well, but I con- sider it an honor as well as a pleasure to have this opportunity of presenting to this audience my father, Mr. J. H. Hale, who is going to tell us about his recent trip through the West. (Applause). Mr. Hale, in his delightful and graphic way, gave a most interesting account of his trip the past fall through the West and among the fruit growing sections of the Pacific coast, de- scribing this wonderful country and comparing its opportuni- ties with those of the East, and especially New England. It is to be regretted that Mr. Hale's address cannot be given here in full, but in the following summary is covered the points of special interest to New England fruit growers. A Trip Through Western Fruit Growing Regions. By Mr. J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, Conn. The development of the orange and lemon growing in- dustry in California has been far beyond the most extravagant ^jrophecies of twenty or thirty years ago ; California can pro- duce practically within its own borders everything that can be grown anywhere in the United States, except that it does not grow Indian corn very successfully ; land is lower in price to- day than five years ago on account of the great volume of fruit produced ; they are up against the same proposition as we are here : "The next step is co-operation in marketing and trans- portation." They formed several years ago a fruit exchange; TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 185 in the various sections the growers combine and build their own packing house, select their manager; the fruit is picked by the grower and taken to the packing house ; he is given credit for it there ; it is graded under the direction of the manager, the grower having nothing to do with this part of it. There are 23 such organizations, with 7,000 members. They put up enough money in each locality to build a warehouse and keep it going. Each of these organizations has a delegate to the Central exchange in Los Angeles and once a week they meet there. This central organization now handles 61 per cent of the fruit product. This central organization is a wonderfully efficient and business-like affair. It has no capital whatever ex- cept what is invested in office furniture, but its credit is ex- cellent. The people in California believe in one another and they pull together. They have splendid markets on the coast, and in Seattle there is a municipal market where the growers bring their pro- duct and have the best facilities for handling it.. The veget- ables are largely brought in by Japanese ; some Americans and some Chinese ; there is an abundance of running water in the markets, each man has his stand where there are sinks with proper sewer connection ; and they are constantly washing their vegetables and spraying them ; they look fresh and attractive. That is a good business idea. Southern California grows a few peaches in a moderate way ; it is the only section on the coast where they are grown to any extent. Some years ago they didn't prune the orange and lemon trees, said it wouldn't do to do that, but now I find they are being pruned to let the sunlight and air in ; and I was told at one grove that it costs practically seventy-five cents per tree to prune. In Oregon I found thousands and thousands of bushels of apples on the trees unharvested, because it did not pay to har- vest them. Further north in that state and in Washington I visited the orchards. The land boomers, the advertisements of the railroads, the wonderful show of apples on our eastern markets, has tempted many thousands from the East, with all i86 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the energy and capital they had, to go there and buy land or orchards. Some have planted in a small way, attended to their business, and many have developed beautiful orchards ; but there are many pitiful instances where they have gone out there with high hopes, bought land at high prices and devel- oped it at great expense, and have signally failed to realize their hopes. They told me a few years ago that they would never have to sell apples for less than $1.50 a box ; but the av- erage price at Hood River last fall was seventy cents. Their orchards are beautiful ; they have many fine packing houses ; they are delightful gentlemen ; it is a very attractive thing to visit the organizations. There are apple grading schools and packing schools, which they open up every summer before the season starts in, and they *re all being educated in the proper handling of apples. They have organized exchanges for the handling of their product, and they have organized sell- ing agencies. They have overdone the thing in the last par- ticular; and they are considering cutting out some of the sell- ing agencies. Their trees when they begin to get a little age begin to show weakness. The finest fruit is coming from trees five years old and less. The general cry has gone up in the whole West : How shall we market our fruit ? Colorado is proposing to have a state agency to take charge of the selling of fruit : and that warehouse receipt shall be given by the state or by these agencies and that the state shall cash that receipt at so much per box. Some people in Oregon want the state to take the fruit at a certain price and pay for it, whether they sell it or not. This shows that they are up against it ex- tremely hard. Many of the growers have borrowed money upon their places to develop the business far in excess of what the places would sell for to-day. The bankers are keeping still in the hope of finding somebody they can unload on. And the great handicap is that they are two thousand miles or more from the market. I came home well satisfied with New England. We have every opportunity for the production of fruit as good as they TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 187 have in the West ; there are tens of thousands of acres here just as g-ood as anything they have, and you can buy it at very much lower prices. I am satisfied that our great opportunity is here in New Eng-land. Ahhough Mr. Hale's address was a lengthy one. he was listened to with the closest attention and at the close was given hearty applause. The Patten Trio rendered more of their delightful music, and then the last thing on the evening's pro- gram was announced as the "distribution of Connecticut quali- ty apples." This feature was carried out to the letter, baskets of luscious fruit being passed among the audience, giving every person present an opportunity to sample the finest product of Connecticut orchards. When the meeting finally came to a close at a late hour everyone seemed in a happv frame of mind and ready to vote unanimously that the event had been a grand success. l88 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. THIRD DAY, Thursday, February 4, 1915. Morning Session. With the weather conditions more favorable, the closing day of the annual meeting witnessed a large attendance. The morning session was called to order by President Hale at 9 :30. No separate meeting was held by the vegetable growers this day, so both the organizations met in joint session. The first hour was devoted to a discussion of the question list, in charge of Prof. A. G. Gulley. Discussion of the Question List. Question No. 10: What is the most practicable method of storage for apples on the farm? Mr. Gold: Late years I haven't stored any apples of any consequence. When I did, I put them in big barn cel- lars; keeping them as cold as I could without freezing. 1 had pretty fair success. I think the days of home storage are over. You can get so much better service in cold storage. Mr, Drew : I can keep them until spring — no trouble whatever. Put them in a good barn cellar ; double doors and double windows ; open the doors at night. I don't believe there is going to be money in paying storage expenses on the cheap grades of apples. I think a good cellar will do very well. Fancy grades should be held in cold storage. Mr. Staples : Every year in Maine I fill my cellar with apples ; four or five hundred barrels ; and I operate about as Mr. Drew does. I put in a system of ventilation; keeping it as near freezing as I can. I can keep apples to sell at good prices in the spring until April. It is an ordinary cellar with- out cement bottom. Mr. Conant of Maine : In Maine it has been customary for vears to store fruit in cellars, house cellars, or some stor- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 189 age building with a cellar in the basement. The fruit can be carried very well in this way, although it does not sell quite as well when put on the market. Loses its flavor more than in cold storage. The tendency now in Maine is to store in cold storage; the cellar loses fruit every year. We are storing in cold storage between two and three thousand barrels and it comes out in good condition to go onto the market. Mr. Gulley : Have you had any experience with cellars in side hills? Mr. Conant : Yes ; and they are very good storage, too. The particular advantage is in a sort of pre-cooling effect it has on apples. In some places they are pretty nearly as good as cold storage ; put it in there to check the maturing. I think it is a grand thing. That is really quite a feature with us. It is a problem as to what method we should adopt of handling fruit coming direct from the orchard to get that pre-cooling effect and I think the side-hill cellar is the most ])ractical proposition we have in view. Question : Is the cement floor a detriment or a help ? Mr. Staples : I have an idea that the apples getting the natural moisture from the ground keep better and keep from wilting. Until a few years ago all our apples were stored in this cellar. It has a hard bottom. We don't jnit the apples on the bottom of the cellar ; build up about six inches, but never make the bottom tight. We want the benefit of" the moisture from the ground. We have sold our apples in Boston and got good prices for them. Question : What degree of temperature inside of the cellar — how long do you go ? Prof. Gulley : With the ordinary cellar the thing is to keep it as low as you can as long as you don't freeze them. A Member : I have kept it at 28 degrees. Prof. Gulley : I think thirty is generally considered about right for apples to be safe. As long as it is cold outside vou can get it all right inside. It is generally in ( October and I90 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. early in the winter that you have your trouble ; in the colder weather it is not so much of a problem. Mr. Staples : Conditions in Maine are very different from what they are here. Apples picked a little later and it is a little colder than when we pick them. They don't get heat- ed as they do here. Putting them in cellars in Connecticut is quite a different proposition, because they get so ripe before the cold weather comes. Prof, Gulley : We found that difficulty with the Green- ing, to keep it back enough in anything outside of cold storage before they would ripen up. President Hale: The storage problem has probably been one of the biggest propositions we have been up against. We are located where we have to pay freight or truckage or somthing to get to any cold storage ; and we have been talking about putting in one of these bank cellars ; have it four or five feet under ground all around. I am wondering if that would not be the proper sort of a place for the majority of growers who grow a thousand barrels or over to put in all their late pick. Our notion is we will pay this truckage and freightage, on all of our first pick, and put the late pick into cold storage. Mr. Conant: Sometimes we put in everything; some- times the later varieties, as you say. One thing should be emphasized — the fact that in any storage cellar of that kind it should be damp and moist ; it prevents shriveling up. That is a very important factor in the storage of fruit, keeping it moist in some way; have it damp. Question No. 25 : What is the best crop to grow be- tween young peach trees ? Prof. Gulley: Cover crop or crop for profit? Question : Cover crop ? Mr. Drew : If you are talking about a cover crop to build up the soil we use a mixture of clover and vetch, if you can get it to grow. First I started to grow vetch ; I didn't have much success with that; but I sowed vetch on the same piece the next year with very great success. Where we are TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 191 trying- to build up the soil where we can grow it we put in a mixture for cover crop of eight pounds of vetch to about twelve or fourteen pounds of mixed clover ; red clover, mam- moth clover; sometimes a little sprinkling of alsike clover. If you are on a sandy soil the best thing I know of is rye, where you cannot grow clover. I think you can build up your soil with rye. There isn't anything that will hold up a side hill bet- ter than rye. It depends entirely on your conditions. If you can grow leguminous crops I should do it ; if you cannot do that I would use rye. I don't like rye and vetch for the simple rea- son that with rye you don't have to plow it in early in the spring; otherwise it is going to be five or six feet high and you will have difificulty in getting it under. Mr. Root : I use rye and clover. Sow it at the last cul- tivation ; turn it under the next spring ; and in some cases we get more than we can turn under. President Hale : We use crimson clover and vetch al- most entirely. We start plowing under first thing in the spring; by the time we get around there is some of it in blos- som. We try to plow the dry land first. Our practice has been to grow Flint corn entirely since we quit the nursery busi- ness. Among the young trees Flint corn is the best. Prof. Gulley : The question for a young orchard is a little different in the matter of a cover crop. We can grow some crops. in a young orchard with benefit. Mr. Hale favors the growth of Flint corn. I believe corn is one of the best crops to grow in a young orchard. I prefer Dent corn. I have no earthly use for Flint corn. Dent works perfectly. It responds all right here. There is no reason why it shouldn't. Question : How about oats and peas ? Prof. Gulley : They are good crops for feed ; but I do not consider any sowed crop of that sort is really desirable for a young orchard, because it all comes in the summer time. A Member : I have sown rye and vetch together, threshed them together. Up on the hills in Litchfield county there isn't much use of trying to do anything with clover. - 192 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr, Bonner: For the last four years, we have sown our own seed of rye and vetch ; grown together and sowed togeth- er ; we have been perfectly* satisfied with it. Prof. Gulley: It has been satisfactory with us. We don't ever separate it. We are also using buckwheat. At the college I manage to get something to cover the ground. Bv an accident a year ago I think we saved our whole orchard when we might have lost it all. I had purchased the cover crops to put in in August. It was sowed in June instead of August ; the first of August it was up nice ; you could not cul- tivate it ; and the only thing I could do was to mow it, and we did this two or three times ; by the end of the season we still had it growing very nicely. Undoubtedly the very depth of the stuf¥ saved the orchard. Otherwise it would have been win- ter killed entirely. It was buried deep in the grass. We lost very few trees. I am satisfied that that mistake saved the or- chard. We want a cover of some kind on peach orchards, par- ticularly in this country. Mr. Bonner: Perhaps I should explain that we do not produce rye and vetch seed in the orchard. Mr. Morrell of New York: If anv man is unfortunate enough to have very poor land — I possess two hundred acres of it — we find we can put humus into the soil better by the use of corn, drilling it in about the first of June, plowing it under in the fall, and put on a crop of rye. In that way in one year you get two crops. Next spring turn it under. Then we start with the clovers and vetch and so forth. I think a great deal of trouble with vetch is a mistake in seed. You get spring or summer vetch and not hairy or winter vetch. We make it a practice to sow a little vetch with our corn to inocu- late the -soil. I saw some vetch ten feet long down in New Jersey on a sandy farm where the sand is so light the wind will blow it away ; thev have to put on rye or wheat to hold it I believe vetch will do more for our farms than anything we can put on. If vou want the vegetable matter I believe in corn. You can plow it under two inches higher than your head, Plate III. Views in the J. H. Hale Orchards, Seymour, Conn. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 193 clean, every bit of it; in a few months it has decayed; decom- posed ; put your rye right in, turn it under the following spring before it gets too ripe. Question : Is that perfectly safe for a young orchard? Mr. Morrell, of New York : I would use it after plant- ing the trees. My neighbors all laughed at me when I did it. It occurred to me that the corn was the best thing to put in, so we did it ; now our neighbors are doing it. We had the corn, drilled it in, and plowed it under. I don't believe there is any possible way you can put humus in better than that. This is on light soil, on a very level farm ; that is light com- pared with heavy clay; it is really sandy loam with occasional- ly a little clay subsoil. If we had all clay subsoil there I wouldn't change it for anything in New York ; the top is ideal to work. Question : Why is it better to grow corn between young trees than potatoes? Mr. Morrell : We leave a strip on each side of our trees and cultivate that ; we keep that in cultivation. Prof. Gulley: The principal objection to potatoes is that you have to stir the land so late in the fall ; and that is bad for peaches. Question N^o. 35 : How is pear blight to be controlled, and what disinfectant should be used, and what strength ? AIr. Morrell of New York: I cannot answer that ques- tion. We are struggling with it all the time. I don't propose to give up this fight against it. I don't say I am going to win, but I would rather be defeated than give up. The only meth- od I know of is to cut your wood back. Be sure to cut it low enough. Most of the trouble comes from fear of sacrificing a certain amount of wood. There is the first point you will have to recognize. We go through our orchards once a week ; wherever there is blight cut it out, put on disinfectant ; and then do it again ; unfortunately, it Strikes in so deep you cannot always save the trees. We are losing them every year; take them out and put in others. Some people say there are more 194 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. pear trees going out than coming in ; sortie of them take them out and give it up. We are going on with our pears and con- tinue the fight. 1 don't know what the result will be. I think the body blight comes from winter injury; very severe weather did it. Question No. 17: How may we be sure that we have cut all the dormant blight germs out of the larger branches of apple and pear trees? Prof. Gulley : There is no such thing as being sure un- less you cut the tree down. Question : What effect does cultivation have on it ? Prof. Gulley : In certain trees it will bring more. Mr. Morrell : There are orchards in western New York that have been in sod ; we don't find that that makes any dif- ference, except perhaps the excessive sap will have a tendency to blight maybe. Question : Has the honey bee anything to do with it? Prof. Gulley : We are giving the bees more credit than they deserve. We have a lot of insects that do a lot of good, too. There is no question about the insects carrying these dis- eases just as well as all the good things. They cannot carry ipollen with this blight on it without affecting the tree. Question : Is it common to have apple trees affected with blight similar to the pear blight? Prof. Gulley : It is somewhat so in this state. A Member : Last summer in a little orchard about six years old I had a number of Greenings quite severely affect- ed. I had never seen it before. I have had no experience of any length in orcharding. I was obliged to cut them back more than I liked to do. Prof. Gulley : It affects the apple trees. I never saw it in this state until four years ago. West they have it; fur- ther West it is said to be as bad on apples as pears. Two years ago we had a lot of it on our young apple trees. You TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 195 can cut it out in the apple and it will stop, but it may not stop in the pear. We did stop it in about half the cases, however. Question : Will it live over winter? Prof. Gulley : Oh, yes ; if not in the tree, somewhere else. If it is once in the orchard it will stay there. Mr. Drew : We had the blight in the Greenings and Baldwins. We tried to cut it out. It seemed to us it was un- fortunate to let it spread. Some people told me that the blight would not go into the older wood, it would simply take this year's growth. I had a lot of it on Greenings and Fall Pippins. On Wealthy it went right into the trunk of the tree, and the only way I could save the orchard of Wealthy was to keep right after it for a couple of weeks. It went right into the trunk of two or three trees in the Wealthy and killed them. Prof. Gulley: That blight in the apple is getting seri- ous. We will have to watch it. The pears we don't grow so heavily and it is not so important, but in the apple, the young orchard particularly, it is getting to be a proposition we want to watch closely ; it can affect the young trees very much. RESOLUTIONS. Secretary Miles : I want to offer this resolution for the consideration of the meeting: Voted: That the Executive Committee are hereby in- structed to consider the proposition to change the time of hold- ing the next annual meeting of the Society, making the date late in November or early December and combining with it the annual exhibition which is now held in September; and the Executive Committee are hereby empowered to carry this plan into effect if they deem it advisable. Mr. President, if we take up this matter with the idea of making the change permanent, we will be obliged to change our by-laws. So my suggestion to the Society would be to try some such thing as this for one year, and if we like it we can change our by-laws later. President Hale: This resolution will be acted on later. 196 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Bonner : I would like to offer the following resolu- tion: Resolved : That the Executive Committee of the Society be instructed to expend, if found necessary, a sum not to ex- ceed seventy-five dollars, in the preparation of the annual report, to insure the same being issued April 1st, 1915. President Hale: There has been some criticism of the Society, more or less justified, because we do not get out our report earlier. We have all of us used our Secretary as a kind of punchi^ig-bag in this matter. We blame him and hold him responsible ; but when you come to analyze the business you can see it is an almost impossible task to sort out the stuff for the report and edit it and see to all the details of it and get it out by the time mentioned. A great many of the discussions we have here are almost useless for us this season unless the report is gotten out promptly. The resolution will be discussed later on at our afternoon session. Mr. Hull: Can not the report be indexed? Secretary Miles : Yes, that can be done. The gentle- man probably knows that it is quite a considerable task to do this in detail. It would cost a little more money to do this. Mr. L. C. Root : There was considerable discussion yes- terday in regard to the proposed law on grading and packing apples. There was no action taken. I would move that this whole matter be left with our executive committee, and I would like to add Mr. Rogers to that committee. I would like to in- clude in that motion that such a committee have power to act for this society. Secretary Miles: I would like to offer an amendment that to the executive committee be added not only Mr. Rogers, but four other members from among our principal growers, making it a little larger committee to get a little larger range of ideas. Mr. Root: If I might remark on the amendment, the rea- son I didn't suggest more names was because I thought our executive committee was probably a pretty good one ; and a TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 197 larger committee would go slow, and perhaps would not be any more effective ;' but I am sure this committee would be repre- sentative of all the growers. Mr. Curtis : The Secretary's idea of having such a large committee would work against itself. If it is going to accom- plish anything, the fewer there are the easier it would be to get together. It seems to me a committee of not over four would accomplish a grat deal more than a committee of ten. The executive committee now has a great many things on its hands. I would like to ask Mr. Miles if he will not withdraw his amendment and let us have a committee that would con- sist of Mr. Rogers, Air. Stancliff Hale and possibly one other. President Hale : It is my intention to call for a dis- cussion by the growers interested in this bill at the afternoon session. Mr. Curtis : I am afraid if it goes over till this afternoon a number of us will not be here ; and a matter of such import- ance ought to be acted on while we are all here. Secretary Miles : It seems to me that the logical way to get at this matter is to refer it to our legislative committee, which is supposed to handle all such matters. If this meeting were in a position to put its ideas in such shape that a com- mittee could make use of them in drafting a bill, with our en- dorsement, it seems to me that would take care of the whole matter. But the President says perhaps we are not ready. I have no objection to such a motion as Mr. Curtis suggests. Mr. Curtis : I named three. I am perfectly willing to accept a committee of five. Secretary Miles: Have a committee of three with the legislative committee. I will withdraw m\ amendment, Mr. Chairman, and allow Mr. Curtis's motion to go in. Mr. Curtis : I think it is important that we have it brought up now: I think it is better not to leave it until this afternoon. President Hale: Supposing we permit you people who will not be here this afternoon to express your ideas now. If igS THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. we devote all the time now to this subject to which it is entitled I am afraid we won't do much else. Mr. Curtis : We don't want to tell our committee what to do; in this matter of a proposed law we want to leave it to them. It seems to me in a meeting" of this size we cannot go into details. President Hale: Do you want any particular discussion on the proposed bill at this time? Mr. Curtis: No. If there is an opportunity this after- noon for discussion on the bill, that would be entirely possible, irrespective of the motion, Mr. Root: I am perfectly willing to withdraw my mo- tion. I want to make sure that there is some committee ap- pointed and that the legislative committee shall be members of that committee. I don't know how many here are on the leg^islative committee. President Hale : I think Mr. Curtis accepted the legis- lative committee in with the other committee. The Secretary will please read the names of the members of the legislative committee. Secretary Miles : The legislative committee is Mr. C. L. Gold, chairman ; Mr. Joseph Alsop and Mr. Henry H. Lyman. Mr. Ives : If this matter is left with the legislative com- mittee and they find it burdensome, let them appoint whom they will to assist them. It seems to me their judgment is good in picking the men. Mr. Root : Did the motion include giving them power to act for us? President Hale : Yes, I understand that is the intent of Mr. Curtis's motion, that the committee will have power to act for the society on the proposed apple packing law. Mr. Curtis : I move that Mr. Rogers, Mr. Drew and Mr. Stancliff Hale be appointed to act with the legislative com- mittee. Mr. Ives : I second the motion. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 199 President Hale: The motion is that a committee con- sisting of Mr. Rogers, Mr. Drew and your President act with the legislative committee and have power to take such action in behalf of the society in regard to the apple grading and packing law, and draft such changes in the bill as may be neces- sary. The motion was put to vote and declared passed. President Hale : The first speaker to address us this morning will be Mr. W. H. Conant, of Maine. We have en- joyed having him with us at this meeting, and I know you will be glad to listen to him now while he tells us how they grow and market apples in his state. Methods of Apple Growing and Co-operative Marketing in Maine. By W. H. Conant, President Maine State Pomological Society, Buckfield, Maine. I want to assure you in the first place that it has been a great pleasure to me to attend these meetings and to listen and take part in the discussions with you on these various problems relating to the production and marketing of apples. Doubtless our problems in many cases are your problems in the matter of growing and distributing apples, although the conditions vary quite largely. The growing seasons in Maine are somewhat shorter than in Connecticut, and what I have to say in regard to our methods of growing fruit in Maine will apply to Maine : Conditions that bring out the highest type and quality of those varieties w& are trying to grow. We mean to aim at quality first of all. There are a great many methods of growing fruit in quantity, but perhaps many times without quality. Until a few years ago there were no systems of definite cultural methods adopted by our growers ; it was a haphazard sort of business but with the sentiment for better fruit th-ey have since adopted definite systems in some cases, and tried 2O0 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. various methods in an effort to improve the quantity and qual- ity of their fruit. Conditions vary in different parts of the state ; conditions vary in the same community, so that it is hard to lay down a hard and fast rule that would apply to all. It has not been many years since we were telling a man over here that he ought to be adopting a certain method, and another man over there that he should be using the same system, but we have come to the point where we are not telling anybody what he should do except along very general lines. Some are using a mulch system ; some clean cultivation, and a large per- centage tillage, with cover crops in the orchard. In many cases the sod mulch has proved to be the best system, in other cases perhaps clean cultivation is doing very good work ; and in a good number of cases the tillage with cover crops is the ideal system. We have learned within a very few years that the moisture element is a large factor in the production of good fruit — one of the main factors; we have learned that we have got to control the element of moisture. It plays a larger part in the growth and development of good fruit than we a few years ago realized. Another thing that we have learned in the last few years is that the same methods will not bring out the highest type and quality in different varieties of fruit. In many cases we have tried to grow the Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin, North- ern Spy and various other varieties under the same methods of fertilization and cultivation and pruning. This is alto- gether wrong, because we have some trees that are of the up- right type ; others are low heads ; and others grow much dif- ferent. They must be primed differently and method must be taken into account in pruning our trees. The matter of fertilizer has probably been quite a prob- lem to solve with us. We hear from certain sections of the country that fertilizing is entirely unnecessary ; in other sec- tions of the country we are told that it is absolutely necessary. We have had to demonstrate this under our own conditions. And I believe it is up to each individual grower to prove out some of these things on his own condition before he will know TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 201 how to pick out the variety of fruit that he should attempt to grow to the nearest perfection. We hstened to Dr. Wheeler the other day on fertilizer and the use of lime, and I think that some of our growers have been demonstrating some of those things under their own conditions. We find in Maine that we have to fertilize our orchards ; it is absolutely neces- sary to fertilize to get results. I am going to tell you something especially about the grow- ing of the Northern Spy. We have no orchard data of any importance in Maine, but we have just started in co-operating with the State Department to get it, and should I live and con- tinue in the fruit business for five or ten years I should be very glad to tell you how much it costs under our conditions to grow and market apples. I am particularly interested in the North- ern Spy. I find some specimens of that here, but on the other hand they have told me that you cannot grow it in Connecticut. After looking at some splendid specimens grown here, I am wondering why it is that it cannot be grown in Connecticut. Up in our state men are failing absolutely to grow a good Northern Spy ; others are producing a splendid specimen of it. I don't think there is any variety that can be grown in New England that would make New England more famous in the apple mar- ket than this Northern Spy under certain conditions. I have a small block of Northern Spy, carried along for some years under the same cultural methods, fertilized each year by the same grade of fertilizer, same elements of plant food in the same form have been supplied to those trees each year. They have been sprayed carefully. I want to tell you something about it, because it means more to me than anything else I can tell you about in the growing of apples in Maine. As I said before, we have no orchard data. This little block of North- ern Spies comprises one acre ; they are set too close ; they are thirty-five years old; fifty-four trees to the acre; it is hard. rock\' soil, with gravel subsoil ; in fact, it would seem it would not ])e worth over $20 an acre; the soil is rather thin. The cultural methods which I have followed in the last five years 1 will describe to vou. 202 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In the early spring, just as soon as that soil can be worked, the orchard is plowed to a depth of four inches. This is usu- ally about the last days of April. The orchard is then ferti- lized by sowing the fertilizer broadcast, and then harrowed thoroughly, and that is harrowed once a week for four to six weeks. Then I want to check the wood growth early, and we sow in a cover crop. Under different conditions we have got to use different cover crops. The result is what you are after. It is what kind will give you the results. In an orchard where the trees are set too thick, and they are bearing quite heavily, we are using a great deal of buckwheat, and it proves in many cases to be a very good cover crop. It is sowed any time after the 10th of July to the middle of August, according to condi- tions, and then is plowed in, allowed to drop on to the ground, and that holds the foliage ; it make a splendid mulch for the trees in the winter and quite a little to turn under in the spring to decay and retain the humus in the soil. We spray the trees dormant in the spring with either soluble sulphur or concen- rate lime-sulphur at the regular dormant strength. By this spray we control the bark-sucking insects, the egg clusters, tent caterpillars, the leaf blister mite. In faci, we clean up the tree and get it in good shape at that time, control these various insects. We have been afflicted with scab somewhat for some years, but I think we are learning to control it quite thoroughly. We apply this dormant spray just as soon as the buds are swelling in the spring, as the casings of the bud are beginning to free away from the bud. This is the time we have to spray to hit the leaf blister mite, which winters under the casing of this bud. When the casings are relaxed we apply the dormant spray. It also burns ofiL" what apple scab winters on the foli- age. A few years ago it was called impossible; no apple scab wintered over on the wood of the trees ; but it has been proven by our plant pathologist that it does winter on the tender shoots of the winter's growth. I have seen many and many a case where apple scab fungi was destroying the tender tops of the young shoots on small trees. When the blossom buds begin to show pink, and before they get open too far, we apply a TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 203 thorough spray of a Bordeaux and mixed substitute we are trying out. Last year we got very nice results, and we will continue this system until we have proven that it is effective or not effective in controlling the apple scab. We are troubled with only one brood of the codling moth to anv extent. A spraying with lime-sulphur with arsenate of lead after the petals have fallen controls the codling moth very well. Fertilizer to me is an all important subject. If we are after results we must go after them intelligently to get them. Many men start in in a roundabout way and never get results. If they do get results they don't know know they get them, and wouldn't know how to go after them again. My concep- tion as to how to fertilize a tree is to supply in the elements of plant food what the tree needs, and do that each year ; not to fertilize the orchard this year and let it go by the next. I believe the thing to do is to supply a little each year. This has worked out all right on this little block of trees. They have five hundred to eight hundred pounds of fertilizer every year. This fertilizer is ready-mixed ; I am following it up for a term of years with the same fertilizer. It is 3-6-8 formula. It is not enough for me know that in that fertilizer there is three per cent nitrogen ; I want to know further from what source that nitrogen is derived. We want that fertilizer in there just as soon as the buds begin to swell on the trees, we have that plant food there to feed them, to force them along. It has worked out nicely with the Northern Spy, because it is a late starter. In this way it would seem that we force the trees four or five days more on the average : starts them off on the run early in the spring; and the balance of the nitrogen which is in the form of blood will become available gradually during the season. In this way you control the nitrogen element and get the desired results. The great trouble with our growers is to learn how to control that element of nitrogen. They will sup- ply a tremendous coating of barn dressing or later supply of fertilizer. That is not the right idea for us in Maine. It might work all right in Connecticut. We find that nitrogen makes growth and growth antagonizes color. We want fruit medium 204 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. size, good color, splendid texture and flavor, that we can ship around the world and have it corne back to us in good shape. That is the kind of fruit I regard as good fruit. Nitrogen will make a very poor texture fruit ; it won't stand up in the package. It will carry your growth on that tree way along into August and September, when it should form its terminal buds by the last of July and the first of August, and for the balance of the season devote itself with its whole energy to perfecting its fruit. We have to learn to control the two elements of moisture and nitrogen. Speaking of cover crops, not many of us use clover or vetch. Vetch is being introduced, but as a rule soil rich enough to grow a good heavy crop of clover is too rich in nitrogen to get the desired effect on our fruit. Certainly rye and buck- wheat are the two main crops for cover crops for bearing or- chards. I am talking about bearing trees now. In growing your stock that should be forced along there is no better fer- tilizer than barn manure, no better cover crop than clover, be- cause you are building up the soil all the time, creating humus, etc. What effect does this system have on the bearing orchard ? The Northern Spy has been known for generations as a shy bearer all over the coimtry. Now, as a matter of fact, these trees, under this system I have been talking to you about, are tremendous bearers ; they are annual bearers. How do we account for it ? This is why I claim men should establish some definite system in their cultural methods in the orchard. Sys- tem means that our trees will get into heavy, annual bearing. That has proven not so only with the Northern Spy. but with other varieties — by supplying just what they need this year you promote a tendency toward annual bearing. This is a little block of fifty-four trees I am telling you about ; it has produced a crop of apples for ten years every year — not a full crop, but a crop of apples from the fifty-four trees of 118 barrels for the smallest crop and 250 barrels the largest ; and the total yield for the last five years 883 barrels. Now the quality, m.any will tell you that by following one system that you will not get quality. I have been asked how we TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 205 bring out the color in the Northern Spy under this system. They say: "I grow in the sod and the mulch, and I don't get the color.'' They will preach against the cultural method be- cause they don't get the color. I get this color under that sys- tem year after year, and I made up my mind it is in controlling the moisture and the nitrogen elements. What effect has it had on quality ? Every year for five years the fruit on these trees has improved in quality under this system of spraying and con- trol of the fungus diseases, until last year a man came from New York, and he was willing to pay our association salesman $4.75 a barrel, taking all three grades — fancy, one and two, everything we had in the orchard. The gross income from those trees last year was $600; I am not able to give the net income. , It seems to me this has proven true with other varieties — this cultural method, the idea of controlling the nitrogen and moisture elements. It has worked out nicely with other va- rieties. Perhaps these methods would not work out so well in Connecticut. I would say further that I never saw the case in my life where with barn dressing applied under a Northern Spy tree you could ever get an apple worth anything. This does not hold true of other varieties. Some fail along this line because they apply too much nitrogen. The barn dressing throwing off the nitrogen, forces the wood growth, spoils the texture, color and quality of the fruit. I know of some men who have tried to grow Northern Spy for ten years, saying: ''What is the matter? I can't grow Northern Spies. I have piled barn dressing under the trees for ten years." I said : "Don't put any more there for twenty-five years, and you will get better fruit." If you are going to grow the Northern Spy try to grow it right. Live in close touch with your trees every week through- out the season ; study the conditions ; look at the foliage ; you will come pretty nearly knowing what they want in the ele- ments of plant food, and be able to supply them ; control your moisture element ; be sure you conserve the moisture now ; put in some and control your nitrogen, and you will get some 2o6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fruit of color, provided you fertilize either with chemicals or get your nitrogen from tankage or some other source rather than barnyard dressing. About co-operative efforts in Maine : I am not going to talk co-operation to you. I am going to tell you what it means to us, what we are trying to do along those lines, and give you some idea of the results we have gained by getting together and doing business as a co-operative body. We are situated in Maine a little different from you in Connecticut. All of our fruit has to go out of the state in car- load lots. We have no large markets close to our doors ; very little fruit in Maine is sold in the open package. Consequently it must be packed up securely and go out in car lots to the various markets of the world, and we find we have had very good success in marketing that crop through co-operative methods. What does co-operation mean, anyway? Co-opera- tion is merely "bunching your hits," It is what wins baseball games. It is just what is winning the game for the men in the apple business; it is what can win the game; it is just bunching your hits at the critical time that gets the results. The growers have been in the hands of the speculators up in Maine for the last fifteen or twenty years, and have been tak- ing about what they had a mind to hand them for their apples. There were seven brothers in my family, all more or less inter- ested in the apple game, and after competing against one an- other for business for some time we resolved to get together and do business as a body, as a corporation ; that one of us was just as good and no better than the other, and no better than our neighbors. We organized what is known as the Oxford Bears Apple Growers' Association. The people of Oxford County, Maine, have been known throughout Maine, at least, for many years as the Oxford Bears, so we just naturally took that name. Now, what does it mean to get together in the apple game and market fi*uit? It means that we have to start out and build up a reputation and create a demand for a trade- mark, and we are to-day selling trade-marked goods where the individual grower is trying to sell his, and nobody knows TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 207 anything about him. The apple game, as we proved it in Maine, is a confidence game from the start. In the first place, we must have confidence in our ability to grow apples ; w^e must have confidence in the soil ; we must have confidence in one another as neighbors in the community, in our manager and directors, in our co-operative association, in the railroad to transport that fruit to market, and in the man who is going to dispose of the fruit and hand us the return ; and he must have confidence in the barrel of apples we ship him, and the consumer to buy those apples must have some confidence in that brand of apples. It is a confidence game, pure and sim- ple. We had a label that covers the head of the barrel, and goes in every barrel grown and packed by the Oxford Bears Association, and for three years it has gone out over the world in the foreign markets, and it has now become a standardized trade-mark. What system did we adopt in carrying on the work of this co-operative association? It is a small association, com- posed of twenty-eight or twenty-nine members, with a board of five directors as the managing board of the body. We have a sales agent to look after the grading, packing and branding of the fruit, putting that fruit onto the market, keeping the books, and settling with the growers at the end of the season. The growers turn their entire product of fruit over to him to mar- ket; they have nothing to say about the marketing system or method. It is graded by the association graders ; we have men who have worked for us four years, ver^- faithfully indeed, looking after our interests every day in the week, but they are looked after very closely to see that they maintain the standard. We have done a large business in the foreign markets. The way we manage this up in Maine is to market the fruit in its season. There are a great many markets that are loaded down with apples not fit for immediate consumption. With one man controlling or distributing fifteen or twenty thousand barrels of apples he can place them where there is a demand for cer- tain varieties. On the other hand, the speculator will come around and buy all there is and dump them all in the same 2o8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. market at the same time, whether there is a demand or not, with the result that the market is g-kitted with a variety that there is no demand for. Take the markets of the world— I know something about them ; our manager knows what the demand is, and how it can be reached, when and how to do it. As a large part of our product goes across the water to the European markets, it was necessary that we know something about the methods and systems over there, so last year we sent our sales agent over to inspect the conditions on the other side in the English market. He spent a month there, took five hundred barrels of fruit and observed carefully all the details concerning its handling in that market. This has been of great benefit to us. The English market is a wonderful market in many respects. Notwithstanding the war conditions, they have taken more apples than last year, and they returned very good prices up to about Christmas time. When our sales agent makes a shipment, say of five hun- dred or one hundred barrels, it is billed to the boat, and the day following he wires the man on the other side the details of the shipment, amount, varieties, quality, etc., and the over-seas man has plenty of time for getting out his pamphlets, which he sends to the proper places, telling that on such a boat, arriving at such' a time, there will be such fruit of the Oxford Bears brand, and asking if any is desired. This enables the gentleman on the other side to frequently place a ver}' large part of the shipment before it arrives. In three years we have built up such a reputation in those markets that in many cases there isn't a barrel submitted as a sample. In from twelve to fourteen days from the time the shipment is made we know what it has brought. This man on the other side keeps in touch with the market conditions, keeps us posted when to ship, when to push them along- pretty rapidly and when to slack off and ship light. We have a label that goes in the head of the bar- rels, and those labels are put on the inside where they take out the head to inspect the fruit ; that is the first thing they see, that clean, catchy sort of a label. What was the result of he label? It only costs a little to put it in there ; it took with the retailers TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 209 of the fruit ; and very soon their stalls were decorated with the labels taken out. of the heads of the barrels. It would have cost us a great many hundreds of dollars to get that advertise- ment into those places. A lot of fruit is sold without inspec- tion ; there is always a demand for it ; people have confidence in it; and it has meant money to us. For instance, last year there were some shipments sold without inspection, sold right on the reputation of the brand, and netting back to the loading station $4.00 a barrel for all varieties, ones and twos of all varieties, after deducting $1.56 from the time it leaves the ware- house until the returns are cabled back to us. It cost $1.56 to put the barrel over there, when the return back to the loading station was $4.00. You can see the consumer is paying a tre- mendous profit on those apples. We are working for local markets, in our state, and also in Boston and New York, to some extent. I said that this is a confidence game. I was verv much interested last winter when a gentleman came down from Bos- ton— I had never seen him before in my life — and he said : "I saw a carload of your fruit handled in Boston the other day. Right beside your fruit was another carload brought in there" by an individual grower. Your fruit sold for $5.00 at the loading station, while the individual got but $4.00 for his. His fruit, to all appearances, was just as good as yours. The man put up a holler when he found that you got $5.00 and he got but $4.00, and he said: This is rank injustice. My fruit is just as good as that association brand and I will guarantee every barrel. There is something wrong." A commission man on the street said. The man who has paid $5.00 for that Ox- ford Bear brand has had to handle 1,500 barrels of their Ijrand this year, and he has got a dollar's worth of confidence in each' barrel. He doesn't know you or your pack.' " That is what reputation means. That is confidence money, and that confi- dence money goes right down into the pocket of the grower that grew those apples. Under this system this year we are handling 10,000 bar- rels of apples, not a large amount. Under the market con'di- ^lo THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tions it has been quite a proposition to place them to the profit of the grower. I feel that we have succeeded in handling the growers' apples to profit this year; we are a very much satis- fied bunch of men, we fruit growers in Oxford County. We are not the only association of this kind in the state of Maine. We have six or seven other co-operative associa- tions, some of them recently organized. We believe that co- operation is in the air. In a few years I anticipate we will have fifteen or twenty live associations working along the same lines as ours for results. I think we are apt to be conserva- tive in New England ; we are not advertisers. I have heard it suggested that some of us are like the old goose. When she laid an egg she waddled off as though she was ashamed of it, while the hen, in a similar situation, called heaven and earth to witness the fact. I think it is a good idea to get onto this busi- ness, apply some business methods, talk about it, and get be- hind and push it along. A few years ago we had the "Boom Maine" agitation in Maine, a good thing probably, arousing all sorts of ways and means to benefit the state. The Maine Central Railroad has been selling western box apples for years. The Oxford Bears thought it would be a nice proposition to go into that, and they did, with the result that we have driven the western fruit right ofif of that railroad in the state of Maine, and have been highly complimented on our product in that connection. The western fellow has been coming right in and getting the business, and we have let him do it, not be- cause we couldn't produce the goods, but because we were not alive to our opportunities, and the western chaps were. If we want to gain and hold the markets, it is up to us to get together and bunch our hits, grow good apples, pack good apples and brand the apples just what they are. A combination of a lot of growers can supply the goods as I have stated, growing the different seasonable varieties ; and you can go after the busi- ness in this state and New England, and follow it up, supply the trade with a good honest package, and hold the markets we talk so much about. I might say that we do not pool in our association by the TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 211 season, as they do in the Annapolis Valley. Every member of our association is given credit for every barrel taken from him, and he is paid for what his fruit brings. We pool only shipments. I don't like the idea of a season pool, because it takes away the incentive for the grower to strive for improve- ment in quality. If there is an order for fancy, we go to the man in the association who has that kind of stuff to sell. Con- sequently he is paid for what he has grown, and everybody is satisfied on that score. We have a man to superintend the pack, and we try to keep above rather than below the Maine law; we pack just the best we can ; pack as near as perfect a pack as we can. We don't pack wholly at central packing houses, though the drift is that way. We are grading at the warehouses of the growers ; the men are taken to the different growers' warehouses and there grade the fruit. This year we put up a warehouse on the railroad and started to grade some at the central point. This practice will increase from year to year. DiSCUSSIOiN. At the conclusion of Mr. Conant's very excellent and prac- tical talk, the following discussion ensued : Mr. J. H. Hale: This is too vital a subject not to say a word upon it. The conditions in Maine are entirely different from those in Connecticut. The majority of the 'fruit farmers in Connecticut are small producers and have come up with their farms, located anywhere from four to ten miles from one to three good markets. They have been trained to sell their product from their own wagons in the nearby local markets ; and we have come to the point now where we are increasing our products, and we are competing with one another in every one of these small markets, and overloading them; and each man who goes along down the street with his wagon cuts a little under the other fellow if he cannot sell, until we have cut the heart out of the business. We have never had to ship away; the majority of us haven't, and the majority are not, yet prepared for it The question before us is the question of dis- 212 THE CONNECTICUT FOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tribntion, and we don't know what to do because we haven't been in the habit of shipping at all. I suppose it is safe to say that ninety per cent of the fruit grown in Connecticut in past years has been consumed in Connecticut ; but there is a greatly increased production that must go somewhere sooner or later. This question of co-operation comes up. We do things in such a small way down here that it would be difficult for a sales manager to look after it. I am satisfied, situated as we are here in Connecticut, we can never market in the co-operative way until we have a central packing house in each community where fruit is grown to any extent ; but whether it will be pos- sible to establish packing houses, and proper, systematic and uniform grading and packing except in the larger growing cen- ters, is another proposition. It will be a difficult problem to adapt it to the small growers of fifty barrels of apples or twen- ty-five barrels of pears, or a few hundred baskets of peaches. It is bad enough where we have the markets under our noses and not situated as "you are in Maine. Mr. Co'Nant : This matter of distribution is the greatest problem facing New England to-day. It has got to be solved sooner or later to a certain extent, at least, if we are going to be successful in this fruit business, and the quicker we make up our minds to it the better the results we will get. I was very much impressed by this banner you have hanging here — "The Next Step is Co-operation in Marketing and Distribution." I believe the first step in solving that trouble is co-operation, because by co-operation and having one central head, some- thing like the Annapolis Valley Fruit Company, one man can place fruit all over the country, where it is wanted, and keep a dozen or a hundred men from traveling along the street com- peting with each other. The time is coming when competition will be so sharp there won't be a dollar in it. I think the fir&. step in the solution of this problem is co-operation, whole- hearted, honest, strict co-operation. Mr. Hale: You made statements as to the selling price of apples four and five dollars a barrel. Do you refer to the crop of 1^^)14 or of some ])revious year? TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 213 Mr. Conant : I refer to the crop of 1913. Mr. Hale : You are not speaking about present condi- tions? Mr. Conant : No, but we have some nice net receipts this year, but I haven't been in close enough touch with the agent to give you the entire results of this year. Mr. J. H.'Hai.e: The reason I ask this question is that there are a great many innocent lambs in this association, and I was afraid if it went out that apples were selling at four and five dollars a barrel there might be some more of them try to get a little of their mother-in-law's money and branch out a little further. I want to come down to the facts of the pres- ent day and the present prices of apples. There is a great op- portunity in New England for the production of fruit, but we have gone a little too far in talking about the glorious profits and the money there is in it. It is a good business, but a great many people have invested money for the last six or eight years in orchard propositions with the hope of living happily ever afterwards. They will, I hope, but they may not do it out of the profits of their fruit. The temptation to go into it has brought sorrow to thousands and thousands of families out west. Those of us who got into the business earlier and have spent our whole lives in it possibly made some very satis- factory profits, but I think I speak for the more extensive growers and for the larger orchards in Connecticut when I say that the steadily increasing cost of everything we buy, and the steadily lowering prices of things we sell are getting too close for safety. Whether there is any great profit — or any profit — in the future in a large way is a serious problem. The small grower, acting as his own su])erintendent, his own farm- er, his own laborer and salesman, with such iielp as he can get about him in some way, with a limited production, is the man who is going to make the most money, because he keeps it in the family, but when you go a little further and must do it all or a large amount of it on hired help, and with the expenses which are very considerable in doing the business on a jarge scale, the returns seem less certain. 214 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIET Y. Mr. Conant: For the benefit of those who may have per- haps gotten the wrong impression of the market conditions as I gave them, which were the figures of 1913, I will say that many shipments have been made to the foreign markets since Christmas holidays, and the nets have run, instead of $4.00 per barrel, they have had to send money to pay the freight. But these apples were frozen in transit, on the wharves waiting for the boats for a week or ten days overdue ; and consequently arrived in the market in a very miserable condition. At this point President Farnham of the Vegetable Grow- ers' Association was called to the chair, and he introduced the next speaker, Mr. A. H. Smith, of Springfield, Mass., who de- livered a very practical address on the topic, "Making Good on a New England Market Garden Farm." The market gar- deners present asked the speaker many questions, which brought an interesting discussion on methods of growing vege- tables for market. This address and discussion is not given here, owing to the fact that it is to be published in the report of the Vegetable Growers' Association. At 12:20 a recess was declared until the afternoon ses- sion. TWENTY-FOURTH. ANNUAL MEETING. 21 1; Afternoon Session. This closing session of the meeting opened at 1 :30, Presi- dent Hale in the chair. The attendance still held up to the mark. President Hale : We will first take up for consideration the resolution introduced at the morning session. The first one is in reference to changing the time of hold- ing our annual meeting and combining with it the fruit show. It practically amounts to instructing the executive committee to act under a suspension of our rules. What is your pleasure? A Member : I move the resolution be adopted. Motion seconded. On being put to vote, the resolution was declared passed, as follows : Voted : That the Executive Committee are hereby in- structed to consider the proposition to change the time of hold- ing the next annual meeting of the Society, making the date late in Nobember or early December and combining with it the annual exhibition which is now held in September; and the Executive Committee are hereby empowered to carry this plan into effect if they deem it advisable. President Hale: What is your pleasure in regard to the resolution appropriating $75.00 to assist in getting the annual report out in good season ? Mr. Rogers : I think it is a good idea, and I think per- haps the society will receive the benefit of it. I move it be passed. Mr. Hull: I would suggest that there be enough appro- priated to provide for an index. Motion duly seconded, and the resolution was put to vote, and declared passed as follows : Resolved: That the Executive Committee of the Society be instructed to expend, if found necessary, a sum not to ex- ceed seventy-five dollars, in the preparation of the annual report, to insure the same being issued April 1st, 1915. 2i6 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Election of Officers. President Hale : At this time the report of the nominat- ing committee will be in order. Mr. C. L. Gold: Mr. President, the committee has in- structed me to make the following report on nominations for officers : For President, Stancliff Hale, of South Glastonbury. For Vice-President, George W. Staples, of West Hartford. For Secretary, H. C. C. Miles, of Milford. For Treasurer, Minor Ives, of South Meriden. For County Vice-Presidents. Hartford County, Lewis C. Root, Farmington. New Haven County, A. T. Henry, Wallingford. Fairfield County, George A. Drew, Greenwich. Litchfield County, E. D. Curtis, Litchfield. Nezv London County, F. W. Browning, Norwich. Middlesex County, Henry H. Lyman, Middlefield. Windham County, E. E. Brown, Pomfret Center. Tolland County, Clarence H. Savage, Storrs. For Vice-President of New England Fruit Shozif, C. [.. Gold, West Cornwall. President Hale : You have heard the report of your committee. What is your pleasure? A motion was made and seconded that the Secretary cast one ballot for Stancliff Hale as President for the ensuing year. The ballot was duly cast by the Secretary and Mr. Hale was declared elected. A motion was then made and seconded that the Secretary be instructed to cast one ballot for the remaining officers named by the committee, which was done, and the officers so named were declared elected, as follows : Vice-President, George W. Staples, West Hartford. Secretary, H. C. C. Miles, Milford. Treasurer, Minor Ives, South Meriden. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 217 County Vice-Presidents. Hartford County, Lewis C. Root, Farmington. Nezv Haven County, A. T. Henry, Wallingford. Fairfield County, George A. Drew, Greenwich. Litchfield County, E. D. Curtis, Litchfield. New London County, F. W. Browning, Norwich. Middlesex County, Henry H. Lyman, Middlefield. Windham County, E. E. Brown, Pomf ret Center. Tolland County, Clarence H. Savage, Storrs. Vice-President New England Fruit Show, C. L. Gold, West Cornwall. President Hale : We will now take up the first address of the afternoon, which is to be given by Mr. A. C. King, Tru- mansburg, N. Y., on "Some Experiences on a New York Fruit Farm." I am sure Mr. King will have something valuable for us. Some Experiences on a New York Fruit Farm. By A. C. King, Trumansburg, N. Y. The New York fruit farm mentioned in the program con- tains about three hundred acres, and is situated in central New York on Lake Cayuga, one of what are known as the "Finger Lakes." The land slopes rather abruptly towards'the lake, with a northeastern exposure. The soil is of glacial formation and consequently varies greatly in structure, from gravelly loam to rather heavy clay, with clay as the predominating type. The surface soil is rather shallow to fairly deep and strong. The clay soils are not re- puted to be good peach soils, but in spite of this fact peaches occupy the largest area of any of the fruits grown — about 100 acres — followed by apples, twenty-five acres; plums, twenty acres ; cherries, twelve acres ; gooseberries, ten acres ; grapes, eight acres ; and pears, three acres. In this talk I want to give you an account of some of our experiences in peach growing, discussing the other fruits 2i8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. grown only as they relate to the peach orchards, describing the work we do in the orchards, the care we give the trees and our methods of handling the fruit. Starting as the pioneers of the peach business in our sec- tion, we were forced to obtain our knowledge of local condi- tions, adaptation of varieties, etc., by experience. Passing quickly over the earliest experiences, some of which are not pleasant to remember, I will call your attention to our present practices. One of the greatest problems which presents itself to every fruit grower is getting good trees true to name. In partial solution of this problem, we have tried several different plans. We have grown quite a good many of our own trees, which has been very satisfactory, except that the budding comes in the harvesting period of some of our principal varieties. We have several orchards of our home-grown trees now in bear- ing, and they are giving satisfactory results. Along with the practice of growing our own trees, we have cut buds from our orchards and had nurserymen grow us trees from them, which has also been satisfactory practice. In both of the above prac- tices, we have had trees grown from buds cut from our best bearing trees. We neither affirm or deny Prof. Heddrick's statements in regard to pedigreed trees. We merely prefer to have our trees propagated from trees of known performances, and while it is very hard to make positive statements, results seem to justify our preference. We set our trees, square system, sixteen feet apart each way, in dead furrows, which are subsoiled, digging holes with a hole digger; and in setting teees, take great pains to pack the dirt firmly around the roots of the trees. Some of the trees are set as fillers in apple orchards, but they are mostly set in solid blocks. We are setting as our main varieties Carman, Elberta, Hill's Chili, Stevens Rareripe, Smock and Salway. We have fruited many other varieties, and those seem best adapted to our conditions. ■r- yTWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 219 : We plant cultivated crops in the young orchards for the first two years ; after that the land should all be given to the trees, for by that time the feeding roots of a well grown tree occupy most of the soil. We grow corn, field beans and pota- toes between the trees, finding corn and beans our best crops, as our soil is not well suited to potato growing. After the trees are two years set they get all the use of the land, our methods of cultivation being to plow soon as possible in the spring; to harrow thoroughly till about the middle or last of July ; then sow cover crops to be plowed under, either in the late fall or following spring. We have the best success with buckwheat, barley, oats, rye, and winter vetch as our cover crops plants. The vetch, and vetch and rye in combination, give us better results than any other plants, and we are using them more and more each year. We vary our cover crop practice widely, depending on the amount of fruit the trees are carrying, and on weather condi- tions, wet or dry. We also try to adjust the area of the differ- ent cover crops, so we can get them all plowed under when they are in the best condition. We also vary our cover crop practice by the use of medium red clover, sowing the seed somewhat earlier, about the mid- dle of June, and leaving the orchard in clover sod as long as the clover stays in. In this case, of course, we cut the clover as soon as it begins to blossom, sometimes three times in a season, always leaving the cut clover where it falls. There seems little doubt but that we lose something in the size of the fruit in the year or years that the orchard is in clover sod, but we gain in color of the fruit, and more than make up the loss in the effect of the clover on the land, and hence in the effect on the trees when we plow the orchard. We have an orchard of Elbertas where heavy applications of different convenient fertilizers, used four years in succes- sion, failed to show any results. This orchard had been in clover sod for three years, and seven cuttings of clover went back on the land, just previous to the year the experiment vyas 220 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tried. The orchard is now thirteen years old and in splendid condition. This experiment has led us to a very definite practice in the use of fertilizers. First, try the fertilizer. If it gives results, we use it as long and in as heavy applications as will increase net profits ; that is good business. We always use as much fertilizer on our cover crop for indirect results as we do on the trees for direct results ; this gives us more organic matter to work into the soil, and is also good business. We supplement the use of cover crops and commercial fertilizers with all the stable manure we can buy and get on the land for $2.50 per load of about one ton. We are situated in a section where San Jose scale is preva- lent, and that dictates the main part of our spraying operations. In fact, the dormant spray is the only one we use in our peach orchards, using lime-sulphur — which we make ourselves — one to eight. This controls the scale, also leaf curl if we get it on the trees early enough. Last season, with only a few days to spray, we did not get over all the orchards in time, and had a bad attack of leaf curl when we sprayed in the buds began to swell. We had no leaf curl when we sprayed first. We have some brown rot and curculio injury, but not enough to warrant summer sprays. We have a great deal of trouble with the peach borer and have tried many methods of control, but have always had to de- pend on digging them out as a final remedy. We do this once a year, usually in the fall after the fruit is harvested ; planning to get the grubbing done and the trees banked for winter be- fore the ground freezes. We dig the dirt away from the trunk of the trees and get the borers out, leaving the dirt away for a week or ten days, then look them over a second time before the trees ar banked, thereby making sure that we have killed most of the borers. After the ground freezes in the fall, we begin pruning, planning to finish it before spraying season opens in the spring. When the trees are set they are pruned to a whip and headed about two feet from the ground. Then very little, pruning TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 221 is done until they begin to bear, when the thinning out process begins, and as the amount of fruit increases the amount of pruning increases enough to keep the trees in a healthy grow- ing condition, producing from six to eighteen inches new wood each season. After the trees are five or six years old we begin to open the center of the tree to let in more sunlight and air, which gives better color and quality of fruit. Eventually this leaves no branches in the center of the tree and starts new growth part way out on the main limbs, which new growth may or may not be used to renew the tree. We have tried summer pruning and girdling to induce setting of fruit buds on shy-bearing varieties, but believe that these practices should be used only as an extreme measure in special cases. The question often arises ; Can pruning be used as a method of thinning the fruit? Our experience leads us to doubt the practicability of this method of thinning, because, first, if it is dormant pruning, we may or may not have a crop which needs thinning; second, if it is summer pruning, we have the crop that needs thinning. We need all the foliage to mature the fruit. We always practice hand thinning on all trees which need it. Thinning the fruit to about six or eight inches on trees which are heavily loaded. We try to get our thinning done between the June drop and the time the pits begin- to harden ; that is when we can cut through the pit with a knife. Thinning is very important, both in growing fruit and in marketing it, because the strain on the tree is in proportion to the number of fruits ripened, arid the ease of marketing de- pends largely on the size of the fruit grown. Thinning is the intermediate step between growing and marketing ; it lessens the strain on the tree and increases the size of the fruit. The next step in marketing is the picking and handling of the crop. We pick the fruit as near as possible in the firm, ripe stage, using one-half bushel picking baskets, and draw to the barn in trays, holding about one-half bushel. We grade by hand from the trays directly into the package in which the 222 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. fruit is sold. The package depends on the market to which the fruit is shipped and on the size of the fruit. We use the six- teen-quart Jersey basket and the eight and six-till Georgia carriers. Our shipping station is on the main line of the Le- high Valley Railroad. Hence, our natural markets are New York, Philadelphia, and the larger mining and railroad towns in Pennsylvania on the line of that road. Our market for car- riers is limited almost entirely to New York and Philadelphia. We use the small eight-till carriers for a good grade of No. 2 peaches ; they show to better advantage and sell better than in the six-till carriers which we use for our No. 1 and fancy. The other markets mentioned demand a Jersey basket, and we use the sixteen-quart size. We stated above our fruit is graded by hand, by girls and women, some of whom become very expert, grading as high as 175 baskets in a day of nine hours. Only sound, firm fruit is put in the packages, and they are always marked just what they are. We consider it no disgrace to ship No. 2s, or even No. 3s, when this warrants, providing they are labeled what they are. We have always striven to grade and pack our fruit so that a package of fruit purchased would create a demand for more. We sell in all ways : F. O. B. our station to consumers, retail and wholesale grocers, and jobbers, and on commission. Always trying to eliminate as many of the steps of the distrib- uting processes as possible, but in larger operations, most of the fruit must be handled through the commission men and larger jobbers. Our dealings with commission men have been very satis- factory, but we do not ship indiscriminately ; we always notify the consignee, as far in advance as possible, of all shipments, and do everything in our power to aid in the ready sale of the fruit. We ship to only one commission man in a city, first finding a reliable man with a good trade, then always sending fruit that is carefully graded and packed and correctly labeled, keeping them thoroughly posted as to the approximate amount of fruit to be handled a week in advance. : TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 223 We believe that though we cannot hope to build up a repu- tation for our fruit in either New York or Philadelphia, we can build up a reputation for it in the trade of our commission man in each city to which we ship. I want to tell you one specific instance which is at least significant, showing how this system works. We shipped a carload of fruit to a commission firm to whom, we had been shipping regularly for several years. Partly through a mis- take of ours and partly through bad judgment on their part, the sales of fruit in this car did not cover the freight. We wrote at once that we were not satisfied with the sales. One of the firm came to see us, and after talking the matter over, said : "What do I have to do to satisfy you in the matter? We want to continue handling your fruit, because our customers prefer to buy it." We told him half payment at a fair price, and he wrote his check for the amount we named. There was no dickering, no pressure brought to bear, nor was there any magic about it. It simply means that good fruit, well packed, cre- ates its own demand. As I stated at the beginning, we are growing other fruit than peaches. We have selected other fruits to grow be- cause they give us a long harvesting period, and consequently longer and steadier employment for all labor, tools, horses, men. We begin harvesting with gooseberries in June, followed by cherries, Burbank plums. Carman peaches, other varieties of peaches, and finishing with apples and Kieflfer pears. I do not believe that any single farm enterprise (peach growing included) will stand the economic strain of large areas and consequent short employment of labor in large numbers, or in other words, the peaches of the future will be grown either as one of the enterprises on a general farm, or diversi- fied by growing several kinds of fruit which ripen at different times, and thereby furnish steadier employment of all labor. Discussion. Mr. J. H. Hale: I want to express my deep appreciation of this paper by Mr. King, because it is one of the most con- densed and practical talks on peach culture T have ever heard. 224 ^^^ CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A Member : What is gained by your manner of handling the fruit between the trees and the barn ? Mr. King: It reduces the cost of the time and hauling from the orchard to the barn. They are emptied from the picking baskets into the trays and drawn to the barns in the trays, because it reduces the cost. The fruit is poured in. It does not injure the fruit. Mr. Gold: You probably pick your peaches rather green? Mr. King: I don't think we do. We plan to pick them about two days before they are softening, when they are firm. A Member: Do you have any troubles with yellows? Mr. King: We haven't had much trouble with yellows. When we get a suspicious case we take the tree out and burn it, and set out another young tree in the same place. Mr. J. H. Hale : What happens to the other tree? Mr. King: It grows. A Member : Do you ever neglect the thinning process? Mr. King : No. Sometimes we don't get it done quite on time ; we never neglect it ; often thin some blocks twice over when we don't get enough off the first time. Every tree that needs it gets it. We use all fertilizers heavily wherever it pays us to ; we try them first. A Member: Have you had any winter injury from plow- ing that cover crop under in the fall ? Mr. King : No ; we never have, that we laid to that. We find it good practice. It eases up on the work in the spring, and it helps our heavy soil. A Member : Do you have any trouble with trees breaking down? Mr. King: Very little. A Member : Do you have any ice storms ? Mr. King: Not as bad as you had this winter. We occa- sionally have a tree that splits down ; not very often. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 225 President Hale: How old has Stevens Rareripe got to be with you before you get a crop? Mr. King: About five years. A couple of years longer than Camian, and one year longer than Elberta, ordinarily. A AIembek : How do you manage with trees that are not true to name? AIr. King: We pull them out and plant something else. Professor Stevens : How many baskets to the acre on the average — over a series of years in the orchard? ]Mr. King : It depends on the age, variety and the crop they carry. I couldn't tell you that. Question : Many growers are asking why peach leaf curl has been so prevalent of late and what they can do to success- fully combat it ; spraying is often not effectual. Mr. King: I think I have covered that in my paper. Where we spray in time we don't get leaf curl ; where we don't get the spray on until after the buds begin to swell we do have leaf curl ; and the later it is done the worse the leaf curl. We have done some spraying this fall to see whether that will prevent leaf curl ; it is experimental. Question : How about pear blight ? ^\r. King: I cannot answer that from perso.nal experi- ence ; but it is the general opinion among growers in our state, and I think possibly it is correct, that anything which stimulates your growth makes the trees more liable to the blight ; for in- stance, cultivation or fertilizing or pruning in the winter to make them grow strongly. Question : Does the leaf curl tlo much damage ? Mr. King: Yes; a bad attack does. Qi'ESTioN : Have you ever tried sod mulch for peaches as a permanent proposition ? Mr. King: We keep awav from sod for peaches, except clover sod. We cultivate close to the trees, practically clean. A few weeds come u]) within a foot or a foot and a half around 226 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the trunk of the trees ; but it is practically clean cultivation until the time we sow our cover crop. President Hale: What happens if you don't get your spray on in time for the leaf curl? What can you do then?- Mr. King: You can't do anything then. President Hale: Would the use of nitroates do any good? Mr. King: It might. Good culture would help, too. All you can force the trees then will help you, provided you don't force too late so as to get winter injury. President Hale : We are now to turn our attention to the subject of the culture of small fruits, in which we are all more or less interested. The speaker on this topic is Mr. W. F. Allen of Maryland, one of the most extensive growers in this country of strawberries and other small fruits. Mr. Allen gave us a splendid talk on vegetable growing and I am sure he will have something practical and valuable for us to-day. The Culture and Marketing of Small Fruits. By Mr. W. F. Allen, Salisbury, Md. Mr. President, I believe the subject I am expected to talk on is "The Culture and Marketing of Small Fruits," and I see on your program one of the questions is "Which of the small fruits should have the most attention?" I don't think there is any question about that. I think the commercial im- portance of the strawberry will outbalance that of all the other small fruits combined; and we will give most of our time to the strawberry. You may be interested to know a little more about the im- portance of the strawberry as a commercial crop. According to the census of 1910, there were 143,04.S acres of strawber- ries grown in the United States. In order to make this figure easily, we will say there is 125,000 acres ; which was my es- TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 227 timate of the acreage before I got figures from the depart- ment. At 4,000 .quarts per acre, a fair average (many get a larger yield than that, but in a good many southern sections it is not as good as that), it would be five hundred million quarts, the annual crop of strawberries for this country. Al- lowing 10,000 quarts to the car, which is about the amount of the load in a refrigerator car, would make fifty thousand carloads, a train 375 miles long. Possibly many of us hadn't realized that the strawberry was so important a commercial product. I think, on the whole, you New England growers get more for your berries than we do, in the selling price. If we can average ten cents a quart gross in the northern mar- kets we do very well. Figured on that basis 500.000,000 quarts would bring $50,000,000, or at five cents per quart net, which we think is a very fair average (sometimes we get a little more than that; very often not that much), would bring $25,000,000 to the growers of this country — quite an item commercially, divided among many classes of people. Maryland grows more strawberries than any other one state. Selbyville, Del., is the largest single shipping point in the country, perhaps in the world. Missouri grows the next largest amount to Maryland. I think I can say that Connecti- cut has some of the best growers that I know of in the coun- try ; there are a number of successful growers in this section. The strawberry grows in as varied a latitude and under as varied conditions as any fruit I know of. We send plants to Canada and Newfoundland on the north, and to Cuba, Porto Rico, and those tropical climates on the south. They grow in every county in the United States, so far as I know. That does not mean that all soils are especially adapted for it. I do not mean by that that they can be grown on a commer- cial basis successfully everywhere ; but I do believe that straw- berries can be grown for the home table almost anywhere in this country where any crop can be grown. The best soil for commercial purposes, so far as my ob- servation goes, is rich, loamy soil, not too coarse, and a soil that is moist and springy if possible. There must be plenty 228 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of moisture at the proper time to get a satisfactory crop. Some people have tried to grow them under irrigation. That is desirable, if it can be done. We haven't all got irrigating plants and we cannot all grow them that way, but there are a good many sections where they are grown successfully with- out it. Usually on springy soils — a good many of your hillsides are springy and admirably adapted to it. We go down in the black swampy lands, which give us the best results. I know of one party near Salisbury who has four acres of Chesa- peake strawberries, which does very well in that locality ; and he has already been offered a thousand dollars for his crop as it lies now, taking all the chances that may come from now on. I want to mention here a little experience in connection with the preparation of the soil I had about three years ago. A certain field had been in watermelons the year before; the early part of the season had been very dry; that ground stood very thick with what we call "crab grass" ; I should think it was as thickset a piece of ground as I ever saw anywhere ; after we got the melons out (what we got in that crop wasn't very good — it was damaged by this growth) we went in with a three-horse plow and turned this great mat of grass under and let it stay that way all winter. There was an immense amount of humus and vegetable matter turned under ; we didn't put anything on in the way of fertilizer; but went in and planted strawberries next spring ; and, as we grow for plants, it was set out in ten-row plots all acrass the field. It was the most uniform bed J ever grew in my life. That seems a pretty good reason for getting plenty of vegetable matter turned under for this crop. We have found following cow peas a splendid place to plant strawberries ; also potato crops or vegetable crops of any kind. It is desirable to plant straw- berries where the ground has been kept clean the year before; it makes cultivation much easier. The ground should be put in thorough order before you commence. Another very important thing — I think if I can get you strawberry growers to realize this perhaps it may be worth TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 229 something- to you — it is important to set strawberry plants early. Alost o£ us wait too long. The strawberry plant is a cold-blooded plant and won't bear transplanting in hot weather. Like tomatoes and others of that character it is very hard to make live after the air gets dry and the sand hot and the ground dry. We get them out just as early as we can on the land and work it. I have already planted since the holi- days about twelve acres. I usually commence planting on the higher land that won't heave out. Of course, if it is verv damp soil they will throw out. If you do plant them on this land it is important to get the soil as firm as possible around the roots ; we are always talking to our men about getting the soil firm when we are setting them. And we are not satisfied to stop there. The men go down the rows and put their foot on every plant. That looks a little rough, but it is worth while ; and the\ will live much better that way. This is espec- ially true when you don't get them out early enough. Several years ago in some late plantings I noticed time after time that the plants at the end of the row where the horse trod on them in turning invariably lived. You cannot get the ground too firm around them. I am presuming, of course, that the land is not sticky wet. In that case you could get it too hard and it would bake. We practice the narrow matted row culture altogether. I have never seen any appreciable results over and above the matted row culture for the extra work in growing them in hill culture. I don't advise it and I don't do it. My father used to have me cut ofi:' the runners when I was a boy ; and T re- member one piece particularlv that he paid great attention to ; there wasn't a runner allowed to come on the piece that sum- mer; and it was one of the poorest patches he ever grew. T don't sa\" it isn't a success in some cases. I don't believe you will get larger berries, and I doubt if you get a larger crop. To get these immense crops which some people claim from the hill system, the individual ])lant has got to bear a great quantity of fruit ; and I believe that in case of dry weather, which is apt to catch us sometimes, the plants scattered two 230 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. or three inches apart over the bed will bring their fruit through in better shape than with the hill system. That has been my experience. The plant is an important thing. And right here I am going to venture a point that I think most people have been wrongly advised about. That is, that the tip plant is no good. Pick up the horticultural papers and magazines ; they will tell you that you want the first two or three plants from the parent plant, and that the tip plant is no good, and that the plant runs out in vitality the further you get from the parent plant. If I could get all tip plants to set out my fields which I am going to plant this spring for fruit — not for plants — I would take them in preference. I will tell you why. That plant is just exactly the same variety as the parent plant ; there is absolute- ly no difference. Perhaps someone will tell you that those plants are barren. So they are in some cases in the first year. That is why I want them. They have formed late in the season after the fruit buds have formed, which is about September in our season ; they are barren because they have grown too late to form any fruit ; and for that reason all of the vitality of that plant is thrown in plant growth next season to bring a healthy plant that will give you a strong, healthy crop the next year. Now, as to where you get the plants. I don't know as that makes much difference so you get good plants. It is im- portant to get them good and true to name. If you want to plant Glen Mary or Chesapeake or some ether kind, it is very discouraging to find, after you get all your plots started and have given them every attention to get something nice, that you have a mixture of several varieties there. Those mixed varieties do not sell as well in the market as a grade of one variety of fruit. They are different shapes and clusters. If you are simply growing for the home table it doesn't make so much difference ; if you are growing for a local market, where you pick this morning and put them right on the mar- ket it doesn't make a great deal of difference ; but where we have to ship them several hundred miles, nearly 300 to New TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 231 York and 500 to Boston, we have to have good uniform ber- ries. And this is all the more important the further away you get from the market. Some markets require a light-col- ored berry ; some prefer a dark-colored berry ; you want to find out all those things ; you can find it out better than any- body else can tell you ; that is, anybody from a distance. Con- sult with the growers in your neighborhood. This is also true — different sections run very largely to two or three varie- ties that have proved to be exceptionally good in those particu- lar localities. I think it would pay every man who is interested in straw- berries and growing them to any considerable extent to have a trial bed of his own. It is a fact that there is more variation in the results received from different locations than in any other crop I know of. It frequently happens that the man on one side of the road may have the best results' from one va- riety, and the man on the other side of the road have a very different experience. The best thing you can do is to test them out for yourself on your own soil. Take a dozen or twenty-five plants of a variety — that doesn't cost much. I think it is one of the best investments you can make to have your own test plot. It is interesting: the fruit of it will sup- ply the family table ; it doesn't cost much ; it is worth while. It doesn't pay to jump in and plant a large quantity of some new thing you don't know anything about. While it may have done extremely well in some other locality it may not do what you want it to do in yours. I believe in thorough preparation of the soil in the first place. 1 want shallow cultivation, as shallow as I can get. I would never have the cultivators run over an inch deep in my strawberry beds if T could accomplish it. A good many make the mistake of putting too heavy an application of fertilizer down there and drilling under their plants before setting. Hundreds of thousands of plants have been killed this way, and something else blamed for it. Too much fertilizer that comes in contact with the roots will kill them just as certainly as if you throw them in the fire. Per- 232 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. sonally I have almost gotten away from the point where we put fertilizer under the plants when setting them out, espec- ially if the ground is good enough to give me what plant beds I want without it. If it is good enough it is far better, if you can get it. to broadcast the land with stable manure be- fore planting. I prefer spreading the manure on after I have plowed ; we will run the rows right through without attempt- ing to work it in because it will go down fast enough. The row^s are three and a half feet apart ; eighteen to twenty inches in the row ; some variation can be made according to the va- riety. Senator Dunlap, or those of strong, rapid growth, can be put much further apart than those that make big plants and not many of them. I think the main time for fertilizer, provided, of course, your land is good enough to give the new plants you want, is in the fall after the beds have about done growing. You want the stimulation and additional fertilizer to make the fruit cro]). I never saw the use of fertilizing your plants when you first set them out, to get a lot of surplus vines you don't want, and then try to get clear of them in some way. If your land is good enough to grow the number of plants you want, then it is much better to fertilize in the- fall to build up those plants for crops next spring. I have had better results this wa}' than any other. This stable manure for top dressing makes an excellent mulch and also gives fertilitv to the plants. On the whole I like it ; we can- not always get it. This mulch question is a very important one. I think here in some parts of Connecticut you have one of the finest opportunities to get mulch for strawberries that I know of. This salt meadow grass, if that is what you call it, makes one of the finest mulches that I have ever seen. We haven't anything like that. It is a question with some of our growers whether it pays to mulch or not. One of our big- gest growers a few vears ago had very disastrous results from mulching. He bought wheat straw, and mulched I think something like 100 acres ; they were all nicely covered up with wheat straw ; late in the spring we had a frost, which seemed to settle down in this mulch and almost entirely wiped out TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 233 this crop. That gentleman has not mulched since. His neigh- bors had splendid results the same season that he met with this disaster. Before that he was an ardent advocate of mulching. It is one of the questions w^e must all determine for ourselves. Clean cultivation is necessary. We have a method T haven't found anywhere else in cultivating our strawberries. It is a prettv big job to hoe strawberries and keep them clean. While I grow a great many strawberries I hoe but very few. For the last eight years I have made a contract with one of my men to hoe my strawberries for so much per acre for ihe season; and I like the plan. It relieves me of looking up the help; it relieves me of looking after the help; and I can hire my help to work on something else. I pay him $20 an acre ; it is his duty to keep those plants clean on the row from the time they need work in the spring to the first day of Septem- ber. I do the planting and the cultivating, but he does the hoeing. If those plants are not clean on the first day of Sep- tember he must stay there until he gets them clean, because our settlement is not due until he leaves the field perfectly clean. Next year I will give him a contract for 100 acres, $2,000. By this arrangement I have somebody else just as interested in keeping that field clean as I am, because he knows if his men do not do the work right, keep the field clean, it is up to him ; he is looking right after the men. He takes his brother in with him, but neither of them take the foreman row ; he hires the best man he can get to carrv the foreman row ; and he stays right behind those men to see that they do their work right. I had some trouble in getting this into him — that it doesn't pay to wait until the plants get grassy before going over them again ; it doesn't pay him to let them get grassy. He makes money out of it ; he is satisfied with his job; I am satisfied with it; he has his own men ; he stays with them ; and bv keeping those men at work and looking after them to see that they do their work right, he saves money for himself. I am satisfied because 1 have got somebody there who is more interested than any foreman I could hire, because it afifects his own pocket ; and I 234 '^HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. don't have to look after the job except to drive around once or twice a week to see that everything is all right. He comes to me every Saturday for so much money to pay off with ; and at the end of the season we settle up; after the first of Septem- ber. We find it very satisfactory, and I don't doubt but some of you people could operate in the same way to your advan- tage. Marketing. After we have got the strawberries grown that is not the whole story. We have them to pick and to market. You don't want to wait until your berries begin to get ripe before you get crates and baskets, especially if you are growing- on a large scale. I don't know whether we are more fortunate than you are, but all our baskets and crates have to come from the fac- tory new. I believe it is worth something to have a new package, one that has not been out in the weather and gotten blacked up and marked up with one thing and another ; our packages are practically all new. I might say that while I pre- fer the 48-quart crate, a good many people down there use the 32-quart crate. When they are shipped in refrigerator cars and slatted down I don't know that it makes any difiference. The 48-quart crate carries better than the 32, especially unless they are slatted down in the car. You have seen the train- loads going through from the south ; the 32-quart crate is nar- row ; and as the trains go rumbling by and turn the curves, the crates are bumped up and down ; the 32-quart crates are in motion all the while. The 48-quart crate sets more level, car- ries the berries in much better condition. Time and again I have shipped 32 and 48 in the same shipment to the same party, with the same fruit, and I have had as much as five cents dif- ference in the price. Mr. D'avis. one of our big growers, had his crates built one inch taller than the standard, and h§ had the sticks on his slats a quarter of an inch thicker. This gives him room to fill up his baskets good and full, and they get to market rounded up better and in better condition. Now, don't be afraid in packing berries to mash a few, because what T said about the difference in the shaking of a TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 235 32 and 48 is equally true in selecting a full basket when it is rounded up good and full, although the slat goes down hard on it and you get a few mashed berries. It is a commercial proposition. When you are trying to make ten quarts out of eight those berries are all lying loose and they get jostled on the tray, on the wagon going to the depot, in the cars, on the tray before they are sold ; and I have seen berries in the market shipped that way,with every top berry bleeding all over. If my crate is high enough I put an extra slat on top of the crate and then fix it steady and firm ; it is worth while to do this ; it pays. Another thing about the picking of berries — I have seen some very big berries right here in Connecticut ; the way they were picked and put up looked like murder to me; some of them no caps and no stems. If we did that we couldn't get very much for them ; and I am sure it would pay you to see that they are not picked in this manner. It is just as easy to pick them right and carefully with a short stem as to pull them off with no stem or cap. Some of the pickers don't think so, but it is just as easy to do it right as it is to do it w^rong. They are worth two or three cents more a quart. The\ carry better, look better, and keep better than if picked any old way. Another thing about marketing — a good many of you have markets close by. That is a little different proposition from ours. Even then I think it pays to have everything as nice as you can get it, clean packages and even grading. Most of you grow several varieties. The first week's picking is better than the last. I think it pays to label } our fruit. The first picking, for instance, is fine quality ; this may be marked "extra" or "XXX." After the patch is running down, have some other mark. Above all, don't use all the big berries on the top layers. You are cheating yourself when you are doing it. I have never seen a man going dowm to buy fruit that he didn't lift up the top layers and look to see what was down below. Those lower layers are actually what you sell your fruit by. Another thing — the large berries on the top are injured, in transit. If you are shipping to a commission man (you ought 236 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to find one you can depend upon and stick by him), have it understood with him that whatever you ship him you guaran- tee to be all through alike, and if it is not found that way the purchaser is at liberty to come back and get his money. It will pay you to do it. A good many of you ship berries to Boston. When those berries get in there in the market in the morning the buyers come down to buy the fruit to fill their orders through the little towns in the country ; they are in a hurry to get the berries and to get them out by the first ex- press. If you mark your fruit so that it is a standard they know what it is. After buying it yesterday and to-day. he knows to-morrow that he is going to get it just like he sees it on top ; he will place his order quick. And the first sales are usually the best ones. I have had two carloads of straw- berries sold on the Boston market in just thirty minutes, which would be impossible if they were not graded and marked. If they are not graded and marked, your berries are sold very largely b}' the poorest ones in your shipment, be- cause the\- have got to look through, and when they find the poor ones they are not going to give you more because they find a few good ones ; they don't take the time to look through until the last end of the market, when the best trade is all gone. There may have been exceptions to that, but in the main it is true. I have been asked many times, and I may answer the ques- tion here, about planting small fruits in the young orchards, especially strawberries. That is all right for the strawberries, but for your trees' sake don't. I will tell you why. You culti- vate the strawberries thoroughly the first year. That is good for your trees ; that is all right as far as it goes; but next spring } ou want a crop of berries ; and it is not the custom w^ith us, and I presume it is not with you, to cultivate your berries in the spring. That is where your trees will sufl^er. You cannot give them proper cultivation while you are har- vesting a crop of berries. It is far better for your trees' sake to plant your small fruits somewhere else, especially straw- berries. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 237 Another little thing that may be of interest to you and may be worth something. It doesn't apply absolutely to straw- berries, but to any crop that you grow. We are keeping a strict account this year — started the first of the year-— of just what expense we are put to on every crop we are growing. We have a system of keeping time with our men. We have a little slip of paper with the man's name on it; it answers for the man for a week, Monday, Tuesday, etc. ; we note the time that he makes on it. We pay all our men by the hour, even to the foremen ; nobody is paid by the week except the office men and the stable men and except the contract work. It is the foreman's dut\ to keep the time, what time each man makes. There is a little space to show just what he has done, just what he has worked on, what particular work he has done every day; and at the end of the week just how much work and how much expense goes into each crop is put on the back ; and at the end of the year or the end of any season we know just exactly just what every crop has cost us. I think that it rather important ; and I think it is going to show us that we have been doing many things that didn't pa\ , and also show us the things that ])ay best. Dewberries. I don't know how manv of you people are interested in dewberries, but I know of some folks who have grown them in this section who have made the mistake of planting them in rich land. Don't ever attempt to grow dewberries in rich land. If you have a poor sand hill, there is the place to plant them. If 3 on ])ut them on rich land and give them too much manure the\- will go to vines and you won't have much fruit. ( )ne of the Connecticut men bought dewberries from me, and he told me he had an\ quantity of vines, but not much fruit. He put them on rich land where there had been truck for }ears. I told him to ])Ut them on a sand hill. He fol- lowed my advice and he got profitable crops. 238 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Fall-bearing Strawberries. Perhaps I should say a word about the fall-bearing straw- berries. I can say that so far as the home market is con- cerned, and possibly in a few cases special markets, the fall- bearing strawberries are a decided success. Not many varie- ties are a success. The one variety of Progressive practically all growers grow is the only variety in fall-bearing plants. I think you will get your best crop the year you plant them. You can set them out early in the spring; keep the blossoms off until the middle of July ; they will give you ripe fruit from the middle of August until the freezing weather stops them the same year you plant them. The Progressive is very satis- factory. The Americus and the Superb are next varieties to the Progressive, but they are not anywhere near so good. The fruit is not firm enough to ship very far ; and so far as that is concerned, I don't think there is any variety that will stand shipping in the hot summer months, in August and Septem- ber. I don't believe it will ever be a very big commercial proposition to ship in large quantities. Where you have a local market the truck gardener with his wagon on the street selling his other goods I think could find a piofitable market for a limited quantity. We pick the Progressive twice a week in most cases, unless it is excessively hot. We cultivate them right along just the same as we do the other varieties. Of course, they get more or less gritty ; no way to get around that that I know of. I don't think there is any better flavored berry than the Progressive. Discussion. Question : What fertilizer do you use for your general crop and how much? Mr. Allen : That varies with the liberality of the man and the needs of the soil. We use a 6-8-6 formula principal- ly. I think the best time to apply is along about the last working in the fall. Some of the best growers I know of apply it broadcast, something like a thousand pounds to the acre before planting; then about a thousand pounds to the acre TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 239 in the fall. That is about as much as 1 know of anybody using; from that down to 400 or 500 pounds. Question : Have you ever used acid phosphate alone ? Mr. Allen : No. Question : How soon will you get berries on the Pro- gressive? Mr. Allen : You will get ripe berries in just a month from the time you see the blossoms. It is an ever-bearing variety ; it is a continuous proposition ; it would bear all the time if it wasn't for cold weather. Question : What do you get for your strawberry plants — for the Progressive? Mr. Allen : There may be objections if I should get up here and go to advertising my plants. President Hale: I don't think it would be objection- able for Mr. Allen to answer the question. Mr. Allen : We get $10 a thousand for them this year ; $1.75 a hundred by the single hundred. I don't use much fertilizer in the spring, because of the tendency to make them soft; and firmness is important with us. I use less nitrogen than in the formula given. I suppose that would be principally in the form of nitrate. I wouldn't put too much nitrate on in the fall. The fertilizer question is something that should be worked out in each section for itself. Strawberry roots are growing more or less all the winter dur- ing any open spell. I presume you have some open weather during the winter. Question: Do you consider lime injurious? Mr. Allen : I think strawberries do best on soil that is somewhat acid ; and I never use lime on strawberries. Some recommend it ; and I am not here to condemn it. Personally I don't use it. Question: How often do you renew the beds? Mr. Allen : As a rule we get two crops. In some in- stances they get more, but not very often. The general con- 240 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. elusion is that they get too weedy after the second year to pay for keeping them up. I have been asked frequently about two berries that are not strawberries, and I think the Farm Journal has had more or less discussion on them. The Himalaya berry — don't plant it ; it is nothing but a nuisance ; it will spread all over the place and won't give you and fruit. I understand it is more or less of a success in California. I have never seen a plant in the East or know anyone that grew it that had any satisfac- tion out of it ; it is a tremendous grower. The Logan berry — I have grown it in a small way for ten years. I got a few specimen fruits that were very nice. It is a cross between the red raspberry and the blackberry; hav- ing the form of the blackberry with the core and all, and with the color and some of the flavor of the red raspberry. It is very nice, but it will not succeed here in the East. Don't plant it expecting to do anything with it. People have asked me for prices on quantities of the plants ; invariably I tell them to buy onlv a few to experiment with. It is a very great success in Qregon and on the Pacific coast. Prof. Stevens: Regarding mulch, do you think the same rules apply in the northern part of the country as with you ? Mr. Allen : I think it is more important here than with us, as far as protection is concerned. So far as keeping fruit clean is concerned, I think it is just as important with us, but very few practice it. Prof. Stevens : Do ^•ou regard it as important in case of drouth ? Mr. Allen : I presume it would be. There are only a few growers who practice it at all. Prof. Stevens : It seems to me here is a good thing for us to watch. Just because a man has had bad results one season perhaps out of twenty-five in the growing of crops seems to be a poor reason for abandoning a system. If we followed that theory in our peach business we would all be TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 24I planting- in the hollows because all those on the hilsides were hurt last year. Mr. Allen : I advise mulch.. I was only pointing oui an instance. Question : How about horse manure to put on straw- berries ? Mr. Allen : Excellent. I never sav^ so many pieces of land good enough to grow strawberries or anything else that wouldn't have weeds anyway. It is a question with me whether you suffer from weeds much more from putting on the horse manure than otherwise. Question : It seems to me that wheat straw being hol- low would absorb a lot of water. Mr. Allen : Very good. Wheat straw makes good mulch ; also oat straw, but I don't think there is anything bet- ter than the salt hay you have here ; you only get from that what was in the soil before. Question : How do you take your mulch off? Mr. Allen : Take it off the plants where it is too thick and leave it right in the middle. If you are going to carry your field over you would probably have to take the mulch oft' after the fruit crop is picked and before cultivation ; if you are not going to carry them over I would simply plow it in. Question : How do you handle your bed .after taking off one crop? Mr. Allen : The very next day after we have made the last picking we start in cultivating and give them thorough cultivation the same as with a young plantation. If the ground is not too hard we start in with the cultivator; if it is too hard we put in a plow ; then cultivate that right after in order to breal< u]) and loosen the soil. If the beds are wider than you want them we can trim them up ; they should not lay that way too long. Question : Do you leave the runners on ? Mr. Allen : Yes. 242 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Question: Your cultivator will pull them all up? Mr. Allen: The cultivator will pull up some. If course, we narrow it up some. There are some varieties, such as the Dunlap, where there is danger of too many plants ; we attach a cutter to the cultivator that cuts them off with the same operation. I think you can get those from S. L. Allen Company, Philadelphia, the Planet Junior people. Question : How many plants a day can a man set? Mr. Allen : I cannot answer that now, but by the system I referred to we expect to keep track of that. We set out plants for about fifty cents a thousand, paying the men by the day. Question : How much do you prune your plants^cui them back? Mr. Allen : We don't prune very much, except some rapid-growing varieties. Questio'N : Not even the roots ? Mr. Allen : I would sooner cut off some of the roots than to have them doubled up in the soil. President Hale: Mr. Eraser of New York would like to. have your attention for a few moments. Mr. Samuel Frazer: A question which we have con- sidered out at our western New York meeting- is similar to one in your question list under No. 56: "This Society has spent many years in instructing members in the art of producing fruit. Should it not now aid members to secure better mar- kets and fairer prices for their fruit?" That is perhaps a more vital question to New York than it is to you here in Connecticut, because we are farther from the markets. I want to leave just one thought with you. Think it over and see whether it is sound. It seems as though we had reached the point where we should take hold of this distribution matter in our colleges and research work, per- haps start a school of commerce on agricultural matters. Our railroads ship our produce to different places and they say they TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 243 are willing to tell us where the stuff goes and what each town will consume. If- we had that information it would be a basis for work. Forty years ago the farmer didn't expect any tech- nical training, but we have worked up to it. Now distribution needs technical training, and we want some place where such training can be had. We feel that the time has arrived for the setting up of some place where research can be going on, so that in ten or twenty years from now there may be courses in distribution, the middleman may be trained, and the con- sumer may be educated so that he may know where to go and what to get and where to ask for it. Are you going to let the chance go by, or are you going to take it up ? That is all and I thank you. The following resolution was introduced and bv vote of the meeting adopted : Resolved, That the Connecticut Pomological Society in annual meeting assembled endorses the bills now before the legislature providing for larger appropriations and additional laws for controlling the gypsy and brown-tail moth, and in- structs its legislative committee to give the matter proper at- tention. President Hale : We have now completed the program of this meeting. Is there anv further business to come before us? If not, a motion to adjourn will be in order. No further business appearing, final adjournment was voted and at 4 o'clock the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Society was declared closed. The early adjournment allowed of taking down and pack- ing the fruit exhibits, etc., and the members were able to take the evening trains for home. The committee in charge of the new apple grading bill held a hearing after adjournment, and this closed a long, busy and very profitable convention, which will go down in histojy as the best ever held bv Connecticut horticulturists. 244 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. FRUIT SHOW AT ANNUAL MEETING. Schedule of Premiums — Report of Special Com- mittee to Award Prizes. The following list of prizes offered for fruit exhibited at the Twenty-fourth Annual IMeetinor brought out, not the larg- est display, but as fine a one as is often seen at a winter meet- ing. The showing of apples in barrels and boxes was rather disappointing in quantity, but the quality of the fruit was very fine. The display made by the J. H. Hale Co. was especially worthy of note. The Connecticut Agricultural College had a good display, both on plates and in boxes, showing best ways of packing. The fruit shown by members in the plate collections and singles was extensive and of very high quality, the county col- lections adding much to the attractiveness of the tables. A special effort was made this year to secure special prizes from firms and individuals, and the response was very gratifying. The Society takes this opportunity to thank the donors of these special prizes and hopes that another year the number of entries for such prizes may be larger and the com- petition as keen as it should be. The exhibits were judged by Wilfrid Wheeler of Massachusetts and W. H. Conant of Maine, who did excellent work and complimented the growers on the fine appearance of the fruit shown. Schedule of Premiums Offered. (Competition open only to members and for fruit grown in Connecti-- cut.) First Division — Collectioms. Class 1. For the largest and best display of apples made by a grower, and exhibited on plates ." $6.00 $3.00 Class 2. Best collection five varieties, Market Apples . 5.00 2.50 For every entry in this class above five the amount of premiums will be increased 50c. and 30c. respec- tively. The variety and condition of specimens both to be considered in making award. [ Plate IV. A Young Wealthy Apple Tree. A Branch of Wealthys. Hale's P.-vcking House Views in the J. H. Hale Orch.\rds, Seymour. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 245 Class 3. Best collection five varieties, Dessert Ap- ples 5.00 2.50 (Same rules to apply as in above.) Class 4. — Section 1. Best single plate of follow- ing varieties Apples, each 3.00 2.00 1.00 Baldwin. R. I. Greening, Northern Spy, King, Roxbury Russet, and Wagener. Class 4. — Section 2. Best single plate of follow- ing varieties Apples, each 1.00 .50 .25 Sutton, Peck's Pleasant, Ben Davis, Esopus, Grimes, Talman Sweet, Fallawater, Stark, Hub- bardston, Mcintosh, Westfield, Delicious, Winter Banana and other worthy varieties not to exceed ten. Class 5. Best Single plate Pears, each variety 1.00 .50 .25 Second Division — Barrels, Boxes and Packages. Class 1. Best barrel of each of the following varie- ties Apples 10.00 5.00 Baldwin, R. I. Greening, Northern Spv, King, Roxbury Russett, Ben Davis 8.00 4.00 Class 2. Best standard box of each of the following varieties of Apples 5.00 3.00 Baldwin. R. I. Greening, Northern Spy, King, Mcintosh, Sutton, Wagener, Esopus, Spitzen- berg. Grimes, Jonathan and Winter Banana. Class 3. Best five boxes of Apples, anv varietv or varieties . . /. \... 20.00 15.00 Class 4. Most attractive and practical retail pack- age of Apples 3.00 2 00 The object of these prizes is to arouse interest among growers in a package which shall be adapt- ed to retail trade. The package may be a box, . basket, carton or any other package. The points to be considered in this package should be: (1) efficiency in marketing the fruit; (2) ease of placing the fruit in package ; (3) convenience of the purchaser in carrying the package; (4) con- venience in shipping the package from the or- chard to the retailer; (5) attractiveness to the buj'er. Third Division— Canned Fruit, etc. (Competition open to wives and daughters of members without pay- ment of any membership fee.) Class 1. Be.st exhibit Canned fruit, not less than eight kinds S5.00 $3.00 $2.00 Class 2. Be.«t exhibit of Jellies 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 3. Best display of food dishes made from Apples, showing ways of preparing for the table ' 10.00 5.00 246 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Fourth Division — Special Prizes. (Special entry required — Entries in other Classes cannot compete for following prizes.) (a) W. & B. Douglas, Middletown, Conn., offer I "Arlington" Spray Pump Outfit "K" for the 3 best boxes choice Apples packed for mar- ket, any variety or varieties, value $32.00 Fruit to become property of Donor. (b) The Hartford Board of Trade offers a cash prize of 10.00 For best barrel of apples grown in Hartford County, any variety. Fruit to become property of Donor. (c) P. Beny & Sons, per Thos. A. Berry, Commis- sion Merchants and Cold Storage Warehouse, Hartford, offer cash prize of 10.00 For best barrel Baldwin Apples that have been kept in cold storage. Fruit to become property of Donor. (d) Newton, Robertson & Co., Grocers and Fruit Dealers, Hartford, offer cash prize of 10.00 For best barrel Baldwin Apples that have been kept in ordinary farm storage. Fruit to become property of Donor. (e) Mr. J. Scofield Rowe, Vice-President Aetna Insurance Co., Hartford, offers cash prize of 5.00 For best standard box Spitzenberg Ap- Apples. Fruit to become property of Donor. By the Society, for 2d best box Spitzenberg 3.00 (f) Also, by Mr. Rowe, cash prize of 5.00 For best standard box of King Apples. Fruit to become property of Donor. By the Society, for 2d best box King 3.00 (g) Olds & Whipple, Seeds, Implements and Fer- tilizers, Hartford, offer cash prize of 5.00 For best standard box Northern Spy Apples. Fruit to become property of Donor. By the Society, for 2d be.st box Nort.hern Spy ... 3.00 (h) The Hartford Board of Trade offers cash prize of 5.00 For the best standard box R. I. Greening Apples. Fruit to become property of Donor. By the Society, for 2d best box Greening 3.00 Fifth Division — County Collections of Apples. For the best collection of five varieties commercial Apples shown on plates and grown by members in each county in the state, prizes will be offered as follows — Hartford County, offered by the Hartford Board of Trade " 5.00 3.00 2.00 New Haven County 5 00 3.00 2.00 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 247 Fairfield County 5.00 3.00 2.00 Litchfield County 5.00 3.00 2.00 New London County, offered by the Norwich Board of Trade 5.00 3.00 2.00 Middlesex County 5.00 3.00 2.00 Windham County 5.00 3.00 2.00 Tolland County 5.00 3.00 2.00 Five specimens will constitute a plate. N. B. — General rules of the Society to govern in this Exhibition. The Society reserves the right to issue a life membership in lieu of cash premiums to any exhibitor not already a life member, whose awards amount to $10.00 or over, except in the case of awards of spec- ial prizes. List of Awards. FIRST DIVISION. CLASS I. Largest and Best Display of Apples. Second Premium to E. E. Brown, Pomfret Center $3.00 CLASS II. Best Collection Five Varieties Dessert Apples. Fn-st Premium to H. E. Clark, Middlebury $5.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey, Durham 2.50 CLASS III. Best Collection Five Varieties Dessert Apples. First Premium to F. B. Bailey - $5.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown 2.50 CLASS IV.-Section I. Single Plates of Apples. Baldwin. First Premium to J. H. Hale Co., South Glastonbury- $3.00 Second Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards, Seymour 2.00 Third Premium to Minor Ives, South Meriden LOO R. I. Greening. First Premium to H. E. Clark $3.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown 2.00 Third Premium to W. I. & T. M. Savage, Berlin ' 1.00 248 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Northern Sp^j. First Premium to H. E. Clark $3.00 Second Premium to Minor Ives 2.00 Third Premium to E. M. Ives, Meriden 1.00 King. First Premium to H. E. Clark $3.00 Second Premium to Harry P. Chesbro, Hampton 2.00 Third Premium to Minor Ives 1.00 / I Roxbury Russet. First Premium to W. H. Baldwin, Cheshire $3.00 Second Premium to Tyler Davidson, Bethany 2.00 Third Premium to H. E. Clark 1.00 Wagener. First Premium to G. W. Florian, Thomaston $3.00 Second Premium to W. H. Baldwin 2.00 Third Premium to E. E. Brown 1.00 Section II. Sutton. First Premium to F. B. Bailey $1.00 Second Premium to A. J. Clark, Durham .50 Peck's Pleasant. First Premium to G. W. Florian $1.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey 50 Ben Davis. First Premium to J. H. Hale Co $1.00 Second Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards .50 Third Premium to L. J. Robertson, Hartford 25 Esopus. First Premium to E. M. Ives $1.00 Third Premium to H. B. Cooke, Noroton 25 Grimes. Second Premium to E. E. Brown 50 Third Premium to F. E. Tucker, Vernon 25 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 249 Talman Sweet. Second Premium to Minor Ives $ .50 Fallawater. First Premium to W. A. Stocking & Son, Weatogue $1.00 Second Premium to W. C. Robinson, Columbia .50 Third Premium to W. H. Baldwin 25 Stark. Second Premium to J. H. Hale Co $ .50 Third Premium to E. E. Brown 25 Huhhardston. First Premium to E. G. Davis, Torrington $1.00 Third Premium to L. W. Bilton, Somers 25 Mcintosh. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey 50 Third Premium to W. H. Baldwin 25 Westfield. First Premium to H. E. Clark $1.00 Delicious. First Premium to E. E. Brown _. $1.00 Second Premium to G. W. Florian .50 Rotne Beauty. Fu-st Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $1.00 Second Premium to Henry Dryhurst & Son, Meriden 50 Third Premium to H. B. Buell, Eastford 25 Winter Banana. First Premium to L. W. Bilton $1.00 Third Premium to Henry Dryhurst & Son .25 York Imperial. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards Jl.OO Third Premium to Henrv^ Drvhurst &. Son .25 250 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Black Ben Davis. First Premium to G. W. Florian $1.00 Second Premium to Henry Dryhurst & Son 50 Myrick. First Premium to F. E. Tucker $1.00 Blue Pearmain. First Premium to F. E. Tucker $1.00 Maiden Bhish. Second Premium to Minor Ives 5Q Limber Twig. First Premium to Minor Ives $1.00 Wealthy. First Premium to W. H. Baldwin $1.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey .50- Wolf River. First Premium to W. H. Baldwin $1.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown • 50 Newtown Pippin. First Premium to E. M. Ives $1.00' Second Premium to E. E. Brown 50 Third Premium to F. B. Bailey .25- Honey Sweet. First Premium to Minor Ives $1.00< Northwestern Greening. Second Premium to J. L. Grant, Wapping $ .5& Akin. First Premium to E. M. Ives $1.00' Jonathan. Third Premium to E. M. Ives $ .25. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 251 Fameuse. Second Premium to W. H. Baldwin $ .50 Third Premium to F. B. Bailey 25 Canada Baldwin. First Premium to F. B. Bailey Sl.OO Second Premium to A. J. Clarke 50 Cayiada Red. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Ontario. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1 .00 Gillijlower. First Premium to E. E. Brown . : $1.00 Alexander. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Palmer. Second Premium to E. E. Brown $ .50 Fall Pippin. First Premium to W. I. & T. M. Savage $1.00 Second Premium to L. J. Robertson 50 Winesap. First Premium to W. I. & T. M. Savage $1.00 Opalescent. First Premium to E. E. Brown $1.00 Paragon. Third Premium to E. E. Brown $ .25 Black Twig. First Premium to H. B. Buell $1.00 Pound Sweet. Second Premium to F. B. Bailey $ .50 252 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Chenango. First Premium to E. E. Brown 11.00 CLASS V. Single Pmtes of Pears. Anjou. Second Premium to W. A. Stocking & Son $ .50 Lawrence. Second Premium to W. A. Stocking & Son $ .50 Cadillac. Second Premium to W. I. & T. M. Savage $ .50 SECOND DIVISION. CLASS I. Best Barrel of Apples, Following Varieties. Baldwin. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $10.00 Second Premium to Minor Ives 5.00 R. I. Greening. First Premium to H. E. Ckirk ■ .SIO.OO Northern Spy. First Premium to Minor I\'es $10.00 King. First Premium to E. Rogers, Southington $1.00 Roxbvry Russet. First Premium to H. E. Clark .vlO.OO Second Premiimi to W. C. Robinson . 5.00 Ben Davis. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $8.00 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 253 CLASS II. Best Standard Box Apples, Following Varieties. Baldwin. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $5.00 Second Premium to the J. H. Hale Co 3.00 li. I. Greening. First Premuim to H. E. Clark $5.00 Northern Spy. First Premium to H. E. Clark $5.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown 3.00 King. First Premumi to F. B. Bailey . . . _ $5.00 Mcintosh. First Premium to T. H. & L. C. Root, Farmington $5.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown 3.00 Sutton. P'irst Premium to T. H. & L. C Root, Farmington $5.00 Second Premium to E. E. Brown 3.00 Winter Banana. First Premium to L. W. Bilton $5.00 York Imperial. Second Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $3.00 Ben Davis. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $5.00 Rome Beauty. First Premuun to The J. H. Hale Orchards $5.00 Rcxhury Rjisset. Second Premium to W. C. Robinson $3.00 Gillijlower. Second Premium to W. A. Stocking .t Son $3.00 254 '^HE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Fallaivater. Second Premium to W. A. Stocking & Son $3.00 CLASS III. Best Five Bo.xes of Apples, Any Variety or Varieties. First Premium to The J. H. Hale Orchards $20.00 CLASS IV. Most Attractive and Practical Retail Package of Apples. First Premium to Conyers Farm, Greenwich $3.00 Second Premium to F. B. Bailey 2.00 THIRD DIVISION. Canned Fruit, etc. CLASS I. Best Exhibit of Not Less than Eight Kinds. First Premium to Mrs. E. W. Ellison, Willimantic $5.00 Second Premium to Mrs. F. B. Bailey, Durham 3.00 Third Premium to Mrs. J. M. Stocking, Weatogue 2.00 CLASS. II. Best Exhibit of Jellies. First Premium to Mrs. E. W. Ellison $3.00 CLASS III. Best Display of Food Dishes Made from Apples. First Premium to Mrs. J. M. Stocking $10.00 Second Premium to Mrs. E. W. Ellison 5.00 FOURTH DIVISION. Special Prizes. A— SPRAY PUMP OUTFIT OFFERED BY W. & B. DOUGLASS, MIDDLETOWN, FOR 3 BEST BOXES OF APPLES PACKED FOR MARKET. Awarded to The J. H. Hale Orchards. B— SPECIAL PRIZE OF TEN DOLLARS OFFERED BY THE HARTFORD BOARD OF TRADE FOR BEST BARREL OF APPLES GROWN IN HARTFORD COUNTY. Awarded to J. H. Hale Go. TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 255 C— SPECIAL PRIZE OF TEN DOLLARS OFFERED BY E. BERRY & SONS HARTFORD, FOR BEST BARREL OF BALD- WIN APPLES KEPT IN COLD STORAGE. Awarded to J. H. Hale Co. D— SPECIAL PRIZE OF TEN DOLLARS OFFERED BY NEWTON, ROBERTSON & CO, HARTFORD, FOR BEST BARREL OF BALDWIN APPLES KEPT IN ORDINARY FARM STORAGE. Awarded to Minor Ives. FIFTH DIVISION. County Collection of Apples. Hartford County — Ten Dollars Offered by Hartford Board of Trade, No entries. New Haven County. First Premium to H. E. Clark, Middlebuiy $5.00 Second Premium to W. H. Baldwin, Cheshire 3.00 Fairfield County. First Premium to Conyers Farm, Greenwich 15.00 Litchfield County. No entries. New London County — Offered by Nor\vich Board of Trade. First Premium to W. I. AUyn, Mystic $5.00 Second Premium to F. S. Wheeler, Norwichtown .- 3.00 Middlesex County. First Premium to F. B. Bailey, Durham $5.00 Second Premium to A. J. Clark, Durham 3.00 Windham County. No entries. Tolland County. No entries. Wilfrid Wheeler, ) W. H. CONANT, \ ^"""^^f- 256 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The Trade Exhibit. These displays made by manufacturers and dealers in fruit growers' supplies occupied, as usual, every bit of available space in the lower hall at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Aleet- ing- and was most varied and interesting, about every requisite for the fruit grower and truck farmer from a pair of pruning shears to a big power spraying machine being shown, many of them in actual operation. The exhibit hall was the Mecca for all who attended the convention, and the business that result- ed was of mutual help to both the firms exhibiting and the growers who arranged for the purchase of their yearly sup- plies. These trade exhibits have come to be leading features of all horticultural meetings and their value has grown from year to year. They are up-to-the-minute demonstrations of the latest labor-saving tools, packages and spraying helps for the fruit farmer, and no grower who expects to keep up with the times fails to study and profit by them. One novel feature this year was a moving-picture exhibit of experiments wath certain fertilizers on various crops. Space is lacking here to enumerate each exhibit, but all of our old trade friends were represented bv displays, as well as several new firms. Mr. E. Rogers and the Secretary were in charge of the exhibit. It is to be hoped that in the near future the Society may be able to find hall accommodations adequate to properly display these exhibits and not be obliged to put up with the crowded condi- tions that prevail at Foot Guard Hall. The exhibition is a source of profit and satisfaction to the Society and could easily be made a great demonstration of farm machinery equal to those held in other states. Plate V. ?f ...ka^^-^^. \. Some Excellent Types of Low-Headed Apple Trees in Full Bearing, Some Lxcellent^i^^^^^^^ ^^^^ Orchards, Greenwich. ^lllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM o © HeM in 1914 ^iiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ Summer Field Meetings^ Following the usual custom of the Society the execu- tive committee had in mind the holding of a series of sum- mer field days during the season of 1914, but only two such events materialized. Arrangements to visit several large fruit farms, well worth a visit, could not be made as expected, and for this reason the members had to be content with but two opportunities for getting together in out-door meetings — at the Agricultural College and at the Bliss farm in Essex. Early in the spring of 1914 the Extension Department of the Connecticut Agricultural College began to plan for a great series of field days at the college, a day or two to be devoted to each branch of agriculture, and the organization representing each branch to be invited to visit the college. Third in the series was the meeting of the fruit growers,, the program for which was as follows : 258 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ~: FRUIT GROWERS' OUTING AND FIELD MEETING AT The Connecticut Agricultural College Storrs, Conn. July 22nd and 23rd, 1914 The invitation of the College authorities for a two-days' visit to Storrs on Wednesday and Thursday, July 22nd and 23rd, having been accepted by the Society, our first Field Meeting of the season will be held as one event in the Series of Field Meetings and Conferences arranged for the month of July, under the auspices of the Extension De- partment of the College. This Meeting Offers a Grand Opportunity to Visit the College. WHY IT WILL PAY YOU TO COME— It is earnestly desired that the fruit growers of the State, especially those who have never visited Storrs, will make a special effort to attend this meeting and embrace the opportunity of seeing this splendid in- stitution with all its varied departments and equipment for agricultural and horticultural education. If you have never visited the College, it will surprise you to see the wonderful growth of this fine state institu- tion, its many new buildings, enlarged departments, orchards, gardens, greenhouses, trial grounds, poultry and dairy departments, the experi- ment station and extensive farm. You owe it to yourself to become better acquainted with your State College, so come and inspect and study the work of the institution. Just at this season everything at Storrs is looking its best, and the location and surroundings offer an ideal spot to spend a day or two with great pleasure and profit. Prof. Gulley promises us much of special interest to the Fruit Grower, and he and his assistants will be ready to conduct us through the extensive orchards, vineyards, etc., and explain methods and discuss questions and problems. Invite Your Friends to Come — Bring the Ladies. This invitation is extended to the members of the Connecticut Hor- ticultural Society, and they are urged to join us in our visit to the College. THE PROGRAM is an informal one, but especially attractive. Wednesday Forenoon. Visitors will arrive at Storrs and will at once register for rooms, etc., at the College office (main building). ANNUAL REPORT. 259 Wednesday Afternoon. After dinner the time until 5 p. m. will be devoted to visits to the various departments of the College, where demonstrations will be in progress, also a tour of the orchards and gar- dens. Wednesday Evening, 7:30 o'clock. Indoor meeting, with addresses by prominent fruit men of Connecticut and elsewhere. The leading speaker will be Mr. L. L. Morrell, Kinderhook, N. Y., President 0} New York State Fruit Growers' Association. Subject, "The Gtading, Pack- ing and Marketing of Fruits." Mr. Morrell is an extensive fruit grower and a vigorous and practical speaker. His address is sure to be a rare treat. Questions and discussion will round out an instructive and inter- esting evening. Thursday, July 23, 9 A. M. to 12. Further visits to the College Orchards and farms and discussion of "The Season's Fruit Crops." Thursday Afternoon. Joint meeting with the Connecticut Vege- table Growers' Association. Leading feature, address by Prof. Work of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. All interested in Horticulture and the College, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to attend. Members! Don't Fail to Take in This Splendid Trip. Even if you are busy it will pay you to drop your work for a day or two and attend this meeting. Our visits to Storrs are always worth while. This year the fine program oj meetings as planned for offers special inducements ! Stancliff Hale, President, H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, South Glastonbury. Milford. G. W. Staples, Vice-President, J. H. Putnam, Treasurer, Hartford. Litchfield. The attendance on the opening day of the field meet- ing- at Storrs was rather disappointing, owing to the fact, that the event came just at the height of the haying season, and farmers were unusually busy ; but later sessions brought out a goodly number of fruit growers and their wives, who enjoyed the many pleasant features of their two days' stay at the college. As the visitors arrived they registered at the college office and were assigned rooms in the various dormitories, after which parties were made up for a tour of the orchards and farm, under the guidance of Professor Gulley and his assistants. 26o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. An evening meeting was held in the college chapel, which attracted the attendance of the college people and neighboring farmers, as well as the visiting fruit growers. President Hale called the gathering to order and introduced President Beach of the college, who said he was glad to welcome the fruit growers of Connecticut to Storrs. He said that the college authorities are always glad of advice and friendly criticism, in order that the mistakes of the past may not be repeated. "The agricultural colleges nowadays have a new \ision of what their functions really are. To educate tlie adult farmer is to be their aim, and not alone the young- er students. The college Extension Department is to be the medium through which this will be done. Up to now, the economic phases of agriculture have held our attention, but the social development of the community must be con- sidered in the future, if we are to make agriculture perma- nent." Dr. C. D. Jarvis, director of the Extension Department, was called on to speak in behalf of their work. He said that the demonstration method will be the one employed in ex- tending instruction to -the farmer, and told of what his de- partment is planning to do now that funds for the work are available. The United States Government, the Agricultur- al College and the County are to co-operate in carrying out this extension work, the aim being to show the farmer how to help himself. The next speaker was Mr. N. S. Piatt, of New Haven, who discussed the things seen by the visitors at the college. Mr. Piatt said we are all "stockholders" in this institution, and have the right to suggest and criticise. He referred to the excellent condition of the old apple trees still standing on the college campus, and regretted that the trees in the college orchards did not seem to show the same thrifty ap- pearance. "Why is this?" Should not the orchards receive better care, for we all naturally look to the college to set the example in the best fruit growing methods." ANNUAL REPORT. 261 Mr. Piatt stated that in his travels about the state he had noticed some signs of winter injury to orchards. Vine- yards also show very badly the results of winter injury. Ex-President Rogers of the Society, who spoke next, re- ferred to the marked improvements to be noted in the col- lege plant. Mr. Rogers said he would like to see the college develop a model commercial orchard. President Hale remarked that their own orchards had suffered considerably from winter injury, and that present efforts to bring the trees out of it are not meeting with very good results. The next speaker was Professor A. G. GuUey, long the head of the horticultural department of the college, who ex- tended a most cordial welcome to the society. He referred to the fact that he had been with the college twenty years, and said that he was proud of the great changes and im- provements that had been made at the college during his term. He referred to the difficulties in the way of success- ful orcharding on the college farm. He believes that one valuable feature of their work is in testing out new varie- ties, and this is being done in their extensive trial orchard. Two hundred and thirtv kinds of apples are now growing at the college. Professor Gullev answered a number of questions, and then the speaker of the evening, President L. L. Morrell, of the New York State Fruit Growers Association, was intro- duced. He said he had left a busy fruit farm to come to this meeting, all for his love for the cause. After telling of the fruit crop conditions in New York State, Mr. Morrell took up the discussion of his topic, "The Grading, Packing and Marketing of Fruit." "Success in fruit growing depends first upon the man and next upon his love for the trees he cultivates. The fruit grower must be a good fighter and he must be a good business man." Mr. Morrell then explained the new apple packing law in force in his state. "The great- est fraud in the state is the dishonest pack of fruit. This new law is important to Connecticut growers who may ship 262 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. apples into New York State. I favor the barrel as against the box for commercial apples. The apple industry is a sound one if it is conducted honestly." Mr. Morrell spoke a good word for the Kieffer pear, which he grows and which, he said, paid him well. He advised Connecticut to get busy and have an apple packing law. Mr. Morrell gave a fine talk, which was followed by questions and discussion. The comparative cost of packing apples in boxes or barrels was discussed. Mr. Morrell gave the cost of box packing at fifty-one cents, as against eight to ten cents in barrels. He emphasized honesty in all branches of the fruit business, and outlined his ideas on dis- tribution of fruit crops, and the establishing of a market. The very enjoyable evening's session came to a close at ten o'clock. The second day of our outing was marked by rainy weather, nothing unusuaV for this wet season. The crowd of visitors was further swelled by the arrival of the vege- table growers, whose meeting was to follow that of the fruit men. The forenoon was spent in trips about the farm, or- chards, greenhouses and college buildings, where much of interest and value was seen. In the afternoon a joint ses- sion was held with the Vegetable Growers' Association, at which time an excellent address was heard from Professor Work, of Cornell University, on the topic "The Business of Vegetable Growing." Later many of the fruit growers de- parted for home, although a few remained to take in the events of the Vegetable Growers' meetings. That the outing had been a grand success was the unani- mous opinion of all who participated, the only regret being that more of our members did not avail themselves of this very valuable and helpful "short course" at our agricultural college. ANNUAL REPORT. 263 Second Field Meeting of the Season. The Society was gratified to receive an invitation for another out-door meeting- during the season, and the fol- lowing notice was accordingly sent out : FIELD MEETING AT ESSEX Tuesday, August 18, 1914. By invitation of Mr. Charles G. Bliss, the Society will hold a Field Day at his farm, ''Highmoors," in Essex, on Tuesday, the 18th. All members and their friends are urged to attend. "Highmoors" is beautifully located on the high land along the Connecticut River, and from many points on the farm the view of the river and surrounding country is magnificent. This alone is worth the trip to the meeting. Mr. Bliss' farm is not a pretentious one, but rep- resents the desire for a comfortable home by one who appreciates the charm of Connecticut scenery and has faith in her soil. There are some sixty acres in the farm, much of it rough land, but orchards of apple and peach are being planted, and the aim is to estab- lish a fruit farm. An older peach orchard and some reclaimed apple trees are both bearing crops of fruit. Lunch, on the basket-picnic plan, will be enjoyed in a beautiful grove. Don't fail to come provided with lunch. Lemonade only, will be furnished by the host. After lunch there will be an informal discus- sion of the day's sights, and prominent fruit men will speak on timely topics. (We hope to have Mr. J. H. Hale, and Experiment Station and College Workers on the list of speakers). "Highmoors" is on the riverside road two and one-Jialf miles above Essex. Essex is reached by the Valley Division, N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R., also by Shore Line Electric ears from New Haven, Saybrook, or New London. Members! Turn Out and Attend This Meeting and Enjoy a Day of Pleasure and Profit. Stancuff Hale, President, H. C. C. Miles, Secretary, South Glastonbury. Milford. Threatening weather and the busy days of the early peach harvest combined to make a light attendance at this field meet- ing, but those who came found in Mr. Bliss a hospitable host and in his farm a delightful place for an outdoor gathering. "Highmoors" is a typical rough Connecticut farm located on the hills overlooking the river and in process of development 264 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. as a farm devoted to peaches and apples. Mr. Bliss' young peach trees give promise of a successful orchard, while the old apple trees, which have been reclaimed and managed under the mulch system, are producing some fine fruit. Back from the river, in the wooded section of the farm, from several high points magnificent views of the river and of Long Island Sound are afiforded. Luncheon was enjoyed in a 'beautiful grove in the rear of the Bliss home, and following that informal speeches were listened to from our host, Dr. W. E. Britton, state entomologist. Secretary Miles, and others. Many of the visitors came in their automobiles, which means of conveyance seems to be as common on the farms to- day as in the cities. When the time came to leave all expressed their pleasure at the day's outing and their appreciation of Mr. Bliss' kindness and hospitality. Other field days were planned for in New London and New Haven counties, but for various reasons it was found nec- essary to carry them over until another season, when we shall expect to visit several verv interesting fruit farms. Exhibitions of 1914. Peach Show at the Connecticut Fair. The peach exhibit made by the Pomological Society at the Connecticut Fair at Charter Oak Park, Hartford, seems to have become a fixture. The fair ofificials renew their very liberal offer to the society from year to year, and seem to be well satisfied with the attractive displays the peach grow- ers have staged for the past four or five years. It has cer- tainly been a great pleasure for the society to have had the opportunity of contributing to the horticultural department of this progressive fair. Llorticultural exhibits are given a prominent place at the Connecticut Fair, and the fruit grow- ers of this section of New England are being encouraged in every possible way to exhibit their products. ANNUAL REPORT. 265 The displays of the Pomological Society are not entered for competition, . but are simply intended as a demonstra- tion of what the state is doing in the production of choice peaches. The exhibit put up by the society for the fair of 1914 — September 7th to 12th — included apples as well as peaches, since the latter were in short supply, especially of the show grade, and except for the kind co-operation of a few growers like Hale. Henry, Baldwin and Drew, we would have been unal)le to carry out a successful exhibit. The display occupied a position in the center of Hor- ticulture Hall, and with the long tables of plate exhibits leading up to a huge pyramid of fruit in the center, flanked by crates and baskets of luscious peaches, made a most at- tractive setting, and one that gained the admiration of all visitors. Special mention should be made of the big jars of pre- served peaches prepared by Root Bros, and used in the Con- necticut exhibit at the 1913 Xew England Fruit Show, and still in good condition. The; show was in charge of the society's exhibition com- mittee and the Secretary, who were kept busy answering requests for information from those who wanted to learn more about Connecticut peach growing. Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of Fruits The Connecticut Pomological Society .\t Berlin. Conn., September 29-October 2, 1914. IX CONNECTION WITH THE Anni Ai. St.ate F.MR or the Connecticut Agricultur.al Society. Schedule of Premii ms Ottered. First Division — Collections. Class 1. Best general collection of fruits made by the grower. (See Rule 7) $10.00 .$5.00 $3.00 Cla.s.s 2. Be.'.t collection, 15 varietes of apples .... 8.00 4.00 2.00 Class 3. Be.^t collection. 10 varieties of apples .. 5.00 2..50 1.00 Class 4. Best collection, 8 varieties of apples for general purposes 4.00 2.00 1 .00 Class 5. Best collection. 5 varieties of apples for market use 5.00 2.50 1.00 Class 6. Be.'^t collection. 12 varieties of pears .... 6.00 3.00 1.50 4.00 2.00 1.00 6.00 3.00 1.50 4.00 2.00 i.oa 5.00 2.50 1.00 4.00 2.00 1.00 266 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Class 7. Best collection, 6 varieties of pears .... Class 8. Best collection, 12 varieties of grapes . . Class 9. Best collection, 6 varieties of grapes .... Class 10. Best collection, 10 varieties of peaches Class 11. Best collection, 6 varieties of peaches . . Second Division — Single Plates. Class 1. Section 1. Best single plates of follow- ing varieties of apples, each $4.00 $2.00 $1.00 Baldwin, Fall Pippin, Mcintosh, R. I. Greening, Wealthy. Section 2. Best single plates of the fol- lowing varieties of apples, each . . . 2.00 1.00 .50 Gravenstein, King, Northern Spy, Oldenburg, Red Canada, Roxbury Russet, Wagener. Section 3. Best single plates of follow- ing varieties of apples, each 1.00 .50 .25 Ben Davis, Baker, Belleflower, Black Gilli- flower, Chenango, Cogswell, Delicious, Esopus, Fallawater, Fameuse, Golden Sweet, Green-Sweet, Grimes, Hubbardston, Hurlbut, Jonathan, Lady, Maiden Blush, Newtown Pippin, Opalescent, Peck's Pleasant, Pewaukee, Pound Sweet, Porter, Red Astrachan, Rome Beauty, Shiawassee, Stark, St. Lawrence, Sutton, Talman, Twenty Ounce, Westfield, Williams, Winter Banana, Wolf River, York Imperial, Hyslop and Transcendent Crabs. Of other varieties not to exceed ten. Class 2. Section 1. Best single plates of follow- ing varieties of pears, each ........ 2.00 1.00 .50 Anjou, Bartlett, Bose, Clapp's Favorite, Clair- geau, Louise Bonne, Lawrence, Keiffer, Seckel, Sheldon. Section 2. Best single plates of follow- varieties of pears, each 1.00 .50 .25 Angouleme, Boussock, Buffum, Diel, Easter Beurre, Flemish Beauty, Howell, Dana's Hovey, Lucrative, Mt. Vernon, Nelis, Onondaga. Of other worthy varieties not to exceed ten. Class 3. Section 1. Best single plate of following varieties of grapes, each 2.00 1.00 .50 Brighton, Concord, Delaware, Moore's Early, Niagara, Worden. Section 2. Best single plates of following varieties of grapes, each 1.00 .51 .25 Agawam, Campbell's Early, Catawba, Clinton, Diamond, Diana, Eaton, Empire State, Green Mountain, Hartford, Ives, Isabella, Jefferson, Lady, Lindley, Martha, Pocklington, Salem, Wilder, Wyoming. Of other varieties not to ex- ceed ten. ANNUAL REPORT. 267 Class 4. Peaches and plums, each valuable va- riety 1.00 .50 .25 Class 5. Quince, e&ch valuable variety 1.00 .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 1.00 .50 Third Division — Canned Fruits, Jklues, etc. For Table Use. (Wives and daughters of members may compete in this division with- out payment of any membership fee.) Class 1. Best collection canned fruit, 15 varieties $8.00 $4.00 $2.00 Class 2. Best collection canned fruit, 8 varieties . . 4,00 2.00 1.00 Class 3. Best collection canned berries, 6 varie- ties. (See Rule 8) 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 4. Best collection pickles, 6 kinds, one quart each 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 5. Best collection jellies, 6 kinds 3.00 2.00 1.00 Class 6. Best single can of the following fruits . . .75 .50 .25 Strawberries, Blackberries, Black and Red Raspberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Huckleber- ries, Cranberries, Grapes, Pears, Yellow and White Peaches, Apples, Quinces, Crab Apples, Cherries, Pineapples, European Plums, and Japan Plums. (See Rule 8.) Class 7. Best single jar jelly made from above named fruits .75 .50 .25 Class 8. Best .^ample unfermented fruit juice, each kind, not to exceed six .75 .50 .25 FoLRTH Division — Packed Fruits. Class 1. Best packed barrel choice market apples. Sweepstake Prize $10.00 Class 2. Best barrel apples of each of following varieties 10.00 5.00 Fall Pippin, Baldwin, King, North- ern Spy, R. I. Greening. Class 3. Best packed standard box of apples, any variety, Sweepstake Prize 6.00 Class 4. Best standard box of each of following varieties of apples 5 00 3.00 Baldwin, Fall Pippin, Gravenstein, King, Mc- intosh, Northern Spy, R. I. Greening, Wagener, Wealthy. Fruit package and packing all to be consid- ered. Entries in Class 2 may compete in Class 1 and also Class 4 in Class 3, but special entries of other varieties may be made in Classes 1 and 3. 2.50 2.00 268 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Class 5. Best standard basket peaches 3.00 1.50 1.00 Class 6. Best peck basket peaches 1.50 .75 .50 Class 7. Best 8-lb. basket grapes 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 8. Best 5-lb. basket grapes 1.50 .75 .50 Class 9. Best package of apples, pears, peaches or plums, of not over one peck, and of convenient size for buyer to carry . . 2.00 1.00 .50 Fifth Division — Nuts, etc. Class 1. Best specimen any variety of cultivated nuts " ' 11.00 $ .50 $ .25 Class 2. Best sample of edible native nuts, any kind 1,00 .50 .25 Class 3. Best collection native nuts, made by boy or girl and correctly named, not less than one-half pint each kind (exhibi- tors in this class not required to be members of the Society) 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 4. Best arranged table piece of home-grown fruits 2.00 1.00 .50 Class 5. Articles not classified, for which discre- tionary premiums may be awarded. IMPORTANT INFORMATION— READ CAREFULLY. Exhibitors are requested to bring or send their Exhibits as early as possible. Committee will be in attendance to receive Exhibits on Mon- daj^, September 28. Exhibitors should carefully wrap and pack all jruit and put their names and address on all packages. Also carefully label each lariety. RULES OF THE EXHIBITION. Rule 1. All exhibits must be received for entry not later than 2 p. m. Tuesday, September 29, 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 should bo made with the Secretary on or before Saturday, September 26, using enclosed entry blank for the purpose, that proper table room may be provided. 3. All articles entered, except in Fifth Division, must be grown or prepared by the exhibitor, and certificate of this must be filed with entry. 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 collection. Of crab apples ten specimens, and of grapes three bunches, shall make a plate, except where yioted. The collections also shall embrace just the required number of plates. 5. No exhibitor shall make more than one entry for the same pre- mium, nor enter the same plate for more than one premium. 6. In the various collections the value of the varieties shown, as well as the conditions of the specimens, will be considered in making the award. ANNUAL REPORT. 269 7. Entries in Division 1, Class 1, must not contain over two-thirds apples, or over one-fourth of any other single class of fruit. 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. 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 mill not be allowed to compete. New exhibitors, particu- larl.y, should note this rule. 11. Competition is open and premiums will be awarded to mem~ bers of the Society only (except as noted in Third, Dii'ision) and for fruits grown within the State of Connecticut. 12. No exhibit .shall be removed without the consent of the com- mittee, until the close of the meeting. Exhibitors are requested to state whethei- the fruit is to be returned to them, or donated to the So- ciet}'. THE JUDGING Will be bj' competent fruit men, and, for the benefit of the exhibitors and judges as well, it ha? been decided to announce the adoption of the following new score card for apples and pears, to be used in making awards at this exhibition: Form 15 Size 15 Color 20 Uniformity 20 Freedom from Blemish 30 Total 100 Quality when scored 25 Explanation . .1 FoiiM. Should be smooth, regular, and typical for the variety. 2. Size. Well grown medium-sized specimens will be considered in preference to over-sized fruit in placing awards. 3. Color. In judging color the following points will be considered: a. Depth and attractiveness of ground color. b. Characteristic of over-color, c .'Amount of over-color. 4. Uniformity. Specimens shall be of the same form, size, color, and ripeness. 5. Quality. When considered shall include both texture and fla- vor. 6. Freedom from Blemishes. This shall include: a. Mechanical injuries including loss of stem. b. Insect injiuy of all kinds. c. Diseases from fungus or any other cause. 7 Russet varieties should be well ru.«seted. not green. 270 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The foregoing) comprised the list of premiums as offered for the annual exhibition of 1914, and is given here for the sake of reference and comparison. Since this exhibition has been so fully covered in detail in the report of the committee on exhibitions on page 14, it is unnecessary to give it fur- ther mention here, and we would only add that the event was a creditable success and marked one more step in the society's campaign of educating the growers and consum- ers in the possibilities of fruit culture in Connecticut. The only thing lacking was that more of our growers did not participate in the show by sending exhibits. We trust that this lack will not occur in exhibitions that are held in the future. Snapshot of the Society's Exhibit of Peaches at the Connecticut Fair, Charter 0 Park, Hartford, September, 1914. ANNUAL REPORT. 271 Connecticut Soils and Their Relation to the Pro- duction of Different Varieties of Fruits. [Bulletin 140, "Soils of Massachusetts and Connecticut, With Es- pecial Reference to Apples and Peaches," discusses in detail the adapt- ability of different types of soils to different varieties of tree fruits.] Some of the interesting facts bearing upon apple raising developed in this bulletin are as follows : The climate of southern New England is rigorous, but the seasons are of suf- ficient length for the securing of good crops, and seem espec- ially favorable for a long list of varieties of apples. It is im- portant to select varieties that mature in the prevailing length of season. Barring low-lying areas the climatic conditions of the whole state are well suited to apple growing, though the ■character of the fruit varies with the kind of soil and not im- probably to some extent with the range in climate. A Baldwin grown on a certain soil 1,000 feet above sea level in a certain part of the state matures later and may possess better keeping qualities than one grown forty miles farther south on the same character of soil at an elevation of 500 feet. While the statement that "a given variety of apples, for the most successful growth within its general climatic region, requires a certain kind of condition of soil" seems incontro- vertible, inasmuch as it is so well substantiated by orchard re- sults under a wide range of conditions, the reason why this should be so is not so easily stated. It seems to depend fun- damentally upon the water-holding capacity, or rather the moisture co-efficient, of the soil. The capacity of a soil to hold capillary water, which is the onh- kind plant growth can use. depends on (1) the soil texture (i. e., the size of the soil grain) ; (2) the soil structure or the grouping of these tiny grains into clusters, thus making it granular; (3) the amount of humus in the soil; and (4) the degree of soil tilth, which is a combined effect of the foregoing and tillage. Apples ripen, a bit later upon a northerly slope than on a southern one, but an earlier soil on the north side of a hill, such 272 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. as a sandy loam, may mature fruits as earlv as a heavier soil on the south side. Good D'epth Necessary. The necessity of good depth of subsoil cannot be empha- sized too strongly. Shallow soils should be assiduously avoid- ed for orchard purposes. The presence of unbroken rock, large ledges, or hardpan within three feet of the surface should be considered prohibitive. A soil depth of at least six feet should be insisted upon, and an even greater depth is highly desirable. Soils with the underlying rock too near the surface have been responsible not infrequently for the failure of com- mercial orchards owing to the incapacity of the subsoil to store sufficient moisture to offset droughty conditions, or to get rid of excess moisture early enough in the spring. The condition of tree growth and fruit yields makes it evident that soils for any kind of orchard planting should be deep, well drained and friable, yet not so porous as to be droughty. For the red va- rieties in New England both soil and subsoil should also be well oxidized as indicated by uniform brown, yellow or possibly grayish-brown colors. Light gray or mottied colors should be avoided. A stony loam is often recommended as a desirable fruit soil, but stones are advantageous only in that they may help a soil that is too heavv or too clayey or too impervious — by mak- ing it somewhat more pervious to water. Stones are disad- vantageous to a porous sandy soil. The fact that a soil is stony does not necessarily im]ilv that it is productive. If a])ples are to be grown with profit and competition is keen, the soil must be productive or at least capable of being brought to a jiro- ductive state and so maintained. ^Tuch of the current l^elief that "stony" soils possess some peculiar advantage for orchard fruits has undoubtedlv arisen from the success of many or- chards located on stou}- hills. The personal factor of the orchardist is important because a man who likes to grow apples may grow very good ones in spite of adverse soil conditions, while one who does not care ANNUAL REPORT. ^73 for orcharding may not produce good apples even in excellent soil. Commercial Apples. The best of the commercial apple orchards are cultivated until midsummer and then laid by with some of the cover crops. The sod-mulch system is also practiced to some ex- tent. In the case of the sod-mulch care must be taken to pre- vent the growth of g'rass or weeds for a few feet beyond the outer tips of the branches. Grass in this place is more serious than if near the trunk, because the feeding roots are under this portion of the soil. It must be admitted, however, that a large part of the aggregate number of apple trees in Connecti- cut and Massachusetts regularly receive neither cultivation nor mulching. There are also thousands upon thousands of seed- ling trees in these states that have not been grafted to improve varieties. The report devotes a number of pages to a discussion of the kinds of soil best suited to each of the leading varieties of apples. The following is a summary of the general con- clusions as to the relations of soils to apples : The different varieties of apples do not succeed equally well on all soils, some varieties giving the best results on soils or under soil conditions that may be more or less definitely defined. In some cases, however, a soil not suitable in all re- spects may be modified, as l)y increasing or decreasing the humus content, tile draining, etc.. to meet the requirements to such a degree that moderately good results may be secured. The kinds of soil upon which various varieties of apples have given, and may reasonably be expected to give, good results are described : Under cultivation mellow loams and fine sandy loams overlying subsoils not lighter than a medium loam nor heavier than a light or medium clav loam of friable structure excel for the Baldwin. On the same soil conditions Rome Beauty thrives further south, where the climate is a little warmer. Heavy silty loam or light silty clay loam with similar subsoil 274 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. brings a "green" Rhode Island (ireening, but lis4hter soils such as fine sandy loams and warm mellow loams excel if a high blush is desired. Soils favoring the Hubbardston are rich, fine, sandy loams, or heavy loamy fine sands with subsoils of fine sandy loam or yellow loam. For the Northern Spv and the Wagencr. a mellow medium loam underlain by heavy loam or friable light clay loam is de- sirable, but the supply of humus and the application of am- monia-carrying fertilizers should be much greater for the Wag-- ener than for the Northern Spy. The heavier of the soils described for the Tjaldwin seem promising for the Mcintosh. For Tompkins, King and Gravenstein, an open-textured loam, rather than a fine loam, with subsoil of the same or only slightly heavier texture, is preferred. While similar soils are excellent for Den Davis and (lano, it is believed that these varieties should be grown outside of N^ew England. Both the King and the Northern Spy soils give good re- sults with the Fall Pippin. A deep, rich loamy soil with subsoil of at least medium porosity, preferably a sandy loam, is excellent for Roxbury Russett. [Note — Connecticut fruit growers will recall that some two years ago Dr. H. J. Wilder of the United States Department of Agriculture made an extensive survey of the fruit soils of our state. The results of his investigations have just been printed in Bulletin 140, which may be obtained by applying to the Department of Agriculture at Washing- in the bulletin. — [Secretary. ANNUAL REPORT. 275 The Proposed Connecticut Law to Govern the Grading, Packing and Branding of Apples. AN ACT* Concerning the Grading, Packing and Sale of Apples in Standard Closed Packages. General Assembly, January Session, A. D., 1915. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly Convened: Section 1. Apples, when assorted and packed in stand- ard closed packages, as defined in this act, shall be graded as follows : Fancy grade, standard A grade, standard B grade, and unclassified grade. The fancy grade shall consist of ma- tured apples of one variety of normal shape and color, sound and free from insect and fungus injury, bruises, and other de-. fects that may injure the appearance or quality. Standard A grade shall consist of apples of one variety of normal shape which may be slightly below normal color, but sound and prac- tically free from insect or fungus injury, bruises, or other de- fects that may injure the appearance or quality. Standard B grade shall consist of apples of one variety which are sound, but may be subject to slight imperfections resulting from in- sect or fungus or other slight defects, provided such defects do not materially afifect the quality. Such grade shall not be subject to color requirement. The unclassified grade may con- sist of apples conforming to any of the preceding grades or to apples not conforming to the requirements of the preceding grades or to a mixture of any such apples. * This is a copy of the "Apple Packing Bill," with final revisions as favorably reported by the Committee on Agriculture of the Legisla- ture. Action thereon had not been taken at the time this book went to press. — [Secretary. 276 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Sec. 2. The terms "bruises" and "defects," as used in this act, shall not be construed to include bruises or defects made upon the contents of any standard closed package in packing, or after packing, by agencies over which the packer has no control. Sec. 3. The standard closed package shall be a barrel having a length of stave of twenty-eight and one-half inches, diameter of the head seventeen and one-eighth inches, distance between heads twenty-six inches, greatest outside circumfer- ence not less than sixty-four inches, and shall contain not less than seven thousand fifty cubic inches ; or a box, the inside dimensions of which shall be as follows : Eighteen inches by eleven and one-half inches by ten and one-half inches without distension of parts, and shall contain not less than two thous- and one hundred seventy-four cubic inches, filled with apples so enclosed that the contents may be inspected only bv re- moving a portion of the barrel or box. Reasonable care shall be exercised in packing such package in order to avoid injury to the fruit. The combined defects in the contents of the fancy grade shall not exceed five per centum in color, size and quality of the fruit, or ten per centum of combmed defects in other grades, from the face or plate layer. Sec. 4. Every standard closed package of apples sold or offered or exposed for sale shall have in a conspicuous place •a statement plainly labeled or branded thereon stating the quantity of its contents, the name and address of the packer, the name of the variet}', the grade as specified in this act, the minimum size of apples therein, the month and year when packed, and the name of the state where grown. If the name of the variety is not known, it shall be designated as "variety unknown." The minimum size shall be determined by meas- uring the diameter of the fruit at right angles to a line drawn from the stem to the blosson end, and shall not vary in excess of one-quarter of an inch from the measurement given. Every such package containing any apples which have been repacked, shall be labeled or branded "repacked apples," and such label or brand shall give the name and address of the person re- ANNUAL REPORT. 277 packing- such apples in lieu of the original packer, and such package shall be labeled or branded in other respects as re- quired when such apples were originally packed. The label or brand used in marking any standard closed package shall be in block letters and figures in size not less than thirty-six point Gothic. Sec. 5. Any officer, manager, or agent of a corporation or association, or any other person who shall sell or offer or expose for sale any package of apples purporting to be a standard closed package, which does not conform to the pro- visions of this act. shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars. 2/8 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Necrology. The Angel of Death has again gathered sheaves of his own selection from among our membership. Neighbors and friends are missed when they are called to the Great Beyond. How much more so when those with whom we have met and labored are galled from our midst. Since the publication of our last report seven deaths among our members have been reported to the Secretary's office. Many hearts have been saddened and valued places made va- cant. Our hearts go out in sympathy to the families of these our associates who have been called to lay down their work upon earth and do now rest from their labors. "We shall meet, but we shall miss them." The earthly tie is broken, but in loving memory they will ever be with us. Joseph Hammond Jr., of Rockville, died August 22, 1913. A member of the Society since 1909, Mr. Hammond was deep- ly interested in all that pertains to horticulture. F. B. Mjller, of Bloomfield. passed away May 7, 1914, after a long sickness. Mr. Miller became a member of the So- ciety in its early days and was always interested in its work and never failed to attend the meetings. He belonged to the older generation of Connecticut fruit growers and was well- known throughout Hartford County for his active interest in fruit farming. I. J. Scovji..LE, of Plainville. a member of the Society since 1912, died during the summer of 1914. He was an active fruit grower. ANNUAL REPORT. 279 Marshall Porter, of Hebron, died July 30, 1914, at a ripe old age. Air. Porter was a fine type of Connecticut farmer and fruit grower whom it was a pleasure to know. He always manifested a strong interest in our Society and its meetings. Mr. Porter held various positions of public trust in his community and will be greatly missed. George A. Stoughton, of Thomaston, died xAugust 30, 1914. He became a member of the Society in 1913 because of his interest in the growing of fruits. E. J. Phelps, of Enfield, passed away at the Hartford Hospital in the fall of 1914. With Airs. Phelps he had been a member since 1902. He was seldom absent from the meet- ings of the Society and because of his love for fruits evinced a deep interest in its work. His familiar face and kindly greeting will be sadly missed. Albert Edward Plant, of Branford, died December 21, 1914. at the age of 72>. Our genial friend, Air. Plant, is gone ! How we shall all miss his smiling face and hearty handclasp. He had been a member of the Society since its formation, and despite the affliction of deafness he attended its meetings regu- larly and was deeply interested in the work. Several times the Societ}- was entertained at the fine farm of Mr. Plant and his sons, which was a splendid example of thrifty and success- ful business farming. Plant's strawberries, peaches, pears and onions, not to mention other special crops, are famous in man\- markets. Air. Plant took a deep pride in his fruits and enjoyed sharing his success with his many friends. Air. Plant was 7Z years of age and died in the house in w^hich he was born. He was a son of William Plant and Polly Reach, and belonged to one of the oldest and best families in the town of Branford. Educated in the district school. Air. Plant 28o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. followed the business of his fathers before him, that of farm- ing, and was one of the most prosperous farmers and pomolo- gists in the state. His peach orchards on the ]^)ranford hills were visited by people from all over the United States, years ago, before he gave up peach culture. Mr. Plant enlisted in the 15th Connecticut volunteers, and served during the Civil war. He was a member of ^lason Rogers Post, G. A. R., also of Widow's Son lodge, A. F. & A. M., and a charter member of the State Pomological Society. He was also a member of the First Ecclesiastical Society. Mr. Plant was a very quiet man, fond of his home and thoroug"hly interested in his business as long as able. He was very highly respected in the community in which he lived, and in the state wherever he was known. He was a genial man, fond of a joke, and had been very active until about two years ago, when thrown from his wagon, he suffered injuries that hastened his death. Mr. Plant is survived by two sons, Albert B. and Ray Upson Plant, also one daughter. Miss ]\farv Eliza Plant. LIST OF MEMBERS. 281 LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1915 This List Corrected to April 1 1915. LIFE MEMBERS. Ashton, Frank B., Middletown. Talcott, Phineas, Rockville. The Conn. Agricultural College, Storrs. Brown, J. Stanford, Yonkers, N. Y. (Black Hall, Conn., R. D. Box 38.) Shepperd, Walter S., Somers, R. F. D. 2. Brown, Everett E., Pomfret Center. Geer, Everett S., Hartford. Lucchini, Victor E., Meriden. Gulley, Prof. Alfred G., Storrs. —Miles, Henry C. C, Milford. »-Gold, Charles L., West Corn- wall. Gilbert. Orrin, Walnut Creek, Cal. Clark, Arthur J., Durham. Curtis. Ellicott D., Bantam. *Bronson, Nathan S., New Pla- ven. Jarvis. Chas. M.. Berlin. Repp. Albert T., Glassboro, N. J. Brown, F. Howard, Marlboro, Mass. —'Rogers, Elijah, Southington. Savage, Theo. M., Berlin. "!— -Yale, Arthur C. Meriden. Clark, Chester H.. Durham Cen- ter. Cook, Allen B., Greenwich. Beaupain. W. F., So. Norwalk, 192 West street. Deming, Nelson L., Litchfield. Clark, H. E., Middlebury. Healey, L. H., North Wood- stock. Frost, H. L., Arlington, Mass. Ripley, Louis A., Litchfield. Allyn, William I., Mystic. Root, Lewis C, Farmington.— ■ Root, T. H., Farmington. Burr. O. Perrv, Romford. Clinton, L. A., Prof., U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Wash- ington, D. C. Ives. Minor, South Meriden. Tucker, F. E., Vernon. Henry, A. T.. Wallingford. Hungerford, Newman, Hartford, 45 Prospect st. Geer, E. Hart, Jr.. Hadlyme. Chamberlain, Fred A., Terry- ville. Morris, Chas. G;. New Haven, P. O. Box 1352. Stocking, W. A. & Son, Wea- togue. Rowe, J. Scofield, Hartford, 211 Fern st. Wicks. S. D.. Pomfret. Benham. Wilbur H.. Highwood. Deceased. 282 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Rich. A. E., Rockville, R. F. D. 1. ^—Barnes, John R., Yalesville. Robertson, Lafayette J., Jr., Manchester Green. ——'Clarke, David A., Milford. Cheney, Louis R., Hartford. Hubbard, Clement S., Higga- num. Hale, J. H., South Glastonbury. — "-Hale, Stancliff, South Glaston- bury. Hale, John Stancliff, South Glastonbury. Hale, Lawrence N., South Glas- tonbury. Bailey, Fred B., Durham. Savage, Clarence H., Storrs. Davis, Charles T., Middletown. Griswold, Harry N., Wethers- field. Barnes, Norman H., Yalesville. Bowker Insecticide Co., 43 Chat- ham St., Boston, Mass. Lyman, Charles E., Middlefiel Moses, Arthur A., Unionville.— Robinson, W. C, Columbia. Warner, Everett E.. Highwood Rogers, Harold M., Southing- ton. . Powell, Edwin C, Springfield Mass. Webster, A. E., Berlin. ANNUAL MEMBERS. Abbe, Alfred P., Willimantic, R. D. 2. Abbe, Linden S., Hazardville. Ackerley, ilarr\ L., 3 Richard St., Lynn, Mass. Acton, Harry W., New York City, 519 West 121 st. Adams, E. B., Berlin. Adams, Joseph, Westport. Adams, Thos. D., Westport. Ahern, W. T., Plantsville, R. D. No. 58. Albiston, Jos., So. Manchester. Alcott, Dr. R. W. E., West Hartford. Aldrich, Miss Inie E., Wayside Farm, Thomaston. Allen, Chas. L, Pequabuck. Allerton, G. M., Naugatuck. Alsop, J. W., Avon. Alvord, S. M., Hartford, 254 Ashley st. Anderson, Albin, Bristol, R. D. No. 1. Anderson, Seth V., Middlebury. Andrew, George F., Farmington. Andrew, Irving A., Orange. Andrews, A. H., Meriden, 42y2 West Main st. Andrews, F. H., Farmington. Andrews, H. W., Suffield. Andrews, J. E., New Britain. Angell, M., Putnam, Box 398. ^Anthony, Harry F., Wallin ford. Apothecaries Hall Co., Water- bury. Arnold, E. P., Higganum. Ashley, Dr. Dexter D., New York City, 346 Lexington avenue. Atkins, F. C, Hartford, 711 Prospect avenue. Atkins, Mrs. F. C, Hartford, 711 Prospect avenue. LIST OF MEMBERS. ^83 Atkins, T. ]., Middletown. Atwater, Edwin B., New Ha- ven, 1825 State street. Atwater, Geo., West Cheshire. Atwater, P. H., Cheshire. Atwood, C. B., Watertown. Atwood, Chas. W., Watertown. Atwood, Oscar F., Brooklyn. Atwood, E. R., New Hartford, R. F. D. Avery, S. F., New Britain. 215 South Stanley st. Ayer, Robert E., Unionville. Backes, J. W., Bristol. Bacon, Eben W., Middletown. R. F. D., No. 1. ^ Bailey, O. E., Roclwille, R. D. No. 1. — Bailey, Robert S., Middle Had- dam. *^-^aker, C. H., Andover. Baker, Mrs. C. H., Andover. Baker, H. J., Storrs. Baldwin, Howard F., Cheshire. Baldwin, N. W., Kensington. Baldwin, Walter H., Cheshire. Barber, Henry A., Danbury. Barber, Joseph, Rockville, R. D. Bard, J. Sprague, Brooklyn. Barker, J. Harry, Branford. Barnes, F. A., Mystic. Barnes, H. H., New Haven. Barnes. J. Norris, Yalesville. Barrows. C. S., New Britain. R. F. D. 2. Bartlett, F. A., Stamford. Bartlett, G. M., Andover. Barton. Richard, Thompson. Barton. Robert, Derby, 501 Hawthorne ave. Baskerville, Granville R.. Step- nev Denot. Bass, Mrs. M. R., Willimantic, R. D. No. 2. Bassett, George E., Chntonville. Baumgardt, H. F., Highwood. Beach, A. S., Bridgeport, R. F. D. Beach, Chas. L., Storrs. Beach, Z. P., Wallingford. Ikardsley, C. F., Newtown. Beckwitii, G. C, New Hart- ford, R. F. D. Beckwith, W. M., New Hart- ford, R. F. D. Beers, A. B., Bridgeport. Beers, F. H., Brookfield Centre. Beisiegel, Jacob, Woodbridge. Belden, Fred L., Rocky Hill. Beman, W. L., Bloomfield. Benham, Leonard M., High- wood. Bernhard, Albert, Meriden. Bernhard, Mrs. Albert, Meri- den. Bidwell, A. F., Canton Center. Bigelow, E. W., Litchfield. Bilton, L. W., East Long- meadow, Mass. Birdsey, Mrs. H. B., Meriden, Pomeroy ave. Bishop, Mark, Cheshire. Blakeman, Frank E., Oronoque. Blakeman, J. H. Oronoque. Bliss, Charles G., Essex. •*-Bliss, Henry P., Middletown. Boardman, F. E., Middletown, R. F. D. Bonner, Chas. W., Rockville, Booth, H. M., New Haven. 127 Orange st. Bowers, Arthur E., Manchester. Brackett, Shaw & Lunt Co.. Boston, Mass., 62 No Washington st. Bradshaw. E. L, Bristol. 169 Prospect st. 284 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Bray, S. W., Milford. Breck, Joseph & Sons, Corp., 51- 52 No. Market St., Boston, Mass. Brenn, Charles A., Scotland. Brewer, C. S., Hartford. Bridge, Ephriam, Hazardville. Bridge, H. J., Hazardville. Briscoe, C. H., Thompsonville. Britten, Dr. W. E., Experiment Station, New Haven. Brockett, Ernest R., North Ha- ven. Brockett, M. R., North Haven. Bronson, Geo. H., Northford, R. D. •Brooks, E. D., Glastonbury. Brooks, H. R., Glastonbury. Brooks, John N., Torrington. Brooks, R. W., Cheshire. Brown, A. E., Columbia. Brown, F. O., Leonards Bridge. Brown, Lewis, Sandv Hook. Brown, L. H., Hartford, 28 Harold st. Brown, Ray C, Putnam, R. D. 3 Brown, Stanton F., Poquonock. Browning, F. W., Norwich. Brownson, S. B., Shelton. Bruner, Myron L., Wilbraham, Mass. ' Buckingham, C. A., Cheshire. Buckley, W. C. Forestville. Bucklin, Edward E., Mystic, Buell, H. B., Eastford. Buker, E. H., 37 Magnolia St., Hartford. Bull, C. Sanford, Waterbury. Butler, Albert N., Meriden. Burnham, C. N., Middlefield. Burr, C. R., Manchester. Burr, Eugene O., Higganum. Burr, W. H., Westport. Burroughs, Thos. E., Deep Riv- er. Burt, E. M., East Long Mead- ow, Mass. Bushnell, H G., Bloomfield. Burton, Fred W., Mystic, R. D. Butler, George E., Meriden. Butler, George S., Cromwell. Callahan, Thos., New Britain, R. F. D. Calhoun, J. E., Cornwall. Camp, A. A., Bridgeport, 261 Clinton ave. Camp, David, N., New Britain. Camp, W. H., Waterbury. Candee, Z. H., Sheffield. Mass. Canning. William A., Milford. Cannon, C. J., Burnside. Carini, Bartholomew, South Glastonbury. Case, E. E., Bloomfield. Cass, Chas. F., Waterbury, R. F. D., No. 1. Champlin, George H., Leonards Bridge. Chandler, Dr. W. M.. Philadel- phia, Pa., 1939 Federal st. Chapman, Chas. E., North Ston- ington. Chase, F. S., Waterbury. Chesbro. H. P., Hampton. Child, C. H., Woodstock. Child, Wm. C, Woodstock. Chrisolm, Richard S., Litch- field. Church, H. E., Hartford, 34 Asylum street. Clark, C. W., Woodbridge. Clark, E. O., Rockville. Clark, Elwyn T.. Higganum. Clark, F. S., Windsor. Clark, Geo. S., Milford. Clark. Geo. T.. Beacon Falls. LIST OF MEMBERS. 28s Clark. James R., Milton, N. Y. Clark. iMerritt M., Brookfield Center. Clarke, Clifford L., Durham. Clarke, Denison W., Middle- town, 491 Main st. Clinton, E. B., Clintonville. Clinton, Dr. George P., Experi- ment Station, New Haven. Clough, F. P., Waterbury, R. E. D. No. 4. Clyne, G. A.. Thomaston. Coe, Elmer W., Waterbury, R. D. No. 1. Coleman, M. L., Cheshire. Coleman, M. P., South Coven- try. Coleman, Raymond, Cheshire. Coles, John E., 115 Warren street, New York City. Collins, M. J., Hazardville. Colton, F. B., Ashley Street, Hartford. Conant, O. L., Hartford, ZZ Oakland Terrace. Conant, W. 11., Brookfield, Me. Congdon, C. A., Middletown. Conn. Fruit and Orchard Co., Hartford, 29 Hartford Trust Building. Comstock. G. C, Norwalk. Conant, George A., Windsor Locks. Cook, Geo. A., Willimantic, R. D. No. 2. Cook, H. B., Noroton Heights. Cook, S. G., Branford. Cooke, Chester H., \\'alling- ford. Cooke, H. G.. Branford. '^Cooke, Marcus E., Wallingford. Cooke, L. Morelle, Wallingford, Cooke, Rowland R.. Meriden, Spruce St. Cooley, Ernest, South Manches- ter, R. D. No. 1. Cooper, J. M. Wallingford. Cornwall, Horace B, Meriden. Counter, C. R., Sommers. Covell, Willis, Abington. Cowles, P. A., Farmington. Cowles. S. E., Robert St., Xew Britain. Cowles, S. M., Kensington. Cowlister, G., Montague, Alass. Crabtree. J. B., Yalesville. Craft, Edward E., Glen Cove, L. I., N. Y. Crandall, Mrs. A. E., Berlin. Crandall, A. E., Berlin Creswell, Geo. N., Seymour. Crosby, George W., New Brit- ain, care Stanley Works. Crowell, David A., Middletown. Crowell, J. W., Burnside. Cullen, John T.. Derby, Box 71. Curtis, Newton M., Sandy Hook. Cushman. G. R., Baltimore, Md., c/o Thomsen Chemical Co. Daniels, H. O., Middletown. Darling, Robert, Simsbury. Dart, E. S., Vernon Center. Davenport, M. ^^^, 112 Lincoln St.. Xew Britain. Davidson,, Tyler G., Bethany. Davis, Chas. A., Southburv, R. D. Davis, E., Branford. Davis, Edson G., Torrington. Davis. Lawrence C. East Long- meadow, Mass. 'Davis, Myron F., Somers, R. D. Dean, E. K., Sharon. Decherd, C. K., Middletown, R. F. D. No. 1. Deming. B. F., Meriden. 286 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Deming, E. H., Farmington. Deming, F. J., Rocky Hill. Deming, H. P., Robertsville. Deming, Dr. William C, Georgetown, R. D. No. 41. Derudder, Peter, Meriden, Eaton avenue. D'Esopo, P. M., Hartford, 91 Ann St. Desmarais, Dr. J. H., Bristol. DeWolfe, Dr. D. C, Bridgeport. Doehr, Fred, Wallingford. Dooley, W. J., Kensington. Doolittle, Arthur H., Bethany. Douglas, Edward C., Middle- town. Douglass. G. F., Collinsville. Downs, Jerome A., Bethany. Dresser, J. S., Southbridge, Mass. "Drew, G. A., Greenwich. Driggs, Oliver K.. Vernon. Dryhurst, Henry, Meriden. Dufifv, V. E., West Hartford. Duncan, R. R., Wethersfield. Dunham, H. C., Middletown. Dunham, Wm. N., New Brit- ain. Dunn, Mrs. R. S., Middletown' Box 911. Easterbrook, I. Harold, Dudley, Mass. Eddv, T. C., Simsburv. Eddy, S. W., Avon. Ellison, E. W., Willimantic. Ellsw^orth, David J., Windsor. Ellsworth. F. H., New Haven, 439 George street. Emerson, J. ' B., New York City, 40 E. 41st street. Ennis, Bertrand O., Highwood. Eno, Frank H., Hartford, 387 Capen st. Enslin. T. J- Maplewood, N. J. Eppes, H. M., Cannon Station. Erickson, Miss Josephine S., New Britain, Box 675. Evans, Archie J., Hockanum. Ew^ald, Simon L., New Lon- don. Fagan, Joseph A., Forestville. Fairchild, H. L., Bridgeport, R. F. D., No. 4. Fall, E. B., Middletown. Fanning, W. N., Kensington. Farnham, A. N., Westville. Fawthrop, Walter, Cromwell. Fenn, Benj., Milford. Fenn, Dennis, Milford. Fenn, Robert M., Middlebury. Ferguson; Miss Eleanor, Hart- ford, 123 Vernon st. Filley, O. D., Bloomfield. Fischer, E. P., Durham. Fiske, H. B. & Co., Providence, R. I. Flanders, Rev. C. K., Union- ville. Fletcher, A. J., Meriden. Florian, G. W., Thomaston. Foote, Dr. Edward M., Corn- wall (135 W. 48th St., New York City.) Fonda, Arthur I., Kensington. Forbes, John P., West Haven, R. D. Forbes, J. S., Burnside. Foster. Sylvester M.. Westport. Francis, Judson E., Durham Center. Eraser, G. W., Storrs. Eraser, Samuel, Geneseo. N. Y. Francis, John H., Wallingford. French. W. FT., Wolcott. Frost, Frank M., Yalesville. Frost, Fremont, Hartford. Frost, Willis E., Bridgewater. Fuller, H. C, New London. LIST OF MEMBERS. 287 Fuller, Wm. H., West Hart- ford. Gager, John M., Willimantic. (lalvin, T. M., Willimantic, R. D. 1. Gardner, A. H., Meriden. ardner, B. L., Wallingford. (Gardner, R. H., Rocky Hill. Gatchell. Mtilford H., Andover. Gaylord, E. W., Bristol. Geer, Isaac G., Norwich, R. F. D. -*Geer, W. H., Yantic, R. F. D. No. 1. Gelston. J. B., East Haddam. Gilbert, Henry, Middletown. Gilbert, Henry R., New Britain, 290 South Main st. Gilbert, Thomas, Middletown. Gold. Mrs. C. L., West Corn- wall. Goff, H. W., South Canterbury. Goodenough, T., Winsted, R. F. D. 3. Goodrich, Arthur B.. Glaston- bury. Goodrich, Mrs. H. W., Berlin. Goodrich, H. W., Berlin. Goodrich, ^Tyron D., Berlin. Gormley, J. E., Highwood. Gotta. John, Portland. Gould, F. C. .Silver Lane. Gould, L. H.. East Hampton. R. F. D. Grant, Lucius T-, ^^"appino■. Graves, Chas. B., M.D., New London, 66 Franklin st. Gray. Chas. A.. Norwich. R. F. D. 1 Gregg. Percy, Orange. Green, ^^^ A., Sutton, AFass. Greenbacker, Chas, Meriden. Greenbacher, Robert. Meriden. ^**Greene, A. F., Woodbury, R. F. D. Greene, W. A., Millburv, Mass., R. F. D. Gridley, E. D., Plainville, R. D. Griffith, Geo. H., Bristol. Griswold, Chauncey, Farming- ton. Griswold, H. O., West Hart- ford. Griswold, R. S., Wethersfield. Griswold, S. P., West Hartford. 'Griswold, Thomas & Co., South Wethersfield. Griswold. W. F., Rocky Hill. Haase, TuHws H., Terryville. Hackett, E. A., Bolton.' Hale, George. Westport. Hale, G. H.. South Glastonbury. Hale, Mrs. Stancliff, South Glastonbury. Haley, E., Mystic, R. F. D. Hall, Chas. C., Cheshire, R. D. Hall, C. R., Rocl^ Young, C. O.,- Yalesville. Wilcox, Louis E., Meriden, 44 Young, C. B., Yalesville. Windsor ave. Young, Harold, Yalesville. Wilcox, Paul P., Durham. Young, F. P., Kensington. MEMBERS— PLEASE NOTICE! Each member should feel the respoiisibilitij of keeping up our membership. Now is a good time to talk with your neighbor fruit growers. Show them this book, that they may see how great bene fd is to be obtained from membership in this society. You know our aim this year is ONE THOUSAND members. Help us to reach it! — Secretary. I