may in a measure be solved by the application of the laws of plant growth.

Mr. Bryant: How heavy a mulch would there be in this orchard, did you manure the orchard, endeavoring to encourage growth of grass?

Mr. Taylor: The farmers in the neighborhood who viewed. the orchard before the grass was cut estimated that if the crop had been removed and turned into hay, it would have averaged about two tons to the acre. Now, in regard to the method of mulching; when we were taking our soil samples-trees forty feet apart-very often we would mark the center of the four trees and dig down at that place finding roots of apple trees as large as a lead pencil; the roots were occupying the entire surface, so there was no object in gathering together the grass; it was simply allowed to rot where it fell.

A Member: Did you apply the fertilizers to the part that was cultivated?

. Mr. Taylor: The fertilizer question is asked for; when the orchard was taken it was the general impression throughout New York that many of the orchards soils were deficient in phosphorcus acid, and acting upon this general impression, an application of four hundred pounds of acid rock per acre was applied to the entire orchard. This was done for three years. The question was then raised, do we know that we are receiving any benefit from this liberal application? The next year, in place of applying it to the entire crchard, there were two cross rows taken, running across both sod and tillage sections, and the acid rock was applied at the same rate. Further over in the orchard two more rows were used, applying potash at the rate of four hundred pounds per acre. This was continued for two years and although at one of cur summer meetings the second year of this application there were 200 fruit growers going through the orchard, the cover crcp being about one inch high, yet no one was able to discover any gain in any way to the cover crop or the grass, to the leaves cr to the fruit from the use of the fertilizer and since then no fertilizer has been used in the orchard. We have the orchard for four years longer and it is not our intention to apply any fertilizer, for we have apparently received no benefit from its use in this particular orchard.

A Member: What is the nature of your soil, what kind of soil?

Mr. Taylor: The surface soil, is a rich, sandy loam to a depth of about ten inches, and it is underlaid by a compact, sandy subsoil; there is good drainage.

Mr. Melcher: Is there any difference in the ke ping qualities of those two samples you have there?

Mr. Taylor: In regard to the keeping qualities; the fruit on this plate, which represents the sod section, has become mealy and is not pleasant to eat. The fruit from the tillage section is from one to three weeks later; it will be in pleasant condition for eating for at least three weeks longer than the fruit from the sod plat. Now, that is not because the flavor is necessarily better. If the fruit could be tested out at the same. time of maturity, there probably would be no difference, but one is further advanced that the other.

PRINCIPLES OF SMALL FRUIT-GROWING.

(Discussion following above topic, page 74.)

Mr. O. M. Taylor: May I say a word about the Perfection currant I was greatly interested in what I heard yesterday in regard to this currant, and when your secretary sent me the program, seeing that a special report was expected from Wisconsin, I gathered together the information which we have at the Geneva Station, thinking that some of you might be interested in knowing how the Perfection currant does in New York state. The following is the report:

At the Geneva Station the Perfection currant has been grown since 1897. In bush characters it is intermediate between its parents, Fay and White Grape. The size of cluster and berry exceed that of Fay and the fruit is well formed to the tip of the cluster. The stem of the cluster is free from berries near its attachment to the plant, thus making it easy to pick. The color is slightly lighter than Fay; in flavor and quality it is superior to Fay or Cherry. It ripens about with Fay and Cherry and appears to be one of the most charming of the more recent introductions.

Mr. M. S. Kellogg: I should like to ask Mr. Taylor if they have succeeded in any degree in controlling the anthracnose at Geneva with Bordeaux mixture.

Mr. Taylor: In experiments Prof. Paddock carried on several years ago he succeeded in keeping it controlled with the use of Bordeaux mixture, but it was necessary to make so many applications that the expense was so great that it was not practical and at the present time the method recommended for fighting anthracnose is planting every four or five years in new ground.

Mr. Daub: At what age is the currant wood the most prolific? You spoke of cutting out the older ones, at what age should it be cut out?

Mr. Taylor: The currants are not borne upon the new wood after the bush is about four years old, some of the older wood should be taken out each year, and each year it is always necessary to take out some of the weaker of the new growth, as too many canes will develop.

Mr. Daub: Then you would say about four-year old wood? Mr. Taylor: Yes; it would depend a little on the natural vigor of the canes. The important point to watch is this; no crowding of the branches of the bush; you can readily determine whether there are too many of the canes developed, and from the fourth year on it is necessary to watch the bushes in regard to trimming and taking out the older wood. I believe in New York state we fail in this one particular more than we do in any other way in the growing of currants. We allow too much of the wood to remain in the bush.

Mr. Richardson: I would like to ask a question in regard to cultivation, frequent cultivation produces dust mulch and that dust mulch keeps them from drying out?

Mr. Taylor: Yes.

Mr. Richardson: Then in dry weather, in June, July and August, would you cultivate a great deal, and hce up close to a strawberry plant, so as to have a dust mulch?

Mr. Taylor. This is the new planting?

Mr. Richardson: Yes, new planting.

Mr. Taylor: In doing this work it is necessary to have the cultivation very light, not deep, and in exceptional cases-this was true I remember nearly twenty years ago in Wisconsin, in an unusually dry season, potatoes that were cultivated I

think nearly every day-were not saved by the cultivation, and in extreme cases I could see that the cultivation of the strawberry plant with its roots close to the surface might in time, if the drought continued too long, be injurious but in ninetynine cases out of one hundred, if the cultivation is light, it will do more good than injury.

Mr. Richardson: I have had the theory for several years that hoeing, if you hoe fairly deep in dry times, was liable to do about as much harm as good. One has to be very careful at that time of year.

A Member: How about pruning strawberries?

Mr. Taylor: The general practice in New York is to plant the varieties that send out many runners at quite a distance apart, planting such varieties that send out few runners closer together and very little attention is paid to the pruning of the strawberry. It is true that in a great many strawberry beds there are too many weeds, and when there are too many strawberry plants, a strawberry plant out of place is a weed; that is one of the troubles why we have so many small strawberries, there is not enough moisture in the soil for all of the berries and one of the most difficult things we have in strawberry growing is to get our plants far enough apart and if the people in Wisconsin have an inexpensive method of doing this, I certainly would be glad to carry it to New York.

Mr. G. J. Kellogg: What is the best plan to get rid of strawberry insects that are injurious? I speak now of the leaf roller, ground borer and anything else, can you spray?

Mr. Taylor: I know of no strawberry growers in New York state who find it profitable to spray each year. In exceptionally few cases spraying is resorted to for the blight of the strawberry leaf, but my observation is that it is not continued more than three or four years by those who make the attempt. They prefer to select a higher elevation with better air drainage or to change to some variety that is more blight resistant. In regard to the grubs that attack the root; the avoidance of sod ground is the only method followed. No spraying at the present time is carried on generally for the strawberry.

Mr. Kellogg: The slug that works on the leaf, and leaf roller. Mr. Taylor: So far as I know, very little if anything is done in regard to those insects. We have never been troubled with them at the Geneva station in sufficient quantities to cause any

necessity for spraying. Arsenical sprays must be used for leafeating insects.

The President: How much good can be done by what the gentleman spoke of, mowing and burning, would it not be better to turn under old beds?

Mr. Taylor. The question of whether the old beds should be retained, or plowed up and a new bed started depends upon conditions. In may cases, if the beds are fairly healthy and not weedy, it may be advisable to hold the bed another season; but if the weeds are coming in thickly, if they are becoming troublesome and the plants unhealthy, it generally is much more satisfactory to turn the bed under and depend upon a new bed coming on to furnish the fruiting bed the coming year.

The President: What about the mowing and burning?

Mr. Taylor: Mowing and burning will sometimes be beneficial in destroying a large number of insects and fungus troubles, and yet Mr. E. L. Doty of Ilion, N. Y., who is growing at the present time eighty acres of strawberries, and who has grown strawberries continuously since 1867, informed me last summer that he has abandoned the method of mowing and burning.

THE NORTHWESTERN GREENING APPLE.

Its History; its place in commercial and in home orchards; is it a winter apple?

Shall we include it in a list of "Five best apples for the home orchard in Wisconsin?"

In a list of "Five best for commercial orchards?" In a list of "Three best?"

J. G. MELVILLE, CHIPPEWA FALLS.

I am not very well prepared to discuss the Northwestern Greening, but will tell you what I think of it and my experience with it in the Melville Settlement.

Eleven or twelve years ago I heard some members of this society speak well of the Northwestern Greening. A year or two later, in 1901 I planted 250 trees on the strength of what I heard society members say. These trees grew rapidly from the