D. H. Knowlton
Published: 2015-07-21
Total Pages: 100
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Excerpt from Transactions of the Maine State Pomological Society for the Year 1898: Including the Proceedings of the Winter Meeting Held in Skowhegan, December 27, 28, and 29, 1898 The phenomenal crop of fruit borne in 1896 was followed in 1897 by a small yield in all parts of the State. Some with good reason claim that the trees were allowed to overbear and in consequence were so exhausted that they were not strong enough to bear another crop without time to recuperate. In 1897 there was a visitation of tent caterpillars (clisiocampa Americana, and clisiocampa sylvatica.) Some fought the insects with more or less success, but in the absence of effective remedies the insects matured and large numbers of eggs were deposited in fruit and forest trees. From these large numbers of insects made their appearance this year, and in many cases the foliage was completely stripped from the trees. Although spraying had been urged as an effective remedy, few were prepared with apparatus to employ it. The result was that many of the largest orchards hardly bore fruit enough for family use. Fortunately all parts of the State were not so much affected by these pests, and some parts not at all. Aroostook county is reported as shipping some fruit to other parts of the State. Waldo, Penobscot, Knox, Lincoln, Northern Somerset, Northern Franklin, Northern Oxford, Sagadahoc, Southern Cumberland and York counties had some fruit, though lacking much of a full crop. The figures representing the fruit crop in the State have been misleading. Some of these placed the yield higher than 50 per cent., but so far as your secretary can learn the crop fell much below their figures. The season was favorable for the growth of foliage and fruit where any was set, and at the close of the season the trees were looking far better than one could expect. The Prospect For Next Year. It is believed by many that large numbers of caterpillars were destroyed by some parasites. This in some localities is true, but an examination of the trees shows many clusters of eggs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.