DR. MACDANIEL: I would think that failure to bear was caused by a combination of things; lack of soil fertility, in the first place, soil physical conditions, probably insect damage and diseases like anthracnose keeping the trees from being vigorous, overcrowding now, with many of them, and perhaps to some extent genetic, some varieties that just naturally don't fruit very heavily.
DR. McKAY: Any others in the audience care to comment on that question?
MR. STOKE: Weather conditions, freezing may have caused it.
DR. MACDANIELS: My impression was that the trees were starving to death. Cutting down the competition with the weeds and feeding them nitrate would help.
DR. MCKAY: I think most members felt there that the trees were probably crowding each other.
MR. BECKER: They had never borne, had they?
MR. WILKINSON: I don't like to comment on it. My opinion is it's due to the undergrowth under the trees. Keeping the circulation of the air to the roots of the trees has an effect on its non-bearing. Up until they quit cultivating and pasturing the orchard, it bore, but after they quit, production stopped. There is a two- or three-year growth of grass and weeds, a mat on the ground, and I think it's a lack of air to the roots of the trees.
DR. MCKAY: Mr. Wilkinson, I heard the question raised as to whether the orchard had ever produced heavily or not. Can you answer that?
MR. WILKINSON: Yes, it certainly did for several years. As long as it was cared for, it was a heavy producer.
DR. MCKAY: How long ago was that, could you say?