^•^g BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



After Culture. 



Fruit trees require attention and cultivation, as really as corn and 

 potatoes ; and they should have both, not merely for the first year 

 or the first five years, but as long as they need it and pay for it. 



Many a man has procured good trees, planted them skillfully 

 and carefully, and thenceforward treated them to forgetfuluess and 

 neglect. Almost as well might he have spared the expense and 

 trouble thus far incurred, as to leave them to struggle unaided, in 

 competition with weeds, grass, moss, insects, and perhaps poverty 

 also, and whatever else they may have to contend with. When 

 good seed is put in good ground, we deem culture well begun, but 

 not completed. Corn and carrots get attention as long as they 



ment was fully tried, aud with decided resalts in favor of shelter as the following 

 report by the Government commission shows. 



" 'Accordingly in the most favorable soils and situations oaks only were planted 

 at first; but in spots where it was thought doubtful whether oaks would grow, 

 Scotch pines were planted with a small proportion of oaks intermixed; aud it was 

 soon found that in many of these spots, even under the disadvantage of inferior soil 

 and greater exposure, such was the benefit derived from the warmth and shelter of 

 the pines, that the oaks far outgrew their neighbors planted in more favorable soils, 

 but without protection. After this the use of Scotch pines become more general; 

 strong belts were planted on the most exposed outsides of the plantation, and also 

 across, at intervals, in lines, towards the most prevailing winds, and from them 

 great benefit was found; but in all cases where oaks were planted actually amongst 

 the pines and surrounded by them, the oaks were found to be much the best.' 



"Here we have the best of evidence of the importance of shelter even to an oak 

 in the mild climate of England. And shall wc suppose that a fruit tree needs less 

 protection to produce its fruit aside from the mere growth of the tree? If the oak, 

 planted with a view simply to grow timber, must be nui'sed while young by larches 

 and pines, shall not a pear tree, cultivated for its delicious fruit, have equal care? 

 The answer is plain. Every intelligent cultivator must be aware of the necessity of 

 shelter, aud he who expects to succeed without it, is wanting in that experience and 

 knowledge which alone can insure profitable results. It is the key to the cause of 

 many failures, of the death of trees by exposure in winter; of the loss of a crop by 

 the dropping of their blossoms; of the spotting and cracking of the fruit in exposed 

 situations, and in fine, the want of growth and vigor in numei'ous localities. 



"A successful instance of overcoming obstacles of this kind and a decided evidence 

 of the importance of shelter we have in the experiment of l\Ir. Tudor, at Nahant, 

 Mass., where by means of triple palings of great heigh,t the temperature of several 

 acres has been so changed, that while in the coldest winter the earth is frozen only a 

 foot in depth, the soil on the outside freezes three or four feet deep; and in summer 

 when there is scarce wind enough inside to rustle the leaves of the trees, on the out- 

 side they were moved with such violence as to dislodge them and even bruise their 

 branches. Here, where scarcely any tree could bo made to stand the blast unprotect- 

 ed, in the garden the finest pears arc raised in the greatest perfection."— [Ilovey's 

 Magazine, Vol. XXI. 



