30 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ers in the state should not raise his own fruit. I have here out- 

 hned a diagram which shows that on one-half of an acre of 

 ground enough fruit and vegetables can be raised to amply fur- 

 nish a large family the year around w'ith choice fruit. 



The diagram shows a plot ten rods long by eight rods wide, 

 laid off in checks one rod square. Select a good garden soil 

 free from weeds. Line off in blocks two rods square, beginning 

 one rod in from each edge. This will give room for twenty 

 apple trees. Alake a good selection of varieties to cover the 

 apple season. When the apple trees are ordered, place on the 

 list three cherry trees, three pear trees and six plum trees, 

 together with six gooseberry, a dozen currant, fifty blackberry 

 and fifty raspberry bushes, also two hundred or more straw- 

 berry plants. 



Now you are ready for your orchard. 



Line off the ground as before described. Set the apple trees 

 first, then place the other trees as fillers in the following order: 

 the three cherry trees in the centers of the first row of squares, 

 followed by the six plum trees in the next two sets of squares, 

 and the pears in the last row of fillers. Place the other small 

 fruits in rows as suits your convenience and use the remainder 

 as a vegetable garden. If this small patch of only one-half acre 

 is w^ell cared for each year, it will yield all the fruit, twice over, 

 that any family can use. Of course you will have to wait a few 

 years for the trees to give much yield, but try the experiment 

 and you will be surprised at the result. 



In whatever tpwn our annual meeting is held, a few names 

 are added to the list. Ninety per cent of these give because 

 they do not wish to refuse when asked for a dollar to aid in the 

 good work. They give a dollar, they hear the song, they for- 

 get the singer. 



Why is there such an apathy among our farmers regarding 

 orcharding in Maine? In nine out of every ten cases it is 

 indifference, pure and simple. 



There are some apple trees to be found on each of the fifty 

 thousand farms in the state. There may be orchards on twenty 

 per cent of these; that is, a collection of trees numbering from 

 fifty upward. Of these ten thousand or more aggregations of 

 trees, how many could be rightly called orchards? Perhaps 

 fifty per cent. 



