WINTER MEETING, 18S2. 25 



tions of rats and mice? I doubt not you have often seen an oat scaffold in this 

 condition, and perhaps one of ^vhcat also. There is something repulsive to 

 both rodents and insects, and I think worms likewise, in rye straw. As I 

 have stated before, I never yet found a worm harbored in this material. There 

 is perhaps a little art and skill or practice in putting it on a tree. Before I 

 use it I set on end as many bundles as I think will be needed, and throw water 

 over them, enough to slightly dampen the whole length of the straw. This 

 should be done about two days before required for use, as it will take the water 

 some little time to reach the bottom, and fully permeate and soften the natur- 

 ally harsh straw. I commence to wind by taking about enough for a small 

 band as used in binding grain; keep it as straight as possible, never twist it, 

 hold it in the right hand with the heads down. A little dirt should have pre- 

 viously been removed from the trunk of the tree, which after winding should 

 be replaced. I consider this a very essential point. With the left hand bring 

 the heads close to the ground, with two or three inches of the tip turned up, so 

 that the first turn of the straw will fasten them in this position ; commence to 

 wind in a long spiral the body of the tree. If your tree is small and the straw 

 of good length, the straw first used will be all your tree will require; if your 

 tree is larger two lengths will be required. The joining is but the work of a 

 moment ; a half hitch with a straw or two at the top fastens the whole in place, 

 and when well done no part of the tree is exposed to sight, and the thickness 

 of the band will vary from one to about four straws. So quickly is it done 

 after a little practice that I bound, or wound, the whole of the trees in my 

 large orchard of over 1,000 trees, with everything prepared and convenient to 

 hand, in just three days, alone ; and this work was so well done that, although 

 the straw was left on the trees for nearly two years, I do not recollect of a single 

 instance where the straw became separated from the tree from natural causes 

 alone. That orchard was set in hexagon, like placing a pin for a tree in the 

 center of each cavity of a honey comb. For a large orchard I like this form 

 better than any other; for a small orchard I would prefer the square form. 

 As to the real money value of a market orchard I cannot say. I recollect tell- 

 ing the man who purchased my farm (who at that time told me he considered 

 the orchard of no value to the farm), that if he would take as good care of the 

 trees in the future as I had done, within fifteen years the income from that 

 twenty-five acres would be more than from all the balance of the farm. That 

 orchard is now twenty-oue years old. In 1880 the owner had over 1,600 bar- 

 rels of apples scattered over the farm at one time, picked JSo. 1 fruit. In 

 1881 he had seventy barrels of No. 2 fruit, all told. This tells the story of the 

 status of our fruit for a belt extending about six miles north and south, our 

 village as the center of the belt. 



A belt of about ten miles in width north of ours is mostly better land than 

 wo have here for orchard purposes. It lies higher and has on the whole a 

 better drainage, two very essential points, as far as productiveness is concerned. 

 Our apple buyers here purchased several thousand barrels last fall, but the 

 largest half came from this northern belt. Never have I seen so large a pro- 

 portion of defective and prematurely ripened fruit as the last fall gave within 

 the Hudson belt. I picked and ate large well-ripened Northern Spys in the 

 month of October, something I never did before. From three orchards of over 

 100 trees, where myself and children live, we cannot any of us show the first 

 apple. Of all the best which were put in the cellars, fully three-fourths rotted. 

 I am sorrv we could make no better local show of fruit at this time. The past 



