PROCEEDINGS OF KINDRED SOCIETIES. 269 



this year was the two or three preceding very dry seasons. It has been a 

 struggle for life with many of our strongest trees, and only those which 

 bore no fruit the year before, and had retained a trifling surplus of vitality^ 

 succeeded in maturing a few imperfect apples. Seasons when showers 

 come frequently and regularly, there is moisture enough, with fair care, 

 for the trees to mature a good crop of apples. It is only in protracted 

 drouths, such as we have had for the i^ast few seasons, that irrigation or 

 tillage becomes imperative. Irrigation in this section is generally imprac- 

 ticable, but I have no doubt of its great efficacy when water can be 

 supplied in this way. 



By tillage is not meant that any moisture is added to the soil; it only 

 prevents it from evaporating too suddenly, and it thereby husbands it, to 

 be drawn on by the plants when needed. There continues to be consider- 

 able difference of opinion whether fruit orchards should be cultivated or 

 not after they are four or five years old. All are agreed that they should 

 receive the very best tillage up to that time. Standard pear trees seem to 

 do decidedly better in grass, after arriving at a stage where they are able 

 to take care of themselves. Instances can be given where such trees, 

 believed to be 150 years old, standing in sod which had not been disturbed 

 in over fifty years, produced abundant crops of fine fruit, and the trees are 

 yet in a thrifty condition. But as to dwarf pears and apple trees, the 

 treatment should be quite different. Such orchards should be as well 

 cultivated as our cornfields are; or any portion of our vegetable garden. 

 Indeed, New York leads already in this practice, her orchards are kept 

 free from weeds and well mulched by good tillage. 



I can not believe, however, that tillage is all; that we can obtain good 

 fruit by this alone, any more than we can good butter and good beef from 

 wind and water; in other words, that we can obtain something for nothing 

 — although farmers come as near doing this in the management of their 

 orchards as is done by any other business I know of. Threes must be fed, 

 and if the food is not already in the soil it must be put there. A large 

 crop of apples taken from an orchard draws immensely on the plant food 

 in the soil, and if this practice is continued (of taking from and never 

 giving back) the soil will become exhausted, trees refuse to bear, and 

 finally die of starvation. We must not cheat the soil out of any portion 

 belonging to it if we expect fine orchards and fine fruits. I know of noth- 

 ing better, for an apple orchard, than good stable manure spread evenly 

 over the entire surface. It is better that this manure should be well 

 worked into the soil by good tillage; but put on as a top-dressing on sod 

 it will do a great deal of good. Unleached wood ashes are recommended 

 as specially good for nearly all kinds of fruit, and where they can be 

 obtained easily may be used. Apple trees require less frequent renewal 

 than other fruit trees, and under the best management will grow and bear 

 fruit a great number of years. 



A moderate amount of pruning, especially of dead limbs, may be done 

 in autumn, but if the trees are to receive much cutting it makes them 

 more tender for the time and should be left till early spring. There can 

 be no fixed rule for pruning apple trees. Remember only that sunlight is 

 absolutely necessary to health and growth of the tree and the production 

 of good fruit, and that stove-wood cut from healthy trees is the dearest ever 

 paid for. ' 



There is much work that may be done in autumn, in an apple orchard. 

 Moss will accumulate on trees in wet seasons, no matter how good the 



