TRANSACTIONS OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 27 1 



than the other failures ; it stands year after year producing no fruit. If 

 it were mine I would cut it down, as I intend to my own. (Laughter.) 



D. C. ScoFiELD. — Mr. President, I must confess that old orchard 

 has been sadly neglected, and I alone am in fault. I manured and culti- 

 vated it some while it was young and it bore several crops of fruit ; but 

 from the multiplicity of cares upon me it was neglected, and, as the Judge 

 says, is unprofitable. But I have preached orchard culture all my life and 

 I still preach it ; I preached it to a thousand people in Connecticut before 

 I came here, though few would heed and practice upon the sermons. I 

 wish to relate one exception as a sample of good culture. I sold trees 

 thirty to forty years ago to one man who had a piece of ground which 

 had been under cultivation one hundred and fifty years. He thoroughly 

 manured and prepared the land, planted the trees upon it and continued 

 to manure and cultivate year after year; the trees soon came into bearing 

 and continued to bear heavy crops, while others all around bore very 

 little ; and people came from far and near to see that remarkable orchard 

 loaded with fruit of surpassing excellence. And what is true there may 

 also be made true here. My sermon is this: Make the ground rich; fit 

 it in the best manner; prune off all useless branches while very small and 

 never cut off a large one ; manure from year to year or at intervals as 

 needed, and continue the cultivation; put hoed crops on the ground, but 

 never potatoes — for you will then have to work the ground too late in the 

 season, producing too late a growth of wood; and as the trees begin to 

 bear increase the manuring. This is what we preached to the Connecticut 

 man and which he practiced. His trees were planted eighteen feet apart, 

 one hundred and sixty to the acre, and of course they required double 

 the amount of food as though twice as far apart, or eighty to the acre. 

 They began to bear the fourth year after planting and continued to 

 increase the crop every year, and on the eighth year from planting he sold 

 six hundred dollars' worth from the acre. 



Ninety-nine men out of a hundred don't give their trees food enough. 



(He spoke of Mr. Sheddon's orchard, giving about the same testi- 

 mony as last year, for which see page 227, vol. 12. — Sec.) 



Judge Wilcox spoke of an orchard near by upon oak-barrens soil, 

 which, though not manured, was bearing well; also of a pear orchard 

 near Lockport, New York, on clay ground, which bore immense crops of 

 fruit, which vied with California pears in size and beauty; and thinks 

 that soil has much to do with productiveness. 



Mr. Galusha cited the Judge to old, sickly, unproductive orchards 

 which he knew had been rejuvenated and rendered productive by thorough 



