600 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



apple, although they are true in varying degrees of all other 

 fruits. 



1. The farmer wants to get his fruit without earning it. — The 

 farmer's frame of mind is likely to be something like this, " How 

 can I secure that crop with the least expenditure of effort?" A 

 more rational attitude is one which asks, " How much labor can I 

 put upon that crop with profit?" In orchard -growing, particularly 

 if the orchard is of apples, there is still much of the old feeling that 

 trees can wait until all other crops of the farm are served. As the 

 orchard is conceived in the mind of the planter, so will the harvest 

 most likely be. A plantation poorly planned, or not planned at all, 

 carries its faults throughout its life. For this reason, I think it 

 impossible to make many of the orchards of the State profitable, 

 even if now given the best of care. 



2, There are frequent onistalces in the choice of land and sites 

 for an orchard. — There is, in general, accurate practice in western 



New York in the selection of the proper soil for trees — clay for 

 pears, clay loams for plums and quinces, sands for peaches, and 

 loose loams for apples — but there seems to be less attention given 

 to the choice of the aspect and the " lay of the land." A person 

 who has nearly one hundred acres of unprofitable apple orchard 

 asked me to inspect his place for the purpose of discovering the 

 cause of the unproductiveness of the trees. It required but a glance 

 at the plantation to see that the land was wholly unsuited to apples. 

 It was flat land, with a tenacious and impervious subsoil lying only 

 a foot or two below the surface. In order to carry off the water, 

 the owner had left the dead-furrows open and had plowed a series 

 of open ditches about the borders of the plantation. He supposed 

 that if he carried off the surface water, all the requirements would 

 be satisfied ; but the hard subsoil remained intact, and the roots of 

 the trees lay near the surface, so that when I visited the place, in 

 mid-summer, the trees were suffering from drought. The trees had 

 no doubt soon robbed the surface soil of most of its richness and, 

 unable to penetrate the lower levels freely, they were now stunted 

 and unthrifty. The owner had various expedients in mind for the 

 renovation of the orchard, but the xerj first requisite — a thorough 

 system of tile drains — had not occurred to him. All other treat- 

 ment will probably be well-nigh useless until these drains are 

 supplied; and even then I doubt if the orchard can ever be made 

 profitable, for such sites are never good orchard lands and the habit 



