SECRETARY'S REPORT. 21 



lands, rocky knolls and side hills, especially in fifth range, I found 

 orchards which bid fair to be productive and profitable. Mr. Elisha 

 Brown of number six, in this range, has an orchard of some three 

 hundred trees, many of them planted eight to twelve years, and 

 most of which are succeeding finely. In his earlier attempts, he 

 lost largely by grafting to Baldwin, Greening, Roxbury Russet, and 

 Other varieties of good repute further west, but which prove utterly 

 unfit fijr this climate. Success in orchard culture here, will depend 

 greatly upon a proper selection of varieties, and in this much help 

 may be obtained from the experience of cultivators in the northern 

 parts of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, where also, some very 

 promising seedlings have originated. It is highly probable that the 

 sorts which in most parts of New England ripen in autumn, will 

 here prove winter, or at least, early winter varieties. Mr. Cushman 

 of Golden Ridge, informed me that he had received the first pre- 

 mium for apples at their Agricultural Fair held in October, on the 

 Red Astrachan, such was its fine quality and good condition. This 

 variety proves throughout Maine to be one of the hardiest, but in 

 the western part of the State, I have never seen it in eating after 

 August ; and as with this, so probably with other early varieties, the 

 period of maturity may be considerably later, and in some cases 

 the quality improved, as it is proved to be with the Duchess of 

 Oldenburg, another extremely hardy, early sort. Mr. Cushman's 

 success has been such, that he proposes to plant at least two thousand 

 apple trees on his farm, (with reference to its future division,) to 

 graft them as soon after they attain suitable age, as he can decide 

 in his own mind upon the most profitable varieties for leading sorts 

 in their adaptation to his soil and climate. The treatment he pro- 

 poses being somewhat original, may be stated. First cut down and 

 burn the original growth; "hand-pile" the logs remaining sufficiently 

 to allow the planting out of the apple trees, and seed down the land 

 to clover at once. The clover to be neither mown or pastured, but 

 left to decay on the ground, year after year. Three or four tons per 

 acre every year, he thinks, will keep the ground in good heart, and 

 what is more, secure the trees from the attacks of mice which are 

 often troublesome on tilled and mown land, as they will hardly care 

 to eat apple tree bark, or wood, while "living in clover," and with 

 plenty of seed to fatten upon. 



