82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



borne noble crops for 150 years. I have seen other places where 

 the trees interlaced their branches, and roots also, and the result 

 has been disastrous. I do not know why it is that on Rhode 

 Island their experience should be so different ; but I know that 

 such is their experience. There are some places where orchards 

 will grow better when the trees are interlaced, and there are others 

 where they will grow better if the sunlight can bathe the whole 

 tree. It would seem to be consonant with the laws of vegetable 

 physiology that those trees would be the best which received the 

 greatest amount of sunlight, for that is the great energizing and 

 vitalizing agency for all sorts of plants ; but there are cases where 

 it seems not to be so. For my own part, I confess that I am 

 ignorant with regard to this thing. If we could get the ex- 

 perience of these gentlemen upon the point, it would go a great 

 ways towards settling these questions which it is of inestimable 

 importance to every farmer»to have settled on a solid and satis- 

 factory basis. 



Mr. Perley prefers sheep to hogs ; my experience is reverse of 

 his. I think the hog is the best animal we can put into an orchard. 

 I would have it surrounded by a stone wall that was hog proof, 

 and I would let them run and root just as much as they pleased. 

 In orchards thus treated, so far as my experience goes, there has 

 been little trouble from insects, which are the great enemies of our 

 orchards. One great reason why our orchard fruits deteriorate is 

 because of the millions of noxious insects which infest them. I 

 do not doubt Mr. Perley's experience, that in Maine, or in some 

 parts of Maine, sheep are better. I should like to get the experi- 

 ence of other gentlemen present as to which has proved the better. 



Then there is another Question. If you are going to cultivate 

 a new orchard, what is the best crop to put in ? I want to hear 

 from the farmers of Maine whether they have found the same diffi- 

 culty from sowing grain in an orchard that I have. I never in my 

 life saw rye sowed in an orchard where the color of the trees was 

 not injured. The beautiful, lively green which is the evidence of 

 health, vigor and strength, in an orchard, has' invariably been 

 taken off, and has been succeeded by a sickly yellow. I should 

 like to hear whether rye has the same injurious effect here. 



There are various inquiries of this kind which it seems to me 

 could be very easily settled, if gentlemen would tell their own 

 experience, independent of all theory — we should all be the wiser 

 for it. 



