60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



well balanced roots. The tree that the nursery man has been 

 obliged to stake in order to cause an upright growth is not a good 

 one to select. The variety has very much to do with the mode of 

 growth, and it has also much to do with the form of root growth ; 

 so much that I will warrant that if you were to go into a nursery 

 to select your trees, there are some varieties, no matter how good 

 the fruit, or how anxious you were to plant trees of that variety, 

 if you saw how provokingly they grow and how awkwardly, you 

 would not put them into your orchard. I have in mind now the 

 Swaar, which you know has peculiarly unfortunate habits. The 

 growth of the top affects the roots, and with a one-sided top you 

 get a one-sided root, wanting in fibres and attachments to the 

 soil, so that almost always the tree as it grows up will fall over. 

 In selecting varieties, you can just as well get those that have a 

 strong, even-balanced growth of root and top, and which are pro- 

 ductive in choice fruit, as to get awkward growing, feeble varieties ; 

 and your success and satisfaction in orchard culture will depend 

 very much upon a proper selection of varieties. 



I cannot tell you what varieties are best adapted to this locality 

 or any other in Maine, but every section of country has developed 

 varieties of fruit well adapted to cultivate there, and that succeed 

 there better than anywhere else ; and it is for you, by an exami- 

 nation of the orchards in your own vicinity and upon soils similar 

 to those upon which you propose to plant, and by trial upon your 

 own grounds, to ascertain the varieties which are best adapted to 

 your own location. 



With regard to the time of planting. In some soils and sections 

 we are advised to plant in the autumn, in others in the spring. 

 With me, in a somewhat tenacious, loamy soil, I prefer spring 

 planting, but I am satisfied that the failure of my experiments in 

 autumn planting has been largely due to the fact that 1 planted 

 too late. If you plant in autumn, plant early, so that the little 

 granulations may form upon the roots, and the plant may become 

 adapted to its position before severe weather. I planted late in 

 autumn, with general failure. 1 find that nurserymen are taking 

 up their trees as early as the frosts of autumn cause the foliage to 

 drop, and even go into the nursery and strip the leaves from the 

 trees; and I have good reason to believe that they may be planted 

 successfully at that early season, say early in October, with good 

 results; but if deferred later, until there is danger of the roots 

 being exposed to the frost, or even without that, it is very 



