Ig2 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cents per buslicl for horses ; " " one-sixth as much as corn for 

 swine j" "fully equal to potatoes;" "as good or better than 

 potatoes, either for milk or flesh," «fcc. One more in detail is as 

 follows : " The cultivation of fruit in a common way, without much 

 attention to quality, has been extensive from early settlement. 

 Many of the old orchards have passed their prime and been in 

 part or wholly, replaced by new, or made over by grafting 

 •within this generation. Of late, new orchards have been set 

 somewhat extensively but not as yet productive. Baldwins, 

 Russets, Pearmains, Greenings, Ribston Pippins, Seek-no- 

 further. Pound Sweet, Early Bough, Golden Sweet, and so on 

 to the number of some JSfty kinds, all having their advocates 

 for this or that quality not found in any other. Still we are 

 doing but little, and that as yet, to little advantage. Some- 

 thing is being done in the way of cherries and plums, to take 

 the place of the fruit nearly extinct, and with good success so 

 far, with plums, but unsuccessful with cherries and pears. 

 The winter is too hard, or we have not got the right method 

 of preparing the ground, or of fitting them for the winter } 

 most of our people want them to take care of themselves, 

 A few grape vines about here are now doing well, but have not 

 been tried long enough to test them. 



" Apples for stock are deemed worth about two-thirds as much 

 as potatoes, by some more, and others less. For hogs they are 

 worth more to feed to store hogs than for fatting, and are now 

 used mostly raw, even preferred in that state. If fed to fatten 

 swine they are cooked, so as to apply meal plentifully, or tlicy 

 will not raise the flesh very high. Sweet are best for any use. 

 Apples are good feed for horses as well as horned cattle. "We 

 raise fruit here, much as we do other things, try, to do too much 

 and do not try enough, to do only what can be done well." 



On the score of profit in growing fruit, opinions vary but 

 little, nearly two-thirds answering that it is " profitable ; " about 

 one third say " very profitable," and the balance speak of it as 

 " the most profitable crop grown." With regard ta the best 

 varieties for our soil and climate, I append a list of such as have 

 been recommended by the Maine Pomological Society. It is the 

 result of conference and discussion, at several meetings held for 

 the purpose, at which many of the best cultivators from all parts 



