SECRETARY'S REPORT. 209 



to bear till several years later. The Hubbardston, Nonsuch, and 

 Yellow Bell Flower, will also come into bearing very early. Your 

 early^varieties, and sweet apples, should be grafted near the build- 

 ings where they will be less exposed to plunder. 



By careful attention a few days each year, an orchard may soon 

 be made very productive and profitable. There are many orchards 

 in this State that might be made as profitable as all the rest of the 

 farm, which are now valueless. The orchardist should not be dis- 

 couraged if a tree dies. Set another in its place. Change is stamped 

 on everything, and apple trees are no exception. 



You can now spread on a coating of lime, plaster and ashes, which 

 will assist in the formation of the fruit. 



With a very little attention from year to year, you may have an 

 abundance of fruit, and anticipate an annual return (and a year 

 soon rolls round,) for your investment. We mark a man's thrift 

 quite as readily by the conspicuous appearance of his orchard as by 

 anything else on his farm. 



Loss Arising from a Surplus of Horses. 



By Seward Dill, Phillips. 



S. L. GooDALE, Esq., Secretary. S)'c. 



Dear Sir : — I have to acknowledge myself tardy in furnishing 

 you, as requested by the Board, a report upon the topic above 

 named. The work has proved itself a larger and more difficult one 

 than I anticipated. Sometime ago, I wrote to the assessors of nearly 

 all the towns and plantations in my county, and made verbal inqui- 

 ries in the others, in order to obtain the statistics necessary to build 

 upon. Answers have come to hand from four towns only, namely, 

 Phillips, Madrid, Strong and Wilton. In justice to Weld, I will 

 say that her officers were prompt to answer my call ; but by a mis- 

 fortune the answer was lost, so that it could not be brought into the 

 reckoning. From the statistics of these four towns, I could do no 

 better than to draw an estimate for the whole county. 



Phillips, according to the inventory of last April, has four hun- 

 dred and seven horses and colts, taking no account of any under a 

 year old; Madrid has eighty-three horses and colts; Strong has 

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