192 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of Charles Twitchell. 



My orchard contains thirty trees. I purchased my farm in 

 the fall of 1836, and this orchard was then in a very bad con- 

 dition. By its appearance, it had run wild for years. The 

 tops were very thick, and the ends of most of the limbs were 

 dead. In the spring of 1837, I gave it a good faithful trim- 

 ming, taking off nearly a third of the tops. I then scraped the 

 trees, ploughed the ground and planted it with potatoes. By 

 keeping the ground ploughed and trees trimmed, they soon 

 became healthy. I then grafted them, and in three years they 

 commenced bearing, and have yielded handsome fruit ever 

 since, and are still in a healthy, flourishing condition, and most 

 of the trees were full of fruit this year. 



Ashland, Sept. 17, 1856. 



NORFOLK. 



Statement of Thaddeus Clapp. 



My peach orchard, ofi^red for premiiim, contains one hun- 

 dred and forty-six trees, set out, a part, in 1854, the remainder 

 in 18oo. They are from stocks raised on the place, and budded 

 with the large early Crawford variety. The trees, when set, 

 Avere two years from the bud, and stand in rows, fourteen feet 

 apart, and at intervals of twelve feet in the row. Tlie trees of 

 one row are placed, not at right angles with those of another, 

 but obliquely, so as to receive to the best advantage the sun's 

 light. Perhaps a greater Interval between the trees would have 

 been better ; but it was expected 'that, by an annual shortening- 

 iii of the branches, they might be kept within due compass. • 



The trees have borne fruit the past season, but only in small 

 quantities, having suffered from the effects of cold the previous 

 winter, in common with others throughout the country. 



In pruning, the shortening-in method has been followed, the 

 object being to give a round apple-tree shape to the tree, and to 

 prevent overbearing. The time selected for this purpose has 

 usually been the last of March or beginning of April. 



For the prevention of the borer, various remedies have been 

 tried, but none with so much success as whitewashing. This 



