SECRETARY'S REPORT. 73 



But in connection with thorough drainage is closely associated 

 the necessity of deep and thorough cultivation of the soil. All 

 lands intended for orchards or gardens should lie thoroughly 

 trenched or subsoiled. A suitable regard must, however, he 

 had to the nature of the soil, and to the class of fruit for which 

 it is intended. Surely it would be unwise to apply the same 

 cultivation to the peach and the cherry, as to the apple and the 

 pear, or to treat any of these on new and fertile grounds, as in 

 old and exhausted lands. 



Illustrations of the advantage of thorough drainage and deep 

 cultivation are of common occurrence. For instance, we find 

 in Quincy market what are deemed wonderful specimens of the 

 Beurre Diel and other varieties of the pear, large and always 

 fair, which in some other collections are subject to crack and 

 blight. They are ascertained to have been grown in the garden 

 of Mr. Bacon, of Roxbuiy, which was formerly a tan-yard in 

 low grounds, where it had for centuries received the wash from 

 surrounding lands, till it had acquired a depth of four or five 

 feet. Here was thorough, though accidental drainage by means 

 of a deep ditch cut through and around the grounds, to carry 

 off the water of a rivulet originally flowing through them. 

 While trees of this fruit, and of the same age, growing in the 

 neighborhood and in undrained soil, yielded less than one hun- 

 dred specimens of cracked and inferior fruit, he has gathered 

 eight hundred from a tree of most beautiful character and 

 quality in a single year. 



The importance of thorough drainage and perfect preparation 

 of the soil, have not received the consideration they deserve, 

 especially where its silicious character does not furnish a ready 

 natural conductor to superfluous moisture. 



II. — Appropriate Soil and Location. 



The influence of soils must not be overlooked in the cultiva- 

 tion of fruit trees, which, like other crops, abstract from the 

 soil the ingredients essential to their growth, and must be sup- 

 plied with the appropriate nutriment. 



As early as the time of La Quintinyie the fact was well estab- 

 lished that a tree would not flourish where one of the same 



species had previously grown and decayed. The reason of that 

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