78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



at least an equal distance ; that is, that they formed a radiat- 

 ing circle of fibres, no less than thirty feet in diameter, or 

 three times as great in breadth as the height of the tree. 

 How perfectly futile the attempt to benefit such a broad sur- 

 face by spading a circle two or three feet in diameter, which 

 would be but one-hundredth part of the whole area of the 

 branching fibres. 



Thus we see how any other crop grown in an orchard must 

 extract fertility from the trees. 



In further confirmation of this theory, we add that last 

 autumn, when other orchards bore but little fruit, we visited one 

 in Norfolk County, of twenty years' growth, in which no other 

 crop was permitted to grow. The trees were bending beneath 

 their burden of fruit, some yielding from four to five barrels 

 each of handsome fruit. On asking the cultivator, " Have 

 you ever allowed any other crop to grow in this orchard ? ' : 

 he replied, " No indeed ! I am not fool enough for that. Why 

 should I starve my trees to feed a less valuable crop ? ' 



V. — The Importance of producing from Seed new and improved 

 Varieties suited to each locality. 



It is generally conceded that the trees and plants of any 

 country, like its native inhabitants, will flourish better at home 

 than in foreign lands. Many cultivators are now engaged in 

 this interesting department of pomology, and great encourage- 

 ment is found in their success. Witness the many new varie- 

 ties of American fruits which are fast supplanting foreign 

 sorts ? Of the kinds recommended by the American Pomo- 

 logical Society for general cultivation thirty out of thirty-six 

 kinds of the apple, ten out of fourteen of the plum, one-half 

 of the pears, and to mention no other class, all the varieties 

 of strawberries are natives. 



We name, as a single illustration of peculiar adaptation 

 to our soil and climate, the Baldwin apple, Bnl'fnm pear, 

 Downer's Late cherry, and Hovey's Seedling strawberry. 



Here has already been fulfilled the prediction of the cele- 

 brated Dr. Van Mons, that " the time will come when our best 

 fruits will bo derived from our own seedlings." 



Without entering minutely into the different processes of 

 obtaining seedling fruits, whether from Van Mens' system 



