RULES FOR ORCHARDISTS. 179 



of bushes or wood, or a swale that has been thoroughly 

 unclerdraiued, is, perhaps, preferable. 



Plough it deep, aud manure it well. Go to a reliable 

 nursery-man and select not more than five or six of the most 

 popular varieties, — embracing summer, fall and winter apples. 

 The proportion of each may be a matter of taste, or may 

 depend on the market they are intended for. The cube of 

 some one of the nine digits makes a very good proportion. 

 And in setting an orchard of eighty trees, for instance, I 

 would set four of the summer, sixteen of the fall, and sixty- 

 four of the winter varieties. Whatever may be the propor- 

 tion, be sure to get the very best stock that the market affords. 

 Never set an inferior tree, shrub, plant, or vine, because it is 

 cheap ; it will be dear in the end. Set the trees thirty-five 

 feet apart, and, following the advice of my friend Moore, 

 you will set them in straight rows. Grow a crop of straw- 

 berries, or a big crop of vegetables every year among them 

 until the trees shade two-thirds of the ground. Prune them at 

 no particular time, but just as often as you see that they need 

 it. Examine the butts with a sharp or pointed knife just 

 below the surface, twice a year, about the first of June and 

 the first of August, and take out the borers ; at these times 

 they are young, and will be readily found just beneath the 

 outer bark. Dissolve some potash, at the rate of one pound 

 to a gallon of water, and wash the trunk and limbs, up as 

 high as the leaves, once a year. This will destroy the lice 

 and eggs of insects, and will give a shiny appearance to the 

 bark, which will attract the attention of your neighbors ; and 

 if you keep the ox-cart and pigpen out of your front yard, 

 people, as they pass your premises, will admire your trees, 

 and call you a neat farmer ; you will soon begin to relish 

 the compliment, and feel proud of them. And where a man 

 has an orchard, or anything else of which he is proud, he 

 will take care of it, and proper care and treatment will insure 

 success. Keep ofi" the caterpillars, not only from your 

 apple-trees, but from your wild cherry-trees, and from all 

 other trees on the farm and by the roadside. If you anticipate 

 trouble from canker-worms, encircle the trunks of your trees 

 with a trough, filled with kerosene oil ; it will form an impas- 

 sable barrier, and keep them at bay. 



