48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



fills of manure around the roots, to keep away the mice and 

 enrich the soil ; this spring I turned the sods over three to four 

 feet around the trees, and have washed them twice with potash 

 water. I have been over them four times this season to dig out 

 and kill borers, finding some in every tree, — in some 'as many 

 as ten ; — the last time I went through the orchard I found but 

 few. Mr. Buckminster, of The Ploughman, says that washing 

 them in potash water will kill the borers. I have washed mine 

 this year, and know that it has not killed them. But it has 

 blistered my trees and made them look badly, if it has not 

 injured them. He may say that the water was too strong, but 

 I followed his directions, viz. : one pound to a pailful of 

 water. 



Pkinceton, September 24, 1855. 



Stateinent of Enoch Caldivell. 



The orchard entered by me for premiiim contains about one 

 hundred trees, which were set out in the autumn. of 1845, in a 

 dry, but loamy soil, twenty-two feet apart each way, the holes 

 being four feet across at the top, and one and a half deep, care 

 being taken to place the roots in the same position as before 

 removal. 



The land, which contains about one and one-fourth acres, has 

 received annually about twenty loads of barnyard manure, 

 with the addition of eight or ten bushels of unleached ashes 

 — has been cultivated most of the time — two years it was 

 down to grass and mown twice each year, and the third year, 

 observing that the trees did not grow as well as usual, it was 

 ploughed, and has since- been cultivated. 



The trees have been washed once, and sometimes twice, in a 

 year, in May and in July or August, with a solution of potash, 

 in the proportion of one pound of potash to one and a half 

 gallons of water, which I think is as strong as the bark of young 

 trees will bear. 



FiTCHBURG, September, 1856. . 



