ORCHARDS. 49 



HAMPSHIRE. 



From the Report of the Committee: 



The culture of fruit trees may be a source of profit. There is 

 no other pursuit connected with the farm, requiring so little 

 labor and expense, that is so lucrative. There is a great in- 

 come in proportion to the outlay. No crops of grain, grass, or 

 esculent roots, other things being equal, pay so well as the 

 fruit crop. Many farmers annually get more profit from their 

 orchards, and receive more money for fruit, than for all the 

 other products of the farm. One of my neighbors has gathered 

 and sold from one tree, this season, thirty bushels of fine fruit. 

 An orchard of forty Baldwin apple trees " has been known to 

 produce, in one season, three hundred bushels of fine fruit." 

 Says H. F. French, " At the lowest rate of product that any 

 man in his senses would estimate, as a common crop, an apple 

 orchard will give four times the amount of profit, as tlie same 

 quantity of land in grass for hay, with less cost for cultivation." 



Apples are in good repute for fattening horses, cattle and 

 swine. 



Cider vinegar is the nicest and most agreeable of any, and 

 readily brings from three to five dollars in market. Cider 

 molasses, made by boiling sweet cider into a syrup, is excellent 

 for making and preserving sauces. Brandy, distilled from fer- 

 mented cider, for certain useful purposes, is not excelled by any 

 other spirit. 



Pleasure, luxury, health and profit are, or ought to be, pow- 

 erful incentives, to every one who owns an acre of land, to raise 

 fruit trees. A farm without an orchard is like a book without 

 title-page or pictures ; or a painting destitute of the proper 

 light and shade ; or a heaven without stars. 



Your committee were invited to view six orchards and two 

 nurseries. Five of these have been set out since 1845 ; the 

 sixth was an old orchard, reclaimed by the process of grafting. 

 Three of these orchards have already received first premiums 

 from other incorporated societies, and consequently could not 

 again receive a first premium, under the statute of 1855. 



All the orchards we examined were in good condition, and 

 looked beautifully. 



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