150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



friend Hyde will bear me out in what I say), I have witnessed 

 most extraordinary effects follow the carrying out of this prin- 

 ciple of the rotation of crops. To illustrate the point I wish to 

 come at, and which I wish to enforce upon your notice, I will 

 say that in the preparation of the ground for apple-trees, for 

 instance, — for we cannot grow pear-trees successfully in my 

 immediate neighborhood, — we are obliged to prepare it very 

 nicely, in order to be successful ; as nicely as my friend Moore 

 would prepare it for his vineyard or for garden vegetables. We 

 plough deep, manure thoroughly, and then, in setting out the 

 small plants, the seedling apples, we calculate that the ground , 

 is in a fit condition to carry those trees almost to their maturity. 

 Now you will see that the growing of a crop of apple-trees suc- 

 cessfully, which requires three or four, and sometimes five years, 

 exhausts the soil of all its ingredients which the apple-tree calls 

 for, or perhaps any deciduous tree calls for. A nurseryman who 

 understands his business knows that it would be folly for him, 

 after he has taken off that first crop to attempt to put a second 

 crop upon that land, even if he manured equally as well as he 

 did the first time, because his crop has exhausted the soil of 

 certain things which are peculiarly necessary, and which can 

 only be found in newer soil. My practice has been this : after 

 my apple-trees have been removed, I find the land admirably 

 adapted to the growth of evergreen trees. You all know what 

 evergreen trees are — the spruce, the arbor vitse, the hemlock, 

 &c. Without remanuring that land, without any reprepara- 

 tion, almost, except it be ploughing, I can set out evergreens, 

 and get an admirable crop, because the elements which the 

 evergreens call for still exist in that soil ; because the elements 

 which the evergreens call for are different from those which the 

 apple-trees call for. I grow them three years, and then they 

 pass away. What is the condition of the soil then ? It is ex- 

 hausted for the evergreen, it is exhausted for the deciduous 

 tree, and you might say that the soil was entirely exhausted. 

 But such is not always the case. I may plough that land 

 thoroughly and lay it down to grass, without even putting any 

 manure upon it, and raise a splendid crop of grass. Why ? 

 Because the grass calls for different elements in the soil from 

 either of those kinds of trees. You see the point. It is so with 

 the successful farmer. The time is coming when he will be 



