216 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



attempt to restore that respectable old orchard, and that is the 

 history of the profit of that orchard, one of the finest ever 

 planted in the State of Massachusetts. Now, do you wonder 

 that I take a little exception to occupying such lands as those, 

 right round the farm buildings, within two miles of as good a 

 market as there is in this Commonwealth, with apple-trees that 

 gave no fruit to speak of for fifteen years, and were old at 

 fifty ? And then the competition is with everybody else, who 

 has just as good a chance as you have. 



That is one thing. But there is another trouble. We are 

 not only besieged with insects injurious to vegetation, but every 

 man knows that it is the hardest work in the world to make an 

 orchard bear. I have had a hundred men, if I had one, come 

 to me and say, " When you come round our way, I wish you 

 would come and see what a thrifty orchard I have got, — how 

 well it makes wood ; but not an apple can I get." I have no 

 doubt there are a hundred, perhaps more, orchards in this 

 State that are simply ornaments to the ground upon which they 

 stand ; why it is, I cannot tell. I have recommended root 

 pruning, surface dressing with bones, keeping away the barnyard 

 manure, — which will make wood but not fruit, — and all sorts 

 of things of that description ; but somehow or other, the cycle 

 has come round in New England when the apple-tree does not 

 do well on our soil, so that I have come to the conclusion that 

 it is not profitable for the farmer to occupy good land, on which 

 he can raise annual crops, with apples. I do not think it is 

 worth while for him to occupy his time in fighting worms and 

 insects, when he could be engaged in more profitable business. 

 It is a good plan for him to plant an orchard large enough to 

 supply him with what apples he wants for domestic consumption, 

 and a little early fruit, which is handy to put into his wagon as 

 he goes in to the market in the morning, but beyond that, I do 

 not think it wise for him to go. The wholesale growing of 

 apples is not, in my opinion, a profitable branch of agriculture 

 in Massachusetts. When I remember that the West is pouring 

 in an abundance of apples, of a satisfactory quality, brought 

 by rail, which are sold at a very low price, it does not seem to 

 me that the farmers of New England can profitably compete 

 with them. 



