62 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



suggest to novices, however, who design to plant peach-trees, 

 that they require a dry soil, thoroughly cultivated, but no 

 animal manure of any kind, but rather muck, and especially 

 potash in liberal quantities. The aim should be, not to pro- 

 duce a late growth, but healthy, well-ripened wood, which is 

 the only kind that will endure our winters. Trim out all 

 dead and sickly wood every year about the first of June. 

 Plant hardy and rather early varieties. Many kinds recom- 

 mended by nursery agents are too late, and will not ripen at 

 all in this latitude. For orchard-culture, do not plant too 

 thickly : sixteen or eighteen feet is near enough. Training 

 upon fences, and pegging down branches to be covered in 

 winter, is very pretty amusement for the amateur; and 

 orchard-house culture, for those who can afford it, is very 

 pretty and sometimes profitable. 



One other fruit is worthy of remembrance, which we for- 

 merly raised in great abundance in this county, but which 

 now we never see upon our exhibition-tables, namely, the 

 plum. Why should this fine fruit be wholly abandoned, as 

 long as it has been fully proved that its two greatest ene- 

 mies — the curculio and the black-knot — can be success- 

 fully dealt with ? Then we have new but coarse varieties, 

 that are hardly affected by these enemies at all, and which, 

 even for cooking-purposes, would well repay the trouble of 

 raising. We sincerely hope we shall see the time when this 

 fine old fruit will be cultivated to some extent, if we do not 

 have it. in its former abundance. 



T. C. Thuelow, Chairman. 



NANTUCKET. 



[From the Report of the Committee.] 



More fruit is annually being produced, and the demand is 

 increasing. Once a nursery of twenty acres was considered 

 large ; now we find them of several hundred acres. 



Fruit has become the regular diet of many families : it has 

 been found by experience to be an agreeable and healthy 

 food. It consists mainly of water, with variable quantities 

 of starch, sugar, and gum. Many kinds furnish a fair supply 



