ORCHARDS. 33 



it has been cultivated. My practice now is to manure in the 

 fall with twenty or twenty-five horse-cart loads per acre, broad- 

 cast, and plough it in twelve or fifteen inches deep, where the 

 plough will not interfere with the roots of the tree, turning my 

 back furrows against the trees, and thereby forming a protection 

 through the winter to the trees both against mice and water. 

 In the spring I turn the furrows back, and this leaves the land 

 level and in fine condition. 



In the spring of 1865, 1 planted one hundred and eighty-seven 

 trees, all on quince stocks ; rows twelve feet apart, and ten feet 

 apart in the rows. Last spring I set twenty-one more, same as 

 above, which filled out the piece. These were planted as the 

 dwarfs in the above statement, and contain but three varieties, 

 viz. : one-half Louise Bonne de Jersey, the balance Beurre 

 d'Anjou and Duchesse d'Angouleme. I think these the most 

 profitable for orchard culture on quince stocks I have, among 

 twenty-five varieties, which, in my opinion, is quite too many 

 for any one but an amateur ; but as I have them, not from 

 choice, I have left one or two of a kind, not for profit but 

 variety. 



The price paid for the trees varied from forty cents to one 

 dollar and a half, according to kind, size and quality. From 

 my limited experience I have no doubt that any one, with proper 

 care, gets back both principal and interest sooner on trees that 

 cost one dollar and a half, than fifty cent ones, besides saving 

 time and labor. There is one great disadvantage, however, in 

 buying trees of larger growth, rather than those of one or two 

 years from the bud, viz. : the manner in which they have been 

 pruned, or rather not pruned at all, but allowed to stand too 

 thick in nursery rows, and grow up more like bean poles than 

 fruit trees in many cases, while in others they are crooked and 

 anything but pyramidal in form as they should be. 



I prune now in April or May, in pyramid form, before the 

 leaves are fully developed, heading them in one-half the previous 

 year's growth, especially the dwarfs, and pinching back some of 

 the most growing branches during the summer, thereby forming 

 better and stronger trees, which are not so easily disturbed by 

 the wind, and the fruit is not shaken off so readily as when the 

 branches are long and slender. My trees have never been 

 troubled to any amount by insects of any kind, and in only two 



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