CULTIVATION IN ORCHARDS. 227 



if we can have any light upon that point, because it is a very 

 interesting one. 



Dr. Nichols. I have an orchard of four or five hundred 

 apple trees, and my last year's experience corresponds with that 

 of Professor Chadbourne. A portion of my trees are on the 

 side of a hill, running up to its apex, vrhile upon the other side 

 they extend down to lower ground. All the apples I had this 

 year were from the trees in the lower ground. I think the 

 Professor's views are very ingenious, and worthy of investigation. 



Mr. Stockbridge. My experience is directly opposite. I 

 know of an apple orchard planted upon a dry, sandy loam, 

 where, of course, special pains were taken in planting it, but 

 the nature of the soil was not changed. The orchard was well 

 manured, it has now come into bearing, and the trees have 

 been overburdened with fruit this year. 



Professor Chadbourne. That is not at all satisfactory. If 

 that soil was in such condition during that time that the trees 

 could find the proper amount of nutriment, then the conditions 

 that I have referred to existed. I understand that the land to 

 which Mr. Harrington referred was properly cultivated, and 

 peculiarly fitted to the apple. 



Mr. Harrington. It was all cultivated. There was no 

 portion of the soil that was not cultivated. It was all covered ; 

 you would not have supposed there was a particle of soil there. 

 I found afterwards that his son-in-law, who lives about a hun- 

 dred rods off, in a sand-bank, had done the same thing. He 

 succeeded in getting fruit this year, when all his neighbors 

 failed. The soil was precisely alike — all dry, sandy soil. There 

 could have been no moisture there last year or year before last. 

 And they mulched their trees alike. They both raised squashes 

 in their orchards. 



Mr. Billings. I was told by that son-in-law, that the main 

 thing in making his trees so productive was, that he expended 

 a good deal of money for meadow hay, and mulched all round 

 his trees, especially his Williams trees, for which he got ten 

 dollars a bushel. He puts meadow hay under these trees for 

 the sake of preserving his Williams apples when they fall. 



The question was asked if the canker-worm has extended 

 more than twenty miles from the seaboard. Mr. Clement has 

 told us that Mr. Reed, of Westford, says his apples cost him ten 



