AVINTER MEETING, 1877. Gl 



the interests of the trees, ami make everything done witli that field look pri- 

 marily to the prosperity of his trees, and secondarily to other things. 



The man wlio would treat his animals in tlie way ho treats his orchard would 

 not expect any adequate returns or many compliments from his neighbors as to 

 the fineness of his herd, lie recognizes the fact that he must give his animals 

 constant feed, care, and attention in order to have them thrive, — that to get the 

 best results he must have a continuous growth, and not let them stand still or 

 go back six months in the year. 



Trees can not be healthy unless they have such steady continuous growth, 

 and it should be our aim to give tliem such growth. 



If these two things have been looked after we shall have fruit of first quality, 

 and in good quantity. 1 venture to state this proposition. — that ever}- one wishes 

 to raise first quality of fruit; but every one does not. In some experiments as 

 to the quality of apples grown on trees that were properly cultivated and the 

 fruit thinned, there was found to be a decided difference in favor of that when 

 compared with that raised on trees grown in grass and with less care. 



As the attention of people is called to the difference in quality there will be 

 more difference in the prices paid for fruit, and that of first quality will meet 

 with ready sale, while second and third-rate fruit will go begging for buyers, 

 and this will be more especially marked in years when fruit is plenty. 



You may be ready to ask why drainage has not been more extensively prac- 

 ticed, if this be true? We will for a few moments consider some reasons for it, 

 or drawbacks that have kept farmers from it. And first is the cost to the 

 pioneer. Every one is aware that in tlie early settlement of a country, the mass 

 of the settlers have all they can do to keep the wolf (starvation) from the door, 

 and that they have very little to invest in w^ay of getting fruit. If they have 

 the money to spare to get a few trees, they feel rich and think only of the trees. 

 The cost of underdraining would entirely preclude them from having fruit if 

 they waited to raise it on drained land. Second, they are in haste to get their 

 trees growing and hardly wait for any great length of time to get ready for the 

 trees, but put them out among the stumps, and do the best they can under the 

 circumstances. It is a great privation for families to do without fruit when in 

 their eastern or more southern homes they have had it in comparative plenty. 

 To buy, as pioneers, seems almost out of the question, hence their anxiety to get 

 trees o^rowinof. 



Third, The comparative recent introduction of tile drains in this country. 

 This was not brought about until about the year 1850. 



In 1835 Mr. John Johnston made the first tiles in this country from patterns 

 obtained in Scotland. The results were so good that in 1848 Mr. Delafield 

 imported one of Scragg's tile machines. 



The use of tile gradually spread so that we may say 1850 was the year in 

 which tile drainage was firmly established. It was not until 1858 that round 

 tile were introduced, which gave us the most perfect system known. The short 

 time that drainage has been in use would preclude the idea of finding many 

 orchards drained before setting the trees, in the older portions of our State, 

 and they are not very likely to be drained after, as men are more likely to give 

 as the reason of non-growth or non-production, almost anything beside the 

 want of drainage. 



Fourth, Farmers obtain comparatively good results witlrout drainage, and 

 thus are easily satisfied. Perhaps they will add: "0 well I drainage is well 



