378 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the land -would develop the plant-food lying dormant in the soil and render 

 it soluble, and tlie rains would carr}- it down to the roots of the trees. But on 

 this sandy soil 1 think it is necessary to manure tlic orchard. If this is done 

 then it would make very little difference in the end whether the land was kept 

 in bare fallow or in pasture. But I am getting on to controverted ground, and 

 the weather is too hot, and wo arc all too busy to indulge in a discussion of this 

 nature." 



ANOTIIEJl UPOX THE SAME TOPIC. 



I have read witli interest the notice in your issue of the liith, by "Free 

 Talker," of one of the meetings of the Pomological Society where the necessity 

 of a system of fertilization of orchards was broached, especially of the orchards 

 of the Michigan Lake Shore,, where the soil is of a silicious character. This 

 matter of enriching orchards has been for some years a subject of some tliought 

 with me. At length I came to the conclusion to make an attempt in that 

 direction on about ten acres of apple orchard. In the spring of 187G I plowed 

 the ground as deep as I could, then sowed one bushel of clover seed, and 

 dragged it in both ways; this was in April. We had an abundance of rain at 

 the time the seed was sown and afterwards; the consequence was a good catch. 

 The clover grew all the season without pasturing. At this time of writing, it 

 would be called a heavy crop. I am having it mowed with a scythe. As soon 

 as it is cut I have it raked under each tree as far as the limbs spread. This I 

 leave as mulch ; the second crop I intend to let grow the balance of the season, 

 ri-pen the seed and thereby restock the land. In 1878 I think there will be a 

 heavy crop of clover. If so, I sliall pursue the same course of mowing and 

 mulching. The second growth of '78, at a proper time in the fall, I shall plow 

 under. Thus I shall return to the land two heavy crops in the shape of mulch, 

 and one, green, jilowed under. This will be a cheap and durable way to enrich 

 our orchards. — /. Wln'filesci/, in Micliigan Farmer, 



St. Joseph, June 20th, 1877. 



THE RICHAED'S SWEETING APPLE. 



On my father's farm, in tiie town of Prospect, Connecticut, were a few trees 

 bearing an apjjle of the above name. The tree was a thrifty, upright grower 

 like the Xorthern Spy but more stocky ; fruit large, conical, and green, becom- 

 ing yellow towards sjjring, at wliieli time it was in its greatest perfection ; flesh 

 very firm and solid ; skin remarkably smooth and a little oily after lying on the 

 ground ; flavor a very rich sweet and a little spicy. I left the farm fifty years 

 ago, have never seen it, or a specimen of tlie apple since. Although I have 

 looked for it at all tlie fairs I have attended for tlie past thirty-five years, exam- 

 ined every list of apples I could, and all the descriptions of winter sweets, yet 

 I have failed hitherto to see it or hear of it. Knowing no residents now of the 

 town of Prospect, and determined, if possible, to procure scions of what I con- 

 sidered the most valuable winter-sweet ap[)le ever raised, I wrote to a cousin in 



