68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



should uot export millions of barrels annually, instead of 

 a million and a quarter, as we did in 1880. 



The objection to setting apple-trees which is often urged 

 in this fast age — that " we must wait so long for the fruit " — 

 is unworthy of the patient husbandman, and is really of not 

 much account when compared with the salutary lesson of 

 discipline which we are taught in learning to wait. Could 

 we plant a tree to-day, and pluck the fruit to-morrow, this 

 very important lesson in life would be lost. We must learn 

 to wait. 



By fruit-cultivation I wish to be understood as meaning- 

 all that is implied by the use of it taken in its best and 

 broadest sense. I mean by it, intelligent, thorough culture. 

 The idea of ploughing a piece of land, and sticking in some 

 trees, and then putting up the bars and leaving the field with 

 the expectation of ever getting any decent fruit, is simply 

 preposterous. Some twenty years ago an elderly gentleman 

 who lived in my neighborhood suddenly became convinced 

 that he ought to do something for posterity, as he termed it ; 

 and, as he found an orchard on the farm when it came into 

 his possession, it was no more than right that he should 

 leave one when he gave it up. While he was still seized with 

 this laudable determination, the tree-peddler (a personage 

 whom we all delight to welcome) put in his appearance, and 

 sold him trees for which he paid him twenty dollars. They 

 were forthwith set out in a piece of sward-land; that is, a 

 sod was removed with a shovel, and the roots were put in 

 the hole, and the sod, I think, replaced in an inverted posi- 

 tion. He boasted of having set an orchard, and undoubtedly 

 felt that his duty to posterity had been discharged. These 

 trees received no subsequent culture, and some of them 

 showed signs of life ten years after setting ; but the most of 

 them had been honeycombed by the borer, and were broken 

 off close to the ground before they had attained the age of 

 seven years. 



I am willing to admit that the average New-England 

 orchard is not a thing of beauty, and does not improve the 

 landflcape : they are evidently left to take care of themselves. 

 Once in two years they are allowed to produce enormous 

 quantities of inferior apples, only a small portion of which 

 are fit for use. They are forced on the market because they 



