70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SOIL. 



In selecting the soil, choose a clayey loam ; and, if water is 

 inclined to stand on any part of the surface, it should be 

 underdrained, but not otherwise. It should be rich in min- 

 eral manures, and it should never be allowed to become 

 exhausted. 



VARIETIES. 



In making choice of varieties, one should be governed, to 

 some extent, by the market he intends to supply ; but in all 

 cases it is safe to set liberally of the best winter-keeping 

 apples. I am told that in foreign markets the color of an 

 apple has much to do with selling it, and that prices rule 

 in favor of bright red. Having decided on the varieties, go 

 to a nursery, and select from the rows the very best speci- 

 mens, even if you must pay for the privilege. We judge of 

 quality by comparison; and, where objects stand side by side, 

 we are enabled to choose the best without hesitation. Trees, 

 like animals, are constitutionally strong or weak : if weak, a 

 constant petting and nursing may prolong their existence, 

 but will never atone for their inherent weakness. 



Effectual methods of checkmating the cankerworm and 

 borer are too familiar to need a repetition; but the coreworm, 

 or coddling-moth, is not so easily controlled. I regard him 

 as decidedly the most formidable enemy which the fruit- 

 grower has to contend with. We are told that he is the 

 lineal descendant of a miller, who about the last of June, 

 and in the night-time, flies among the trees, and lays her 

 eggs in the calyx of the apple. In a few days the eggs 

 hatch, and the young worms burrow in the apple, eating their 

 way to tlie core. In about twenty-five days they attain 

 their full growth; and, having subsisted on the heart of the 

 apple, it drops to the ground. They then leave the apple, 

 and secrete themselves under the bark of the tree or else- 

 where ; and in due time another generation is sent out on 

 its destructive mission. 



Many remedies have been devised to destroy this pest. 

 Stocking the orchards with fowls has in many instances 

 been followed with complete success. Where this is not 

 practicable, scrape the trunks of the trees the last of July, 



