FRUIT-GROWING. 71 



and then wash with a solution of potash or whale-oil soap. 

 Pick up and destroy all wormy apples, and 3-ou will find that 

 you have done much to check their propagation. Allow me 

 to quote from an eminent writer on this very point. He 

 says, " Perhaps the best remedy for this and many other 

 little pests is the scriptural one, ' Dig about the tree, and 

 dung it.' " That is, give it greater vigor of growth ; make it 

 more productive, so that a portion of the fruit will come to 

 maturity in spite of all insects. It is a well-known fact, 

 that tlie most vigorous-growing, thrifty trees correspond with 

 thrifty farmers, — the more they have, tlie more they gain. 

 Insects mostly attack the most neglected trees. 



As bearing upon this subject, I cannot refrain from 

 expressing what has been the result of long years of close 

 observation. When the ears of corn do not fill out, and the 

 grape-seed does not catch, we attribute it to the dry weather. 

 When the hay-crop is light, we say that the grass-roots were 

 winter-killed. When the potatoes are small, we attribute it 

 to having planted small ones; and sometimes strawberry- 

 plants do not freely throw out runners, and we lay it to the 

 peculiarity of the season. Now, in all these cases I have 

 noticed that these results are most likely to occur where 

 manure is used the most sparingly. There is nothing that 

 will make the grass look so green to the farmer, or that will 

 cause him to see so much blue sky every day in the year, 

 as liberal manuring. In fact, manure is the grand panacea 

 for a large majority of the ills which vegetable life is heir to. 

 Manuring fruit-trees is absolutely essential to success ; and 

 yet how rarely do we hear the inquiry for the best manure 

 for an orchard. The apple-tree is a gross feeder, and takes 

 from the soil large quantities of manurial substances, which 

 must surely be restored to keep the trees in profitable bear- 

 ing. Nitrogenous manures should not be applied to trees 

 bearing fruit, as they induce a vigorous growth of wood and 

 but little fruit. 



A popular objection to planting apple-trees is, that they 

 never bear when apples are scarce, and bear abundantly 

 when they are plenty. The tendency to bear enormous 

 crops the even j-ear, and omitting to bear the odd year, thus 

 inaugurating alternately a feast and a famine, has ever been 

 a perplexing and discouraging characteristic of the apple- 



