162 State Horticultural Society. 



packing shed. I will state that 1 know of one orchard of forty acres that 

 was planted in 1884, and has been treated in this way, never primed or 

 cultivated after seeding it down, and it has made the owner thirty-six 

 thousand dollars. 



In conclusion I will say that every one who plants an orchard should 

 think for himself, study his own conditions, study the land and surround- 

 ings, and then do the best for his own locality. Take a little time, go 

 ?nd examine the trees in your own locality, and see which would be 

 the best course for you to pursue. 



APPLE ORCHARDS. 



(J. T. Jackson, Chillicothe, Missouri.) 



' If we would be successful with our apple orchards we must do 

 as Nature does. Nature does not waste her energies as we do. That is 

 why we are proceeding so slowly in our orchards. A very large part 

 of our work has gone wrong because of badly directed energy. We 

 may be ever so honest in our object, and be ever so industrious in action, 

 but if we pull against Nature we are like the boatman who pulls against 

 the stream. He makes but little headway. But change our course and 

 go with the stream and we soon move rapidly forward. 



This is true in everything we undertake. How many large orchards 

 have failed because no notice was or is taken of the forces of nature. 

 An apple orchard is planted, then we proceed to cultivate the soil, or 

 still worse, we plant it in corn, or sow it in oats, and do our very best 

 to rob the soil of what little fertility has been left through many years 

 of wasteful cropping. Now Nature does not build up her soil by keep- 

 ing it in cultivation until it is as bare as a desert. Neither does she 

 raise large crops of grain and remove them in order to add to her fer- 

 tility. But she builds up her soil by daily adding to it the leaves that fall, 

 the weeds that grow upon her surface, and the grass that grows. The 

 very air that passes over it, aiid the water that enters it are but Nature's 

 ways of fertilizing her soil. 



We have tried to raise apples with the plow — that is force. It has 

 failed, because it was unnatural. It was a woeful waste of energ}-. 

 We invested in spraying outfits, dusters, and poisoned mixtures, and 

 neglected Nature's method of keeping in subjection noxious insects and 

 bugs, that too often play havoc with our trees and fruit. 



If one-tenth of the funds invested in dusters and spraying outfits, 

 had been used in stocking our orchards with chickens, ducks, and tur- 



