ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 161 



of cultivation, his wants and desires have subjected them ; and it is 

 with a widespread interest and an unflagging zeal that we still pursue 

 the beaten track, hoping by experiments and discovery to improve and 

 find the suitable kinds for the immense domains yet uuplanted. 



The ditticulties, the successes and failures of the fruit grower are 

 so various in results, an attempt to prescribe for the ills, or point out 

 the proper methods by wliicli better results could be attained, would 

 task indeed the wisest among'us. 



Favored as the great fruit regions of Michigan and other States 

 bordering the great lakes have been, many fears are entertained al- 

 ready that the continued clearing away of the forests will so change 

 the temperature by the freer admission of colder currents of air from 

 more frigid fields that the fruit crops of the future will be changed 

 A'ery materially. 



The pioneers, in their settling of the west, chose always, where 

 possible, some spot sheltered by surrounding hills, near a living spring, 

 where their first clearing was made. In those ])laces their first few 

 fruit trees were set, while in the corner of the fences the seeds were 

 planted. Thus doubly protected by the surroundings, the continued 

 gathering of vegetable mold accumulating in those corners, the trees 

 of all kinds, we are told, bore abundantly and almost annually. Old set- 

 tlers claim that before the vast forests were cleared the Indian sum- 

 mers were longer and the winters milder. The decaying masses of 

 vegetation, the heavy coating of leaves spread over the soil, which the 

 undergrowth and fallen brushwood kept from being blown away, pre- 

 vented the freezing of the ground through which the warmth could 

 ascend, and this, with the vai)or8 arising from the mouldering masses, 

 had such an effect upon the atmospheric condition as to ameliorate its 

 harsher aspect and afford a more genial temperature. 



But the design of this paper is to speak of the apple orchard, its 

 location and some of the soils most suitable to the tree. 



The apple has been acclimated in almost every part of the temper- 

 ate zone, made to thrive and produce in soils, conditions and situations 

 far removed from its original haunts, and both as a food and luxury 

 made subservient to millions, and highly honored in mythology and 



song. 



The apple tree thrives best upon soils containing vegetable loam, 

 such as is furnished by decaying leaf and wood, hen<re the reason why 

 timbered lands are preferable to prairie, for healthier, long lived trees 

 and more perfect fruit. 



H. R. — 11 



