84 ANNUAL REPORT. © 
only in the top, and others in the top and root; both the root and 
top happening to be tender. We soon discover ed that some were so- 
tender in the top that no care could save them, but that others were 
sufficiently hardy in the top to stand, provided they were on hardy 
roots, or if on tender roots, so protected that the full force of the 
frost could not reach them. Therefore we began the process of 
mulching. But when'to apply it was a problem that experiment had 
to solve, and we went at it with a will to know, and so applied the 
mulch at various seasons of the year, often using alternate trees, 
sometimes removed the mulch in spring from some, and left it to 
others the year round. Those mulched in fall before any freeze never 
bark-bursted nor root killed, and those around which the mulch was. 
left the year round made the best growth, and those killed worst that. 
were mulched after the ground had froze hard, fared even worse than 
those not mulched at all, side by side with them. The mulching 
should be applied from two to six inches deep, according to coarse- 
ness, and the greater the circumference the better; and any kind of 
litter is good, though I deem forest leaves and meadow muck (com- 
mon peat) the best in their results, and the most lasting. One fall 
we had 1,000 trees mulched, and did not lose one of them, and 168 
not mulched, and lost nine-tenths of them; and in other seasons a. 
similar proportion. Our soil—a deep, rich, loose loam, on top of 
clay—and first trees set out at the usual depth of setting, which gave 
drouth and frost full force at them; but of late we dig down into the 
clay and set deep, getting a better growth, and finding them less af-- 
fected by drouth or frost. Andof late we effectually avoid sun-scald 
on the southwest side of the trunk by forming low heads—12 inches. 
of trunk being enough for any tree. Itis not every winter that roots 
kill, but to be successful you must be prepared for the worst ere 
winter sets in, not knowing what may come. 
Having given a brief history of our losses and gains, and how 
come at, perhaps some would be eager to know the cost—a bill not 
easily summed up in dollars and cents, seeing our own labor has done 
it all. We labored to get money to buy trees, seeds and cions; set ~ 
and re-set as destruction cleared spaces. Not a tree, seed nor cion 
free from any one during days of uncertain trial, though I often ap- 
plied to persons from the east and north to send to their friends. 
there for seeds and cions for me to test; but was as often refused, 
on the ground tbat fruit could not be grown here, and that they 
would not be a party to my poverty; that I was foolish for ever ex- 
pecting to grow fruit here; and others, more abrupt, told me I was 
a fool for my efforts, so hopeless was the prospect, in the judgment. 
of the mass of men, after a few years of first trial. 
One year after we came here, by the dishonesty of two men whom 
I trusted in care of a drove of cattle, we lost all we were worth, and 
since been in no speculation to make anything—settled in tim- 
ber, did all by hard knocks. Came here an invalid, so far géne with 
lung disease that our friends and physicians thought I could not en- 
dure one winter here. Fourteen years we were without a team of any 
kind, all teaming paid for by our own labor. At one time for the 
space of five years, was not five miles from home, and in that 
time only twice over two miles, and once in the time was five months 
