174 ANNUAL REPORT. 



ness the orchard had not been as well attended to — particularly 

 in one respect — as it richly deserved. Aside from this (which 

 will be referred to again later on) it had been well looked after, 

 amply repaying the time and money spent upon it. The cattle 

 — which in many orchards are permitted to roam around at their 

 own sweet will, doing all the pruning and cultivating that is ever 

 given — have never been turned in to browse around the trees; 

 neither has the sod been allowed to grow between the rows. From 

 the time the trees were first set out, they have been thoroughly 

 cultivated each season in the rows running north and south. 

 While the trees were young and until the ground was too heavily 

 shaded to do it, one row of corn or something else has been grown 

 between the trees. This last season I planted raspberries and 

 blackberries between some of the orchard rows, hoping to gain 

 protection for them. At the same time the cultivation necessary 

 for their growth will be beneficial to the trees. 



The soil is a sandy loam with a clay subsoil and is really a 

 genial home for the roots of trees, although our hot August suns 

 cause it to mature the fruit early, and make it difiicult to keep. 

 The situation of the orchard has one element that is both desira- 

 ble and objectionable, and that is a free circulation of air, but 

 when it comes to us in the latter part of August with a force that 

 precipitates to the ground two hundred bushels of apples a day 

 for three consecutive days, we think there is a " leetle too much 

 air stirrin." It is at such times, too, that the sun shines so hot 

 as to literally bake large Duchess as they lie on the ground from 

 10 A. M. to 2 P. M., and we can only hurry them in to a cool place 

 to be sorted and disposed of as best we may. But I fear you will 

 think that I am describing a poor orchard, poorly managed, 

 which certainly is not the case. For while it is yet but a young 

 orchard, the greater part of it having been set but nine years, — 

 the balance one, two and three years later, — I have for the past 

 two years marketed forty to fifty dollars worth of apples per acre 

 to say nothing of fine returns from it before that time. Most of 

 the trees are set 12x14 feet, the rows being fourteen feet apart. 

 The largest portion of the orchard has been seeded down with 

 clover, that is a strip about four feet wide in the row. Clover is 

 better than other grass, as, owing to its branching, spreading 

 habit, it is more yielding to the falling fruit. For another reason 

 it is the best, and that is its fertilizing qualities. It also makes 

 good mulching for the trees. 



There are in all between 4,000 and 5,000 trees in the or- 



