PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 341 



Care of Fruit Trees. 



The orchard should be attended to, cutting out all suckers of 

 last year's growth; scrape from their trunks all loose bark, under 

 which lie myriads of insects and their larvie, that are destructive 

 to the orchard. 



I am decidedly opposed to cutting off large limbs, except such 

 as are decayed. I have seen whole orchards ruined by trusting 

 to an inexperienced hand to cut, without judgment, a third of the 

 limbs from an old tree which had been neglected when young. 

 It is a fatal mistake to attempt to make a model of such a tree. 

 Let all the large limbs remain; only remove those that are 

 decayed, and the small ones that may prevent the sun from euter- 

 inor through its branches. 



Care of Stock. 

 Before the 1st of March every farmer should have fed his 

 stock with all the coarse fodder; but if he has not done so, let 

 me advise him not to give it to his cows that are to make his 

 dairy the coming season, nor to his oxen, if he expects them to 

 do good service on the farm. All of his animals should have the 

 best hay and other feed reserved for their use, from the first of 

 March to the time for (fraz'um. 



Future Plans. 



Good judgment and skill are brought into requisition on the 

 farm in early spring. Much of the work through the winter has 

 been head-work, which, if clear, effects much in the end to his 

 advantage. He has decided about how much corn he will plant, 

 and he knows that an old pasture lot or meadow, that fails to 

 yield more than a ton to the acre, is the piece to select. He is 

 quite sure of getting better results from such ground in his 

 crop of corn than from ground already under the plow. 



After two years' cultivation, when in grass, he will find that 

 this pasture lot and meadow will increase in i)roduetiveness three- 

 fold. Experience has taught him to plant his potatoes where his 

 corn grew last year, and if he thinks the oat crop is advantageous 

 he will plant less potatoes and divide the lot with the two crops. 



In New York State but few farmers put in any field crop before 

 the first of April, and but Little plowing is done ; but the blue 

 birds will have come, which will remind him that all that is lovely 

 in nature will scon put forth, and it is the husbandman's duty to 



