MORE ABOUT APPLE-TREES. 147 



Sprouts from the root of an apple-tree remind me 

 of children who habitually play truant or are kept 

 out of school. They not merely can never come to 

 good, but they are a nuisance to the neighborhood 

 and bring reproach on the community. 



The apple-grower should never forget that every 

 producer needs to be fed in proportion to his product. 

 If a cow gives twenty quarts of milk per day, she 

 needs more grass or other food than if she gave but 

 two quarts ; and an acre of orchard that yields a 

 hundred barrels of Apples per annum needs some- 

 thing given to the soil to balance the draft made 

 upon it. Nature offers us good bargains; but she 

 does not trust and will not be cheated. "When she 

 offers a bushel of Corn for a bushel of dirty Salt, 

 Shell Lime, or Wood-Ashes, a load of Hay for a 

 load of Muck, we ought not to stint the measure, 

 but pay her demand ungrudgingly. 



And now a last word on Insects. 



My township (Newcastle) is said to have formerly 

 grown more Apples per annum than any other town- 

 ship in the United States ; its apple-trees are still as 

 numerous as ever, but their product has fallen off 

 deplorably. I estimate the average yield of the last 

 three years at less than a bushel per annum for each 

 full-grown tree ; I think a majority of the trees have 

 not borne a bushel each in all these three years. Un- 

 seasonable frosts, storms, etc., have borne the blame 

 of this barrenness perhaps justly, if we consider 



