STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 33 



orchard to grow something there, but you never know when to 

 get out, and when you try to handle two crops on the same bit 

 of land you get into trouble. Some of these old fellows here 

 could tell you, if their wives were not here, that in the early days 

 they tried to have two girls, went to see one girl Thursday night 

 and the other Friday night * * * and they made a miser- 

 able failure of it. Now fruit tree planting is a good deal like 

 the best girl, she wants nursing and coddling and taking care of 

 right straight along all the way through. Give the orchard the 

 whole use of the land and if you haven't faith enough in your 

 trees and in your business to do that, don't go into that kind of 

 business. You will find the men in this country who are making 

 the greatest success are men of one idea. They are right after 

 that particular crop, that is what they are after and nothing else. 



METHODS OF ERUIT CULTURE. 



E. P. DeCosTER — As you are riding through the country, you 

 will notice that nearly every farmer has adopted some method of 

 fruit culture. Some we notice pasture their orchard to swine and 

 allow them to root the soil to keep it loose and from becoming 

 root bound. While others pasture it to sheep and allow them to 

 keep the grass down and enrich the soil, while others keep their 

 orchards under the plow ; while others believe in mulching with 

 meadow hay and even sawdust ; and there are many others who 

 have adopted no method, but have simply placed their trees in the 

 ground and trust to the hand of Providence to do the rest. Such 

 persons are as sure to fail in fruit culture as in any occupation 

 they may pursue. 



I believe in raising our own fruit trees. I have not fifty trees 

 on my farm but what I have raised from the seed, and it has 

 been a great pleasure to me to watch them and care for them 

 from the time they first broke through the ground to maturity. 



I will give you my method of raising my trees. I select a 

 good deep loam soil, and if I want one row of trees I plow a 

 strip of land some six feet wide ; if I want two rows, I plow four 

 feet wider, then plow a good furrow in the center, make a good 

 ditch of it, then I fill that partially full of dressing and work 

 it well in with the soil. Upon this sow your seed. I use pumace 

 from a cider mill and cover it about the same as I would corn. 



