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And first, just a word in regard to the soil conditions 

 which confronted us; for in any orchard proposition this is 

 one of the big questions, much more so, I thinlc, than in 

 general farming. 



The land which we were setting was all of it badly run 

 down. A large part of it was old sheep and cow pasture, 

 which had been pastured for years without any return of fer- 

 tilizers. One section of it had been cropped alternately with 

 potatoes and rye until the rye had failed to reach knee-high, 

 when it was planted out to " orchard." The trees of this sec- 

 tion of " orchard " are now on the brush heap, and this land 

 will be given a year or two to recuperate, and will then be 

 replanted to real orchard. In one part of the old pasture, 

 which was ploughed up and planted with squash the past 

 spring, only two patches made a satisfactory growth and 

 gave a good crop of squashes. One of these patches was in 

 a corner of the field, and the other was an irregular section 

 near the center. Inquiry elicited the information that the 

 corner patch was where the bars to the pasture were located, 

 and where the cows gathered at night before being driven 

 home. The irregular patch in the center was where several 

 trees had stood, under which the cows gathered for shade. 

 These illustrations will serve to show the condition of the 

 land, so far as past management, or rather mismanagement, 

 was concerned. But naturally the land was an ideal orchard 

 soil, a gravelly loam with rather a porous subsoil ; just the 

 type of soil to give a reasonably good growth to the trees, and 

 high color and quality to the fruit. Furthermore, a number 

 of old apple trees on various parts of the farms were making 

 a sturdy, healthy growth in spite of all the different kinds of 

 neglect which the owners could heap upon them. It was 

 for these reasons that the location was selected, coupled with 

 a firm belief that the fact of a soil being run down is of com- 

 paratively little moment, provided it is naturally a good 

 orchard soil, and provided also that the owner purposes to see 

 that plenty of plant food is supplied to the trees from the 

 start, — two extremely important provisos. 



The land for setting this first season was plowed as early 



