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in the spring as the soil was fit for working, and was then 

 thoroughly fitted, using a disc harrow, a spring-tooth and a 

 smoothing harrow, and finishing with a planker. This left 

 the surface smooth for laying off the orchard and setting the 

 trees, by no means an unimportant item. After the trees 

 were set, which 1 shall speak of more in detail in a moment, 

 the land was kept thoroughly cultivated until time for sow- 

 ing the cover crop, about July 10. There was always a team 

 at work in the orchard, and sometimes two of them. And, 

 notwithstanding the fact that we had one of the driest seasons 

 within the memory of the proverbial oldest inhabitant, and 

 the further fact that our soil was shy of humus (an extremely 

 important factor in holding moisture in the soil), there was 

 never a time throughout the season when the soil was not as 

 moist as could be wished just under the dust mulch. It was 

 certainly a striking indication of the value of cultivation. As 

 soon as the trees had been set, an ounce of nitrate of soda was 

 scattered about each tree, and a little later a pound per tree 

 of a mixture made up of three parts high-grade sulphate of 

 potash and five parts acid phosphate. The result was that 

 nearly all of our trees gave us an entirely satisfactory growth 

 this season, in spite of the past neglect of the soil. The ap- 

 ples grew from 11^ to ^V2 feet, and many of the peaches as 

 much, though, being on a drier soil, they did not average as 

 much as the apples. 



■^ This matter of fertilizing is one which we intend to fol- 

 low up, for I am firmly convinced that it is a very important 

 factor in success with orchards. I believe there is as much 

 difference in quality between a well-fed apple and one which 

 is grown on poor, run-out soil, as there is between a beef- 

 steak from a well-fed animal and one from a half-starved 

 beast. I am convinced that this is one of the important 

 reasons why the western apples, grown on virgin soils, as 

 most of them are, have so much more attractive an appear- 

 ance than much of our eastern-grown fruit. An instance 

 bearing out this idea came to my notice on our farm this 

 season. One of the farms bought had a small Baldwin 

 orchard of 1 acre (adjoining the patch where the rye and 



