36 STATE POMOLOGlCAIv SOCIETY. 



upon home fertilizers. You may go across from our place a short 

 distance to Mr. Ricker's, one of the apple kings of the State of 

 Maine. He raised last year 2,600 barrels of apples. He has 

 grown those trees upon his own farm with home fertilizers. 

 So it is really a settled fact that we can grow fruit upon home 

 fertilizers and I certainly believe that no fertilizer upon the farm 

 can be used to better advantage than home fertilizer. Now that 

 is not saying anything against commercial fertilizers. I will 

 touch on that a few minutes later. 



Now I made it a rule when I set out my trees that I would do 

 the best I could for them. Consequently, I kept the plow going, 

 and I not only raised those trees but I did raise other crops. I 

 raised my corn, my potatoes, my beans, etc., amongst those trees 

 until the trees got to some growth so that they would shade 

 them. Now I simply plow that orchard once in two years — 

 put on a coat of dressing once in two years and plow it every 

 year. It is not necessary that you should put on a very heavy 

 coat of dressing for fruit trees, but keep your plow going, and 

 the harrow, and the result will always follow. You need not 

 be afraid to use the plow. A great many advocate the theory 

 that you can't plow among the trees. Perhaps they can't if 

 they never plowed until the trees got to be large. But com- 

 mence when your trees are small, and the roots are kept in 

 proper shape, and the limbs, so that there is no trouble. 



Then again in speaking of home fertilizers, you might call 

 hogs a home fertilizer. Grand results follow from the pasturing 

 of hogs, and I might also say bad results. I noticed over in 

 Bro. Pope's orchard that the result was wonderful from the 

 pasturing of hogs. And yet, I said to Mr. Pope "What makes 

 those trees die there?" I knew all the. time that hogs had dug 

 around the roots too much and got them exposed and gnawed 

 the bark. He said, "I got a little neglectful." That is the way 

 with a great many of us. We do not feel that the pasturing of 

 hogs is an injury to an orchard, for it has a grand result, but 

 you have got to watch that one point and not let them root too 

 much around the trunks of the trees. H they do you arc going 

 to lose some trees. 



Then again with reference to sheep in connection with the 

 orchard. A few years ago I bought a farm for $300 — 60 acres 



