MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 157 



and planted for the last five years. He has been troubled with 

 no insects but the caterpillar, which he has thoroughly 

 brushed away. The peach orchard, which he proposed for a 

 premium, is on rather a light rocky soil, with some gravelly 

 knolls, which he has kept cultivated, in part, by raising seed- 

 ling pears, peaches, cherries, plums, and apples ; the other part 

 has been planted with corn and beans. The orchard contains 

 about six hundred trees, raised from seed, planted in 1846 and 

 1847. The trees were set in the orchard the last of October, 

 1847. This year some of them have borne fruit. Mr. Tuttle 

 says he has had some trouble with ants on his peach trees, 

 which he has been able to control. 



Schuyler Parks, of Lincoln, offered for a premium, his apple 

 orchard of eighty trees, set in 1843. The land has been 

 ploughed and hoed, and the trees have been washed with ley 

 every year, in the month of June. The same gentleman pro- 

 posed his peach orchard of one hundred and forty trees, set out 

 in 1847 — all budded fruit, from New Jersey and Long Island 

 nurseries. No manure had been applied. 



J. O. Freeman, of Framingham, proposed his apple orchard 

 for a premium. It contains about two hundred trees, which 

 were placed in their present position at three different times, 

 namely, in 1844, 1846, and 1848. The first lot, containing 

 sixty-four trees, was planted the first year with corn, then, suc- 

 cessively with corn, potatoes, barley, clover, and corn. On the 

 second portion has been grown corn, potatoes, spring rye, and 

 corn. The other was planted last year with potatoes, and the 

 present year with corn. The trees were all planted on sward 

 land, that was ploughed in the fall before planting. The holes 

 were made three feet in diameter, and two feet and a half deep. 

 In each hole was put a quantity of peat, mixed with the sods. 

 The ground has since been manured at the rate of forty cart- 

 loads to the acre, — the manure composed of peat mud, with 

 ashes and manure from the barn-yard. In the fall, a bushel of 

 this kind of manure has been placed about the root of each 

 tree. In the month of May, they have been trimmed and 

 washed with a solution of potash. The committee observed 

 that all the trees in this orchard had been trimmed and trained 



