160 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



son, in the form of one and a half pounds of potash in a pail of 

 about nine quarts of water. This is as strong as young trees 

 will bear without injury. 



The orchard contains four hundred and seventy-five trees, 

 two hundred Baldwins, — one hundred greenings, — forty Por- 

 ters and one hundred and thirty-five of several varieties, such 

 as Hubardston nonsuch, yellow bell flower, Lyscom, winter 

 pearmain, Hertfordshire pearmain, English quince, early and 

 Brownal Spitzenburg, russet, pippin and several varieties of 

 sweetings.* 



My trees have suffered exceedingly from the excessive 

 drought of the past season, and have grown but very little since 

 the 15th of July. They have made of growth, the past season, 

 from twelve to thirty inches. The average growth may be 

 safely set at eighteen inches. 



The great dryness of the past summer, and the consequent 

 lack of growth, caused me to hesitate about offering the orchard 

 for premium this year, but as I shall be absent from the State 

 next year, I wish it now to take its chance as best it can. 



Framingham, Aug. 23, 1849. 



Marshall S. Rice's Statement. 



My apple trees, eighty in number, were taken from a nursery 

 which I reared, and budded while small ; they were set in the 

 orchard in the spring of 1838. The soil is a dark gravelly 

 loam. The orchard was in grass a part of the time the first 

 five years after the trees were set ; a part of the seasons it was 

 planted with corn and potatoes. For the last five years, having 

 learned the importance of cultivation among trees, I kept the 

 ground ploughed, raising corn and potatoes alternately on a 

 part of the orchard ; carrots on a part, and strawberries on a 

 part. That part occupied by strawberries has not been ploughed 

 for two years, and the trees on that part, this season, show the 

 need of ploughing, not being so vigorous there as elsewhere. 

 I have never manured the orchard highly. I go over the 



*The treeS; at the time of setting, were one, two, and three years from the graft. 



