40 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



six feet square about the tree, has been cultivated and kept free 

 from grass or weeds, hoeing three times a year. Since plant- 

 ing out in 1848, the trees have been manured once, by about 

 two shovels of well rotted manure to each tree. 



My object in using unworked trees for a part of the ground, 

 is an experiment. It has been advanced by some pomologists, 

 that the tap root was necessary for the perfection and longevity 

 of the tree. Although we could not get the whole of this 

 root, we were able to get from one to two feet of it. The 

 seeds of these natural trees were planted in earth that had been 

 moved, (the bank of a turnpike road,) and the tap root had 

 penetrated to the depth of three or four feet into the bank, with 

 few lateral fibres, and after transplanting, in removing some or- 

 dinary trees, I found that the lower end of the tap had started 

 again downwards. 



Some pear trees, set out and grafted since 1846, about thirty 

 in number, are likewise presented to your notice for premium. 

 These trees were taken from the forest, in a perfectly wild 

 state, of different sizes and ages. They were trimmed, root 

 and branch, of all their superfluous wood, viz. ; roots that were 

 injured, and very long roots, shortened, and were carefully set 

 in a garden soil and cultivated with the garden, and generally 

 grafted the second year after transplanting. They are now 

 far in advance of nursery trees which I set out in 1844 in the 

 same soil. They were of different sizes, several being ten feet 

 high, and all promising. They were set from ten to fifteen 

 feet apart, in a part of my garden where formerly was a black- 

 smith's shop. Several of them the present season have made 

 from two to three feet of tvood, none less than one foot. 



It was remarked by one of the committee, when viewing 

 the trees, that the ground was very suitable for trees. Whether 

 the ferruginous ingredients of the soil, or the charcoal, (which 

 was mostly used in the days of the blacksmith's shop,) have 

 any special influence, may be a question of some importance, 

 or whether the removal from an uncultivated to a cultivated 

 soil, has had a favorable effect, I will leave for the more skilled 

 to determine. 



TopsFiELD, Sept. 1850. 



