ESSEX SOCIETY. U 



Francis Dodge's Statement. 



1 offer for your inspection forty-three Baldwin apple trees, 

 enclosed in one field containing between seven and eight acres, 

 on my farm in Danvers, being part of a row around the whole 

 field, and all the bearhig ones excepting four Kilham Hill 

 trees. They are thirty-five feet apart, and twelve feet from the 

 wall. The other trees in the row are younger, and have been 

 set to fill vacancies at various times within the last ten years. 

 The field on which the trees stand is what might be termed a 

 run, and was cleared twenty-three years ago. There is a cov- 

 ered drain in the field, running the entire length, about in the 

 centre, the ground rising on both sides of it. The ground 

 also rises from both ends, making the highest point of land 

 about midway of the piece, the water running from the centre 

 to both ends of the field all the year. The land on the south 

 side of the drain is of a loamy character, that on the nortii is 

 rocky, wetter, and more inclined to clay. The trees have done 

 the best on the north side, and the fruit has been larger. The 

 trees were set in the fall of 1828, and the land laid down the 

 following spring. I have no knowledge of the mode of culti- 

 vation previous to 1840, as the field was not in my possession 

 until that time. 



That spring they were pruned, and have been every succes- 

 sive spring since. In pruning them we have endeavored to 

 keep a well balanced head, cutting off all riders and suckers. 

 In the spring of 1843 the land under the trees was ploughed as 

 far as the longest limb extended, and has been ploughed both 

 fall and spring ever since, putting on a coat of manure of about 

 five cords to the acre in the spring, and ploughing in immedi- 

 ately, being careful at each time of ploughing not to injure the 

 roots. The first two years I planted the ground with hoed 

 crops, but since that time the ground has been sown with some 

 small grain in the bearing years, and planted with hoed crops 

 every other year. By this method the windfalls are kept from 

 the ground, and the apples are not so liable to bruise from fall- 

 ing. For the last ten years the trees have been scraped and 

 washed with potash water or strong soap suds, every other year. 



