192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc, 



grown on any farm, requiring very little attention. They 

 require transplanting when one or two years old, and have 

 the tap root cut off, causing the roots to branch out near the 

 surface. They should l)e set in rows one foot apart, and 

 are early budded or grafted. Care should be taken to keep 

 the trunks straight, and if given good cultivation may be set 

 permanently in the orchard when three years old from the 

 bud. In selecting trees you examine the heads carefully 

 to see that they have a nice form, but pay very little 

 attention to the roots. Now, in Iniying an apple or a 

 pear tree I very seldom look at the head at all except to 

 see it has not been maltreated. If you Avill set out your 

 tree so that the roots will run near the top of the ground, 

 the head may be formed after the tree is set out. It is the 

 root that needs attention. After you have planted your tree 

 the roots are beyond your control, but the head is above 

 ground and may be easily grown to any desired shape. 



Mr. Joseph S. Perry (of Worcester). Mr. Chairman 

 and gentlemen, I have been an interested listener to the 

 remarks made. I have had considerable experience in regard 

 to growing fruit for the last thirty or forty years. That is, 

 my father before me was a large fruit-grower, and within 

 the last three or four years, in my old age, I thought I would 

 start an orchard myself, so three years ago this last s})ring 

 I bought a very fine piece of hill land and manured it very 

 well, and raised mostly corn. I raised a little over 3,000 

 bushels once on twenty-two acres. Well, the next year, that 

 was last fall, I manured it again. The second year I planted 

 fifteen acres of corn, and I had 1,700 bushels of ears of corn 

 on the fifteen acres, and I raised four acres of cabbages. I 

 planted my trees this last spring. I set out 1,035 trees, and 

 every tree lived. There was one that got pulled up. There 

 were 1,034, and every tree lived. Very few have grown 

 less than six inches, and a few a foot and a half. This year 

 I am manuring this land, and am going to continue to culti- 

 vate and manure for a series of years until they get up to 

 bearing condition, if I live. Of course, I cannot tell how I 

 shall succeed. As one gentleman said here to-day, I have 

 done it for the fun of it, and I am certainly very much 

 pleased with the appearance of this year's growth. I shall 



