ORCHARDS. 83 



about one-fourth, from which I took a crop of oats, and one of 

 clover, thinking then, as many do now, that if a space was kept 

 dug around the trees, that was sufficient ] but I learned, by a 

 very perceptible difference in the growth of the trees, that I 

 was mistaken, and I am now satisfied that no orchard can be 

 successfully grown without a thorough cultivation of the lohole 

 ground overspread. I have washed my trees every spring with 

 a weak solution of potash, and have not been troubled at all 

 with borers or other worms. 



Ehenezer Richardson's Statement. 



The orchard which I offer for your inspection, is on a lot of 

 six acres ; the soil is slate gravel. When I bought the farm, 

 this lot was sown with rye, and the crop was not enough to pay 

 the expense. I sowed it once afterwards, with the same result. 

 I then turned it to pasture for fourteen years, during which 

 time, I do not think it produced more than half enough to keep 

 one cow. I came to the conclusion that it was good for 

 nothing but pines, which began to grow thriftily, but not liking 

 to have their shade on land north of them, I tliought I would 

 try an expcrim.ent with an orchard on it. I ploughed one-half 

 of it deep, and sowed buckwheat ; the crop was thirteen bush- 

 els. I then ploughed the whole lot as deep as I could, and 

 sowed it with buckwheat, and to my astonishment, had the 

 largest growth of straw that I ever saw ; the seed was not 

 equal to the straw, but a good crop. I then ploughed it as deep 

 as I could conveniently. I had a lot of apple trees in the 

 woods and pastures which came up from the seed scattered by 

 the cattle, and the next spring, which was 1848, 1 took up these 

 scrub trees and set them thirty feet apart each way, with a 

 peach tree between one way. 



Not finding quite enough, of the right size, of the scrubs, I 

 examined a large tree with a lot of thrifty sprouts about it, 

 and found they came from large roots, from four to six inches 

 under the surface, and full of fibrous roots. I broke off sixty 

 of them, cut the ends smooth and filled out the lot with them ; 

 they all lived and grew finely. In taking up and setting out, 

 I spent the time of three men two days in 1849. I cut them 

 off and grafted them about three inches under the surface ; all 



