74 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



degrees, and then when I went up on the other side it would 

 go up, and down in the hollow it would be down again. I 

 found also, as probably many of you know, that it is not so 

 much the exact elevation which you reach ; that is, an 

 elevation of six hundred feet of broad, level territory 

 will not shed the frost as quickly as an elevation of two 

 hundred feet with a sharp descent close by, so that the frost 

 can run off very quickly. That is a very important thing to 

 know, especially in planting any of the tender fruits. A 

 steep hillside or an elevated hill where there is low ground 

 close by, or a ravine running close by, is favorable for fruit 

 oTowino". The ravine will drain the frost as it will drain 

 water, and it will work wondrous results in saving fruit. I 

 presume that is the reason why there are many sections in 

 "Worcester County where peaches can be grown when they 

 cannot l)e grown in other sections of your State. 



Speaking in a general way, the small fruits, the apple, the 

 peach and the plum need a pretty thorough preparation of 

 the soil and a pretty continuous annual culture, — stirring 

 of the soil, as Professor Roberts puts it, — in order to secure 

 good results. On the other hand, the quince and the i)ear 

 will not stand it so well, and can be more successfully culti- 

 vated by mulching, — mowing the grass and letting it lie 

 there on the oround. Yet I believe in thorous'h culture ; it 

 must be done, but it must l)e done at the right time. A 

 gentleman wrote me two or three years ago that he had tried 

 to follow some of my ideas of culture, and had ploughed his 

 peach orchard three times that summer, and it was going 

 down hill. No wonder that it was, because the plough 

 would tear the roots all to pieces. One ploughing was 

 enough, and that early in the spring. I find a great many 

 make the same mistake in ploughing apple orchards. And 

 they make a mistake also in planting their orchards. They 

 set out the trees thirty feet apart, and th(Mi they think they 

 will do well to get something in between them — peaches or 

 plums — that will ])e short-lived, and then perhaps another 

 line of trees among them ; and they rely for the support of 

 such orchards upon fertilizing them. I believe in carrying 

 all my eggs in one basket, and watching the basket. So I 

 believe in a special line of work. I believe in having an 



