10 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



market. We have an ample variety of apples, 

 many of which are allowed to be of superiour 

 quality as to size, beauty, and flavour. Notwith- 

 standing, however, these advantages, and the im- 

 mense value of apple orchards, their cultivation 

 has received but inadequate attention from the 

 farmers of our country. It must be confessed, as 

 a notorious truth, that an orchard, planted and cul- 

 tivated in the most advantageous manner in point 

 of beauty, profit, and convenience, is scarcely to be 

 found in the sphere of our observation. The most 

 palpable neglect prevails in respect of proper prun- 

 ing, cleaning, and manuring round the roots of trees, 

 and of perpetuating choice fruit, by engrafting from 

 it on other stocks. Old orchards are, in general, 

 in a state of rapid decay; and it is not uncommon 

 to see valuable and thrifty trees exposed to the 

 depredations of cattle and sheep, and their foliage 

 annoyed by caterpillars and other destructive in- 

 sects. In fact, we know of no branch of agricul- 

 ture so unaccountably and so culpably disregarded. 

 If it be objected, that the profit will not remunerate 

 for the labour and expense of cultivation, the obvi- 

 ous reply is, let the experiment be fairly tried, in 

 a few instances, and the result will soon correct the 

 erroneous impression, and stimulate to greater at- 

 tention to the subject. It may, with propriety, be 

 affirmed, that a judiciously-cultivated orchard of 

 select fruit, if situated at a convenient distance from 

 a large town or village, would yield an annual profit 

 equal to any production of the industrious husband- 

 man. An instance has been adduced, in, the town 

 of Dorchester, a few years since, of one hundred 

 and sixty barrels of apples being produced from 

 less than two acres, the estimated value of which, 

 including the grass mowed under the trees, is three 

 hundred dollars per acre. In what branch of cul- 

 ture can the husbandman realize a more ample and 

 gratifying reward for his labour and attention ? 



