10 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



successive order, during summer and autumn ; and, ac- 

 quiring greater perfection and maturity after gather- 

 ing, it may, by proper care, be preserved for the ta- 

 ble, or for culinary use, until the return of the flower- 

 ing season. The soil and climate of the United States 

 are admirably adapted to the growth of the apple 

 tree, except in certain districts in the south, where 

 the land is level and sandy, and the atmosphere re- 

 plete with humidity. Even the colder regions of 

 Maine annually furnish excellent apples for the Boston 

 market. We have an ample variety of apples, many 

 of which are allowed to be of superiour quality as to 

 size, beauty and flavour. Notwithstanding, however, 

 these advantages, and the immense value of apple or- 

 chards, 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 cultivated in the most advantageous man- 

 ner 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 prop- 

 er pruning, cleaning, and manuring round the roots 

 of trees, and of perpetuating choice fruit, by engraft- 

 ing from it on other stocks. Old orchards are, in 

 general, in a state of rapid decay ; and it is not un- 

 common to ssee valuable and thrifty trees exposed to 

 the depredations of cattle and sheep, and their foliage 

 annoyed by caterpillars and other destructive insects. 

 In fact, we know of no branch of agriculture so unac- 

 countably and so culpably disregarded. If it be ob- 

 jected, that the profit will not remunerate for the 

 labour and expense of cultivation, the obvious reply 

 is, let the experiment be fairly tried, in a few instan- 

 ces, and the result will soon correct the erroneous 

 impression, and stimulate to greater attention to the 

 subject. It may, with propriety, be affirmed, that a 

 judiciously-cultivated orchard of select fruit, if situated 



