4 CULTURE ANP MANAGEMENT 



necessary to plough a furrow between each row, the 

 mode of ploughing in strips was found the best, as by 

 turning the furrow towards the tree, the land was bet- 

 ter drained. Besides raising the ground a little from 

 the surrounding soil, half a buck load of loam was add- 

 ed, to raise the ground on which the tree was set. 

 After this was done, the strips or squares, as the case 

 might be, were appropriated to the culture of pota- 

 toes and garden vegetables. In a few places only, the 

 trees failed from the insufficiency of the drain. But 

 by opening the drain, and raising the ground by half 

 a buck load of loam, 1 found, on setting out a new 

 tree, it flourished equally with the rest. This orchard, 

 now in eight years, is a most valuable one, and most 

 of the trees would give half a barrel of apples. From 

 this and other circumstances which have fallen within 

 my observation, it appears that low land, if strong soil, 

 and well drained, will give a fine orchard, and proba- 

 bly sooner than any other." 



The next effort was made under totally opposite 

 circumstances. "The object was to have an orchard 

 on a particular spot, where the soil was thin and light, 

 upon a plain or flat. The holes were dug four feet 

 over. The two upper strata of black and yellow loam, 

 were placed aside the tree. After this, about tendnch- 

 es in depth of the gravelly, or poorer earth, was taken 

 out and carted off, and a horse cart load of stones up- 

 set into the hole ; upon these, a part of the upper stra- 

 tum, or some dirt from the side of the road was scat- 

 tered so as to fill up the interstices ; since which the 

 spots near the trees have been cultivated by planting 

 four hills of potatoes round each tree. The result has 

 been tolerably favourable with all ; but the trees hav- 

 ing the stones placed at the roots have exceedingly 

 outstripped the others. The dimensions of the trees 

 in the first experiment a rich, low, black, stony soil, 

 drained were, at the expiration of eight years, fif- 



