MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



liable to late spring frosts. And whatever may- 

 be the advantages of soil and of position, let 

 no man hope for large commercial results in 

 apple-growing at the East, without reckoning 

 upon as thorough and assiduous culture as he 

 would give to his corn crop; — as well as a 

 constant battle with the borers and bark lice, — 

 intermittent campaigns against the caterpillar 

 and canker-worm, and a great June raid upon 

 the whole guerrilla band of curculios. 



The cherries, a venerable company of trees, 

 have borne the scrapings and dressings with 

 great equanimity,— being too old to be pushed 

 into any wanton luxuriance, and too sedate to 

 show any great exhilaration from the ammo- 

 niacal salts. Pruning is not much recom- 

 mended in the books; yet I have succeeded in 

 restoring a good rounded head of fruit-bearing 

 wood by severe amputation of begummed and 

 black-stained limbs; this is specially true of 

 the Black-hearts and Tartarians, — of many of 

 which I have made mere pollards. 



It is a delicate fruit to be counted among 

 farm crops, and hands used to the plough are 

 apt to grapple it too harshly. Pliny says it 

 should be eaten fresh from the tree; and it is 

 as true of our best varieties, as it was of the 

 Julian cherry in the first century. It will not 



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