94 ON FRUIT TREES. 



was mostly used in the days of the blacksmith's shop,) have 

 any special influence, may be a question of some importance, 

 or whether the removal from an uncultivated to a cultivated 

 soil, has had a favorable eifect, I will leave for the more skill- 

 ed to determine. 



Topsfield, Sept. 1S50. 



FRANCIS DODGE'S STATEMENT. 



I offer for your inspection forty-three Baldwin apple trees, 

 enclosed in one field containing between seven and eight acres, 

 on my farm in Danvers, being part of a row around the whole 

 field, and all the bearing ones excepting four Kilham Hill trees. 

 They are thirty-five feet apart, and twelve feet from the wall. 

 The other trees in the row are younger, and have been set to 

 fill vacancies at various times within the last ten years. The 

 field on which the trees stand is what might be termed a run, 

 and was cleared twenty-three years ago. There is a covered 

 drain in the field, running the entire length, about in the cen- 

 tre, the ground rising on both sides of it. The ground also 

 rises from both ends, making the highest point of land about 

 midway of the piece, the water running from the centre to both 

 ends of the field all the year. The land on the south side of 

 the drain is of a loamy character, that en the north is rocky, 

 wetter, and more inclined to clay. The trees have done the 

 best on the north side, and the fruit has been larger. The 

 trees were set in the fall of 1828, and the land laid down the 

 following spring. I have no knowledge of the mode of culti- 

 vation previous to 1840, as the field was not in my possession 

 until that time. 



That spring they were pruned, and have been every succes- 

 sive spring since. In pruning them we have endeavored to 

 keep a well balanced head, cutting off all riders and suckers. 

 In the spring of 1843 the land under the trees was ploughed as 

 far as the longest limb extended, and has been ploughed both 

 fall and spring ever since, putting on a coat of manure of about 



