METHODS OF FRUIT CULTURE AND FORESTRY. 109 



then somebody must pick out the specimens. There is a good 

 opportunit}- for those who have suitable pasture land to try what 

 can be done by planting it with apple trees. A tree in cultivated 

 land may be as much neglected as it can be in pasture land. 



Mr. "Wood said that Mr. Hadwen was right in saying that no 

 one can grow apple trees without feeding them. Tlie speaker 

 repeated his previous statement that apples and peaches can be 

 grown with less manure than other fruits, but not in hard, compact 

 sward, which intercepts ever3thing that 30U want for the trees. 

 Trees must have more care than is commonly given them ; farmers 

 have not been encouraged to give their trees the care they need. 

 There is no profit in apples the off year ; but the speaker believes 

 that in fifteen or twenty years the apple will be one of the most 

 profitable crops. 



Mr. Gregor}^ thought that acid apples would sell best, when 

 evaporated. The Western fruit looks well, but the sharp apples 

 will take the palm. Professor Maynard made the point that trees 

 should be manured when set out. Apple trees will begin to bear 

 in twelve years from planting, and the whole expense up to that 

 time could not be more than $100 per acre. Mr. Gregorj^ 

 believed it would pay to grow them as food for cattle and hogs. 

 He has sixty acres of pasture land with wild apple trees almost 

 thick enough for an orchard, and has had men at work for weeks 

 grafting them. Land where such trees vvill grow will give good 

 apples. He is always careful to graft so high that a cow cannot 

 reach the grafts with her horns to break them. He has often seen 

 four feet of growth on the grafts in such trees. 



Edmund Hersey said that it was his fortune or misfortune to be 

 always trying experiments in agriculture, and he sometimes thinks 

 that the more we experiment the less we know. He has felt a 

 great interest in fruit growing, but is not satisfied with the results 

 he has thus far attained. There are so many conditions to be 

 considered that it is difficult to grasp them all. He gave an 

 account of two orchards which he planted to ascertain whether it 

 is best to keep apple trees in cultivation or to mulch them, as 

 nature docs. The land in which he tried this experiment con- 

 sisted of half an acre of gravelly knoll, running down to richer 

 land ; another portion was a little richer. All the trees had the 

 same care in planting ; the land to be mulched was not ploughed. 

 The result was that at first the ploughed orchard grew rapidly ; 

 the other made shoots of only a foot or a foot and a half in length. 



