20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



orchards that were managed with much skill, and very many received 

 but haphazard treatment. 



As time went on, knowledge and science slowly crept in; every 

 season brought out more improved cultivation and better products, 

 and in a few years horticulture and pomology were recognized as the 

 fine and higher arts in rural life and rural aptitude. 



Equal progress has been made in inculcating an educated taste for 

 choice fruits and creating a demand which encourages the cultivator 

 to supply fruits which fill the markets with tempting displays from all 

 parts of the country. 



The thousands of acres of orchards and gardens which may now 

 be seen in New England manifest the strangest contrast with that in 

 former years, and for many years New England was in advance of 

 other portions of the country in horticultui'e. 



The natural conditions which govern our soil and climate require 

 more skill and brain in its manipulation to ensure success. Special 

 manures and fertilizers are found to be a necessity ; the art of graft- 

 ing and budding, with other approved modes of propagating, have to 

 be acquired and made use of ; judicious jjruning is one of important 

 practice in the orchard ; and thinning the fruit, to promote size and 

 good flavor, is equally necessary. 



It would seem, if we may judge from the new fruits of the last 

 fifty years, there is no barrier to obtaining by hybridization fruits of 

 any desired size, quality or color, if the proper knowledge is used with 

 a requisite amount of skill and patience, to produce almost any desired 

 size or quality, together with fine aroma and brilliant coloring. 



Science has revealed these possibilities, which only await the skilled 

 cultivator to demonstrate in all the lines of fruit growing. 



New England is also favored with a variety of soils which is found 

 favorable to the growth of the apple. Experience also teaches that 

 one kind of soil is not adapted to the growth of all kinds of apples ; 

 some thrive best in a loamy soil, some in sandy, others in a gravelly 

 or clay ; keeping those things in view, it is plain that several varieties 

 of apples, when planted in a single orchard, are more reliable for a 

 crop, as seasons come and go, than one variety. 



Sometimes climatic conditions prove injurious to one or more varie- 

 ties, when otliers in the orchard are uninjured. 



In the earlier times, and even now, there were and are, many 

 theories not well founded, relating to orcharding ; of late years grow- 

 ers are changing tlieir views, and the majority of orchardists endeavor 

 to understand the reason of their practice ; under these conditions 



