MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 99 



gravelly subsoil. It was pasture land, quite rocky, and con- 

 siderable bushy at the time. It contains 152 trees, 50 of which 

 were set out the last part of April of the same year, the re- 

 mainder the following spring. The trees are all Baldwins, 

 from one to two years' growth from the bud when set. Before 

 setting the trees, I pared all the roots smooth with a knife, 

 where they had been injured in taking up. I set them the 

 same depth as they formerly grew in the nursery, being careful 

 to place the roots in their natural position. In the sward land 

 I placed soil from an old corn field among the roots, pressing 

 it in firmly to prevent the tree from leaning. I planted the 

 ground with potatoes, in 1845 and 1846. In the spring of 

 1847 it was sowed with oats and the crop ploughed in in June. 

 In August it was sowed down to grass, and has remained so 

 ever since, not allowing the grass to grow within four feet of 

 the tree. I have hoed around them three or four times every 

 year. At the time it was planted it was manured with 

 slaughter-house manure, about three cords to the acre ; since 

 which time, there has been no manure used on the field until 

 the first of last winter, and then two wheelbarrow loads of 

 stable manure were put to each tree, heaping it up around the 

 tree. In the spring I spread the same and hoed it in, to the 

 distance of five feet around the tree. 



My second orchard consists of about one and one-fourth 

 acres of land of deep, rich soil ; a part of it is gravelly subsoil, 

 and a part of a cold, sandy nature. It contains 86 trees. A 

 part of them were set in the spring of 1848, and the remainder 

 in the spring of 1849. In the cold ground, I removed the soil, 

 where the trees were to be set, for the space of about eight 

 feet, and filled with clayey gravel and small stones ; setting 

 the roots of the trees near the surface of the ground. The trees 

 are of various kinds : Baldwin, Maiden's Blush, May Queen, 

 Old Hundred, Red Astrachan, Gravenstein, Millerite, Gilli- 

 flower, Sopsovine, Bartlett, Sudbury, and Summer Sweetings, 

 &c. The land has been cultivated every year, and planted 

 with potatoes till this season, when I planted it with corn. 



The trees in the first orchard are set two rods apart each 

 way ; in the second, one and one-half rods. I have washed 

 them once a year, in May, with strong soap suds. My mode 

 of trimming is, when the tree is high enough, to cut off the 



