MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 101 



in July, trim them in April or May, as best suits my conve- 

 nience. Think May is preferable. 



The soil in which the trees are growing is a sandy loam, 

 with some stone about two feet or more below the surface. I 

 manure about 30 or 35 cart loads to the acre, plough it in 

 about four or five inches deep. This year I manured in the 

 hill. Have planted corn the first year of setting the trees, and 

 potatoes the next. Have harvested one year, from one acre of 

 the orchard piece, 127 bushel baskets of sound ears of corn. 

 " We people w^ho measure our corn by the bushel and land by 

 the acre, and not by the produce of one hill, and then make a 

 mathematical calculation, call this quantity a good yield." I 

 have also taken from the piece, on different parts of it, two 

 crops of clover, one of barley, one of rye, two of oats, and one 

 of buckwheat. 



The manure is taken out of the yard in the spring. Hogs 

 run in the cow yard. Put in the yard, peat, mud, loam, po- 

 tatoe vines, leaves, &c. Some years, have used leached ashes 

 mixed with the manure. 



Have not been troubled with borers, or other worms, to 

 speak of. 



On some of the trees set in 1844, the yield this season is 

 over two barrels on a tree, of very fine apples, and many trees 

 with a less quantity. Some of those that were set in 1848, 

 and only one year old from the bud at the time of setting, are 

 bearing. 



My principal variety is the Baldwin. In the low ground 

 there are some Greenings. I have a few other varieties, the 

 names of which I have forgotten at this time. 



Framingham, Sept. 15, 1852. 



William B. Harris's Statement. 



Gentlemen, — My trees were set in the spring of 1844, and 

 were quite small. The soil is rocky, although a part of it is 

 loamy, as you observed at your examination. There are 236 

 trees, which were all set out at first, but a few died, say half a 

 dozen, which I have replaced from year to year. 



The first summer after they were set, I sowed the land 

 (there is six acres) with rye, which I noticed did the trees no 



