MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 713 



on this, must be equally applicable to other fruit trees, and 

 indeed to trees generally. In such a document as this, it 

 appears unnecessary to give either a botanical description, or 

 a historical account of this well known plant. It has been, as 

 already intimated, common among us from the very beginning, 

 and many specimens of apple trees daily strike our eyes, which 

 cannot well be of much less age than a century. One species 

 at least is indigenous, but is less remarkable for the size and 

 flavor of its fruit, than the rich perfume of its blossoms. It has 

 been but sparingly introduced into our gardens. Our orchards 

 are mostly made up either of grafted fruit trees, or of natural 

 plants from their seed. Near our large towns, the rearing of 

 nurseries of apple trees has become a distinct business, and 

 plants already grafted or budded, and of sufficient size to be 

 finally planted out, can easily be procured at a moderate cost. 

 But many may prefer to rear and graft their own trees, and 

 this requires only a moderate degree of interesting labor, and 

 the proprietor is more surely protected against any mistake as 

 to the kind of fruit, than he can always be in taking his trees 

 from an extensive nursery. 



The rearing of nurseries is, I believe, well and generally un- 

 derstood. It may be questioned, however, whether the young 

 trees would not be more vigorous if they were less crowded, 

 and thus exposed more freely in their early growth to the 

 action of the sun and air ; in other words, if the nursery were 

 made, so to speak, an orchard in miniature. Four feet be- 

 tween the trees, in one direction at least, might not be thought 

 too great a distance. Many eminent English and French 

 writers caution us against making the soil of the nursery too 

 rich, on the ground that when the tree is finally removed, it 

 may be to a poorer soil and may suffer from the contrast. 

 But this is denied by other equally high authorities, and it 

 would surely seem a better rule, to say that we should 

 treat the tree, as ivell as possible, at all stages of its g-roivth. A 

 vigorous plant will be likely to bear ill management as well 

 as to requite good, better than a feebler one. If the tree re- 

 ceives fair treatment in the orchard, and if it is not to be so 

 treated it should not be set out there, it can suffer nothing 

 from its previous good condition. 



The best ground for an orchard is said by English writers 

 90 



