724 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they may be destroyed by a circular brush, of about an inch in 

 diameter, with a long handle, and this, if applied every few 

 days, will fully answer the purpose. 



When the fruit of the tree is ripened, no other attention is 

 necessary than to gather it with due care. The apple bears 

 its fruit on spurs, which continue to bear several years in suc- 

 cession, and if these spurs are injured by careless or hasty 

 gathering, the fruit of following years is lost. 



It will be perceived that I have left untouched many import- 

 ant points in relation to the culture of apple-trees. I have 

 said nothing, for instance, in regard to those varieties of apple^ 

 which are best raised in our orchards. There are so many of 

 these varieties that the bare enumeration of them, without one 

 word of comment, would occupy several pages. I shall mere- 

 ly remark that the three kinds most generally raised in this 

 vicinity, are the Rhode Island Greening, the Baldwin, and the 

 Roxbury Russet, all natives of New England, and of well es- 

 tablished reputation. The finest of all apples, in general 

 estimation, the Newark Pippin, cannot be cultivated to any 

 advantage in our climate, and requires a more southern at- 

 mosphere, growing to great size and beauty in Virginia. I 

 pass over, also, entirely, the subject of grafting, and have said 

 scarcely anything on that of manuring. But, notwithstand- 

 ing these omissions, and many others doubtless of equal im- 

 portance, I have extended this report much beyond my 

 expectations. It was no part of my design to write a 

 complete treatise, but merely to offer a few hints on those 

 topics, which have suggested themselves most prominently to 

 my own mind. Respecting many of these there may be dif- 

 ferences of opinion. One fact, however, should be borne in 

 mind, that of two proposed ways of proceeding in agriculture, 

 both may be good, though not equally so. Happily for us, 

 agricultural operations are not like the delicate operations of 

 surgery, which there is only one safe way df performing^ and 

 in which the slightest deviation may produce disastrous or 

 fatal consequences. "When we say, for instance, that 'the 

 spring, on the whole, is the best period for setting out trees in 

 our climate, or that young orchards should be kept in tillage, 

 we are far from asserting that no orchards which may be other- 

 wise managed can grow or thrive. But though there may be 



