ORCHARDS AND FRUITS. 125 



exhibited for premiums — if fruit, its keeping qualities, &c., 

 growth and habits of the trees, mode of cultivation, &c. This 

 is just what our young farmers and fruit-growers want to learn 

 — not who that has acres of orchards can select the most showy 

 specimens from twenty different trees. Premium articles may 

 be got up for a show in a very neat manner by havijig a wide 

 field to select from ; but what do they cost ? If you with the 

 same advantages can raise equally as good fruit at a less cost 

 than your neighbor, then it seems to us you are entitled to the 

 premium, and you in turn should let the world know your 

 method of producing it. It is to be feared the present man- 

 agement and mode of awarding premiums by our agricultural 

 societies does not go far to advance us towards the ultimate 

 objects for which they were established. 



A. RoLFE, Chairman. 



APPLES — SECOND CLASS. 



Your Committee in performing their duty were governed by 

 rules which we believe tlie fruit-growers will approve. We first 

 noticed the varieties offered, whether they were of the more 

 profitable or the large and more fancied varieties, giving the 

 preference to such as the Pippins, Hubbardston, Baldwin, &g. 

 We also took special notice of the quality, examining in most 

 cases every apple ; by so doing the largest in some cases did not 

 get the premium. We considered a good, sound, perfect (we 

 do not call a wormy one perfect) apple, of good variety, though 

 less in size, more worthy of a premium than larger specimens, 

 wormy and of a variety perhaps almost worthless. We wish 

 that future committees might do the same. 



The care of the tree has much to do with the quality of the 

 fruit. We believe that an orchard should never be seeded down 

 to grass, but let the plough and harrow do their work. But if 

 it must be, then the trees should be mulched with old hay and 

 the like, as far as the limbs extend, in order to keep the ground 

 light and moist. There is something that requires the attention 

 of the orchardist continually. Besides the preparation of the 

 soil, his trees need pruning; the borer, caterpillar and canker- 

 worm are to be looked after in order to insure success. A 

 remedy for these evils is 'of the utmost importance. Tlie writer 

 has successfully practised the following : To secure the borer 



