SECRETARY'S REPORT. 97 



There are very few farms in Massachusetts parts of which 

 would not be improved by undcrdraining. 



Where stones are plenty and easily hauled they had best be 

 used, but tiles make the most perfect drain. 



The great superiority of fruit trees, grass and other crops on 

 drained land, should commend the subject to every farmer. 

 It is a waste to suffer fruit trees, especially apple trees, to stand 

 yielding nothing of value, and only cumbering the ground. 



It is our own experience, and the opinion of all with whom 

 we have conversed on this subject, in which some of them have 

 experimented, that old apple trees, if reasonably thrifty and 

 not too much decayed, may be judiciously renewed and made 

 to bear many years. Such trees should be carefully trimmed 

 and grafted, care being taken not to cut out too much of the 

 top at first. They should be scraped to get rid of the bugs, 

 worms and larvae which infest the bark, while the land beneath 

 them should be manured and cultivated rather shallow, so as not 

 to disturb the roots. From ten to twenty years' bearing of good 

 fruit may be thus secured, while in the meantime the thrifty 

 farmer will have brought a fine young orchard into bearing. 



There is often, too, a shameful waste in the careless, unskilful 

 manner in which fruit trees are transplanted. A small hole, not 

 so wide as the extended roots, is dug in hard soil ; the roots, 

 ragged and untrimmed, are crowded in, and the earth tramped 

 hard upon them, no attention being paid to the depth of setting 

 out or the requirements of the roots. Half the trees cannot 

 possibly live, and the farmer complains that his land isn't 

 suitable for fruit. 



There is a very considerable waste in harvesting the different 

 crops, aside from that caused by unfavorable weather, and 

 which is unavoidable. The first, and perhaps the most 

 noticeable of these, is to be found in bad management of the 

 hay crop, the most important for us in Massachusetts of all crops, 

 amounting to aboiit 19,000,000, it being not only the largest 

 agricultural production, but even the largest of any single 

 product of the State, of any kind, except woollen and cotton 

 goods, boots and shoes, and clothing. The great and most 

 objectionable feature is that of allowing grass to stand too long 

 before it is cut ; becoming too ripe. On large farms, where 

 there is a great amount of hay to be cut, there was formerly 



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