FRUITS. 201 



manure, — the latter of which would be quite an important item. 

 If this be true, (and I see no reason why we should dispute it,) 

 let us try it. It certainly is an easy thing to test, as the turnips 

 can be raised at a small expense, and the cotton seed can be 

 bought in the market at a less price than at our mills ; and be 

 sure of getting the pure thing. And if, on giving it a fair trial, 

 it should prove what the English claim it to be, we should feel 

 as if we had found the great secret to success in sheep feeding. 

 But I am aware that I have already wearied your patience 

 and I leave these most interesting and important subjects to 

 abler pens. 



Respectfully submitted, 



J. E. Wight, Chairman. 



FRUITS 



MIDDLESEX. 



Apples. — Class No. 1. — To most farmers in the county, with 

 the exception of the grass crop, there is no one interest that 

 equals in importance the culture of the apple — in the benefit 

 arising in increased health and comfort from its free use, and 

 the avoiding of large expenditures in their families. For feed- 

 ing stock, careful experiments have proved it admirably adapted. 

 As a source of income, it calls for the closest attention, from 

 the setting of the tree to selling the fruit ; it is valuable for the 

 certainty of the product, and attended with less labor and 

 expense than any other crop in proportion to its value. 



The famous orchard of Pell, in New York, rendering an 

 almost fabulous income, is not chance alone in the adapta- 

 tion of the soil to the tree, but the result of careful study and 

 constant attention. The most thrifty trees were set, the ground 

 always kept scrupulously clean, and the trees full fed with a 

 variety of manures, ending with sales in London or New York 

 at prices nearly double that of his more careless neighbors. 



What is the frequent management in our own county ? A 

 hole is dug, rather small for a decent post, the roots of the tree 

 cut off to fit the hole, mice and the plough take off a large part 



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