1-22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of tliem are more than two feet in circumference, and the 

 extremity of the branches of the few that were planted only 

 twenty-one feet apart, already touch each other, and to the eye 

 of the pomologist they present an appearance of healthfulness 

 and vigor delightful to behold. The trees in this orchard were 

 not allowed to bear fruit for the first seven or eight years after 

 being set in the ground ; the soil has been in constant cultiva- 

 tion with some hoed crop, receiving only a very moderate appli- 

 cation of stal)le manure spread upon the surface before plough- 

 ing, together with such a quantity of muck, ashes, old plaster, 

 bones, A'C, as could be obtained without too m.uch expense, 

 the amount of the whole being quite small. The crops of fruit 

 that these trees are sure to bear every year, or alternate year, 

 will in the future retard their growth sufficiently to satisfy the 

 most timid. Just compare such vigorous, healthy, fruit-bearing 

 trees with thousands that may be seen any where, planted 

 in grass ground, or checked in their growth by the borer, main- 

 taining a feeble, sickly existence, and producing a bushel or 

 two, perhaps, of wormy and knotted fruit, and that too quite 

 as early as the most impatient and short-siglited might desire, 

 and all apprehension of too rapid growth will vanish as dew 

 before the morning sun. 



C. C. Field, Chairman. 



Statement of J. M. Saictcll. 



The orchard which I offer for the society's premium, consists 

 of fifty-six trees, of the following varieties, viz. : Minister, 

 Foundling, Gravenstein, Porter, Sops-of-wine, Rhode Island 

 Greening, Ladies' Sweet, Liscomb, Baldwin, Northern Spy, 

 Mother Apple, Hubbardston Nonesuch, and some that I do not 

 know the names of. Forty of them were set out in May, 1856, 

 and the rest in May, 1857. I obtained them of the Shakers at 

 Groton, at twenty-five cents each. They were two and tliree 

 years Ironi the bud. The holes in which they were set, were 

 dug from four to five feet in diameter, and from fifteen to 

 twenty inches deep, and thirty feet apart. The land was in 

 sward, bearing a light croj) of grass. Many places the ledge 

 was laid bare in digging the holes. The sods were cut in 

 pieces and returned to the holes and put about the roots with 



