30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is well adapted to grass, grain, and the natural forest-trees, — 

 the hickory, the oak and the chestnut, principally ; and the 

 natural wild bushes are the blackberry and the whortleberry. 

 There is an abundance of lime in the soil, although we do not 

 have limestone. It is the debris of the limestone region north 

 of us — Berkshire and that section — that furnishes us with 

 this lime. Ours is a granite formation. 



Question. Have you ever had any experience in root- 

 pruning trees, to bring them into bearing? I have known 

 orchards that had not borne for a number of years — when 

 there seemed to be no reason why they should not bear — that 

 have been brought into bearing by severe root-pruning, and 

 then, by fertilizing, they have been kept along a great many 

 years. 



Mr. Gold. I have never had occasion to resort to that 

 myself, but I have advised it. My daughter, who resides in 

 Indiana, has reported to me some fine pear-trees, which have 

 grown to be very large, but which have failed to bear, and I 

 have instructed her to have them thoroughly root-pruned, 

 with the expectation that it will secure some fruit. 



Mr. . I think you said you did not head your apples. 



I always head mine, as soon they become thoroughly dry. If 

 I were going to put Greenings into the cellar, I should head 

 them as soon as dry, and never open them until I wanted to 

 use them. That has been my practice, and I never have had 

 any trouble. 



Mr. Gold. I remarked that I did not head my apples up 

 that I designed for use in the family. It saves the trouble of 

 heading and unheadiug them ; and then my men are obliged 

 to move the barrels with a little more care, when they are 

 not headed, than when they are. I set one barrel on top of 

 another, and that serves to exclude the air from the lower 

 barrel. There is no objection to heading the barrels up, 

 that I know of, if anybody wants to keep them in that 

 wa}'. 



Question. Do not Western apples keep better than ours ? 



Mr. Gold. As a general rule, I think they have that 

 reputation. They are picked quite early, and before the 

 fullest maturity, and the apples that are shipped to this 

 market grow in quite as northern a latitude, or a little further 



