FRUIT-CULTURE. 89 



and in his selection of trees in the nursery, can decide the 

 different varieties by the color of foliage and general habits 

 of growth. 



There is much that mi^ht be said and written in favor of 

 the cultivation of the apple ; there is no fruit that so largely 

 enters into all the different uses to which we are in the habit 

 of putting fruit. For culinary purposes the apple is far 

 ahead of all other fruits ; for the table it is not surpassed ; 

 for preserves and drying, no other fruit is so universally used. 

 In fact the apple is. our constant friend ; from July to July 

 again we have it on our tables, and with us it is a joy forever. 

 Year after year we are greeted with the rich abundance of 

 our orchards. When the trees of the Old Bay State fail to 

 give us returns, we turn to the Empire State and the great 

 West for a supply, and seldom look to them in vain. If the 

 trees in one section of our country fail to produce an abun- 

 dant crop, those of other sections fail not, and transportation 

 from one place to another makes the supply universal, and 

 distributes the luxury with a balance as just as the wants of 

 demand and supply call for. 



Statement of T. C. Thurloiv of West Newbury. 



We have now about eight hundred apple-trees, and over 

 twenty-rive varieties. The soil is generally a good gravelly 

 loam, with a sandy or gravelly subsoil. A very large propor- 

 tion are Baldwins, — budded trees taken from our nursery, and 

 planted in orchard-rows from 1850 to 1855. The orchards 

 were for several years cultivated, — two or three times planted 

 with corn or potatoes ; but for the last sixteen or seventeen 

 years have been down to grass, and for ten years or more 

 pastured with sheep. The trees have not been enriched in 

 any other way, except a small portion of the orchard, which 

 has been partially cultivated, and two or three dressings of 

 barn-yard manure, ploughed in. 



Occasionally, we see a borer, which is, or ought to be, 

 immediately dug out, or killed with a pointed wire. When 

 our trees were young, they were washed every year in June, 

 with soft-soap and water (half-and-half), which killed all the 

 borers' eggs (if there were any), and was otherwise beneficial 



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