94 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tion of apple-trees, to take care of the roots. It is well to 

 look after and destroy the insects ; but if tlie roots are neg- 

 lected, I think that we shall tind worms more plenty than 

 fruit. I don't believe in the way that some have of tearing 

 up the roots with a plough. It is better, I think, to keep the 

 ground light by digging around the trees with a fork. 



As for the insects, I am not much troubled with borers of 

 any kind ; when I find any in my apple-trees, I choke them 

 with hard soap. The caterpillars are exorcised on the point 

 of a long pole, and the canker-worms are treated to a coat of 

 tar. My trees are pruned (but not excessively) in the month 

 of May ; the cuts on the larger branches I cover with paint. 

 My wormy fruit I bury deep in the ground, away from the 

 trees. With regard to the choice of apples, I think that 

 must depend principally on the taste and fancy peculiar to 

 each individual, and among the great varieties of apples pro- 

 duced, it seems as though every one ought to be gratified. It 

 is well, perhaps, that personal tastes and fancies differ, as 

 otherwise some things now considered very choice would be 

 entirely neglected. 



Statement of James Flint of Middleton. 



I have about five hundred apple-trees ; about one hundred 

 are old ones, that were on the place when I took it; the rest 

 I have set myself. I have over forty different kinds, which 

 are more than I wish I had. I do not think it a good plan to 

 have so many varieties. I have in my orchard loam and grav- 

 elly subsoil, enriched by barn-yard manure in the spring of 

 the year. I commenced, about thirty-two years ago, by set- 

 ting over a hundred, and have set some occasionally since, 

 until within ten or fifteen years. I ploughed the land deep 

 before setting, by going twice in the same furrow, digging 

 large holes and keeping the ground cultivated, washing occa- 

 sionally, when small, with potash water. 



I am troubled some with the borer, not with the canker- 

 worm or caterpillar, or much with any other worm. The win- 

 ters have hurt my trees more than anything else. Take the 

 borer in season, with a knife and wire, and you can soon fix 

 him. I trim my trees late in the fall or early winter, cutting 



