202 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



I will only say, however, in passing, that if you have a herd of 

 cows which have been giving milk for six or eight years on 

 half feed rations, and are poor in flesh, scrawny, and unthrifty, 

 and you should ask me how to get the most money out of stock- 

 raising or your dairy, I would say, don't try to do it out of these 

 old, neglected, half-starved cows, but rather start anew, with 

 some thrifty, vigorous, and healthy young cattle, and care for 

 them as reason and good business methods would suggest, then 

 there might be a chance for some profit. 



Your old cows, however, might be improved for a while, and 

 yield you more milk and profit, while the young stock was com- 

 ing on, by carding, housing, and liberally feeding every day with 

 well-balanced rations. This treatment would improve the old 

 and neglected herd, but you cannot make these cows yield now 

 what they would have done had they been liberally fed, and in 

 every way cared for from the time they were calves. 



So it is with uncultivated, half-starved, and neglected orchards. 

 They, like the cows, may be improved by feeding, cultivating, 

 pruning, and spraying, so as to be much more remunerative, but 

 for the best and most profitable results it is better to start anew. 



Therefore to show you how to get the most out of an apple 

 orchard (and I believe orcharding is to be the future business 

 of our New England farmers), I will start with a young orchard 

 and show you how to grow and care for it successfully. 



First. Select the best piece of orchard ground you have, 

 which must be dry. If it is ridge land, as much of our Con- 

 necticut land is, with a retentive subsoil, so that water will drain 

 into and fill, or partly fill, a hole dug 20 inches deep, when left 

 over-night in the spring of year, drain it 3^ feet deep. Trees 

 will grow and bear on such land, but for best results drain it. 

 If the field is in turf, manure, plow, and crop it with corn to get 

 the soil prepared for the trees. It is immaterial whether you set 

 the trees in the fall or spring. If planted in the fall, do so early, 

 say in October. The soil should be first plowed and well har- 

 rowed, and after the trees are set, sow to rye for a cover crop, 

 to be plowed under the following spring. If not set with trees 

 until spring, plow, then fertilize with 1200 pounds of fertilizer 

 worth, at least, $30 per ton, or if you have it. 20 to 25 tons of 

 stable manure to the acre, and harrow it in well, when the field 

 will be readv for the trees. 



