122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the wound with some substance rig-ht after the wound is 

 made, and it won't let the sap run very much and it will heal 

 over very readily. Lime and some other materials, such as 

 whitewash, have a very good effect, and wax is a very good 

 thing, and that is wdiat I do with a wound. I look after 

 that just as carefully as I do any other' part of the work. 

 Soil cultivation is one of the most important things which 

 New England orchardists have to consider ; it is wonderfully 

 important, llie question has been asked here how early or 

 how young can you get an apple tree to bear. It depends 

 very largely on the soil cultivation. The question was asked 

 here if the system of mulching was a good thing for New 

 England orchards, and I should say no. It may be very well 

 in the blue grass region, or some place where the grass grows 

 so luxuriantly that it will rot, and continue growing and 

 growing, but that is not the case on the hills of New England. 

 Here we have a hard matter to cover our orchards with a 

 mulch that is sufficient to do away with cultivation. Xow 

 the matter of consistent and continued cultivation is a serious 

 subject to consider. We can cultivate our soil to death, and 

 if we cultivate it continuously, the soil becomes hard and 

 lunipy, and the trees cannot get the substance that is really 

 there. I would advocate and do advocate a combination of 

 cultivating and mulching, which is to cultivate during the 

 growing season, and then follow on with a cover crop, which 

 is really mulching. Now you can put on cow peas 

 for a cover crop or beans or clover, and the next 

 spring plow that in, and then you have the nitrogen substances 

 all ploughed in, and it all contributes to the soil, and gives it 

 all the moisture and heat that there is. Scientific men will 

 tell you how many tons of water an apple tree will draw up- 

 in a given length of time ; I don't know anything about that, 

 but I know it will draw a great deal ; but they say very little 

 of what it draws from the atmosphere. In my own mind I 

 think that while the apple tree draws a great quantity of tons 

 of water from the soil and earth down below, if the condition 

 of the surface soil is right and takes it to its use and consume> 

 it, yet it draws pounds of water from the atmosphere, and the 

 pounds are more valuable than the tons that come from the 



