FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. I23 



soil below. The moisture that comes from the atmosphere 

 in the form of dew or light showers is carried through the 

 clouds and brouglit down to the soil, and if we have that soil 

 in a proper condition, it will take in this moisture and hold it 

 there, and the roots can get it and use it, and you have got 

 more nutritious matter, more growing material in the atmos- 

 phere moisture than from the same amount below ; so if we 

 have the soil condition to hold this moisture, we are going to 

 gain both wa}S. We go out in the morning and we notice 

 the slate roof of our house, and we will see the water trick- 

 Img down through the conductors, and yet we have had no 

 rain^ but it has gathered the dew to a certain extent and it 

 runs down through the conductors. Then we walk along to 

 a barn with cedar shingles on it, and there is no water run- 

 ning down there. Why? Because the cedar shingles have 

 absorbed all the moisture, but the slate roofs on those houses 

 that are flat will hold the water, the dew, in little puddles. 

 Now the soil under your apple trees and about them, if it is 

 blanketed with a fine nice mulching blanket of fine soil, 

 absorbs the moisture and it goes into the roots of the trees, 

 while if it is covered over with grass the moisture stays there, 

 and when the sun climbs up it soaks it up in the atmosphere 

 and takes it away. It is a little thing to look after the prun- 

 ing, but it is constant every-day work from beginning to end ; 

 but the little points, if well attended to, mean success in Xew 

 England fruit growing of any kind. Now there is a point 

 about the time to cultivate — when shall we cultivate? Com- 

 mence cultivation just as soon after springtime opens as we 

 can, and don't make the soil lumpy. If you cultivate when 

 it is wet, you make it lumpy, and it is not in a condition to 

 get all the benefit it should. Cultivate as early as you can, 

 and cultivate until the middle of June or the first of July, and 

 then have the soil very smooth, and as smooth as you can. If 

 it is an orchard, you can cultivate and seed it down to some 

 crop, and I might dwell longer on this, but I don't think it is 

 necessary. Then the next spring plough it in again, and cul- 

 tivate it again. I am glad to see the implements down below 

 for cultivating the soil and tilling the soil, and I want to say 

 that I use a plow for ploughing the orchard, and then a very 



