EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 163 



five acres; the trunks of some of these trees were nearly 

 three feet in diameter, and others were just a shell with the 

 heart rotted out. This piece of land is being prepared for a 

 new setting of trees ; I remove the stumps and rocks with 

 dynamite. 



My oldest orchard consists of 100 Greenings and Bald- 

 wins about 75 years of age. I keep this orchard in sod most 

 of the time, because it is so stony ; I top-dress it with chem- 

 icals, spray it thoroughly, and get fair crops of apples. 



My next orchard in age consists of 150 R. I. Greenings, 

 25 Baldwins, and 10 Roxbury Russets, making a total of 185 

 trees, and was set out in 1861 by my uncle, who, after begin- 

 ning this good work, enlisted in the army. For a few years 

 it had a hard struggle, until my father came into possession 

 of it, and for a number of years this orchard bore big crops 

 of fine fruit. In the meantime other orchards were being set 

 out, and dairying and the raising of vegetables for market 

 were well established on the farm. And this orchard was 

 sadly neglected. At the time that I came into possession of 

 the farm, which was in the spring of 1903, this orchard was 

 bearing small crops of inferior fruit, the trees were full of 

 dead limbs, and an excess of live ones. The ground was a 

 tough sod, and the orchard had a very sickly appearance. I 

 trimmed out all dead limbs, and some live ones, scraped off 

 all loose bark, plowed, applied nitrate of soda, muriate of 

 potash, and ground bone, then harrowed repeatedly, and 

 sprayed with Bordeaux and poison, and harrowed some more. 

 The change that came over that orchard was simply wonder- 

 ful ; how those trees grew ! How the foliage and bark put 

 on a good healthy color. And it seemed to me as those 

 large, dark green leaves swayed back and forth, they did it 

 in appreciation of the care and kindness I had given them. 

 Each year since 1903, this orchard has received either wood 

 ashes or bone or muriate of potash or lime. And each year 

 but two it has received cultivation. And it receives a thor- 

 ough spraying with Bordeaux and poison and lime and sul- 

 phur annually. 



