57 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE W. TAYLOR, OF WEST PEABODY. 



Peabouy, Oct. IGth, 1876. 

 D. W. Low, Esq., 



jSir: — Your comraiinication of Oct. 11th arrived, and as 

 you request, I will take this early opportunity to answer some 

 of your inquiries. In the first place, I have some three hun- 

 dred apple trees on my premises, among Avhich there are 

 about thirty varieties. My soil is a deep loam, rather rocky, 

 with manv laro-e bowlders. The subsoil is a o-pavellv loam, 

 which is underlaid by a pan of clay gravel that is almost as 

 hard as the stone itself. A smart blow with the pick cannot 

 penetrate it more than an inch or so. My land is not very 

 apt to suffer much from drought. I have not been in the hab- 

 it of appl^ying any special manures to my orchard or among 

 the isolated trees that are scattered over my farm. 



When I plough up the ground among the trees, I usually 

 plant some crop, such as corn, cornfodder, or potatoes, for a 

 year or two, then lay down to grass. All the manure my 

 apple .trees ever get is applied when my land is under the 

 plough. Before leaving this portion of the subject, I will add 

 my word in favor of mulchiug among trees. Too much, in 

 my opinion, cannot be said in favor of the practice, and no 

 work in the orchard will repay the owner so large a percent- 

 age on time and expense. Any old rubbish that is always 

 accumulating about a farm will answer, yet we prefer old ha}^ 

 or weeds. Any of the following sul)stances might be em- 

 ployed for this purpose : potato vines, cornstalks, woodwax, 

 or old tan. And I have known the pomace from the cider 

 press to succeed admirabl}^ One of my neighbors has used 

 this for several years as a mulch, and I have noticed that his 

 apple crop has been much improved, both as to size and quan- 

 tit}', where he liberally mulched his trees. I knew an instance, 

 where the ground under quite a large apple tree was covered 

 over with slabs for several years, that it produced enormous 

 crops of fruit much larger and fairer than that produced before 

 the slabs were piled under the tree. 



