20 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



The compost manure, which you examined on my premises, 

 has been made since the first of June last. It is composed of 

 the droppings of eight cows and meadow muc" in about equal 

 quantities of each. Some weeds are thrown in with the mud, 

 and live hogs are kept in the cellar of the barn where these 

 ingredients are deposited. The cows are kept directly over the 

 cellar, and all their urine falls directly upon the manure. The 

 cellar is 40 feet long by 16 1 feet wide and 9 feet deep. There 

 is not less than 30 cords in the cellar. You saw another heap 

 of manure in the barn-yard. This is made from the dung 

 from a yoke of oxen and a horse, mixed with mud and peat. 



The orchard which you examined contams between four and 

 five acres. The soil consists of broken slate and light clay. 

 There are 150 apple trees in the orchard, which are manured 

 sufficiently to keep them in a healthy state, but not to force 

 them. They are all Baldwins, Porters, and Orange Sweetings. 

 They are set 40 feet apart. 



There are 125 peach trees set between the apple trees, and 

 are manured like the apple trees. I keep about two quarts of 

 ashes about the roots of all the trees, and have not been 

 troubled with borers or any other kind of insect. The peaches 

 are all seedlings, and are of only two kinds, the Yellow Rare- 

 ripe and the Golden Rareripe. 



From Daniel L. Giles, of Lincoln. — I keep 11 cows, ] yoke 

 of oxen, and 1 horse. There are at least 30 cords of com- 

 post in the heap you examined, all of which is made from the 

 droppings of these animals, mixed with about an equal quan- 

 tity of meadow mud. I have no barn cellar, and the manure 

 is all made in the yard. The whole was made during the last 

 winter. The bottom of the yard is perfectly hard. It has a 

 hollow in the centre, into which most of the liquid manure is 

 conveyed, and there mixes with the other materials, which 

 form the compost. 



Fruit Trees. — The fruit trees presented for premiums were 

 numerous, and, with one or two exceptions, the apple and 

 peach trees were about equal, in their just claims, to the con- 

 sideration of the committee. The regulations, in regard to 

 peach trees, direct that those set out siiice the year 1845, and 



