99 



in the ground, though after the soil had settled, some of them 

 proved to be too high, and a few have been lowered. The 

 shape assumed by the roots of some of the trees was such 

 that the action of the frost has since been to lift ihem out. 

 The pears or quince I placed so that the junction of the pear 

 with the stock should be two or three inches below the sur- 

 face, but after the soil had become settled, the point of junc- 

 tion was sometimes above the surface. I have since endea- 

 voured in planting to bury the junction four inches deep, 

 after the soil has settled. 



The manures used were leached ashes, coalpit bottom, 

 Mapes' improved superphosphate of lime, and woolen waste ; 

 each being used alone and in combination with the others. 

 They were mixed with the soil at the time of setting, and a 

 few rows were left without manure. I have not been able 

 up to the present time to trace the influence of either of these 

 substances with any distinctness. 



The cultivation in '54 was simply once hoeing and after- 

 ward pulling the weeds and leaving them on the surface. 

 In 1855, the whole was plowed and planted with potatoes, 

 with guano and superphosphate of lime in the hill. In 1856, 

 it was again planted with potatoes, and manured in the hill 

 with horn shavings and leached ashes. The trees received 

 a pailful each of strong liquid manure from the barn cellar. 

 The present season the trees were treated with the same ap- 

 plication, and the crop is cucumbers for pickling, manured 

 in the hill. This crop is a very good one for the purpose as 

 it is not at all an exhausting one, and it admits of plowing 

 and cultivating a number of times in the early part of the 

 season before planting. 



The growth of the trees has been fair throughout the dif- 

 ferent seasons, the average since the first year having been 

 perhaps, twelve inches of new wood for each year. The best 

 growth was in '56, when shoots in many cases exceeded 

 four feet in length. The present season gave promise of an 

 equal increase, but when the orchard generally had made 

 from six to leu inches of new wood,* the foliage and small 



