104 



ORCHARDS 



C. C. FIELD'S STATEMENT. 



ORCHARD. 



The orchard which I offer for premium^, consists of 

 180 trees, most of them were transplanted in the 

 spring of 1848, and the remainder in 1849; the 

 latter were of the same age from the budding, as the 

 former, and they are now quite as large. Before 

 setting the trees, the holes were dug four feet in 

 diameter, and from fifteen to eighteen inches deep. 

 The sods and surface soil, together with a small quantity 

 of swamp muck in dry places, where the trees would 

 lie likely to be affected by drouth, were returned to the 

 bottom of the holes ; the finest and best part of the 

 soil in the vicinity of the holes was carefully placed 

 around and above the roots, using the hands when 

 necessary ; and then the subsoil was spread on the sur- 

 face. The trees were set a little lower than they stood 

 in the nursery. One row of nine trees had a horse 

 cart load of " horn piths " to every three trees, placed 

 in the bottom of the holes, but they are no better now 

 than many others. The whole ground, where about 

 one-fourth part of the orchard was planted, has been 

 under constant cultivation with corn, potatoes or fodder 

 corn, and here the trees have made the best growth. 

 About one half of the orchard has been cultivated all 

 the time except three years, one year, wheat or rye was 

 raised and two years grass. The remaining one-fourth 

 has been in grass all the time ; but a large circle around 

 the trees has been dug up here each spring, and a 

 a dressing of compost applied every fall. On the 

 cultivated part, no special application of manure has 

 been made to the trees besides that spread upon .the 

 whole surface for the corn or potatoes. 



