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not to be true in most cases ; any land that will produce good 

 vegetables and English grass will, with proper cultivation, pro- 

 duce good fruit. It is folly to set fruit trees on land saturated 

 with water three-quarters of the year, thus making them, if they 

 live, amphibious. The tree is obliged to subsist on substances en- 

 tirely injurious to their natures. The roots become diseased, con- 

 sequently the whole tree is diseased. Still, this land may be 

 made, by proper draining and cultivation, the very best for fruit ; 

 those poisonous substances are thrown off and the properties neces- 

 sary are generated. Deep tillage and proper drainage will fit 

 nine-tenths of our land for fruit. Soil and location have their 

 effect, but generally it is the management that makes the profits. 

 When we learn to treat our fruit trees with the same degree of 

 care that we do our cattle, and other matters, in order to be suc- 

 cessful, then, and not till then, will the "cultivation of fruit become 

 a profitable business. 



To those who have noticed the fine display of apples and pears 

 that have graced our tables the last three years, from the grounds 

 of William and Thaddeus Clapp of Dorchester, I would say, — Go 

 and examine their orchards, and you will no longer wonder how 

 they raise such fine fruit. If you go in the right spirit, I will 

 guarantee a cordial reception. You will not find the pattern of 

 our modern gentleman, but the true blue. You will find them at 

 the head of their work, their motto, 



" He that by the plough would thrive, 

 Himself must either hold or drive." 



V 



By constant study and practice they have arrived at the true 

 method of fruit cultivation. Their orchard and garden take up 

 about five acres, and contain 200 apple trees of stately growth, 

 set out originally for cider making. Some of these trees were of 

 goodly size when Dorchester Heights were occupied by Wash- 

 ington, and they are as hale and hearty as a man forty years old. 

 The oldest inhabitant can hardly claim the honor of their nursery 

 acquaintance. Most of the trees have been grafted, within the 

 last thirty years, to our standard market kinds ; when a variety is 

 found not to succeed, they are re-grafted to kinds that do. The 

 trees are kept properly pruned and clean, and are scraped and 

 washed at proper times. The borer, that worst enemy of the 



