FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 



culture of any of these fruits until within the past sixty 

 years. As far as known, the strawberry was the only 

 berry fruit brought under cultivation prior to 1850. 



In 1802 Mr. Blakesley of Plymouth writes: "My 

 method of making a nursery is to separate my apple 

 seeds from the pomace in the fall of the year, let the 

 seeds freeze one night in the latter part of the winter, 

 plant them in my garden in the spring, and after they 

 have grown five or six inches high, I transplant them 

 and find they do much better than when raised in the 

 usual way." This would seem to show that it was this 

 man's practice to set his orchard from seedlings of the 

 first season's growth. These were doubtless grown in 

 the orchard until one to three inches in diameter and 

 were then top-grafted. Mr. Samuel Bushnell (the 

 elder), who became famous as an orchardist in Salis- 

 bury near the middle of the past century, made a prac- 

 tice of growing his seedling trees by planting the seeds 

 in his corn field with the corn. 



In the earlier reports of agricultural societies in the 

 State there are interesting notes on the methods in use 

 in handling apple orchards. One man in this county 

 speaks of using corn cobs about his trees, while his son 

 had an orchard "on which he put stones around his 

 trees at a small distance from the trunk and thinks them 

 beneficial to his orchard." The same writer concludes 

 with the statement that "I have never, however, found 



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