44 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



notice their tents in the spring on the wild cherr\' trees in the forests, 

 the}' do but slight damage to our orchard trees. 



From experience, I am decidedly of the opinion that the safest 

 location for an orchard, to be protected from the winter killing of 

 trees, is a northern exposure, or on land sloping to the north, — that 

 it is not so much the extreme cold weather which kills our fruit 

 trees, as the frequent thawing of the sap of the tree after it has 

 been frozen. 



In the cold winter of 1857, when the thermometer went down to 

 40° below zero, and many of the apple trees in Maine perished or 

 were seriously- injured, I had a young orchard located on the north 

 side of a hill, where it seldom thaws in the winter, and did not lose 

 a tree, while nearly all the apple trees in this viciuit}', exposed to 

 the winter sun, perished. Even the Baldwin did not winter kill in 

 iB}^ orchard, and a few peach trees survived, though I have read that 

 a temperature of 22° below zei'o is fatal to the peach. In fact, I 

 have never had a tree injured bj' the cold in m}- orchard which 

 slopes to the north. 



The secret of success in grafting, is to be careful and have the 

 inner bark of the stock and scion meet, and great care in waxing 

 the wounded parts, so as to exclude the air. Waxing the upper end 

 of the scion prevents its drying, which is ver}' liable to occur if a 

 drying northwest wind follows grafting. 



In the immediate vicinity' of our A'illage there is an extensive tract 

 of land of a light sandy nature, which is quite unfitted for the rais- 

 ing of fruit, except blueberries, and we onl}' succeed in raising 

 apples and other fruit bj' heavil}' enriching the ground on which our 

 fruit trees are set. A friend who has expended much time and 

 mone^' in cultivating an orchard on this land was asked at our village 

 Farmer's Club a few 3'ears since : " What success he met with in 

 raising fruit on plains land." He replied that he thought "be 

 should meet with fair success, but it was A-er^^ difficult to harvest 

 much fruit from an orchard located in the vicinity of an orthodox 

 college, where one-half of the students were preparing for the 

 ministry." 



