32 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



hardiness that often gives peculiar thrift to the trees. We believe 

 there are sufficient waste places, and caves, and nooks in the State 

 to put all the existing orchards and fruit trees into — out of the way, 

 if the expression is allowable — and to their improvement as a whole. 

 If this idea is true, tliink 3-ou for a moment of the vast unutilized 

 resources for orcharding we have that we have scarcely- begun to 

 appreciate, and that but few have ever seriously considered, 



Sandy soil is not generally considered good for orcharding, but 

 we have seen many very good orchards on sand\- loams, and no one 

 need hesitate or despair of having an orchard because of this. 

 Thrifty trees, well set (and somewhat deeper than in heavier soils), 

 liberally mulched with muck and ashes, and the whole soil well sup- 

 plied with coarsely ground bone worked in evenh' several inches 

 deep, will give a good growth and make health3- trees. If such soils 

 have their outs, they have their compensations. They are well 

 drained naturally, easy of cultivation, and generally "lay well." 

 They also afford poor shelter to insects. 



The lighter clay loams are fair orchard lands, especially along the 

 borders where they shoal to meet rock^' ridges or lap on to gravel 

 loam. We have seen many good orchards on such land, and hope 

 more attention is to be given them in the future. They should be 

 carefully drained, if at all needing it. They are strong retention 

 soils, holding fertilizers well and requiring but light mulching. 

 Much of this class of land is underlaid by a porous or partially 

 porous subsoil. Pear trees are particularly at home on cla\' loams. 

 The Red Astrachan is one of the varieties of apples that does well 

 on a heavy clay loam. The Yellow Bellflower is another. 



We have especially spoken of the two extremes of soil — sandy 

 loam and clay loam — to show that orchards may be raised ixofitably 

 on them, and to encourage those having such soils to 'try. It re- 

 quires more care and skill, but success is often all the more marked 

 in the end, where harder to obtain. On other rock}', gravel loams, 

 where trees come on almost by themselves, and the Gelds and pas- 

 tures have strong, vigorous volunteers, orcharding may be pursued 

 as a specialty and to a large extent. No section of our State is des- 

 titute of much land of this kind. It is on these we expect to see 

 orcharding have its widest expansion, (irowing Baldwin apples in 

 Maine is as promising in outlook and paying in returns as growing 

 oranges in Florida, and not attended by half the privations and dis- 

 advantages. We hope citizens of Maine will learn this fact in the 



