STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



charged upon the lower side of a tree standing 'on a slope ; a new 

 drain from a public road, or from rich lands above, is so arranged 

 that water is thrown upon the soil of one side, and does not reach 

 the roots of the other side. The soil on one side is newly culti- 

 vated and dressed, while the other side of a languishing tree is 

 still neglected. In all these cases we have observed that the 

 favored side starts into new vigor, while the other side continues 

 to languish and decay. And when it happens that any of these 

 influences are casually or designedly brought to bfear upon all 

 sides, then we observe the efiect upon all parts of the tree'. New 

 shoots spring forth ; a vigorous growth of trunk and branches re- 

 commences ; the leaves are greatly enlarged in area and thickness 

 and deepened in color. Fruit, abounding and greatly improved, 

 is the result. Such is the effect of food and culture upon the 

 famished tree, that even very aged trees, — those often more than 

 a hundred years old, — those which have outlived three or four 

 generations of men, bowed and gnarled, and full of holes where 

 once branches, now decayed, joined the parent stem, are made to 

 put forth new wood and to yield grateful fruit to the people of a 

 new century. 



These things may seem common and trite. They are so. They 

 are so common, and therefore have become so trite, that we cease 

 to regard the lessons which they teach. The very existence, on 

 all sides, of the facts whence these illustrations are drawn, proves 

 the need of presenting them again and again. 



History of Remarkable Trees. 



The true economy of orchard culture is further and better 

 demonstrated by another class of examples. 



The cases of great yields, though far too few, are yet many. 

 To the history of such trees we should go to learn the best man- 

 agement of the orchard. It is believed that all these distinguished 

 trees have had the benefit of a favorable quality and condition of 

 soil, as well as peculiar advantages in the constant application of 

 fertilizers in limited and yet sufficient quantity, A glance at a 

 few of these trees will aff"ord useful instruction. 

 . I well remember, in the season of my boyhood, two apple-trees 

 on the farm of Mr. Benjamin Alden, in Greene, of great bearing 

 capacity. Some years they bore forty bushels each. One of them 

 stood near the roadside on a gentle slope, where the water from 



