STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



greatly exceeded, for some of these very trees have yielded eigh- 

 teen bushels at a picking. 



While so many rich sons fall victims to their own wealth by the 

 vices which haunt prosperity, Robert L. Pell found his tastes bet- 

 ter satisfied with his country-seat and its enormous crops. He 

 studied the art of pomology, and learned how to assist nature in 

 her efforts to support mankind. 



Commonly speaking, the apple-tree bears every alternate year. 

 Mr. Pell determined to have an annual harvest, and to give his 

 orchard a handsome start he sacrificed the crop of a bearing year. 

 All the apples were picked while green. He had discovered that 

 the germ of the next year's fruit was in existence at the time of 

 the apple harvest, but that the tree would be so exhausted that 

 this germ would fail of development, and a year of rest would 

 follow before another crop could be produced. 



Having stopped his trees from fruiting in the manner I have 

 mentioned, he was sure of a crop on what was generally the off 

 year, and he determined to follow tiiis up by a treatment which 

 should abolish the off year system. He learned that trees require 

 a variety of food, the chief of which is found in potash, lime and 

 soda, and his orchard has been thus fed, with all the success that 

 could have been anticipated. The potash is found in wood ashes, 

 lime is obtained from oyster shells, at low cost, (stone lime being 

 undesirable) while soda is supplied by common salt. An orchard 

 thus fed and judiciously pruned cannot fail of success, and, 

 although, this season (1873) is generally short of apples, Mr. 

 Pell's crop is of usual abundance. 



His plan is to fill his bani-3''ard with swamp muck in the fall. 

 This absorbs the drainage and it is' at the same time supplied with 

 the above mentioned ingredients. In the spring it is hauled into 

 the orchard, which is plowed and sown with clover, as an addi- 

 tional fertilizer. A nursery for the purpose of renewing the 

 orchard is a part of the scheme, and most of the latter at present 

 are young and in the most thrifty condition. 



During the apple harvest about one hundred men are employed, 

 and the work generally occupies a fortnight. The rule is to pick 

 the trees clean, and not to let go of an apple until it rests in the 

 baskets. The latter are placed carefully on the ground, and the 

 teamster picks them up with equal care and convej''s them to the 

 apple-house. This house is one of Mr. Pell's inventions, and he 

 has four in use. They are spacious structures, perhaps 40x100 

 feet, (such at least, is my recollection from seeing one of them) 

 and are what might be called two stories high. The first story 

 has no windows. You enter by a wide door, and the apples are 

 seen covering the entire interior to a depth of four feet. The 

 upper part of the building has a few windows, and the door is 

 grated, so that when closed there is an ascending draft. The 

 fruit will, while in this place, discharge a very large amount of 

 moisture and thus deliver itself from the chief cause of decay. 



An apple house at such a time is really a fine sight. In three 

 days the sweating is done, and the draft removes the moisture. 

 The fruit is then sorted, and all below a certain size is carted ta 



