56 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



My orchard has not been plowed for ten years ; it is more than 

 fifteen years old. I have mowed it every year. This may seem 

 strange, and it would be so if 1 did nothing more about it; but I 

 mulch my trees every year, spread manure, and spread broadcast 

 all the ashes I can procure. I want to be liberal in spreading 

 ashes ; their effect is wonderful in bringing trees to bearing. I 

 mulch with straw. I am very cautious how I put sawdust round 

 my trees ; I don't think it is good for anything except to keep 

 grass from growing; it has no raanurial property and adds noth- 

 ing to manure ; I don't want it mixed with manure ; it is excellent 

 bedding, but thrown in the cellar it keeps the manure from rotting. 

 Pine sawdust will keep it many years ; hemlock rots quicker, say 

 in three or four years. I saw an article a short time ago in the 

 Maine Farmer, recommending sawdust as an excellent manure. 

 The writer said he was going to spread it among his grape vines ; 

 and I said, " the more sawdust he spreads the less grapes he will 

 get." I want my ground covered, and would not care if it was 

 covered with straw a foot deep. You can get no manure better 

 than ashes; you want something to make the ground loose, and 

 ashes will do it as well as manure. I mow among my trees every 

 year, but am not particular to carry all the grass to my barn. I 

 mulch so much about the trees that it keeps the grass from grow- 

 ing there and produces a good growth of the trees ; and from these 

 trees I raise fruit every year, with hay from the adjoining land. 



I set my trees about 30 feet apart, but am not particular to set 

 them in direct lines. 1 put them in the best places, even if they 

 don't happen to come exactly in rows. Setting 30 feet apart, I 

 find in the earlier stages of growth there is a large space unoccu- 

 pied, and I have concluded to set a tree in the centre of each 

 square made by four trees. In that way 1 can get more fruit for 

 the first 20 or 25 years. In that time they won't grow so that the 

 tops will interfere. As I am an old man, I should want my trees 

 pretty near together, but perhaps by and by my children would 

 want them further apart. 



I will just allude to pears. My culture of pears has been lim- 

 ited, but I have raised some for 20 years. I have raised excellent 

 Bartlett pears ; the pears have been large and the trees have come 

 to bearing early. The Flemish Beauty fails almost every year. I 

 used to grow nice ones, but for the last 6 or 8 years, though I 

 have manured liberally and the trees are in good condition, the 

 fruit has cracked. They grow nicely the first part of the season. 



