STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 131 



gathered more than two bushels of apples each. Last fall they 

 had more or less fruit, it being the second year of their general 

 fruiting. I have set trees at different times since, so that now I 

 have an orchard of four hundred apple trees, all of my own rais- 

 ing, and grafted when one year old, excepting a part of the first 

 lot as stated above. The most of my trees are set in grass ground. 

 I dig around them both fall and spring, and once a year I work in 

 manure and wash them with Babbitt's potash to kill lice and keep 

 the trunks free from moss. I search for borers three or four times 

 in the course of the season, and have commenced to try the use 

 of sheathing paper, allowing the lower end to run down into the 

 soil and the other end to extend up on the trunk about one foot 

 and tied with rope-yarn. I tried this method last year and think 

 very favorably of it. 



I am not propagating trees very extensively, but have a nursery 

 of about 6000 apple trees. I have had experience with over 

 eighty different kinds, many of which I have discarded as I find 

 them to be unreliable as orchard trees. I have travelled over a 

 large portion of the State and taken much pains to ascertain the 

 varieties best adapted to this section. From experience and 

 observation I am satisfied that success in raising an orchard de- 

 pends much upon the varieties selected. I have endeavored in 

 my own practice to plant such kinds as make the best growth and 

 the most hardy trees, regardless of the quality of the fruit. My 

 object is to raise an orchard of hardy, thrifty trees in as short a 

 time as possible. 



I have learned by experience that there are many very choice 

 varieties which it is almost impossible to raise from nursery trees, 

 or at least would take double the time that it would to raise some 

 others. These can be grafted into those which will grow more 

 rapidly, after the latter have become large enough to bear a bushel 

 or two of fruit. In this way one can get more fruit in less time 

 than by undertaking to raise such varieties from nursery trees. 



The question may be asked, " why not take seedling trees 

 without being grafted and grow them to the proper size, then 

 graft into the branches, instead of grafting them in the nursery 

 and again in the orchard ?" My answer is, that a large portion 

 of the seedlings prove to be slow growers and not hardy, and one 

 can raise an orchard from kinds that are known to be hardy and 

 rapid growers in half the time and run no risk in regard to these 

 points. There are many very valuable varieties of apples that 



