24 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



fork, or potato digger, after the crop was removed. I cleared 

 an acre in one day, though a portion of it had not been badly 

 infested. 



Last April I cross plowed, and followed it with the culti- 

 vator and harrow, till the ground was as mellow as I could 

 make it, and dug the holes twenty-five feet apart, none being 

 less than ten or twelve feet from fences between me and my 

 neighbors. I threw out the soil as deep as the land had been 

 cultivated, each hole occupying a little more than a square 

 yard. I then took a long pick and loosened the hard subsoil 

 as deep as I could all over the bottom of each hole. A half 

 bushel, more or less, of stable manure, was thrown into each 

 hole, and carefully chopped into the loosened subsoil with a 

 hoe. This last operation I deem of the greatest importance. 

 It i^repares an excellent bed for the roots of the tree, which 

 will be sure to penetrate it, besides preventing the drying 

 up of the soil during a drought, by which so many trees are 

 killed. Could I have had my time at command, I would 

 rather have dug the holes in autum. Planted with corn and 

 potatoes as before. 



Transplanting the Trees. 



I selected a rainy day, took the cars and visited the nursery 

 of John S. Holmes, Esq., who resides a mile and a quarter 

 from Oxford G. T. R. Station. His nursery is nine years old 

 from the seed. The trees are of a slow, but healthy growth. 

 On cutting through the wood it looked white, like white oak, 

 a good sign of a healthy growth. 



With the aid of three men, I selected and dug one hundred 

 and sixty trees, cut squarely oif the second and third stories 

 where necessary, but carefully avoided cutting off any lower 

 twigs or branches, unless very near the ground. The ol)ject 

 of this course was, to save the stock in case of failure in graft- 

 ing. I packed them in bunches often each, and inmiediately 

 sent them, by previous arrangement, on the cars to Bethel, 

 and at once transferred them to my orchard. The roots were 

 kept wet till they were planted, by covering them with wet 



