STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



kept entirely clear of weeds, while the borers receive no 

 welcome. No mulching was used, so that borers could be 

 detected at once, while the hop poles protected the trees from 

 sunscald. 



While cultivating among my own trees, I use a short whif- 

 fletree, taken from my mowing machine. If the direction of 

 the cultivation is east and west, and north and south, set your 

 two stakes on the northwest and southeast sides of the tree, 

 and there will be but little danger of injuring them. 



It is no trifling task to raise an orchard of one acre and have 

 every tree in a healthy condition. There is a constant warfare 

 against drought, winter killing, caterpillars, snow, sunscald, 

 accidents, blight, borers, aphides and starvation, to say noth- 

 ing of fjiilures in grafting, and trees that refuse to bear. A 

 man must make up his mind for all these contingencies. 



Some localities may be exempt from these obstacles, but 

 they are exceedingly rare ; and a fainthearted man should 

 never plant an orchard. It requires about as much courage 

 to tear up a black-hearted young tree, or one surrounded 

 with sprouts, as to have a decayed tooth extracted that does 

 not ache. 



It is a too common mistake, in writing on the subject of 

 pomology, to endeavor to establish modes of practice that 

 will apply to all locations. Nothing is so unsafe. Difference 

 of soil, and location, the adaptation of special kinds of trees to 

 special localities, which can be learned only from long experi- 

 ence, the deficiences of particular elements in certain soils, 

 and other modifications, are everywhere met. The good judg- 

 ment of the pomologist must be above the opinions of the 

 writer and theorist ; and he must reject, or accept opinions as 

 in that higher judgment he may think best. There are and 

 should be no patents in pomology. It is with this spirit that 

 I modestly have described my own course in planting an 

 orchard. 



