43 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



years and bear considerable fruit. I was told that twenty 

 years airo, people remarked that the orchard woukl not last 

 much longer ; it was badly run doAvn, and the land full of 

 foul weeds; they bought a few sheep and put in, and the 

 eti'ect was so good they bought more and turned them in, and 

 the land had been pastured to sheep more or less ever since. 

 After commencing to pasture with sheep, a great change for 

 the better came over the orchard. The trees were healthier, 

 and there was more and better fruit. 



But let us oflance for a moment at another orchard no less 

 famous ; in fact, in some respects more renowned than the 

 other. I have been informed quite recently, that it was once 

 considered, b}'^ everybody acquainted Avith it, as one of the 

 most productive and remunerative orchards in that vicinity. 

 I refer to the old Hesketh orchard. It occupied a prominent 

 position on the eastern slope of a very high hill. The 

 majority of it was grafted, and consisted of the old standard 

 varieties — Eussets, Baldwins, Belltlowers, Greenings, Frank- 

 lin Sweet, Talman Sweet, English Summer Pearmain, and 

 others. The larger part of this orchard is still standing, 

 though in reality but a mere wreck of its former pride and 

 glory. Recently, one hundred of the trees have been cut 

 down, and one hundred more, they say, ought to be served 

 in the same way. There are probably from 150 to 200 trees 

 still worth saving, and which by good nursing and liberal 

 treatment may be preserved some time yet, and made to bear 

 fruit with profit. One of the treatments given this orchard 

 by a former proprietor, must not be passed by unnoticed. 

 It was undoubtedly one of the causes of its great productive- 

 ness. It was this : He kept the orchard under constant 

 cultivation, alwavs sowing; and raisinii' oats; after tjie oats 

 were off he would plow the stubble under and dress the land 

 with manure purchased in the city, preferring to keep that 

 mad(! on the farm for field crops. Was not here the secret 

 of his success? Not in the particular manure used, but in 

 the constant cultivation and constant replenishing, so differ- 

 ent from the spasmodic efforts with which we are too often 



