94 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



where the trees are set till they are well established in bearing. It is of 

 very little use to set trees and neglect them. It is of little use to set 

 trees from rich nurseries in poor grass fields where they cannot find 

 enough nourishment to keep them alive. Trees in cultivated ground, 

 where thej- are well fertilized will grow twice as much as in grass ground 

 where they find deficient nourishment. Maine can produce as fine apples 

 as can be grown on the continent, and can compete with any sectioji in 

 raising tliem. The numerous manufacturing towns and cities within her 

 borders, and the cities and towns in New England, afibrd a ready market 

 for all the apples that can be produced within our State. Let the farmers 

 take a new interest in the culture of the apple and engage extensively in 

 it. It is one of the most important branches of farming, and might be 

 made the most profitable of any. — Leiciston Journal. 



Local Report from Cumberland County. 



Standish, September 12, 1877. 



Fruit raising in this town is increasing, and is the best paying interest 

 in soil tilling operations with us. Every man owning land, varying from 

 one acre to one hundred and more, raises more or less apples and other 

 fruit. There are some splendid and extensive orchards, raising apples of 

 unsurpassed variety and excellence. The two best and most extensive 

 fruit raising establishments in town, and perhaps in the county, belong 

 respectively to Mr. A. W. Marrett and Kev. T. Baker. Mr. Marrett often 

 counts his bushels of splendid Baldwins, and other choice kinds, up to 

 3,000, — from which he gathers a handsome income, in Portland, only 

 fifteen miles from where they reddened and ripened in the autumn sun. 

 Mr. Baker's orchard is younger, and consequently not of so large present 

 productive capacity, but yet yielding him handsome returns, and promis- 

 ing vastly increased installments for his labor and care at a near future 

 day. Besides an old orchard of several hundred trees, he has somewhere 

 about 400 young ones, vigorous and thrifty, which he has planted, grafted 

 and cared for, from the seed-bed, since he came upon the place, twenty 

 years ago. Two hundred of these young trees have been several years in 

 bearing, and last year yielded a good income. The rest are nearly all 

 grafted, and promising a rich return for all labor and care in a very few 

 years, lie has a farm of 114 acres, that defies competition for capabilities 

 in hay, grain, corn, and fruit raising, besides pine timber and wood growth, 

 handy and in large supply. Pears, grapes, and other small fruits flourish 

 and ripen well on his place. 



The caterpillars, so destructive to orchards in other parts of the State, 

 have done us no harm in Standish. For some reason, perhaps past ex- 

 planation, the fruit is this year less in amount than even the ordinary crop 

 of the unproductive years, and not an eighth of what it was last year. — 

 Cor. Leiciston Journal. 



