STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



a quautity you can ailbrd to advertise aud buj-ers will come to you, 

 markets are opeaed to you, aud thiugs will go all right. You would 

 have to test varieties, and find those that will stand your winters here 

 and that will bear well, and then I believe they will bring you great 

 returns. I would rather have a dollar invested in an apple orchard in the 

 State of Maine planted on the principles laid down iu this last paper than 

 $3 in any commercial enterprise that j'ou have in your State, and I sup- 

 you have some that are paying 15 to 20 per cent dividends. If a good 

 apple orchard handled on the right lines cannot be made to pay moi-e 

 than a 20 per cent dividend there is something wrong with the man, — 

 not with the orchard. 



Ques. Will Mr. Pope tell us how he fertilizes his orchard? He did not 

 allude to that. 



Ans. lam ashamed to say that we have not fertilized as we ought. 

 We have not fertilized anj-where near up to the standard. In the first 

 place we have not realized, until within a few years, just where we were 

 and just what was needed, and we have kept on setting trees. We have 

 put our monej' into enlarging the orchard instead of taking care of trees 

 already set, until now we are orchard poor. I suppose we have the lar- 

 gest orchard in one block that there is in the State, but that is nothing 

 to brag of. If we had the best orchard, the one bearing the most apples 

 and raising the apples the cheapest, it would be something to boast of. 

 Our best orchard laud, unfortunatel}% is in a rough pasture. The fields 

 are clear loam, so we were obliged to go into the rough, rocky pastures 

 to get laud suitable for an orchard. Here we cannot till as I would 

 advise every one who has suitable land on well cleared ground to do. 

 We are bringing the conditions as nearlj^ as possible to this tilled soil. 

 If you have a soil that can be tilled aud can mulch the whole surface, of 

 course using a proper amount of fertilizer, you have the best possible 

 conditions. What shall we use for mulching? Very few of us can get 

 enough of auy material in the shape of straw, meadow hay, ferns or any- 

 thing of that kind to mulch a large orchard. Let us take what is fully 

 as good and perhaps a little better, a light, new soil. Therefore keep the 

 soil stirred all the time, and you have your orchard in the best condition. 

 And that reminds me of what a gentleman said who had a blackberry 

 bush, and it came very dry, and he had grand fruit ; while the blackberry 

 bushes of his neighbors all about him were all dried up. Some one asked 

 him how he kept his bush that way, if he had been turning on water. 

 "Xo," he said, ''I water it with a hoe." If j'ou will keep }'Otu- orchard 

 watered with a hoe or a cultivator, keeping that loose, light surface free 

 from weeds, you have a perfect condition so that the moisture is not 

 passing off. 



But to go back to the fertilizing, where the most of us fail is in lack of 

 fertilizer. We skimmed the farm and carried it to the orchard until we 

 hadn't much more to take oft', and then the question was, what to put on. 

 The superphosphates, commercial fertilizers, as we buv them in the 

 market, have too much niti-ogen for a bearing tree. Nitrogen, which is 



