Proceedings of tee Farmers' Club. 525 



in tlie usual way by putting the roots down in the subsoil, a 

 soil destitute of all vegetable matter. Is there any wonder that the 

 tree does not thrive, or that one-half of them die ? About six years 

 ago a neighl)or of mine set out an orchard of grafted trees from the 

 Eoehester nursery, State of ]S"ew York, as follows : He put them on 

 high ground, and dug holes three feet in diameter and two feet deep. 

 He filled the holes with stones broken with a sledge, giving a layer 

 one foot or eight inches deep. He then covered the stones with the 

 soil taken from the holes, mixed with compost or well rotted barn-yard 

 manure, and set in the trees on this surface, and filled up around the 

 tree with the best sod that he could get, putting the subsoil as far 

 from the tree as possible. Those trees are the cleanest, thriftiest 

 trees, and grow the fastest of any in the neighborhood, although they 

 have had no attention in the way of washes or manures since they 

 were set out. The reason is that after a liea^-y rain, or the melting of 

 the snow in the spring, the water drains oif through the stones, 

 leaving the roots free from cold water ; the roots, also, do not go 

 down into the subsoil, which is destitute of all vegetable matter. I 

 have myself set out some twenty-five apple trees in this way, which, 

 although too young to bear, are growing very nicely. It is a great 

 deal of extra labor to set out trees in this manner, but I believe it 

 will pay in the end, because the trees grow so , much faster, and are 

 not so liable to be attacked by insects. The worm or borer does not 

 attack a thrifty tree, but works on the tree that is dying or in the state 

 of decay. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — Mr, Harrington is undoubtedly correct in 

 supposing that transplanting from one kind of soil to another, and 

 especially from a rich, warm surface soil to a cold and infertile sub- 

 soil, lies at the bottom of much of the unfriiitfulness and early 

 deterioration of the trees, and his suggestions concerning the drain- 

 age of surplus water from around the roots are well worthy of being 

 kept in mind. The exj^edient he describes, however, would be efii- 

 cient only while the trees were small, as the roots would soon spread 

 far beyond the area of the stones underneath. The best plan is to 

 locate the orchard either upon land naturally drained or that sub- 

 jected to a thorough system of under-drainage. There is no branch 

 of farm production that promises greater profit in the end than that 

 resulting from thrifty orchards, and it is well for the farmer at this 

 season of the year to consider the different bearings of the subject ; 

 select the location for the trees, and choose the varieties best suited 



