388 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN ORCHARDING. 
Dr. J. W. Hoyt, Secretary Wisconsin State Agricultural Society: 
Dear Sir : Id respoose to jour request inviting contribu¬ 
tions for the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society, 
being desirous to do anything in my power to aid in the 
advancement of the great cause in which the society is en¬ 
gaged, I have thought proper to send you an account of my 
experience of thirty years in the planting and management of 
an apple orchard. 
My first experience in orcharding in this country was in 
1842, when I prepared a piece of ground in the timber, on a 
-southern exposure with clay soil; I dug the holes something 
after the fashion of post holes, two feet deep, and one foot square. 
Into these holes I crowded the roots of the trees, and put in the 
dirt nearly as close as if setting a gate post. The result was 
that nearly all the trees died. What remained of this orchard 
I pruned both thin and high, after the manner of pruning 
trees in the southern states, leaving long and slender bodies. 
This rendered them liable to be blown down, or broken off at 
the upper end of the body, and also to the permature rising of 
the sap in the spring, on the southwestern exposure of the tree, 
which freezing loosens the bark and kills the tree on that side. 
> Being thus unfortunate in this attempt at raising an orchard, 
I resolved in my second effort to adopt a different mode of 
setting out the trees, and a different method of treatment after 
they were set. In this instance I prepared my ground the 
'Same as before, with the same exposure, but dug the holes 
only eighteen inches deep and made them eighteen inches 
square ; after setting, I mulched the trees heavily, and did but 
little pruning; the result was much more satisfactory. 
Being much encouraged by the results of this change 
of method, I determined to test still further the policy 
of shallow setting and little pruning, Accordingly I or- 
