I 
534 WISCONSIN FRUIT-GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
ter to charcoal, not to ashes. This will form the basis of my 
fruit-tree manure. I have also obtained a quantity of bones, 
-—the land hereabouts contains such an everlasting supply of 
phosphates, or some men must have such a supreme contempt 
for the teachings of chemists, that I have actually seen the 
bones of an animal which died on the land, hauled olf to Mac- 
Adamize roads with. These I intend to break into small pieces, 
unless I can reduce them with fresh ashes, or with vitriol, if I 
can buy it cheap enough for that purpose. 
Men are divided in opinion, whether an orchard should be 
under the plow or seeded down to grass. A path runs through 
the middle of my trees; one side was seeded down with timothy 
four years ago, the other has always been cropped with some 
hoed plant. About as many apple trees were planted on one 
side as on the other; but from the grass side I have not had a 
single apple, and an Imperial Gage, large enough to bear a 
bushel, has produced but two plums. A considerable 
space around the trees is kept free from timothy, and worked 
by that most efficient tool for that purpose, a four tined, steel 
manure fork. The orchard which has produced most fruit in 
this town was sown with red clover two years after plant¬ 
ing, and has not been plowed since. The soil is naturally rich, 
the trees are favorably situated as to shelter, and a space round 
each tree is worked, and manure has been applied. 
A. G. Hanford, Esq. John Townley. 
