386 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
placed, commence filling the hole, mixing it at first half and 
half with the surface sand, increasing the quantity of sand as 
the hole is filled up, using it all up by the time you reach 
within six inches of the surface. The best clay will be found 
on the white oak ridges, but there is no need of great particu¬ 
larity in making the selection. The whole cost of planting 
one hundred trees in this manner need not exceed fifty dollars, 
and it will give the farmer an orchard on ground where an 
apple could not possibly be grown without such planting or its 
equivalent ; and trees thus planted would thrive as well or 
better than in any other portion of the State. 
This imitation of soil in which we propose to plant trees is 
nearly identical with the surface of the ground in which the 
wild plums, grapes and crab apples are found; thus plainly 
teaching what is needed to produce the orchard fruits, with this 
difference: that the latter will have a perfectly drained soil, so 
that the trees will live and thrive, when generations of the 
wild fruits shall have died and decayed by reason of their wet 
feet. Is the result worth the experiment? Let the farmers, 
the gardeners and amateurs, answer by their works. 
But, gentlemen, the first planting of an orchard is not enough. 
Plant it never so well, and then leave it, and it will not give 
you fruit as it should do. It then requires trimming, manuring, 
dressing and watching. Destructive animals, birds and insects, 
must be driven off or killed. Here the field, however tempting 
it may be, is too wide for me to enter and review, or for you 
to hear about at this time, and I forbear; and shall only speak 
of one of the subjects—manuring. We will only imitate the 
gardener in Holy Writ; we will dig about the tree and manure 
it, and see if it will not bear fruit. 
All fruit trees and grape vines require the same manures as 
wheat, and as much or more of it; all of which may be applied 
to the top soil, when the tree has once been planted as it ought 
to have been. The tree in its growth wants potash, phosphates, 
lime, soda and vegetable matter. The latter may be supplied 
by a coating of barn-yard manure, muck, peat, leaves, corn¬ 
stalks, hay or straw, valuable in the order named; all of which 
