and plant successfully with trees, this culture cannot be adopted; but upon any land that is capable of cultivation, there is no other method of preparing it so cheaply or easily as to put it through a course of cropping of this kind. We are oftentimes advised to dig the holes six feet across and two feet or more in depth. Well, if the soil does not, from its deep drainage and thorough culture, admit of such holes-if they are but basins in a hard, cold, tenacious subsoil, such excavations are worse than useless. They may for a time favor the growth of the young trees if they are filled up with rich compost, but in planting an orchard, we should look in the main not for the immediate starting and growth of the tree for a year or two, but look forward to its permanency through many coming years.

In planting an orchard, as the work is to be done but once, it should be well done. In preparing the holes for the trees, the size and the shape of the hole are important. The size, in well prepared soil, should be large enough to accommodate the full spread of the roots of the tree that it is designed to plant. The shape of the hole is also important; it should be highest in the middle, gently sloping towards the exterior. Then your tree naturally and most favorably adapts its roots to this position. If the hole has been dug by a common laborer, he will doubtless scrape it clean, and give you a plain flat surface upon which to plant your trees. That is not what you want; you want a gentle elevation adapted to the form of the roots of the tree, to facilitate planting in the most perfect manner. Prepare the roots of your tree by cutting off every wounded part with a sharp knife, in a slanting cut, and prepare the top by the removal of at least half of the last year's growth. It seems wicked to a farmer to cut away fine strong shoots-to lacerate his tree in this way; but at the end of two years, if not at the end of one, he will have a larger tree, and one of better form and proportions, than if he planted it with its full sized branches.

With regard to the age of the tree, I am in favor of planting young trees, two or three years from the bed in the nursery, rather than large trees that have grown up so that the cattle will not break them down. Farmers too often seek for large trees that have been grown closely in a nursery and have great tops, but the roots of such are small-all out of proportion to the size of the top, if so grown. In selecting trees, if you can select in the nursery, secure those not only with well balanced tops, but with

well balanced roots. The tree that the nursery man has been obliged to stake in order to cause an upright growth is not a good one to select. The variety has very much to do with the mode of growth, and it has also much to do with the form of root growth; so much that I will warrant that if you were to go into a nursery to select your trees, there are some varieties, no matter how good the fruit, or how anxious you were to plant trees of that variety, if you saw how provokingly they grow and how awkwardly, you would not put them into your orchard. I have in mind now the Swaar, which you know has peculiarly unfortunate habits. The growth of the top affects the roots, and with a one-sided top you get a one-sided root, wanting in fibres and attachments to the soil, so that almost always the tree as it grows up will fall over. In selecting varieties, you can just as well get those that have a strong, even-balanced growth of root and top, and which are productive in choice fruit, as to get awkward growing, feeble varieties; and your success and satisfaction in orchard culture will depend very much upon a proper selection of varieties.

I cannot tell you what varieties are best adapted to this locality or any other in Maine, but every section of country has developed varieties of fruit well adapted to cultivate there, and that succeed there better than anywhere else; and it is for you, by an examination of the orchards in your own vicinity and upon soils similar to those upon which you propose to plant, and by trial upon your own grounds, to ascertain the varieties which are best adapted to your own location.

With regard to the time of planting. In some soils and sections we are advised to plant in the autumn, in others in the spring. With me, in a somewhat tenacious, loamy soil, I prefer spring planting, but I am satisfied that the failure of my experiments in autumn planting has been largely due to the fact that I planted too late. If you plant in autumn, plant early, so that the little granulations may form upon the roots, and the plant may become adapted to its position before severe weather. I planted late in autumn, with general failure. I find that nurserymen are taking up their trees as early as the frosts of autumn cause the foliage to drop, and even go into the nursery and strip the leaves from the trees; and I have good reason to believe that they may be planted successfully at that early season, say early in October, with good results; but if deferred later, until there is danger of the roots being exposed to the frost, or even without that, it is very

undesirable to attempt to plant. The roots of a tree, in its transportation from the nursery, and while being planted, should never be exposed to frosts. If carefully wrapped and covered with moss and earth, they may endure this exposure, but there is a damage to the vitality of the tree, if only a part of the roots are frozen. I have seen them go back and back, through two or three years of existence, where they had been frozen, and finally take their departure, much to my satisfaction, if they could not do any better; and I could attribute it to no other cause except the freezing of the roots while they were out of the ground. If possible, the roots should always be kept moist, so that all the little fibres, which are exceedingly delicate, may be preserved. You know that this is an absolute necessity with evergreens; the roots must never become dry; and although the roots of fruit trees will bear some exposure of that kind, still everything in that direction is just so far wrong, and should be avoided.

In planting the tree, carefully work in about the roots with the hand fine pulverized mixed soil, just the soil that is produced by the culture of the field in corn or potatoes for a year or two, gently, very gently shaking the tree. The operation must be a gentle one, so as not to bruise the roots or cause them to lodge in a crooked position. Having spread them out carefully at first, and when carefully covered with a few inches of this fine soil, the operation will be very much facilitated by pouring in a few quarts of water, and allowing the earth to settle away before filling up the hole. This is much preferable to attempting to plant a tree during rainy or bad weather. I have never had less satisfaction in planting trees than when I have attempted to do it in rainy weather. It is an operation requiring care, and one which will not admit of being hurried; and although we like to keep the roots wet, and would think a rainy day was a good day for this work, it is not the best day; we do not do the work as thoroughly and carefully as it should be done.

If the roots are well-balanced and the top properly shortened in, there will be little if any need of staking the trees. There is as much, and perhaps more damage done to the trunk and to the branches by attempting to stake them, than by leaving them unsupported, so that I should advise the securing of trees by their roots; and if this be done the tops require nothing of the kind. field devoted to orchard planting should be so fenced that all animals are excluded, so that the young tree may never be

exposed to their depredations. Calves have proved within my observation the most objectionable animals that get into a young orchard; you never know what they will do over night. On my way here, I saw a young orchard near a barn where calves were allowed to lie, and those trees had been girdled nearly from the root to the branches this very winter; and all of you doubtless recollect cases within your experience where you have found them most unsafe animals to get into an orchard.

Should an orchard receive any culture? Here we come upon very disputed ground. The circumstances of location, the strength of the soil, products of the farm, facility of obtaining manure, and various other points, come in here and are to be considered. My practice has been, while the trees were small, to cultivate with some low, hoed crop, potatoes, roots or something of that kind; but I insist strongly upon leaving plenty of room about the tree that is not planted with any crop. In plowing an orchard, my difficulty has been to prevent my men from plowing up the trees. They would plow too close to the trees and too deep, so that oftentimes they would do more harm than good. After the trees have attained some size, unless the culture is very careful and guarded, I believe they are often as much injured as benefitted by it; and I have seen many cases of the most successful orchard culture and growth where the land has been laid down to grass and allowed to remain so. If the land is to be in grass, I advise pasturing rather than mowing. I advise pasturing with sheep and swine, if possible; with larger animals only when the trees have attained sufficient size so that the branches are in a good degree above their reach. One great advantage connected with pasturing over any other system is, that all the fallen fruit, during the whole season, is consumed by the animals, and with the fallen fruit the insects which are our great enemies in orchard culture.

I had an orchard of full size that had been plowed, cropped, manured and mowed-always carried through such a succession of crops. The trees were getting old and seemingly becoming valueless. About six years ago, I turned it out for a cow pasture, and my herd of cows preferred to lie there rather than in any other part of their range. The result has been marvellous. The trees have assumed a rich, healthy green, the foliage has come out luxuriantly and holds on well in the autumn, and the growth of fruit has been in every respect satisfactory. I pastured it until sometime in July, and then shut it up, as the weight of the fruit

begins to bend down the branches, until the fruit is gathered in autumn. One of the difficulties connected with mowing an orchard, although you top dress it to restore what you take off, is that the sudden removal of a great growth of grass at that season of the year changes the condition of the roots so much and so suddenly, that it does not seem to be desirable for the growth of the tree.

In regard to the training of trees and shape of the top, in your selection avoid a tree that forks. As it grows up one side or the other will almost always get the advantage, and it will split down. Take a tree that branches out evenly from the head where you wish the branches to start. With regard to the height selected for branching, the variety will have much to do with that. Some trees that grow continuously upward may branch very low and still be always high enough. The Northern Spy is an eminent example of that kind,-the growth is continuously upward; while others, like the Greening and Baldwin, which spread widely, and droop in their branches, should have much more height of body before they are allowed to branch. The practice of allowing trees to branch out close to the ground has been advocated by some. The objection is, that the fruit on those lower branches never acquires the color that it does higher up. It is apt to be spotted and marked with gray mould and mildew, more than where there is a freer circulation of air about the tree.

There is one point which I omitted when speaking with regard to location and aspect, and that is shelter. If you can have a fairly ventilated location, with shelter, that is very desirable. You doubtless have your ice-storms here, and some protection against these is absolutely essential to success. If your trees after they get grown and begin to bear are crushed down by a weight of ice, it is very discouraging. A grove of evergreens, either growing naturally or planted artificially at the time your orchard is planted, and allowed to grow up with it, will do much to protect it from unfortunate effects of the season.

With regard to pruning, my advice is to prune little and often. That is, once a year the trees should be looked over; but excessive pruning should be avoided. If it is necessary that a limb should be removed, remove it at once; do not wait until it has grown to be large, but remove it while it is small, when you can do it with your knife, or when you can remove the shoot with your fingers, rather than let it grow and take it off ten years hence,