Prof. Mapes.-Without alluvium and carbon I think the earth would be sterile, as all nutriment would sink through the soil and render the surface barren. Charcoal is an excellent divider of the soil.

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THE CULTURE OF FRUIT IN THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF NEW ENGLAND, AND THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES.

Mr. Alanson Nash said:

Fruit of various kinds, including apples, pears, peaches, quinces, cranberry, gooseberry, blackberry and strawberry, grapes and some others, have within the last few years very justly received public attention; we know of no business that can be carried on about a farm, by odd chores, to better advantage than the culture of fruits.

All along the Atlantic coast, from the Bay of St. Lawrence through the whole length of the granite and primitive formations of the White Mountains, Green Mountains, and the Alleghany Mountains, to Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, the apple, pear and plum are sure to yield the choicest fruits; indeed, the apple likes a cool climate; so does the pear, the plum, and the gooseberry and cranberry. No part of the United States or the world produces a better flavored and a more healthy fruit than the formations of earth derived from the granite, mica slate, and the hornblende rocks of New England. The apple tree will grow amongst the granite and mica slate, and where the land is most rocky, there the tree flourishes best, if there is a sufficient depth of soil lying over the rocks to give the roots of the tree sufficient foundation. The winds of winter are never seen to hurt an apple tree, provided there is sufficient soil for the roots to take proper hold-indeed, all our northern fruit trees seem to be benefited by a fall of snow, lying deep over the roots of the trees; snow operates as a mulch or covering around the roots and body of the tree, the ground keeps warm, the heat and electricity ascend from the interior of the earth towards the surface, the circulation of the juices in the roots of the trees, when covered over with snow, is lively and active. Nature now lays in a bountiful supply of nutriment for the wood and fruit, to be warmed into life by the genial rays of the sun the succeeding spring and summer. The frost puts the upper part of the tree to sleep during the winter, and gives it the necessary rest.

The chemical analysis of fruits and the wood of fruit trees has opened within the last few years a large field for the study of nature, and has discovered most of the chemical combinations that produce and make up the materials of the fruit, and wood of fruit trees. By referring to our analysis and tables hereto annexed, it will be perceived that the primitive rocks, when decomposed, produce a soil which yields more of the ingredients of the different kinds of fruits than any other formation; and it has been a long time remarked by close observers, that nowhere, in this or any other country, can fruits be found yielding so rich an aroma or flavor as those grown amongst the granite rocks and the primitive formations.

Fruit grown on these soils is rich in flavor, solid and compact and hardy; keeps late, and with little care can be preserved during the winter, spring and summer months. The whole of the region we have spoken of, from the south end of the Alleghany mountains to the extreme land in the Gulf

of St. Lawrence, lies between the 33d and 49th degrees of north latitude, corresponding to the latitudes between Algiers and Paris and Viennaindeed, Vienna lies farther north than Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took its name from the fact that the country around was known from time immemorial as the wine region; while along the American coast the country has the advantage of the Gulf stream, which comes full and bold into the coast, shedding down abundant rains and snows and filling the ground with ammonia, and other productions of the sea air, the most healthful for both animals and trees. Indeed, there is no country in the world where the trees grow more healthy, strong, compact and fruitful than along the mountain ranges in Maine, and New England in general.

The gneiss and granite yield feldspar, silex and mica in abundance. The mica slate yields silex, iron, sulphur, manganese, lime and alumen. The primitive limestone yields lime, magnesia and silex, together with carbon in the form of carbonic acid or fixed air; while the talcose slates yield magnesia, lime, silex, alumen, sulphur and many of the carbonacious minerals. The soils from these rocks are generally retentive of moisture, which is essential to the healthy growth of all fruits. The alumen of feldspar, which is one of the most abundant ingredients of gneiss, granite and mica slate, is often composed of potash in quantities of from thirteen to twenty-two per cent. So, soda is found in various forms associated with feldspar, and in mica slate, oftentimes with the minerals in the other primitive rocks. Magnesia is one of the ingredients of the talcose formation. Then lime is found more or less abundant in all the primitive rocks, but, in primitive limestone, the carbonate of lime is its principal ingredient. Sulphur plays another important function in fruits, in combination with lime, magnesia, soda, potash and acids. Phosphoric acid is many times found in quantities, combined with lime, magnesia and other ingredients; while the combinations of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon from the atmosphere, go to make up the delicate ingredients of fruit, that give a luscious relish to them when ripened and put on our tables for use. Great are the mysteries of nature! and none are more so than the production of fruits from a few seemingly simple ingredients, most of which we have above named.

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We have said that the formations of primitive rocks in New England contain all or most of the ingredients which are combined in various kinds of fruits. The primitive rocks in Maine are peculiarly so, while in Rhode Island and the Western part of Massachusetts the granite and primitive ridges along the Green Mountains are equally so.

The Green Stone range of rocks, which are evidently volcanic, beginning at Greenfield in Franklin county, and at Belchertown, in Hampshire county, Mass., and running through the whole length of Mount Holyoke and Tom range, and terminating at the East and West Rock, near New Haven, show on analysis a large share of alumina, potash, soda and lime. And it is to be remarked, that no finer or better fruit is found than that taken from the fruit trees along the sides and declivities of this Green Stone range, while in the western part of Massachusetts the limestone and talcose and mica slates and granite are found to be rich in potash, soda, magnesia, carbonates of lime, manganese, sulphates of lime and iron.. The soil of New

England, found lying over the hills, rocks and valleys, is often from one foot to 250 feet deep; composed of elements of fertility, and are adapted to the production of fruits, grasses and woods of all kinds. The silica furnishes materials for a solid, compact body to the tree, while the stalks of all kinds of grain and Indian corn are strong in their growth, and seldom prostrated by storms and rains; wherever there is iron it is almost always accompanied with sulphur. The atmosphere takes hold of the sulphur, and with the rain and moisture soon forms the sulphuric acid; thiscombines with the iron, magnesia, soda, potash and lime, making sulphate of lime or plaster of Paris, sulphate of magnesia or epsom salts, sulphate of soda or Glauber salts, sulphate of iron or copperas, and other salts. The great mass of the soils of New England are rich in salts of many kinds, while the snows and the rains coming in from the Gulf stream fill the atmosphere with ammonia, which is brought down from the heavens, filling the ground and soil with a quickening fertility. The great trouble in New England has always been, that the soils compact themselves, inclining to a hard pan formation, but when these soils are dug and stirred up with subsoil plows, and made loose, they ever respond with heavy, luxuriant crops of grass, fruit trees, and excellent fruit of all kinds, from the strawberry to the quince and pound pippin apples.

It would be difficult to give any exact analysis of the different stratifications of the rocks in New England, as to their mineral contents; some of the granites run from 10 to 20 and to 30 per cent., and even 50 per cent. of feldspar, rich in potash, while mica slate frequently passes into talcose slate, containing a very large proportion of magnesia, also the salts of iron, rich with sulphur and sulphates. The limestone along on the western bank of Connecticut river contains from 10 to 40 per cent. of silica; some have more or less alumina with them, also mica and magnesian rock, while west along the Green Mountains, magnesia, manganese and the oxydes of iron abound in most of the rock formations found there. In mica slate, in many parts of New England, the sulphuret of iron often reaches as high as 60 to 75 per cent., forming beds out of which copperas is manufactured; then again all the micas generally possess from 2 to 16 per cent. of the sulphuret of iron, and when blasted out of the original rock it is soon found to be decomposed and come into soil.

The talcose rock, mica slate rocks, granite rocks and lime rocks, when lying adjacent to each other, often pass into each other by insensible gradations; so much so, that lime lying next to mica slate will often contain from 30 to 53 per cent. silica, and then again the limestone, when next and adjacent to talcose slate, will often abound in magnesia, and the mica slate will abound in lime; and the talcose and mica slate along the Green Mountains will be redundant many times in magnesia, sulphuret of iron and the sulphates of iron, and also carbonates of lime. One specimen of serpentine or talcose slate yielded, silica 42, alumina 7, lime 3, iron 27, magnesia 60, water 12. Another specimen yielded silex 43, alumina 3, iron 10, magnesia 30, soda 2, water 12; while almost all of the salts contain a large quantity of oxygen-indeed all the salts are oxydes of some kind, either sulphates, carbonates, nitrates, phosphates, muriates or unknown acids in composition,

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There is often found in soils that are aluminous, ammonia, which goes under the name of ammonial alum, and on analysis yielded soda and ammonia, and also the sulphate of ammonia. There is another species found, called soda alum, while other specimens are called manganese and magnesian alum; it yielded alumina, magnesia, manganese, sulphur and water. These last specimens, however, come from volcanic countries. The trap rocks of New England are volcanic.

We will subjoin here an analysis of the component parts of several kinds of fruits; but we will premise that many of the operations of nature are carried on in a secret and comparatively mysterious manner; in other words, the phosphate of lime is an ingredient universally found in nature and most of the soils, but not in very large quantities at any one particular locality.