among it. The young trees should be set in these trenches, with their roots placed under ground from three to eight inches deep, trod down or pounded down so as to make the ground around them firm and solid. A portion of the top of each bush or tree should be cut off at the extreme end of the branches, so as to leave the top light, and not top-heavy, when the winds and storms assail it. This treatment is correct for apple trees, peach trees, plum trees, cherry trees and quince bushes and gooseberries. If the tree is inclined to run up fast and to make much wood, the bush ought to be cut back, as it is called, by cutting off the top sprouts, in the fall, from three inches to one foot, training the tree as much as possible into the form of a horizontal growth of the limbs; but the large limbs and branches springing around the body of the tree never ought to be cut off unless they show symptoms of decay, and then they ought to be cut down so short as to find live and solid wood, which should be immediately covered over with a grafting wax made of rosin, tallow and beeswax, which ought to be applied twice a year till the stump, the bark and new growth have healed and covered it over. After the trees are once set out, no crop, either of grass or grain, ought to be grown on the ground where the trees standthey should be kept free of weeds. Electricity has almost everything to do with the growth of trees; grass conducts up electricity from the earth, so do crops of all kinds, and thus deprive the trees of their necessary share of electricity rising out of the earth. Trees in the neighborhood of a laundry should ever be supplied with soapsuds, carried or conveyed to the roots of the trees. Animal urine of all kinds is one of the most valuable manures for trees; indeed, so is rotten chips or the matter which accumulates around the wood yard. I have seen a tree planted near to where a hogpen was located; the roots of the tree reached the fluids from the hogpen; and although the tree has been set out over 110 years, it is hardy, healthy and vigorous, producing a full growth of apples, juicy and healthy in the extreme, seldom if ever assailed by worms or vermin of any kind. So I have seen a Gilliflower apple tree growing near a stable, where the manure is shoveled out every winter near its roots; the fruit improves vastly in quality, size and flavor.

ན

In the winter season, young trees of all kinds need mulching, or the roots and around the body of the tree should be covered up at the surface of the ground with straw, dry leaves, chip dung, swinglingtow or any substance that would protect it from the severe action of the frost. Grape vines had better be trimmed so that the main stem, if grown in the open air, can be laid down on the ground, protected by bands of straw wound around them and a board covering the whole, to keep out the snow and ice.

Mr. George Smith, of the town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, about sixty miles from St. Johns, has followed the practice for some years, of grafting the apple and the plum upon the stock of the rock maple. We learn that he had as many as five or six different kinds of plums growing upon one maple. He has also been in the habit of grafting the apple upon the rock maple, and thus produces some of the finest fruit in the world. We obtain information from a gentleman who has been at Mr. Smith's house, and partaken of his fruit, and he assures us that his plums and apples, growing

from grafts upon the maple stock, are the largest and most delicious flavored of any that he has seen in any part of America.

The grafting is done in the fall, some time early in September, and produces fruit of an excellent quality the third year from the graft, the trees blossoming in two years. When he has made his graft he binds it up with oiled canvas and materials, so as to keep out the cold, rain, ice and snow from the scion as it is set. The maple is first cut off square near the ground, seldom higher than six feet. The sapling is not thoroughly trimmed down for two or three years, but he keeps reducing the top of the maple as the grafts grow, to absorb the sap; finally, when the grafts are become bushy sufficiently, the whole of the maple limbs and branches are taken off, leaving the limbs occupied with the grafts. Grafting on maples can be done only upon saplings. The young maple affords a stock which can be used to advantage for grafting. Sometimes the grafts have been set on shoulders or branches, where the stock of the tree is from two to six inches in diameter. Mr. Smith's orchards and nurseries are set on a level plain; the soil, apparently, is inclined to hard pan and clay; the bluffs, however, in that region of country, contain large quarries of gypsum or sulphate of lime, from which vast quantities are taken out and exported.

Mr. Smith exports his fruit for the St. Johns and Boston markets, and other seaports along the Atlantic coast, through Maine and New Hampshire and the British provinces. He grows one particular kind of plum called the "Egg plum," which grows to a large size, and is of a most delicious flavor when set on the maple. His fruit chiefly consists of the apple and the plum. Mr. Smith is one of the oldest residents in Windsor, and has carried on the fruit business for many years. Adjourned.

JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary.

December 2, 1862.

Mr. Edward Doughty, of New Jersey, in the chair..

NEW SEEDLING POTATOES.

Mr. D. A. Bulkeley, of Stone Hill farm, Williamstown, Mass., presented to the Club three new varieties of seedling potatoes, to compete for the premium for seedling potatoes, and furnishes the following description: "The Bulkeley seedling is the best potato for boiling that has ever come into use. They were on the public table at the late commencement at Williamstown in August last, and were complimented and called for in preference to new ones. They like manure, but will do well on poor land; grow very large vines and very few small potatoes; many of the hills without any small ones, with ten to fourteen fit for the table, and weighing from ten pounds to twelve pounds to the hill, and all in a cluster. I have taken the first premium at our agricultural society for the last two years.

"The other two varieties are new, and have never been distributed until last spring.

"The Prince of Wales is a long, white potato, ripens very early, and is a noble potato for baking. The Monitor has a pink eye, and is the king of all potatoes for baking or boiling; ripens between the Bulkeley seedling and the Prince of Wales; it is a very good keeper, and not apt to sprout; spreads a little more in the hills.

"I am very careful to have a nursery of new seedlings every year. If every farmer would do the same, new and choice varieties would be constantly developed, and this noble esculent become increasingly the pride of every table."

Mr. W. S. Carpenter.-The Bulkeley seedling I have grown for the last two years, and like them very much. I procured a new variety from Mr. Goodrich, called Garnett's Chili, which is very much of the same character. The Cusco White is another excellent new variety, produced by Mr. Goodrich, and so is his Pinkeye rustycoat. Mr. Goodrich has grown and proved five hundred seedlings, and the above three are about all that are valuable among the whole list.

Mr. R. G. Pardee.-We are constantly hearing about new seedling potatoes, and people are continually tempted to pay high prices for seeds to try the new experiment, and the success has been so poor, as a general thing, that many consider it a great mistake to try to multiply sorts, thinking that we had better try to improve the cultivation of some of our good old standard varieties. All the stories that we hear about new seedlings are not trustworthy, and many who have been to the expense of getting new sorts, find upon trial that they had the same before; the only difference being in the change of soil or mode of culture. Some twenty years ago a man brought into Wayne county, N. Y., from down east somewhere, an excellent sort of potatoes. A few years ago some of that sort were brought to this vicinity, and not long afterwards the public were offered a new potato called "Pell's seedling," which is very much like, if not identical with that grown so many years in Wayne county, which no one supposed to be a new variety. There are too many seedlings offered to the public before they have been properly tested and proved to possess some valuale property, not attainable in other sorts already in use. I don't object to improvements, but I'do object to recommending or selling potatoes under new names as new sorts, and superior to all others, before their standard of value is fully established, and by some one beside the interested producer. A mere change of form or color in a potato is not an improvement. Mr. Carpenter thought Mr. Pardee rather severe on seedlings, as that is the only way to get improved sorts, and that some of the new ones are superior in every respect. Even the famous Peachblow fails, and who thinks now of planting the Mercer? I think we should recommend and encourage the raising of new varieties. I think if the gentleman had seen my crop of new potatoes that I raised this year, he would never plant the old kinds.

Mr. Pardee.-I think Mr. Carpenter misunderstood my remarks. I am in favor of adopting new varieties which have been thoroughly tested. Take, for instance, the great variety of roses grown, the difference in some of them is so slight that it is not discernible to the common observer. The same remarks apply to the strawberry. Look at the long list advertised

by nurserymen, a great many of them worthless, and many of them having such a slight difference in appearance and taste that when shown separately the names are confounded.

Messrs. Mapes, Carpenter and Chambers were appointed the committee to report upon these potatoes.

HOW TO MAKE THE MEETINGS OF THE CLUB MORE INTERESTING.

Mr. C. W. Carpenter, of Mount Gilead, Ohio, writes:

I read the discussions and suggestions of the Farmers' Club with much interest and profit, and would suggest that if the farmers in different sections of the country would write and give their views, experiences and suggestions, the same as if they were present, would it not give a renewed interest? Accordingly I write to you what I know of the sugar cane. The season has been very propitious for ripening the seed; it nearly all got ripe, and there is enough seed saved for two or three years to come. I have seen no syrup that is inferior to the best refined golden syrup; and next year I think there will be twice the area planted that there was this. I have learned that by pulling out the heads as soon as they make their appearance, the stalk will ripen sooner by two or three weeks, and will yield more juice of a much better quality. A simple pan, without any apartments or patent fixings, set upon an arch, with handles to lift it off when you have boiled the syrup sufficiently, is the best of all arrangements. You fill it up with raw juice, then boil it down to syrup without mixing any raw juice with that partly boiled. The syrup has none of that raw taste so universal with that made on patent evaporators. If it is well skimmed it is equal to the best maple molasses."

Mr. R. G. Pardee.-The suggestion how to make our meetings more interesting, is just what we want. Let us act upon it, and invite such communication.

In accordance with this, the following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That the members of the Farmers' Club of the American Institute cordially respond to the suggestion of Mr. Carpenter, and that we earnestly request farmers, horticulturists and others to write out and send us the results of their careful observations and experiences on the various subjects of practical interest to us all."

TO PREVENT MICE AND RABBITS EATING FRUIT TREES IN WINTER.

Mr. Josiah Thompson, of Clinton, Allegany county, Pa., says, a small quantity of slaked lime placed around fruit trees will effectually keep off mice in winter.

"Take three or four quarts of the lime, and apply it on the surface of the ground, so as to touch the bole of the tree all around, and let it extend out five or six inches from the tree. If there is any grass about the tree, it should first be removed. The mice will not work on the surface near where the lime is applied, and as it becomes wet by rain or snow it will soak down about the roots, and prevent the mice from working underground. Thus, while the lime will prevent their working, both on the surface and underneath, it will also be very beneficial in promoting the growth

of the tree. No one need be afraid of the lime injuring the trees; there is no danger of this. November is a good time to make the application."

Another friend of fruit, in Indiana, says he preserves his trees from depredations of both mice and rabbits by whitewashing the boles close to the ground, allowing a little to run down below the surface.

THE CAUSE OF DECAY OF PEAR TREES.

Mr. Christopher Pike, of Dunkirk, Dane county, Wis., sends the following communication upon this subject:

"There are pear trees now growing in the New England States which I knew forty years ago as bearing trees then, of a foot in diameter, but at the present time greatly increased in size, yet in good bearing condition, and apparently as thrifty as ever. On the contrary, I have known pear trees to arrive at bearing condition in a few years-bear abundantly five to ten years, and die at fifteen or twenty years of age. Now, in my opinion, there are two main causes of the early deaths of standard pear trecs, saying nothing of insects. The first growers of the pear and apple in this country planted or set the tree, and then waited patiently for it to arrive at its normal bearing age, unaided by forcing process. Consequently, the tree grew slowly, the wood was very compact and fine-grained, and no more likely to be affected by age than most forest trees; in fact, so hard it was, that when the manufacture of perry was abandoned, those trees which bore useless fruit for the table were cut down for the cabinetmaker and button manufacturer; leaving others still standing in majestic vigor, yet bearing abundantly, and likely to bear for years to come. Those who force their trees by artificial means, have the pleasure of seeing a precocious growth and bearing condition, and early and quick decay, and death, after a few extraordinary crops had been taken from them. The wood of such trees is extremely light, porous, and coarse-grained-the grains sometimes exceeding a half an inch in thickness-and the wood seemingly as light as corn-stalk when dry; consequently, such wood cannot withstand the cold of winter, insects or other casualty, as those of natural growth. I have no doubt but the same reasons are the cause of the deterioration of varieties, some having become nearly obsolete, which were once deemed excellent and most worthy of cultivation; thus showing to the careful observer that precocity in fruit trees, as in everything else, tends to early decay and death. The other main cause of the short life of forced bearing trees, is the great quantity of saccharine matter such precocious trees are compelled to furnish, in order to perfect the large and constant crop which they usually produce. In transplanting pear trees, I should be careful not to break or injure the main, or tap root, and make the hole deep enough to take it in straight downwards. The main stock upwards should be allowed to grow, for the natural form of the pear tree top is conical, or at least ovate. Pruning should of course be done, but not so as to change what would be the natural form of the tree top."

Mr. John G. Bergen.-The cause of decay stated in this letter may be applicable to Wisconsin; it is not to Long Island, for there the trees do not fail from high culture or overbearing.

Prof. Mapes. If pear trees are fed with highly nitrogenous manure, the