D4 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



perhaps to require that more should be laid before the public concerning its 

 really wonderful effects; still I am inclined to believe that we have much to 

 learn of the benefits to fruit (/rowers, of the use of land plaster, or that its 

 advantages in this direction at least are not widely enough known. If what I 

 may be able to lay before you to-day shall result in stimulating a more extensive 

 and general trial of one of the greatest of helps to the fruit growers, and one so 

 cheap and easy of cultivation, my object in this article will then be accomplished. 



I shall not attempt to explain just how this specific fertilizer produces the 

 astonishing effects we find resulting from its being applied at just the right 

 times, and in the proper manner and quantities. It is easy to understand these 

 results for we see them, but the how, and why, of its modus operandi, are much 

 more intricate and difficult questions, but of far less consequence to practical 

 men. We can afford to allow them to remain, as they have thus far, mere 

 matters of theory. 



Half a dime's worth of gypsum sown through the top and branches of fruit 

 trees in full bloom, often proves the making or saving of the whole crop. It 

 should be sown while the early morning dews are still on, or after showers, and 

 be dusted lightly upon the blossoms and leaves where it will adhere. This has 

 often been demonstrated by taking alternate trees, and in many other reliable 

 ways, to the undeniable saving of the crop, and in other cases to its increase 

 many fold. I will not claim that such are always the results. These are not 

 uniform ; on the contrary they are many and various, but it is probable that in 

 all cases the crop would be larger, fairer, and less affected by insects. Men 

 may push their ban of contempt and "absurdity" down upon these facts, be- 

 cause they "cannot see how" these results are accomplished, or some of them, 

 and therefore neglect its application. "A word to the wise" is not enough for 

 them. But they are not the ones afterward to be laughing in their sleeves at 

 the careful, thoughtful farmer who sowed plaster over his orchard bl ssoms 

 just before or at the beginning of the week of the dreaded cold, drying, easterly 

 wind, or northerly, or whichever has proved the most deadly in his particular 

 locality. These vary, and the experience of each section of country has demon- 

 si rated which it is. The shrewd, practical orchardist who has so reasonably 

 sown his blooming rows with gypsum, was duly armed and equipped against 

 this deadly attack upon his crop, as also against several other emergencies quite 

 as likely to arise, fully as imminent to his fair hopes, and the bright promise 

 from his bounteous, bloom-laden lands and trees. 



This gypsum or land plaster seems to possess the power or property of creat- 

 ing or causing an artificial humidity of its own, among many other things, 

 necessary to the plant or to the embryo fruit to which it may be applied, and so 

 fixing and controlling the ammonia, the gases, the vapors of the atmosphere, as 

 to carry them triumphantly through the various crises of our capricious climate 

 and seasons generally, and also to aid them materially in their fearful warfare 

 with the ever multiplying insects and pestiferous vermin of legion tribes. We 

 shall probably some day know the chemical and scientific explanation of these 

 things, but not now, nor is it requisite. We are after practical results, and we 

 leave the philosophical study and investigation of its methods of work to each 

 man for himself. 



A few days ago a fruit grower asked me what he should do to obtain a crop 

 from a fruit tree that had always blossomed prof uscly every year, but had never 

 borne any fruit. The answer is sow gypsum over the blossoms and occasion- 

 ally over the setting fruit. 



