WINTER MEETING, 1S80. 29 



now sell to the soap-maker at eight cents. It makes a place for your straw- 

 stacks and corn-buts that you so frequently burn up to get them out of the 

 way, and it will make a place for those luxurient crops of rag-weed which fre- 

 quently spring up in pastures and on stubble-fields — provided you cut it before 

 it goes to seed. 



To one so disposed, abundant and cheap material may be found on the farm 

 for this purpose without breaking in upon the more valuable contents of the 

 barnyard. 



THE PEAR ORCHARD. 



From all we have read and our observations for the last twenty-five years, 

 we would treat it very much like the apple orchard in sod ; we would be care- 

 ful to add every year, if possible, a good dressing under the tree of iron filings 

 or sweepings from around the blacksmith's anvil, or the iron finisher's bench, 

 the tendency of which is to thicken the sap, harden the wood, and give strength 

 to the fibre of the bark. Of 



THE PEACH ORCHARD, 



we hardly dare speak. Observation confirms our belief that it needs thorough 

 cultivation, and if planted closely, it is crop enough of itself for the 

 land it covers. That it is a heavy feeder upon the soil, there is no question ; 

 neither is there any question as to much greater climatic influences upon it, 

 than on more hardy fruits ; therefore great caution should be used in fertil- 

 izers. In my judgment ashes, thoroughly rotted manure, iron pyrites, spent 

 tan-bork, and light dressings of salt are the best, — such as will give strength 

 to the sap and firmness to the wood without forcing an extra growth. For the 



QUINCE 



a well-drained subsoil with a heavy mulch of chip manure and plenty of salt. 

 Of the numerous 



SMALL FRUITS, 



we may say that each has its peculiarity, — each needs special treatment, and 

 the observing cultivator soon learns how to help his soil if necessary to bring 

 the best results. Oftener than otherwise he will find mulch profitable. The 

 orchard is, in short, a field for much study. Soils vary ; each variation form- 

 ing the foundation, suggests a different treatment. Horticulture is coeval with 

 the creation. The ancients had their courts of Pomona, aud discussed the 

 best methods of raising fruit. These have not been handed down to us, there- 

 fore we must be content with the light and knowledge gained by experience. 



"We come now to consider the best fertilizers for the farm. In doing so, we 

 shall be brief, as we have heretofore in different ways, given our views on this 

 important subject ; and allow us to include in the term best, any and every 

 thing convertible into a fertilizer that is produced on the farm, for it cannot 

 be supposed by any one conversant with cropping in Michigan and the small 

 profits derived therefrom that anybody in the business would be so hasty for 

 big crops as to at once resort to guano, or invest largely in the phosphates or 

 superphosphates at the prices asked for them. We will then consider the 

 question amended, and to run in this form : How shall we increase the fertil- 

 ity of our farms from the resources of the same? Submit this question to 

 twenty of the best farmers in this audience, and I have no doubt but what we 

 would have twenty different answers. 



It is this Yankee method of asking questions and eliciting answers that 



