80 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



burning it combine it with the oxygen of the atmosphere and form 

 carbonic acid, but no chemist has ever yet invented a furnace hot 

 enough to separate that charcoal from its oxygen. They cling 

 together with a terrible grasp. That leaf which your mind's eye 

 is looking at, can breathe this carbonic acid into itself as if it were 

 lungs, and the gentle rays of the sun that shines upon it have 

 power sufficient to separate these two elements. The carbon 

 willingly obeys the command, and goes into the tree to build up 

 its woody structure. rThus the charcoal of your tree is obtained 

 first from the decomposition of vegetable and animal manure in 

 the form of a gas, which we call carbonic acid ; then it passes into 

 the atmosphei-e where the leaves of plants prepare it in a condi- 

 tion to build up the tree. 



There is then a perpetual round going on among these elements 

 from dead to living matter, and from living to dead matter. When 

 we cultivate our soils we only aid nature in her work. We can 

 add no new property' to these substances ; we only hasten the 

 work so as to give a rapid growth to whatever we cultivate. 



Preparation of the Soil. 



If I have not wearied your patience by this discussion of the 

 character of the soil, I will now select a site for an orchard, which 

 may be supposed wanting in some or most of the important ele- 

 ments we have indicated. Let not any one be frightened if my 

 ideal is a very high one. I will let you down to a lower level be- 

 fore I close. 



If any one of you has a thousand dollars for which he has no 

 earthly use, let him select for his orchard one acre of land from 

 his field which has been cropped for many years. Let it be per- 

 manently fenced. I assume that it is a rocky schistose soil, and 

 naturally drained. Let him plow it in autumn, and in the follow- 

 ing spring manure it well and plant and cultivate potatoes. Keep 

 the ground mellow and clear of weeds throughout the season. 

 By this course he receives a present profit, which is an important 

 consideration with most farmers, especially such as do not have a 

 surplus thousand dollars. After the potatoes are harvested, plow 

 a narrow strip on one side of the piece, and with a good supply of 

 help, dig and throw to the surface all rocks large enough to ob- 

 struct the plow. Follow each furrow with the plow again, or with 

 the subsoil plow, and loosen the soil as deep as you can. If I 



