ANNUAL REPORT. 145 



The sales up to the present time have been largely of stock 

 on hand at the time of starting the business, or which has 

 been bought in to be resold. 



After the present year, nearly every thing sold will be of 

 our own growing. 



Among the stock that is particularly fine are about six 

 thousand peach-trees one year from bud, several thousand 

 apple-trees three years from root-graft, with a good stock of 

 vines, shrubs, small fruits, and a large and very complete 

 stock of the various varieties of retinosporas and the more 

 dwarf arborvitaes. 



NEW PLANTS AND FRUITS. 



Several of the new plants introduced by Col. Clark from 

 Japan promise to be very valuable. Among them are the 

 vigorous and hardy vine Actinidia polygama^ and the beauti- 

 ful deciduous tree Cercidophijllum. We are fortunate in 

 having a good stock of the above, as well as of the noted 

 umbrella-pine. The climbing hj^lrangea which was intro- 

 duced at the same time is very slow in growth, and requires 

 more time to prove whether it will be valuable or not. In 

 the pear-orchard are several trees grafted with the promising 

 new pears originated by Francis Dana, Esq., the stock of 

 which was kindly sent us by Col. Stone of Dedham. The 

 grafts have made a good growth, and will probably bear the 

 coming season. The names of the varieties are President 

 Clark, Francis Dana, Student, and Crumbs-of-Comfort. 



As the first has been favorably mentioned by the commit- 

 tee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, I think it 

 desirable to propagate a few of them for sale. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



In the pear-orchard, upon alternate rows, has been sown 

 iron in two forms, to determine its effect upon the growth of 

 the tree, and particularly upon the diseases to which they 

 are liable. Upon the first row was sown Navassa phosphate 

 containing a large per cent of iron, about two pounds to each 

 tree ; upon the second row was applied the same quantity of 

 iron filings and sweepings from the blacksmith's shop. This 

 course was continued through the orchard, and extended to 

 the peach-trees and a few rows of vines in the vineyard. 



