218 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



grape-vines were attracted down into a cold bed, which was 

 utterly at variance with all the wants of the plant, and especially 

 of the fruit. The grape belongs to a warm climate ; always 

 grows, in northern latitudes, in a warm spot. When our an- 

 cestors came here they found, as the old historian tells us, 

 grapes that would rival the ancient grapes of Eschol. It was 

 always in the warm, sheltered nooks and against the rocks that 

 they found them. Now to attract the roots of any plant of 

 that description down into the cold regions of the soil is entirely 

 wrong, and no man can gainsay it. It is surface dressing, 

 therefore, it is an abundance of ashes upon the surface, that is 

 best adapted to increase the fruit-bearing of grape-vines. I 

 think the same thing holds good in regard to the peach, and 

 that if we will adopt the practice of surface dressing all the 

 small fruits, and all those delicate fruits that we are beginning 

 to grow, it will be of great advantage to us ; not using the 

 heavy, fatty, nitrogenous manures, but such manures as I have 

 described, which are filled with soluble salts and phosphates. 

 I think that rule will hold good with regard to a very large 

 proportion of the fruits which we can now rake to a profit. 

 That we can grow pears on quince stocks to a profit, I have no 

 sort of doubt. It is a delicate, nice piece of business, it is a 

 matter of horticulture, I know, but there are really few farms 

 upon which a piece of land fit for that purpose cannot be found. 

 The trees need protection ; I do not think there is" any delicate 

 fruit in the world which will bear the colds of New England. 

 So true is this, that the old New England St. Michael's pear, 

 which, when it was in its glory, was not surpassed by any other 

 variety, — I wish it would come back again ! — will not grow at 

 all unless trained as a wall fruit. I have seen it trained right 

 against a wall, and a very curious thing about it was, that 

 wherever a stem hung out, and a pear formed upon it, it was 

 split and cracked under the influence of the wind. I think that 

 peach and pear trees should be sheltered, and I think there is 

 no farmer in the State, with a market open to him, who cannot 

 afford to grow such fruits as I have spoken of. I have always 

 said that they enter into the specialties of New England farming 

 like the cranberry on Cape Cod, seeds in Essex County, tobacco 

 in the Connecticut Valley, and just as the growing of vegetables 



