276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



.PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



It seems scarcely necessary in this presence to say that thor- 

 ough preparation and enrichment of such soils as are not already 

 rich is essential. Ordinary farm culture will not produce the 

 highest class of fruits ; they must have garden culture, and 

 with this they never fail. After this thorough preparation, the 

 cleaner the culture the better, and this should be shallow, so as 

 not to injure the roots, but to preserve them near the surface. 



MANURES, AND THEIR APPLICATION. 



The subject of manures is a most important one, and every 

 year becoming more so. The supply of manure in this State is 

 unequal to the demand, and every year increases the disparity. 

 What would be our feelings if the supply of wheat, on which 

 we depend for our daily bread, were inadequate to the demand ? 

 Yet men are not more dependent for life upon their daily bread 

 than are our fruit crops upon the food which is supplied to them 

 in the form of manure of one kind or another. To supply this 

 want we shall be compelled to rely in great measure upon arti- 

 ficial fertilizers, and chemistry has not yet taught us, as it will 

 doubtless in the future, how to supply the wants of our fruit 

 crops with certainty and abundance. But we cannot too often 

 or too forcibly impress upon the minds of all cultivators the 

 sacred duty of saving every particle of fertilizing material, and 

 applying it in such manner as will produce the utmost effect. 

 And on this last point the lesson which experience has taught 

 us is, that manure applied to fruit-trees should be either in the 

 form of a top-dressing, or as near the surface as is consistent 

 with the composition of the soil and the preservation of its fer- 

 tilizing elements. 



MULCHING. 



"While on this subject we will add as another of the lessons 

 of experience, which may be said to be fixed, the advantage of 

 mulching for dry seasons and soils, whereby the temperature 

 and moisture of the soils is kept uniform, and the fertilizing 

 elements in a soluble state, an essential condition for the pro- 

 duction of perfect fruit. 



