SCIENCE APPLIED TO FRUIT-RAISING. 345 



the peculiar intricacy of the subject, the growing of plants 

 with a view to producing crops with an eye to quantity 

 rather than to quality, may account, in part, for the little 

 practical interest which most horticulturists have hitherto 

 manifested in looking to chemistry as an assistant to their 

 industry. 



There is no want of valuable observations, in exceptional 

 cases, of good success in producing fruits b} r the aid of 

 various kinds of fertilizers ; yet it is well recognized that 

 but little satisfactory explanation can be given as to the 

 particular relations which exist between the composition or 

 the quality of fruit and certain constituents and conditions 

 of the fertilizers used. The chemical composition of most 

 fruits is bat imperfectly known. The question, whether the 

 ash-constituents of fruit bear any thing more than a mere 

 incidental relation to the quality is still in doubt ; and it 

 derives its main support from the fact that the ash-constitu- 

 ents of a few of our cultivated fruits — the strawberry, for 

 instance — have been found to differ widely both in quantity 

 and quality from those of the wild plants from which they 

 originated. No important inferences have as yet been drawn 

 from these observations. 



Numerous careful inquiries into the composition of many 

 of our farm-crops have shown that the total amount of 

 mineral or ash constituents of one and the same variety of 

 plants may vary widely in different individual specimens 

 when raised upon different soils, or under otherwise varying 

 conditions of cultivation. 



Experimental observation has thus far failed to prove the 

 existence of any definite numerical relation between the 

 total quantity of essential mineral or ash constituents and 

 the entire dry organic matter of plants. We have learned 

 that but few mineral elements are essential to the complete 

 development of plants; yet we have only vague notions 

 regarding their peculiar mode of action in the process of, 

 vegetable growth. Still, though ignorant of the peculiar 

 mode in which these mineral constituents assist in the forma- 

 tion of organic matter, we have noticed in some of our most 

 important farm-crops that a more or less liberal supply of 

 certain essential articles of plant-food — as potash, nitrogen, 

 &c. — frequently exerts a remarkable influence on the 



