DISCUSSIONS AT SOUTH HAVEN. 359 



Mr. Howard said it wonld not if not sowed later than August. Sow ten 

 pounds to the acre if it is to be dressed with plenty of plaster; but if not, 

 twelve pounds. 



Mr. A. S. Dyckman said that now fresh soil, unless extremely poor or 

 exhausted by other crops, did not need fertilizing for orchards. He believes it 

 is very essential to cultivate, and don't know but a proper system of cultiva- 

 tion would be sufficient. He thought clover would be the cheapest fertilizer, 

 but the question had been how to make clovering consistent with thorough 

 cultivation. If it could, as Mr. Howard stated, be sown in August at the 

 last time of cultivation, and be grown enough to plow under the next June, it 

 would do. The trees and fruit would not suffer from drought until after 

 June. Then if the orchard was cultivated until the last of August, its vigor 

 would be maintained. 



President Phillips inquired whether clover would be as good a fertilizer for 

 fruit as for grain. 



Mr. Dyckman said he didn't know, but should think so. 



Mr. D. B. Williams said it was a lamentable fact, that so few cultivators 

 understood the elementary principles of chemistry, and the qualities and needs 

 of different soils. 



In New Jersey they sowed buckwheat in their peach orchards during corn 

 planting, and plowed it under in July, and sowed again to plow under in the 

 fall ; every other year. 



It had a good effect on the soil, making it friable. The soil was a yellow 

 sand on a yellow clay subsoil. He considered any crop among young trees a 

 detriment. He suggested the utilizing the gleanings of the poultry house, and 

 night soil, and the use of leaves, charcoal, and muck, for bedding in stables, 

 and of a vat to collect the drainings of the barnyard. He recommended ashes, 

 especially for fruit trees. Ashes should be applied with chip manure to kill 

 insects. 



Question. — Won't clover and chip manure harbor insects ? 



Mr. Howard said cut-worms don't work in clean clover. He never saw any 

 in clover sod unless there was grass in it. 



Mr. J. Lannin said he knew an Englishman who purchased a farm in Can- 

 ada which had been depleted until it was seemingly worthless, by a shiftless 

 family. He reclaimed it with clover, and got rich from it. He put in the 

 clover with no other crop to shelter it. This sheltering clover w^as one of the 

 old errors. We can raise clover any month of the summer, if it is dragged in 

 well. He couldn't say from experience what fertilizer w^as best for fruit. 



Mr. A. J. Pierce recommended making a sink a distance from the house, 

 into which all the litter from the premises should be thrown, and the slops 

 from the houses carried to it by a sewer. 



Hon. W. H. Hurlbut judged from his experience that plowing buckwheat 

 under, on very light sand, might make it too loose, so that it would not hold 

 the trees firmlv. 



Clover makes light soil heavier, and heavy soil lighter. 



Question for the next meeting, Grafting, budding, and propagating trees and 

 plants. The Financial Secretary, Mr. H. E. Bidwell, announced one hundred 

 and eight members. 



