84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



quaintance of my own with it. I lost my quince-trees several 

 years ago, and never replaced them. Mr. Slade, referring to 

 the apple, spoke of changing the bearing year by picking off 

 the apples. That, I should think, might have a tendency to 

 do it by reducing the crop, because it is well known that 

 the exhaustion of any tree or of any plant does not come 

 ordinarily from growing a large amount of fruit, but from 

 perfecting a large number of seeds : therefore, if you reduce 

 your crop of apples, so that the tree does not mature quarter 

 as many seeds, the tree will be in a better condition to bear 

 a crop the next year. 



The Chairman. The audience would be pleased to hear 

 from Professor Goessmann as to his mode of curing the 

 yellows on peach-trees. 



Professor Goessmann. I do not assert that I have cured 

 the disease myself, but I am engaged in the investigation of 

 the cause of this disease. There are different opinions in 

 regard to the cause. Some consider it a fungus-growth in 

 consequence of the condition of the juice of the plant, which 

 may be due directly to an abnormal condition of the soil, or 

 might be traced to exhaustion of the soil, the fungus-growth 

 being secondary. I have made experiments of this kind. I 

 began by feeding the plants with a mixture of phosphate, 

 magnesia compounds, and potash, taking care to have a large 

 excess of potash. Then, turning my experiments in another 

 field of vegetable physiology to account, I applied muriate of 

 potash, — a potash compound which has shown peculiar effi- 

 cacy in the development of a healthy leaf-growth. Now, the 

 first sign of a healthy fruit-growth is a healthy leaf-growth : 

 without a healthy leaf, no perfect fruit can be produced. It 

 has been found, that, comparing the action of muriate of 

 potash with that of sulphate of potash (two potash com- 

 pounds), the muriate differs widely from the sulphate ; that 

 in some instances (for instance, in rye and buckwheat) the 

 muriate produces an unusually luxuriant growth of leaf, and 

 a . large grain, while the sulphate of potash, being potash 

 as much as the muriate, — the same percentage, — causes a 

 peculiar diseased condition (a yellow appearance of the plant), 

 and therefore interferes with the proper development of the 

 seed. This very remedy I have applied to the peach-tree. I 

 have a friend engaged in following up the investigation with 



