308 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The last mentioned was added to the collection this 

 season. 



The growth of the majority of the above has not been as 

 good as could be desired, owing to the time they have been 

 growing, — three or four years, — and many weeds have 

 worked into the plats ; so that, after gathering such speci- 

 mens as were desired for analysis, they were ploughed under, 

 and the collection will be increased as much as possible, and 

 replanted early next spring. 



The cow-peas and vetch were sown with oats and rye ; 

 but owing to the lateness of the season when the seed ar- 

 rived, the growth was not sufficiently large to give a fair 

 basis for determining their value. 



II. Experimental Fruit Plats. 



The trees and small fruits in these five plats have been 

 under treatment for several years, and have yielded some 

 fruit, which has been gathered for analysis. 



The five plats into which the land was divided were planted 

 with the same kinds of fruit in each; i.e., apples, pears, 

 peaches, plums, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, 

 strawberries, currants and gooseberries, and is a good ex- 

 ample of what may be done in close planting for a family 

 fruit (garden. 



Four plats were fertilized with different elements of plant- 

 food, and the fifth was left in its natural condition. The 

 analyses of the fruit taken from these, made by Director 

 Goessmann, and given in his previous reports, prove con- 

 clusively that the composition of fruits can be greatly affected 

 by the application of special fertilizers. 



The growth of the trees and plants has been very good ; 

 in fact, in some cases greater than is desirable for their most 

 healthy development. This was especially the case with 

 some of the peach trees, in which the growth of wood was 

 so great and continued so late that it failed to mature, and 

 the fruit buds were injured last winter, so that no fruit was 

 borne the past season, while upon land less highly fertilized 

 the trees produced large crops of fruit. 



During the fall of 1881, and the winter of 1882, many of 

 the trees in these plats were destroyed by cold, and all suf- 



