SUMMER MEETING, 1S79. 93 



air drainage, to develop our natural advantages of aspect and commercial 

 facilities. 



I repeat the phrase *' atmospheric drainage" as a text to be preached from, 

 and for explanation I refer you to the several articles on this subject that have 

 appeared in our annual reports which explains the reason why in cases of late 

 and early frosts, fruits succeed in one place and fail in another, but short dis- 

 tances apart. It is a subject to be carefully studied by all who plant a tree or 

 a vine. You may plant your berries in the enclosed valleys witli a reasonable 

 hope of success, and if frost destroys the fruit or the plant, it is only for one 

 or two years, as the plants may be renewed, but fruit trees are planted for a 

 longer term, and grapes for a century, and it well becomes us to select for 

 them such terrestrial aspects as will secure permanency. 



TEMPERATURE. 



There are other reasons for failure and success in fruits and tender vegeta- 

 bles planted about our homesteads, not perhaps at this time so well explained. 

 I allude to the capacity of different kinds of matter to receive and retain the 

 heat of the sun after it sets. As a rule those substances that are the slowest 

 to receive heat are the slowest to part with it. Earth and water, the two kinds 

 of matter we have most to do with, are good illustrations ; the former receives 

 readily the heat of the sun as soon as it appears, but parts with this heat 

 rapidly as soon as it disappears. AV^ater is the reverse, slow to receive and part 

 with heat, requiring thirty times as much heat to raise it up to the same tem- 

 perature. I state these facts simply as illustrations of what follows. Our 

 buildings, whether of wood or brick, hold the heat received during the day 

 much longer than the bare earth, and their influence to prevent frost is in their 

 bulks. An illustration of this fact came under my observation at the time of 

 a damaging frost early in May of 1878, that destroyed most of the apples, 

 grapes and berries, and all of the peaches, plums and cherries in all flat open 

 exposures near here, while all of these fruits were a complete success in an 

 enclosure of eight to twelve rods, on which were two two-story and two smaller 

 buildings, with a well filled wood-shed. The influence of these wooden struc- 

 tures to retain heat, extended to a distance of seventy-five feet, as I had ample 

 evidence. The same things happened in a much less degree on the morning of 

 the seventh of May, instant. The success of grapes seems to depend on the 

 amount of summer heat thev receive. Isabellas that seldom, and Catawbas 

 that never ripen here in open fields, have come to perfection two years in suc- 

 cession, trained two feet distant from the buildings above mentioned. 



QUESTION BOX. 



At this juncture the question box was opened and several queries brought 

 out which were answered as follows : 



1. What time in the year should evergreens be pruned? 



Mr. Whitney. — My practice is to prune any time before the new growth 

 begins in the spring. 



Mr. Gulley. — This is perhaps the best season if a great deal of pruning is to 

 be done at any one date ; but where one is watching his trees all the time he 

 can prune and pinch and cut off, any time in the 3'ear when he sees the trees 

 are growing misshapen. 



2. What is the best plan for irrigating strawberries? 



