374 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



one of the lessons which experience has taught us most 

 impressively is that, contrary to our former views, this after- 

 cultivation should be shallow, so as not to injure the roots,- but 

 to preserve them near the surface. 



IV. MA]SUR£S AND THEIR APPLICATION. 



The subject of manures is a most important one, and every 

 year becoming more so. The supply of manure, in the older 

 part of our country, is unequal to the demand, and every year 

 increases the disparity. What would be our feelings if the 

 supply of wheat, on which we depend for our daily bread, were 

 inadequate to the demand ? Yet men are not more dependent 

 for life, upon their daily bread, than are our fruit crops upon 

 the food which is supplied to them in the form of manure of 

 one kind or another. To supply this want, we shall be com- 

 pelled to rely, in great measure, upon artificial fertilizers ; and 

 chemistry has not yet tauglit us, as it will doubtless in the 

 future, how to supply the wants of our fruit crops with cer- 

 tainty and abundance. But we cannot too often or too forci- 

 bly impress upon the minds of all cultivators, the sacred duty 

 of saving every particle of fertilizing material, and applying it 

 in such manner as will produce the utmost effect. And, on 

 this last point, the lesson which experience has taught us is, 

 that manure applied to fruit trees should be either in the form 

 of a top-dressing, or as near the surface as is consistent with 

 the composition of the soil and the preservation of its fertil- 

 izing elements. 



V. MULCHING. 



While on this subject we will add, as another of the lessons 

 of experience which may be said to be fixed, the advantage of 

 mulching for dry seasons and soils, whereby the temperature 

 and moisture of the soils are kept uniform, and the fertilizing 

 elements in a soluble state, an essential condition for the pro- 

 duction of perfect fruit. 



