ORCHARD MANURE. 



17 



Professor Wolff has also given the following results of his 

 examination of the fruit of the Pear : 



Analysis of the Ash of the Pear (whole fruit.) 

 Potash 

 Soda 

 Magnesia 

 Lime 



Phosphoric Acid 

 Sulphuric Acid 

 Silica 



98-9 



Undetermined Matter, and loss 



The amount of Phosphoric Acid contained in Apples and 

 Pears is shown by these analysis to be so considerable, that these 

 fruits have been considered as specially adapted to sedentary men, 

 who work with their brains rather than with their muscles ; for 

 Phosphorus is thought to be the best brain food. However this 

 may be, it has thus been demonstrated that the essential inorganic 

 ingredients for the healthy growth of the trees and their fruits are : 

 Potash, Lime, Soda, Phosphoric and Sulphuric Acids, and that these 

 must all be contained in good Orchard soil ; but the mode in which 

 they act and re-act on each other, so as to present themselves in a 

 soluble form that can be taken up by the rootlets — to be again 

 modified by the action of the air in the leaf structure — is not clearly 

 known. Science tells us these principles must be furnished to the 

 plants by the soil, and experience proves the necessity of supplying 

 the loss to the soil, and the great advantage of doing so, by the 

 increased health and fruitfulness of the trees. 



The best means for replenishing the soil with these materials 

 is not difficult to point out, but they are not always readily to be 

 obtained on the spot. The ordinary farm-yard manure is deficient 

 in Potash and Phosphates. It is too stimulating, and therefore 

 more likely to cause the production of weak succulent wood than 



