: “ 
On Fruit and Fruit Trees. 8F 
as good fruit in three or four years, as any new trees 
that would require 10 or 12 years, to raise. 
If an accidental discovery which I think I made last 
_ spring, upon full experiment, prove as efficacious as it ap- | 
peared to me, it will be wortha million of money to the 
union ; it is to prevent the late frosts in the spring from 
killing the apples when the trees are in’ blossom. 
Last spring I sowed plaister of Paris under some of 
my apple trees; when in blossom, there came a severe, 
late frost, that nearly killed all my blossoms, unless on 
the trees where I sowed the plaister, and they. alone 
hung full of apples in the autumn.* 
It is a well known fact, that plaister has an attractivg 
quality, and draws the moisture out of the atmosphere ; 
as on grass or grain, where it is sown, there is a much 
heavier dew, which remains longer in the day than where 
none has been strewed. 
If such is its quality to attract moisture from the at- 
mosphere, why not the particles of frost from the blos- 
soms on the trees ? 
I wish to recommend the experiment to all farmers, 
who wish to preserve their fruit from the danger of date 
Srosts. 
You mention that last season the apples near Phila- 
delphia fell off the trees prematurely ; I had not known 
* This fact has been observed by others; moisture will 
keep off frost, common salt has had this effect, when scattered 
round trees. A straw rope, with one end twisted round the 
fruit tree, and the other immersed in a tub of water, conveys 
’ moisture and repels frosts.—See Anderson’s Recreations, 
vol. 1st,and Domestic Encyclopedia, Am. edit. art. “Frost.” 
’ 
