PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 2] 5 



Mr. Carpenter. — I am speaking of trees planted out in tlie natu- 

 ral soil. If they hang full of fruit, and are not well manured, 

 they will be ruined. 



Mr. Fuller. — In almost any orchard, while the hill of pota- 

 toes or of corn, not worth six cents, will be carefully hoed, you 

 will see around every tree a bed of grass. Now if the tree were 

 to be hoed as often as corn, or oftener, it would succeed. Grass 

 keeps a tree as dry as a bone all summer, because the grass 

 absorbs all the moisture in its own growth. I believe it is more 

 the want of cultivation than the want of manure, which is the 

 cause of the failure of dwarf pear tree culture throughout the 

 country. 



Mr. Cavanach. — So far as my experience with dwarf pears goes, 

 I think they have been manured too highly. I find that in many 

 city gardens the trees bear very little fruit, but make a great 

 growth of wood. 



LANDS IN NEW JERSEY. 



Mr. Robinson read a letter calling attention to the cheapness 

 of fertile land in southern New Jersey. 



Prof. Mapes testified to the value of the lands referred to for 

 agricultural purposes. 



CHESS. 



Mr. Carpenter read a letter inquiring whether oats turn to 

 chess, and stating certain facts : In the spring of 1860 an acre 

 of land was cleared, surrounded by timber lands, and three quar- 

 ters of an acre was sown with oats, and the rest planted with 

 corn. The seeds were fully ripe, and shelled somewhat in harvest- 

 ing. In the spring of 1861 the whole acre was sowed with spring 

 wheat. Where the oats grew the chess nearly destroyed the 

 crop; but there was very little, if any, chess where the corn had 

 grown. In the same way a piece of land sown with Poland oats, 

 and the next year with wheat, had but little chess in it; but an 

 adjoining piece of land, under the same treatment, but sown the 

 first year with common oats, and the next year with wheat, pro- 

 duced nearly all chess. 



Prof. Mapes. — The seed oats may have had chess in them. 



Mr. Carpenter. — I do not believe that oats turn to chess. I 

 have a neighbor whose wheat was frozen out, and chess took its 

 place, and he is convinced that his wheat turned to chess. I 

 think it is easy to understand. Chess is a hardy plant, which 



