42 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr, Cruickshanks said that twice within ten 3'ears his sink drains 

 had been so filled up with grease that he had been obliged to open 

 and clean them. 



Leander Wetherell remarked, in reference to the allnsion that had 

 been made to grease or oily matter as a fertilizer, that Prof. Stock- 

 bridge quoted William Cuthbert Johnson on this subject at the 

 Winter Meeting of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture, as 

 follows: "He highly recommended for growing turnips, train-oil, 

 and whale-blubber as manures. He mixed each with loam and then 

 mixed ground bones with loam and each of the former two produced 

 double the crop of turnips that the latter (the ground bone) did." 

 Prof. Johnson of New Haven said, referring to the above quotation 

 from Mr. Johnson of London, that it was the animal matter and 

 not the oil that acted as a manure on the turnip crop. Reference 

 having been made to the flesh of dead horses as a manure, Mr. 

 Wetherell remarked that it did not act as manure or serve as food 

 for plants until after putrefaction had taken place. He added that 

 the same is true of blood. He referred to irrigation as introduced 

 by Mr. Copeland, in Bridgewater, on quite an extended scale, he 

 (Mr. Copeland) using iron pipes for conveying water where wanted 

 for distribution on his garden grounds. He spoke of the beneficial 

 effects of irrigation of grass land without manure. Light, heat, 

 air, and water are the great factors of vegetable growth. Neither 

 grease nor oil is a manure or fertilizer. 



W. C. Strong said that the crops in New England cover the 

 entire year and are as diversified as in any portion of the globe. 

 He had two ice ponds, one of which was lower than the other, and 

 this suggested to him the idea of winter irrigation. By letting the 

 water from the higher to the lower, when the latter was frozen over 

 he planned to thicken his crop in coldest nights. But he found 

 that the water did not flow over the whole surface, but sank the ice 

 in spots, unless carefully- directed. The same mistake was made 

 in irrigation so that the ground became sodden in one place, while 

 the rest received no benefit. He thought tha.t a considerable part 

 of the benefit of irrigation arose from showering the foliage, espe- 

 cially at night, as in a greenhouse. The coolness is a positive 

 benefit, and warm water would be injurious to carnations and many 

 other crops. Distributing evenly is ver}' important. 



Mr. Philbrick said that he applied water in the sunshine some- 

 times, but that in general he did not Uke to. He preferred the 



