state; pomological society. 49 



our orchard at the station we practice sowing a cover crop of 

 rye, oats, clover, or vetches, and the same value which Mr. 

 Dawes has referred to as resulting from his grass at the foot of 

 the trees, we find there. We have this heavy velvet carpet for 

 the fruit to fall upon, — and we have the added nitrogen which 

 these clovers and vetches will give to the soil. Vetch which is 

 six weeks old has well developed root tubercles, and as you know, 

 these tubercles are the means by wdiich nitrogen is drawn from 

 the air and added to the fertility of the land. 



Another line which is being carried on in this orchard at Man- 

 chester is that of top grafting. Now, as you know, there has 

 been a great deal of discussion in this State with reference to 

 the Ben Davis apple ; and the statement has been made that if 

 we do not like the Ben Davis, when it comes into bearing, we 

 can top graft it to something else. But the cry comes from here 

 and there and elsewdiere that the Ben Davis is not suitable for 

 top working Baldwins or any other rapid growing varieties. 

 The character of the Ben Davis wood is rather willowy, the 

 limbs are slender. And so the question is raised. Is it suitable 

 for top working into Baldwins if we find that it has dropped out 

 of our market here in the East? To answer that question, an 

 orchard of Ben Davis trees fourteen years old was this spring 

 sacrificed for the good of the cause, and a number of different 

 varieties, including Baldwin, Jonathan, Sutton and Spitzenburg, 

 were top grafted upon these Ben Davis stalks. Almost without 

 exception, the cions which were put in have made a very vigor- 

 ous, satisfactory growth for this year. What they will do in 

 the future, time alone can tell. That is one of the lines of work, 

 then, that the Station is doing in this particular direction. 



One of the lines of work which we have considered, was the 

 influence of potash upon the equality of the fruit. We have been 

 using kainite and muriate and sulphate. The original purpose 

 of this was to test the value of potash as a means of warding off 

 the apple scab. We have come to believe at the present time 

 that potash is of no value in that direction. And right here I 

 want to call to your mind something that came to my ears when 

 I was at Manchester. I made that statement, that we had con- 

 cluded that potash was of no value in this work. "Then." said 

 the party with whom I was talking, "then that experiment is a 



