406 



4th. "That the application of two known laws in Nature demonstrate 

 the reality of his discovery and its application to the whole vegetable 

 kingdom; and that by them, his discovery, (if publicly known,) must be 

 perpetuated, and his practice more easily introduced ; and that by these 

 two laws the occasional success of common remedies is explained. " 



5th. "That the said error is the obstacle which has discouraged ex- 

 perimenters, and lamentably retarded improvements in the science and 

 practice of agriculture ; and that he has discovered facts and made him- 

 self acquainted with knowledge sufficient to reduce them to practice." 



We are further informed, " that it is neither climate, nor soil, nor 

 insects, nor worms, that are the cause of many of the disastrous effects 

 that have been attributed to them, but that those effects are produced by 

 error in cultivation which diseases the smallest plant or largest tree.*' 



Our modest and patriotic fellow-citizen admits in the course of hii 

 preamble, " that the practical part or' his discovery is so EXTREMELY 

 SIMPLK and economical, th.tt it co?ls no more to prevent the diseisei 

 than it does to produce them ; and that it is so different from the esta- 

 blished theories and habits of the people, THAT UNLESS A LARGE AMOUNT 

 BE APPROPRIATED, many will be unwilling to try it, and therefore the 

 PUBLIC GOOD seems to require that a large amount should be appropri- 

 ated." He moreover asserts, that " there are two known laws in. 

 Nature, by which the reality of his discovery, and its application to the 

 whole vegetable kingdom, are demonstrable in less than thirty words." 



That this invaluable secret, whatever it may be, is nr>t strictly speaking 

 a new di covery, is demonstrable by numerous living witnesses which 

 have inhabited the fields and forests of the old world for over a thousand 

 years ; and our discoverer freely admits, and in very emphatic language, 

 that there are thousands of trees in our own country on which, what he 

 terms "the common error.' has never been committed; and also, that 

 several of the fifteen gentlemen to whom he communicated his secret, 

 confidently fo f ever, have some such trees on their own domains. 



Hear him* " The Senator from Missouri, (Mr. Linn,) said, that the 

 most flourishing and healthy Peach tree in his possession had never had 

 what I call the common error in cultivation committed upon it." 



" The Senator from Pennsylvania, (Mr. McKean,) said, that he had 

 long supposed that what 1 call the common error, was an error, but that 

 he had no idea of such extensive evils arising from it." 



"The Senator from Maryland. (Mr. Spence,) said, that in his district 

 it was a universal custom to commit what I call the common error in 

 cultivation, on the fruit trees, and that it was as common to have no 

 Plums perfect and free from worms, excepting on a few of his, on 

 which the error had not been committed for twenty years, if ever; and 

 those few (four) continued to bear abundantly annually ; that he had no 

 recollection of ever seeing an imperfect wormy Plum on either of these 

 four trees, but that he had never supposed that to have been the cause 

 of their perfection.*' 



The Senator from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun), to whom I am 

 indebted for pointing out one symptom of the error, and for a valuable 

 suggestion in the culture of plants, said, "while examining the defective 

 trees around the Capitol, that the principle when exhibited, was very 

 plain and simple, that it was philosophical, and in his opinion it could 

 not be neglected without injury to the health and growth of trees and 

 plants, and deserving of public patronage." 



"The Vice President of the U. S. (Mr. Johnson,) said, that my dis- 

 covery was perfectly consistent with the laws of Nature ; and, (when 

 observing a few trees near the Capitol, which had been injured by the 

 error, and were recovering,) further remarked, that my theory wa 

 essentially correct and obvious to the most superficial observer." 



