56 CULTURE AND 



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MARRING. 



It is well known to every farmer, that young 

 fruit trees will flourish luxuriantly, while the ground 

 is cultivated with various vegetable crops, and that 

 the same tillage and manuring, which is required 

 for the latter, will prove highly conducive to the 

 growth and fertility of the former. In fact, it has 

 been ascertained by experience and observation, 

 that apples, pears, peaches, &c. attain to their 

 highest perfection only when the soil about the 

 roots is kept open, and frequently manured. It is 

 by the chemical combination of air, warmth, and 

 moisture, that the growth and vigour of plants and 

 trees are essentially promoted and maintained. 

 The process of nature is greatly assisted by 

 such substances as cause the greatest degree of 

 fermentation, when buried in the earth. Hence, 

 all animal substances, from the great degree of fer- 

 mentation created by their dissolution, will be 

 found productive of the greatest utility. Among 

 these, are dead animal bodies, horns, hoofs, bones, 

 when reduced to fragments or powder, leather, 

 shells, &c. To which may be added hair, wool, 

 and woollen rags. These, applied to the roots, 

 and a top dressing of swamp or pond mud, chip or 

 compost manure, annually, or once in two years, 

 will produce surprising effects, and the farmer will 

 realize ample compensation by the increased quan- 

 tity and improved quality of his crop. As an ex- 

 traordinary instance of resuscitating an old worth- 

 less apple tree, by the application of manure, I 

 quote from the Dom. Encj. a statement, which ap- 

 peared in the Salem Register, of May, 1802, "In 

 my garden is an apple tree, which, about the year 

 1763, sprouted from the root of a former tree: it 

 now girts three feet six inches. From 1784 to 

 1790,1 observed it to be barren, and a cumberer 



