(D. ) 

 COMMUNICATIONS FROM CONTRIBUTORS. 



Fruit Farm or R. L. Pell, ? 

 Pelham, Ulster Co., JV. F. ) 



To the Committee on Fruit Farms: 



Gentlemen — Being desirous to compete for the premium to be 

 awarded by the American Institute, at its 16th Annual Fair, for the 

 best fruit farm in the State, I now abide by its rules, and offer, at the 

 request of Mr. T. B. Wakeman, iis worthy and very useful secretary, 

 my mode of cultivating the different fruits named in the annexed 

 catalogue. 



1st. On the Apppe Tree. For some years I have been experi- 

 menting upon the apple tree. Having an orchard of 20,000 bearing 

 Newtown pippin apple trees, I have found it very unprofitable to 

 wait for what is termed the bearing year, and consequently it has been 

 my study to assist nature, so as to enable the trees to bear every year. 

 I have noticed that it bears more profusely than any other tree, and 

 consequently requires the intermediate year to recover itself, by ex- 

 tracting from the atmosphere and earth the requisites to enable it to 

 produce. One year is too short a time for so elaborate a process, and 

 if unassisted by art, the intervening year must necessarily be lost. 

 If, however, it is supplied with the proper substances, it will bear 

 every year; at least such has been the result of the following expe- 

 riment: Three years ago in April, I scraped all the rough bark off 

 from several thousand trees in my orchard, and washed the trunks 

 ami limbs within reach with soft-soap, trimmed out all the branches 

 that crossed each other, early in June, and painted the wounded part 

 with white lead, to keep out moisture, then split open the bark by 

 running a sharp-pointed knife from the ground to the first set of 

 limbs, in the latter part of the same month, which prevents the tree 

 from becoming bark-bound, and gives the inner wood an opportunity of 

 expanding. In July, I placed one peck of oyster shell lime around 

 each tree, and left it piled about the trunk until Nov., during which 

 three months the drought was excessive. In Nov. the lime was dug 

 in thoroughly. The following year( 1842,) I collected fromthose trees, 

 1,700 barrels of fruit, some of which was sold in New-York for $4 per 

 barrel, and others in London for $9. The cider made from the refuse, 

 delivered at the mill two days after its manufacture, I sold for $3.75 

 per barrel of thirty-two gallons, not including the barrel. In making 

 cider, I never wet the straw. After gatheiing the fruit in October, 



