114 



Lim.e for Potatoes. 



Vol. XI. 



grew. It also remained stationary until last 

 season, when it formed roots of its own, upon 

 which it is now established and doing well. 

 Four Easter Beurres grew. The two largest 

 then apparently thrifty, were removed last 

 spring a year ago to the orchard and died. 

 The two left in the nursery are low — not 

 more than two feet high — scraggy, and have 

 made no new wood the last three years, but 

 have blossomed each of those years. They 

 all remained upon the apple roots. Two 

 Bezi Vaets grew. One remaining in the 

 nursery, has established itself upon its own 

 roots, and is a fine thrifty tree. It, too, did 

 not grow much till the two past seasons, 

 but both the past seasons it has grown as ra- 

 pidly as any tree that has ever fallen under 

 my observation. The other Bezi Vaet was 

 removed last spring a year ago, to a grass 

 plat in front of my house. The top died 

 down within two feet of the ground, and 

 it has made no new growth of wood since 

 transplanted, though it has now two pears 

 upon it which appear to be swelling out 

 finely. It remains upon the apple root. 

 Two of the Williams's Bon Chretien grew, 

 and have done the best of any remaining 

 upon the apple, as they still appear to do. 

 One of them was removed a year ago, to tiie 

 yard, and this year fruited. But one pear 

 remained to ripen upon the tree, which was 

 much smaller than it should be, and defici- 

 ent in flavor. The other tree, still in the 

 nursery, is thrifty, and produced this season 

 a dozen or more pears of fine appearance, 

 which were stolen by the boys about the 

 last of July. Neither of these two trees 

 has ever exhibited any appearance of being 

 dwarfed by the stocks, but on the contrary, 

 promise to make standard trees. 



In 1841 I grafted and set out in the same 

 way, fifty-nine tree.°, of which eight were 

 Green Chissel, fourteen Easter Beurre, and 

 thirty-seven Seckel. The Green Chissel 

 all failed. Five or si.x of the Easter Beurre 

 grew, but have done nothing since the first 

 and second seasons. They are, to all ap- 

 pearance, of no use whatever. About three 

 fourths of the Seckel grew, and of these 

 about one half are thrifty, and give promise 

 of doing well. Some of them have been 

 given away by me, and others transplanted. 



In 1842 I grafted and set out in the same 

 way, one hundred and seventeen, of seven 

 varieties, about one-third of which grew. 

 Some varieties fiiiled entirely. Of those 

 that grew, the Pound, Easter Beurre, and 

 Williams's Bon Chretien appear to do the 

 best, and about one-third of them are doing 

 tolerably well. I have not ascertained that 

 any of these have as yet made roots of their 

 own, but think they have not. Last year 1 



removed one, a Salviati, to the yard. It 

 grew the first season after transplanting. 

 This year it again leaved out, but is now 

 dead. It remained upon the apple root. 



The number grafted and set out in 184.3, 

 was seventy-two, of which thirty-seven were 

 Williams's Bon Chretien, and thirty-five 

 Easter Beurre. About one half of them 

 grew. They appear to have done better, 

 upon the whole, than any former trial, and 

 a number of them are now of fine size for 

 transplanting to the orchard. I cannot say 

 that any of them have made roots of their 

 own. Since 1843, I have not grafted any 

 pears upon the apple. 



You have now before you my experiments 

 and their results, as far as they are yet ap- 

 parent. Each one is left to draw his own 

 conclusions from them. For myself, I do 

 not regard them as complete enough to lay 

 down anything as absolutely determined by 

 them. It will not, however, be going too 

 far to say that their tendency is strongly to 

 show, that root-grafting the pear upon the 

 apple cannot be relied upon by nurserymen 

 for propagating the pear; unless some means 

 be found by which a much greater propor- 

 tion, in any given number, can be made to 

 grow and establish themselves upon their 

 own roots than the foregoing experiments 

 indicate. Whether this is attainable or not, 

 future trials must determine. I would sug- 

 gest, in order thereto, that the scions to be 

 used should be six to seven inches in length, 

 and that when planted in the nursery, the 

 top of the stock should be three to five 

 inches under the surface of the soil. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Lime for Folatoes. 



Mr. Editor, — In your last No., page 02, 

 you recommend lime for potatoes. Having 

 noticed the action of lime on potatoes, I 

 deem it proper to make a few remarks upon 

 the subject. I have noticed that in many 

 instances the disease is worse where lime 

 has been used, than wliere nothing had been 

 applied: and I will account for it in such a 

 manner as to show you why this is so. Lime 

 is much used by the potatoe when it can 

 get it, for the formation of the tops. Where 

 much lime is applied on potatoes they have 

 very large tops. These large tops open so 

 many more mouths to suck in carbonic 

 acid, which, if the tops were small, would 

 not be the case. Tiiis extra quantity of 

 carbonic acid, so absorbed by the large tops, 

 insures the disease, when, perhaps, the small 

 tops, with their smaller means of absorption, 

 would not be able to lake in enough to kill 

 the plant and disease the root. I have seen 



