HOW ABOUT TAP-ROOTS ? 125 



these sudden changes of temperature, which it did not have to 

 endure when it succeeded here. It succeeded here once, just 

 as well as our forest trees, but then it was sheltered everywhere ; 

 and now, if we see any peaches, we find them in sheltered lo- 

 cations and in gardens. Why do we see them there ? Because 

 they are protected from the high winds and excessive cold to 

 which I have referred. I want every man to plant some peach- 

 trees every year, but I believe the time has gone by forever for 

 their general cultivation. I believe that the disease to which 

 Capt. Moore has alluded is caused by the inclemency of the 

 weatlier, the changes of temperature, &c., to which I have re- 

 ferred, and it may well be perpetuated if those trees are used 

 for grafting and budding. But still I intend to plant .peach- 

 trees, although I believe they never can be cultivated again, and 

 never will succeed again in New England, except in very shel- 

 tered places. 



In confirmation of that theory, that fruits need protection, I 

 will mention that we get, in our Boston gardens, as handsome 

 white Doyennes, — the old Yirgaliens, — as we ever got in the 

 world. That pear used to succeed like our apples, and was 

 piled up in our orchards and barrelled there. It is just the 

 same at the West. I once saw in the grounds of Barry & Ell- 

 wanger, at Rochester, on five-eighths of an acre, forty barrels of 

 the old Virgaliens, or St. Michaels, as handsome fruit as any- 

 one could wish to see. They cannot grow them at all now. 

 But a few years ago the Flemish Beauty was a great pear. We 

 cannot grow it now, and have abandoned it. This decadence 

 has extended as far as Rochester. But there came to the 

 National Pomological Society, from Kansas, such specimens as I 

 had never seen before. The secret is to be found in the fact, 

 that they were grown on new soil, and the trees protected by 

 forests. 



Mr. FooTE. I would like to know Col. Wilder's experience 

 in regard to deep cultivation for the pear. 



Col. Wilder. I approve of deep and thorough cultivation 

 and thorough draining, but no spading or ploughing among the 

 trees after they get into bearing condition. 



Mr, FooTE, I have a single fact in my mind in regard to 

 tap-roots, which I would like to state. Some years ago I came 

 across a clover root which I traced to the depth of over five 



