ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. i75 



What are the Chief Factors in Producing Fruitfulness 

 in Apple Orchards? 



By 3Tr. J. H. Merriman of Soidhington . 



There are three things I shall note as essential to the fruitful- 

 ness of our apple orchards. Cultivation, to promote actively 

 the forces of nature ; pruning, to let in the sunlight to give 

 color and richness; and fertilizers, or food to supply nature's 

 wasted energies. 



These principles apply first, to the man, and then to the 

 orchard. The man and the orchard are the two factors we are 

 to consider. 



By cultivating the man, the mind, is the field ; cut away the 

 useless rubbish of past ages : do not use the useless plow- 

 share of ignorance and ease to break up the field, but let the 

 plowshare of thought of study and perseverance turn up to 

 sunlight God's eternal laws of truth, that have so long slumbered 

 in the bosom of ignorance. This is an age of progress and he 

 who will not awaken from his lethargy, and become a worker 

 in the great hive of nature, is only a useless drone in society. 

 Knowledge is power : the mightest offensive and defensive 

 weapon known among mankind. Knowledge comes only to the 

 diligent student. The great laboratory of nature is open before 

 him. Science has come to our assistance and the key of knowl- 

 edge has unlocked and revealed to the world many a hidden 

 secret, whereby the whole human race has become enlightened. 

 The chemistry of soils, plants, trees, and fruits, also fertilizers 

 (the necessities of one for the other), has given us a few 

 principles to appropriate for our advancement and the success 

 of our calling. 



Botanists have revealed to us their researches in the field of 

 trees, plants and flowers, how they suck the potash and phos- 

 phoric acid from the soil, breathe in the nitrogen from the air; 

 the chemical changes, as they combine to produce carbon ; the 

 wood growth : how the flowers are pollenized and made fertile, 

 to produce the fruit. 



The mind must be the pruning knife of foresight, to cut 

 away the dead limbs of prejudice, arising from long continued 

 practice of our forefathers ; the low and scragly branches of 



