M. P. WILDER'S REMARKS. 253 



In the spring of 1847, he planted a square in his nursery, 

 with imported trees from England, this compost having been 

 spread and ploughed in. These trees were from four to five 

 feet in height, and, although it is not usual for trees to make a 

 large growth the first year, they acquired branches of three to 

 four feet, and were so handsome as to command one dollar 

 twenty-five cents each, for a row of fifty trees, without any 

 selection. 



In June last, which is very late to set out trees, he prepared 

 another square, on rather poor land, and planted trees, just re- 

 ceived from England, upon it. The soil had been thrown up to 

 the frost the previous winter, and the compost here was applied 

 in the trenches, near the roots. Mr. Wilder exhibited two shoots, 

 which had grown from those trees, since they were set out in 

 June. The shoots were four feet in length, and the wood hard, 

 and well ripened. 



It is stated, that, on old beds, where charcoal had been burn- 

 ed ten years before, the corn and wheat, to this day, are uni- 

 formly better than on the adjoining lands, being more vigorous, 

 of a darker green color, and producing larger crops. A farmer 

 remarks: — "I sowed fine charcoal over my land, in strips. 

 These strips have increased one-half in product, and without 

 any apparent diminution, for five years." 



Mr. Wilder mentioned several instances, showing the benefi- 

 cial effects arising from the use of fine charcoal, one of which, 

 in the State of New York, was an extraordinary product of 

 wheat. 



Says an English gardener: — " My composts consist of noth- 

 ing but loam and charcoal, without a particle of manure, of any 

 sort; and I never saw the plant that did not delight in it, and 

 every plant under my care, has some charcoal used about it." 



As a deodorant, or disinfector, Mr. Wilder related the follow- 

 ing experiment, which appeared in a late English paper : — 



" Two fluids, and charcoal from peat, were prepared espe- 

 cially, by diflerent chemists, for the purpose of depriving night- 

 soil, stable, and pig-stye manures, of their offensive smell. The 

 fluids both proved ineffectual, but the charcoal not only instantly 

 neutralized, and destroyed the offensive odors, in each of these 

 substances, but also deodorized the fluids themselves." 



