On Fruit and Fruit Trees. 87 



as good fruit in three or four years, as any new trees 

 that would require 10 or 12 years, to raise. 



If an accidental discovery which I think I made last 

 spring, upon full experiment, prove as efficacious as it ap- 

 peared to me, it will be worth a million of money to the 

 union ; it is to prevent the late frosts in the spring from 

 killing the apples when the trees are in blossom. 



Last spring I sow^d plaister of Paris under some of 

 my apple trees; when in blossom, there came a severe, 

 late frost, that nearly killed all my blossoms, unless on 

 the trees where I sowed the plaister, and they alone 

 hung full of apples in the autumn.* 



It is a well known fact, that plaister has an attractive 

 quality, and draws the moisture out of the atmosphere; 

 as on grass or grain, where it is sown, there is a much 

 heavier dew, which remains longer in the day than where 

 none has been strewed. 



If such is its quality to attract moisture from the at- 

 mosphere, why not the particles of frost from the blos- 

 soms on the trees ? 



I wish to recommend the experiment to all farmers, 

 who wish to preserve their fruit from the danger of late 

 frosts. 



You mention that last season the apples near Phila- 

 delphia fell off the trees prematurely ; I had not known 



* This fact has been observed by others ; moisture will 

 keep off frost, common salt has had this effect, when scattered 

 round trees. A straw rope, with one end twisted round the 

 fruit tree, and the other immersed in a tub of water, conveys 

 moisture and repels frosts. — See Anderson's Recreations, 

 vol. 1st, and Domestic Encyclopaedia, Am, edit. art. "Frost." 



