456 FRUIT. 



orchards, and rendering them uniformly productive. To say that 

 in almost every neighborhood, orchards will be found which bear 

 large crops of fine fruit, while others, not half a mile off, produce 

 only small crops ; that in one part of the country a given kind of 

 fruit is always large and fair, and in another it is always spotted and 

 defective ; that barn-yard manure seems to produce but little effect 

 in remedying these evils ; that orchards often nearly cease bearing 

 while yet the trees are in full maturity, and by no means in a worn- 

 out or dying condition : to say all this, is only to repeat what every 

 experienced cultivator of orchards is familiar with, but for which few 

 or no practical cultivators have the explanation ready. 



We have seen a heavy application of common manure made to 

 apple-trees, which were in this inexplicable condition of bearing no 

 sound fruit, without producing any good effects. The trees grew 

 more luxuriantly, but the fruit was still knotty and inferior. In this 

 state of things, the baffled practical man very properly attributes it 

 to some inherent defect in the soil, and looks to the chemist for aid. 



We are glad to be able to say, this aid is forthcoming. Many 

 valuable analyses of the ashes of trees and plants, have been made 

 lately at Giessen, and may be found in the appendix to the last edi- 

 tion of Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry* And still more recently, 

 Dr. Emmons, of Albany, well known by his labors in the cause of 

 scientific agriculture, f has devoted considerable time and attention 

 to ascertaining the elements which enter into the composition of the 

 inorganic parts of trees. 



The result of this investigation we consider of the highest im- 

 portance to the fruit cultivator and the orchardist. In fact, though 

 still imperfect, it clears up many difficult points, and gives us some 

 basis for a more philosophical system of manuring orchards than has 

 yet prevailed. 



The importance of the gaseous and more soluble manures am- 

 monia, nitrogen, etc., to the whole vegetable kingdom, has long been 

 pretty thoroughly appreciated. The old-fashioned, practical man, 

 dating from Noah's time, who stands by his well-rotted barn-yard 



* Published by Wiley <fe Putnam, New-York. 



f See hia quarto vol. on the Agriculture of New-York, lately published, 

 *nd forming part of the State survey. 



