460 FRUIT. 



Potash and lime are also found to be the predcmi lant elements of 

 the inorganic structure of the grape-vine. 



Hence potash and bone dust will be the principal substances to 

 nourish the structure of the pear-tree ; lime, the principal substance 

 for the apple ; and potash for the grape-vine ; though each of the 

 others are also highly essential. 



Since these salts of lime penetrate to the remotest extremities of 

 the tree ; since, indeed, they are the foundation upon which a 

 healthy structure of all the other parts must rest, it appears to us a 

 rational dedus&m that upon their presence, in sufficient quantity, 

 must depend largely the general healthy condition of the leaves and 

 fruit. Hence, it is not unlikely that certain diseases of fruit, known 

 as the bitter rot in apples, the mildew in grapes, and " cracking " in 

 pears, known and confined to certain districts of the country, 

 may arise from a deficiency of these inorganic elements in the soil 

 of those districts, (not overlooking sulphate of iron, so marked in 

 its effect on the health of foliage.) Careful experiment will deter- 

 mine this ; and if such should prove to be the case, one of the 

 greatest obstacles to universal orchard culture will be easily re- 

 moved.* 



What we have here endeavored to convey of the importance 

 of certain specific manures for fruit-trees, is by no means all theory. 

 We could already give numerous practical illustrations to fortify it. 

 Two will perhaps suffice for the present. 



The greatest orchard in America, most undeniably, is that at 

 Pelham farm, on the Hudson. How many barrels of apples are raised 



* It will be remembered that, in our work on Fruits, we opposed the 

 theory that all the old pears, liable to crack along the sea-coast, and in some 

 other sections of the country, were " worn out." We attributed their ap- 

 parent decline to unfavorable soil, injudicious culture and ungenial climate. 

 A good deal of observation since those views were published, has convinced 

 us that " cracking " in the pear is to be attributed more to an exhaustion, or 

 a want of certain necessary elements in the soil, than to any other cause. 

 Age has little or nothing to do with it, since Van Mon's Leon Le Clerc, one 

 of the newest and most vigorous of pears, has cracked in some soils for the 

 past two years around Boston, though perfectly fair in other soils there, and 

 in the interior. 



