238 [Assembly 



This seems a fair subject for our investigation, and 1 would espe- 

 cially invite your co-operation, that with the aid of the practical 

 knowledge here assembled, we may be enabled to decide what is and 

 what is not the true cause of this and some other maladies of fruit 

 trees. It is generally conceded that climate, soil and culture each 

 exert an influence on the vigor and growth of the tree, and quality of 

 the fruit. That some latitudes are more favorable than others ; some 

 soils are likewise more favorable to certain fruits than others in the 

 same latitude. 



The latitude tolerably well adapted to the apple and pear is quite 

 extended, and so is the diversity of soil, and yet a particular descrip- 

 tion of each, which might be most propitious to their perfection, would 

 be far more limited. 



A mixed soil, having neither too much clay nor too much sand, and 

 not too destitute of, nor having too much humidity, is the soil most 

 desirable for the apple and pear. 



Parasitic plants are some of the agents injurious to fruit trees and 

 fruits, despoiling them of their beauty and excellence, and rendering 

 the fruit worthless. These parasitic growths, too, have their appro- 

 priate latitudes and localities, and thrive best in regions most suited to 

 them, and attach themselves to such trees or fruits as are most favor- 

 able to their growth. 



The mistletoe, which grows on the oak, elm, gum tree, &c., and the 

 several species of carcuta, Avhich grow on various plants, are examples 

 of larger kinds of vegetable parasites. 



The mosses and lichen, which grow on fruit and forest trees, form 

 another class, and some of them are very injurious to the health and 

 rigor of fruit trees. 



We would mention the fungi too, which forms another class. Some 

 of this tribe infest the cerealia, which in Indian corn and in wheat arc 

 called smut, though each are of different species ; and another kind 

 called spurred rye in that grain. 



There is another of this tribe injurious to the apple tree, which was 

 alluded to by a distinguished cultivator here present, from Burlington, 

 yesterday, as having destroyed his bell flower apple trees. I have 

 noticed what is probably the same fungus, in one instance in Connec- 

 tioutj on the early white Juneating apple. 



