STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 



A Gentleman. IIow about sheep injuring the trees by rubbing 

 against them ? 



Mr. Perley. Sheep will eat a great variety of forage, more 

 perhaps than any other animal we have. They seem to be hardly 

 domesticated yet. And if you put them in a young orchard where 

 they have nothing but grass, if they find the bark of a tree a little 

 mellow they will gnaw it. But in an old orchard I do not think 

 there is any trouble. I have never had any. I do not think the 

 rubbing against the trees is to be considered at all. I have never 

 seen any ill effect from it. 



Geo. E. Brackett, of Belfast. I believe no gentleman, of those 

 who have spoken to-night, has referred to mulch, or vegetable 

 material, as a manure for apple trees. I have a neighbor who is 

 rather peculiar, and among his peculiarities he believes that ani- 

 mal manures are not suitable for his orchard. He is a very large 

 orchardist, and raises a large quantity of apples every year. He 

 has been engaged in the business from his boyhood, and he is 

 now about 50 years of age. He depends solely and entirely upon 

 vegetable substances, used in the form of a mulch, or top dressing, 

 for his apple trees. He has grown most of his trees from the 

 seed, and has obtained, not an extraordinarily large growth, but 

 a sound, healthy orchard. He maintains that trees fed with con- 

 centrated fertilizers and animal manures are forced to an unnatu- 

 ral growth, and that the seasons which we have affect them. 

 That is his opinion, and the result of his practice has been very 

 good. He depends entirely upon vegetable matter which he 

 obtains from the woods, — decayed leaves, ferns and brakes, which 

 he uses around his trees, and the result has justified his practice. 



Mr. Atherton. I quite agree that the application of animal 

 manure is necessary to some extent, but I think the trouble has 

 been that the most of the farmers have depended entirely, or prin- 

 cipally, upon it, and have not applied ashes and lime in sufficient 

 quantities. 



Judge Gilbert. I should like to say one word upon this sub- 

 ject of mechanical culture and vegetable manures, and in connec- 

 tion with it to allude to the operation of leached ashes. I do not 

 know certainly that scientific men have yet found out the secret 

 of the value of leached ashes. I have pondered considerably upon 

 what a soap-boiler in Bath, whom I suppose to be a man of truth, 

 once said to me. He bought a soap establishment which had 

 been closed for four or five years, and with it a quantity of ashea 

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