486 Transactions of ths American Institute. 



cost of hauling, that depends, too, on the wetness of the muck. It 

 should be dug, and allowed to become as dry as may be during one 

 summer, and hauled in a dry condition. 



Mr. Wm. Lawton. — The superiority of muck over clover consists 

 in the fact that it can be applied in winter, when other farm work 

 is impossible; but clover takes time in that part of the year when 

 the farmer's time is worth the most. My team is engaged in haul- 

 ing muck every winter. I mix it with other manures, and find it 

 an excellent fertilizer, especially in growing trees and small fruit. 



Prof. Nash. — As to the relative value of muck and clover as fer- 

 tilizers, I would say that when muck can be laid on a surface at a 

 cost not much exceeding twenty-five cents a load, it is more econo. 

 mical than clover. But I suggest the use of both; the clover 

 brings some elements that muck does not, and on the contrary 

 muck is rich in some acids that are not in clover. Hence, I would 

 recommend that he combine the systems. Thus he will be sure to 

 keep in liis soil that which our agriculture is so rapidly exhausting, 

 the vegetable mould. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — The result from clover can be obtained 

 in a short time, and a man will not have to wait so long as one 

 would suppose for clover to make the ground rich. 



ROOT-GRAFTED APPLE TREES, 



J. D. Conklin, Locke, Cayuga Co., N, Y. — With that subject of 

 root-grafting I am familar, and I practiced it till I saw I was war- 

 ing against natural laws that sooner or later must be aveno:ed, in a 

 feeble, sickly constitution or a want of fruitfulness, so the prospect 

 would be much greater to root-gi*aft than to work on whole seed- 

 ling stocks, because the former would produce from two to five 

 trees from a seedling at three years old, and the work done in the 

 winter, whereas, only one* perfect tree can be produced from one 

 seed. Let us look at an apple seed when placed in the ground — 

 at that time a dormant speck, with no signs of life, but under the 

 influence of the sun and rain it soon gives evidence that in that 

 seed is stored the germ of life, and the first action of that seed is 

 a root that descetids into the ground, and under favorable circum- 

 stances, as in sand or moss, quite a gi'owth is attained before the leaf is 

 in sight. Now, would the advocate of root-grafting think of taking 

 the lower end of this root at this age, and make a tree of it? No, 

 and why not? Because they say it lacks vitality as well as size, 

 and yet the lower end of the root for half its length, and also the 



