342 TliANSACTIOXS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



now, at more than fifty years of age, it is liealthy and vigorous, and 

 is apparently good for another fifty years. Where orchards are 

 phmted on potash or soft water soils, the trees, after a few years, are 

 sure to die, from no defect of lime, but lack of nourishment. They 

 must have lime in some shape ; and unless in the soil, it must be 

 given by top-dressing around the tree. Much the best method of 

 feeding trees where lime does not exist in the soil, is to place crushed 

 bones or coarse bone dust at its roots. If there is not a supply on the 

 farm, or it cost too much to get them, the next best thing is to get 

 the Navapa guano, which contains about sixty per cent of bone phos- 

 phate. This mineral will be found of great benefit on all kinds of 

 fruit trees or vines, where the soil is not a hard water, or lime soil. 

 Too much attention cannot be given by the fruit-grower to the nature 

 of the spring water where it is proposed to plant trees or vines ; for no 

 one thing is more certain than that fruit or vine-growing has never 

 been permanently prosperous except in a limestone soil. Lime is the 

 key-stone of the arch in fruit and grape cultivation. It is of no use 

 to plant trees or vines where that mineral does not exist in governing 

 quantities in the soil ; disappointment will follow, in the end, attempts 

 made in any other kind of soil. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — The remarks of Dr. Smith and Mr. Peters 

 must be understood as applying to inland farms, remote from great 

 cities. There are a great many unproductive orchards near Xew 

 York and Philadelphia ; but will it pay to cut them down and plant 

 fresh apple trees in their place ? I think not. The area is too valu- 

 able to occupy it with a precarious crop. Two years in five an acre 

 may give $500 worth of apples. Put, in the hands of a skillful far- 

 mer, it can be made to grow $500 worth of cabbage five years in five. 

 Fruit growing is a business, and has its secrets and its mysteries. 

 Let those who understand it follow the business of the orchard ist ; 

 but not the regular farmer, who will neglect his orchards for his 

 fields at critical periods. 



On motion, a vote of thanks was presented to Dr. J. Y. C. Smith, 

 for his valuable paper. 



How TO jrAKE Fariming Instkuctive. 



"W. C. Crosby, Pangor, Maine. — Now, what can be done to render 



the Ijusiness more agreeable, or in other words, to give the farmer 



more active and profitable thoughts — active that it may be agreeable, 



and profitable, that speculation may not lure him from the plow 2 



