494 j Assembly 



harm. Wheat, rye, barley or oats must not be sottii; buckwheat 

 ma^ be, and so may all sorts of root crops, with advantage ; 

 plowing among apple trees with oxen will serve them. Atten- 

 tion is necessary to keep the land always free from weeds. When 

 the trees require trimming perform the operation early in June 

 if possible, because the sap is in motion upwards to develop the 

 leaves and fruit-buds at that season, and the consequence is, a 

 covering immediately extends itself over the wounded portion, 

 preventing decay of the wood, which scarcely has an opportunity 

 afforded it of becoming dry. When the bud is first excited to 

 grow in the spring, the fluids contained in it are increased in den- 

 sity by evaporation ; endosmose at once takes place between it 

 and the lower tissue, which parts with the thin portion of its 

 contents and immediately acts by endosmose on the tissue adjoin- 

 ing, and in this way the entire fluid matter in the tree is put in 

 motion from the extreme end of the branches to the minute points 

 of the rootlets and spongioles. When they are alfected the fluid 

 substances in the soil are attracted through their pores, thus 

 forming motion throughout their system. Therefore, it will be 

 perceived that the leaves and buds of trees in the spring is not 

 the effect of the ascent of the sap, but the cause of it. An apple 

 tree eighteen years old probably perspires several hundred pounds 

 of moisture each day, which must be restored from the earth by 

 means of the roots. To prove this take, for example, the leaf 

 of a grape vine in a hot day and place a glass next to its under 

 surface; within an hour water will run down the glass in streams. 

 A cabbage perspires over one pound of water in a day. This 

 fully explains the phenomenon why transplanting trees in summer 

 causes their death ; the spongioles become dry and utterly inca- 

 pable of absorbing moisture from the earth as rapidly as it is 

 given off by the foliage, therefore the tree is in a short time emp- 

 tied of its fluid and death is the natural consequence. 



I will mention two recipes, that may be useful to the Club, 

 before we leave this subject of the apple tree. 



The first is an invaluable composition tjiat we have compound- 

 ed for curing wounds in fruit, or forest trees, caused by the plow. 



