502 [Assembly 



Mr. Pell on most of the important points contained in his essay 

 on the apple, and the best manner of cnltivating it for profit. 

 He certainly has had great experience and success. This shows 

 that his system of treating them, is in the main, correct. They 

 are a hardy tree, will grow to a considerable size, stand almost 

 any degree of cold. They require a rich soil, and manure of 

 various kinds, to produce abundantly. I think that probably he 

 may make those trees, or some of them, which produce fruit in 

 any quantity only every other year, yield it every year, by treat- 

 ment with, certain kinds of manures, mineral and organic, of 

 which bearing trees exhaust it. It is well known that this is 

 the habit of most fruit trees, to produce in quantities, only every 

 other year. Nut trees, hickory, chestnut, &c.. will produce only 

 every other year. These grow, too, in forests, wild, in a state of 

 nature, where the earth is rich, and every kind of manure de- 

 rived from leaves, old wood, grass, &c. This shows that it is 

 natural to the fruit plant to do this, especially when the habit 

 so universally prevails among them all. It seems to be required 

 by nature for rest ; after the eifort of giving one great crop, it 

 requires repose for a year. Tliere is among most orchards, and 

 indeed, all kinds of fruit, whether it grows in the forest or field, 

 a few trees that bear every year. I have observed myself, and 

 have been told by others who have observed the same thing, that 

 those trees which bear a full crop every year are subject to an 

 earlier decline. They decay and finally die before those that 

 bore only every other year. This is natural ; the year of repose 

 and rest, by some freak or sport of nature, they have been de- 

 prived of, and they sink sooner under the effort. Reasoning 

 from analogy, it is a question with me whether the fruit trees 

 that are forced from their natural course of producing every 

 other year, by an unusual quantity of special, artificial, or mine- 

 ral and organic manures applied to them, would not be exhaust- 

 ed, decline, and die considerably sooner from the same cause. 

 It has been said in answer to this, that making the orchard pro- 

 duce every year, would give so much more fruit as to pay for the 

 loss of the trees earlier in life. This is rather speculative. Many 

 things are to be considered in estimating this damage, accompa- 

 nied with contingencies. The cost of the extra manure, the la- 



