AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



293 



Rev. Mr. White — I think it proper to state the result of an 

 accidental matter on fruit trees. I had on my place some old 

 apple trees — useless and beset at their roots with suckers. I 

 casually threw oyster and clam shells about their roots, not dream- 

 ing hardly of any result, but the old trees soon revived and went 

 into profitable bearing again. 



Professor Mapes — We are now in a very interesting field of 

 inquiry. On my farm, ten years ago, I found old neglected apple 

 trees which had not borne fruit of any worth for the fifteen pre- 

 ceding years. I gave some potash, lime, silicate of potash, wood 

 earth and other fertilizers, cleaned their bodies and pruned. I 

 have so far restored their health that they give two thousand 

 bushels of cider apples. I have cultivated among the trees. I 

 revived an old Virgajieu pear tree which had like thousands of 

 others got to bearing boys wooden tops, instead of the old rich 

 butter pear of fifty years ago, so that the pears are good once 

 more. I applied to it soda and potash freely after cleaning its 

 bark well. The tree is now good and its fruit too. Our late 

 friend and member. Commodore DeKay, succeeded as well on a 

 Virgalieu tree several years ago. I use soluble silicates, etc., at a" 

 cost of some two cents each tree of my pears, and they bear fully 

 every year. I set them eight feet apart, in rows twenty feet apart, 

 and cultivate the small low crops between. I make holes three 

 feet wide and four feet deep, these I fill with the best surface 

 soil- I plough among the trees eighteen inches deep and some- 

 times more. 



Rev. Mr. White — My experience convinces me of the high 

 value of deep plowing among trees, as well as for smaller plants. 



Prof. Mapes — My friend Mr. Birkmann, who is among our first 

 Pomologists, has proved the value of fertilizers, etc., for pear trees 

 by treating alternate trees and watching- the several results. 



On motion the question of " Orchards, and how to preserve 

 them " was ordered for the next meeting. 



Prof. Mapes moved that Pratt's new ditching machine should 

 be also considered. 



Paul Stillman's improved bayonet hoes were before the Club, 

 and their utility acknowledged. The late Jesse Buel gave his 

 [Am. Inst.] 30 



