436 Transactions of the American Institute. 



similar to and as hoatliful fis New York. Land can be had twenty 

 or thirt}' miles back imder the liomestead, and mainly of good 

 quality, for live dollars, wliile improved farms can be had for ten to 

 twenty-five dollars an acre. "We will have a railroad in about two 

 years. "We are just completing a $15,000 school house. Good openings 

 for all classes of laborers, mechanics, professional men, and tradesmen. 



Deep-Planted Apple Trees. 



Mr. X)aniel Cornell, Buckingham, Iowa. — In 18G1 I planted 

 twelve apple trees in my garden, twenty inches from the surface. 

 They are four years old, and although they havegi'own well they have 

 never blossomed, and there is no prospect that they ever will. My 

 neighbor planted many of the same kind, and his have borne for 

 three years. Did I plant too deep, and what can I do ? 



Mr. N. C. Meeker. — We should say too deep. Banking up trees 

 has a tendency to make them throw out surfoce roots, but whether 

 this would Ije a remedy we do not know. Surface roots are indis- 

 pensable for the production of fruit, and in the course of time they 

 will grow, or the tree will die. Meanwhile, cultivation must ]iot be 

 so high as continually to produce soft wood. If wood does not have 

 a chance to harden late in the summer, fruit buds will not set. There 

 was an apple tree back of our own door which received a good deal 

 of wash, and there was considerable filling of what was fii'st quality 

 manure from the kitchen. Said tree would not bear, but it grew 

 amazingly ; finally it was slit through the bark of the trunk and 

 limbs, and the bark split open ; after that, there never was a tree in 

 this world which did better. On that Dongala farm we had a tree 

 in the garden planted near where the previous settlers had manured 

 the ground, and there was a great growth, but no fruit until the bark 

 was slit, when it began to bear, doing better each year. However, 

 the apples not much, although the tree came from Rochester. The 

 truth is, high living is unfavorable for man or beast. 



Nutkevient of Grasses. 



Mr. J. M. Breed, Big Flats, Chemung county, N. Y. — Are the 

 nutritive .qualities of grass materially aliected by different degrees of 

 fertility of the soil that produces the grass ? Or, to give the question 

 a little different form, suppose two fields, the soil of each by nature 

 as similar as may be, but one of them by manuring and culture 



