524 Traxsactioxs of the American Institute. 



years thereafter ir> j vote had increased to a majority, and in September, 

 1S6G, tlie pListic slate roofers were at work. They covered an area 

 of 2,467 feet, for which the gas company were charged eight cents a 

 foot. You will readily infer, therefore, the licensees did not work for 

 a puff. It was feared for more than a year after the work was done 

 it would turn out just as the former two had done, entirely useless ; 

 that it would not harden ; that the heat of the gas house and the 

 natural heat of the sun would dissolve the material and cause it to 

 wash from the roof. Time has dissipated all our fears. It is now 

 twenty-seven months since the plastic slate roof was put on ; not a 

 drop of water comes through ; and just before snow came this winter, 

 in company with the superintendent, I went on, and examined it 

 thoroughly. It is as hard as flint, and just about as likely to burn as 

 that material. I also regard it with great, very great favor, 

 because it is as perfectly fire-proof as a roof can be made. At 

 No. 229 "William street, in your city, is a rear building. For more 

 than a quarter of a century it has been used as a tenement building ; 

 it has a flat roof, which offers the only means for drying clothes. 

 During this period it has been an object of no little annoyance. Its 

 expense can be computed by hundreds of dollars, and it possesses no 

 permanent advantage. Two years ago I employed a plastic slate- 

 roofer to go and see what he could do ; he put on it a roof, and 

 charged me $100 for it ; since then there has been no complaint, no 

 tinkering, and no money expended. 



The Way to Set Out Apple Trees. 

 Mr. Daniel Harrington, Tionesta, Forest county, Pa. — After read- 

 ing the proceedings of the Fanners' Club, I thought I would make a 

 remark regarding the decay and barrenness of apple trees. In the 

 spring of 1840 I set out an orchard of apple trees in the common 

 way, by digging a small hole just large enough to hold the roots of 

 the young tree, then putting in the tree and filling up the hole 

 around it. The orchard was set out on creek bottom, sandy loam, 

 and cultivated sometimes in corn and pats, with intervals of seeding 

 down to clover and timothy. About half are now dead ; of the 

 balance, some bear every year and some every other year. I am 

 satisfied that the reason of trees decaying, and not bearing, is 

 found in the fault of the first setting out ; for instance, when 

 young trees are removed from the nursery they are taken out 

 of a soil highly cultivated and manured j they are then set out 



