proceedings of the farmers' club. 219 



Root Grafting. 



Br. Benjamin F. Long, Alton, Illinois, says: "I am a practical fruit- 

 grower, laboring with my own hands and overseeing all of the operations 

 pertaining to the orchard. With reg;ird to grafted trees for my use, I 

 prefer the root grafted, and if necessary would pay a premium to obtain 

 them. I i^lanted one year one thousand of them, different varieties ; also 

 133 top grafted trees ; of the former all lived, of the latter three did not 

 start. If by accident a suiall tree is braken off near to the ground, you 

 will obtain a sprout from the stump and that will be of the improved fruit, 

 and will make a tree quicker than a new youngster put in ita place." 



Agriculture of Peru. 



Mr, E. G. Squicr. — I shall to-day make a few remarks upon tlie agricul- 

 ture of Peru. I .shall endeavor to demonstrate to American farmers the 

 great advantage they would derive from irrigation, not only in time of 

 drouth, but in the benefit of the water as a fertilizer.. On the coast range 

 of Peru rain never falls, and there no crops can be grown without irriga- 

 tion, but I found that planters in the interior, where it does rain, valued 

 irrigation almost as highly as others did where it was indispensable, be- 

 cause it rendered them perfectly independent of the clouds, I surveyed 

 one of the ancient irrigating canals, that was over 200 miles long, which 

 brought the water from the mountains, following the level around the 

 points of the spurs, and then far up one side of valleys and down the other, 

 giving out water at various points. This canal is supported along the 

 mountain side by the most substantial masonry, and all the conduits for 

 discharging water are solid stone pipes or troughs. Wherever he traveled 

 he was hardly ever out of sight of these ancient works for irrigation, some 

 of which are in decay, while others are still in use, though to a far less ex- 

 tent than fttrmerly, owing to the wretched condition of the country, which 

 barely produces food enough for a very meagre supply for the people. In 

 many places where streams were insufficient, extensive reservoirs were 

 made, and the water of the wet season stored up to supply a deficiency in 

 a dry time. 



The mason work of some of these reservoirs is very substantial and 

 extensive, and in modern times would be expensive. Under the system of 

 government by the Incas, all the labor required for the public good was 

 levied up(jn the people. Without water, Peru could never have supported 

 the d(uise population that existed there at the time of the Spanish conquest, 

 which Mr. Squier thinks has been a great disadvantage to the world, as 

 the state of civilization now i,s far below what it was when the Incas 

 ruled, and -the agricultural productions arc verj- much smaller. Avery 

 large proportion of the country is incapable of being cultivated, and in 

 ancient times the mountain sides were terraced to an extent no where else 

 to be found in the world. He often saw the terrace walls twice as high as 

 the level at the top was wide, and all these terraces had to be watered 

 from some stream higher up. No animal, except the Llama tribe, could 

 traverse many of the steep hill sides that were terraced and cultivated. 



At piescnt there arc a few very fine sugar plantations, the cane of which 



