PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. /OS 



appointed, the very large daily shipments from Pittsburgh being but a drop 

 in the bucket, compared with what was wanted. I mention this matter to 

 show, that while we excel in the cultivation of vegetables, we are corres- 

 pondingly deficient in the cultivation of fruits; and it should be our duty 

 as a society to call attention to the fact, and endeavor in some way to 

 remedy the deficiency. One would think that this inattention to the pro- 

 duction of fine fruits would naturally cure itself, when it is so palpable tliat 

 their cultivation is much more profitable tluiu those of inferior quality; yet 

 the progress of improvement is so slow, that prices to the consumer to-day 

 are much higher than they were ten years ago, taking gold as the basis of 

 value then and now, proof positive that the supply is inadequate to the 

 demand. 



Mr. Peter B. Mead. — I fully indorse the remarks of Mr. Henderson. The 

 variety of celery spoken of was the very best sort, making up in breadth 

 what it lacked in height. I have grown it weighing 3| and 4 pounds per 

 head. Growing this crop, particularly in trenches, benefits the s(jil by 

 deep and thorough stirring. Tomatoes were little grown in New Jersey 

 us a market crop, most of them coming from Long Island. 



^Ir. Nichols of Hammonton, Atlantic county, N. J., said tliey were 

 going extensively into the culture of small fruits in his vicinity, having 

 alread}'' planted from 3,000 to 4,000 acres of strawberries, raspberries and 

 blackberries. The strawberries were mostly Triomphe de Gand and 

 Wilson. In that more southern climate the Wilson loses its acidity — has 

 beds of it four years in bearing with no signs of running out, though he 

 had been told that one good crop was all it was safe to depend upon 

 Tliere were acres of strawberries in bearing where scrub oaks were grow- 

 ing one year ago. 



On motion of Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter, the thanks of the Association 

 were presented to Mr. Henderson, with a request f(jr a copy for the Trans- 

 actions of the Association. Adjourned. 



John W. Chamber, Secretary. 



March 21, 1865. 

 Mr. Nathaniel C. Ely in the chair. 



After some preliminary business the chairman introduced to the audience 

 the lecturer for the evening, Mason C. Wold, Esq., who spoke -as follows 



Soils. 



To the plant the soil is its birth-place, cradle and grave. In part it is its 

 food, and in part the trencher from which it feeds ; it is its solo drinking cup, 

 its anchorage as it is swayed to and fro in the gabs. What is the soil, whence 

 comes it, and will it always remain fertile ? With our lenses we may examine 

 the finest soils, and we will find them largely composed of bits of stone — the 

 ground-down particles of this or yonder mountain chain — incorporated with 

 which is the decayed vegetable matter so necessary to fertility. The begin- 

 ning of a soil is the fine dust and bits of moss with the particles of stone 

 cracked off by frost, and washed or blown into the cracks of rocks, or collected 

 under the lichens attached to the frost fissured surface. This small beginning, 

 LAu. Inst.J S* 



