198 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



and makes the young trees look smooth and healthy, and it kills all worms 

 it comes in contact with. Take common sal soda and heat it red hot in an 

 iron vessel, and dissolve in water and use at once. There is danger iu 

 using potash too strong — there is none with soda. Lime upon trees injures 

 them, as it coats the bai-k without cleaning it. Lime upon the soil should 

 be applied upon the surface in small doses, say five bushels per acre, and I 

 prefer autumn to any other season, because there is more wet to dissolve 

 it, and it is only useful in that condition. I believe that shell lime is worth 

 three times as much on the average, as rock lime, upon any soil. Gas lime 

 is wor^e than useless, until it has been exposed several years to the atmos- 

 phere, and the pile should be frequently turned. If used fresh from the 

 works, it will kill vegetation. Soapmakers' lime, if used in connection with 

 soda, takes up its carbonic acid, and becomes crrbonate of lime — simply 

 common chalk. It does take up a little of the glycerine of fat, when used 

 in connection with soda, so that that part of the waste of the soap factory 

 has some value. If ashes and lime are used together, the waste has more 

 value. When soapmakers' lime or ashes have been a long time exposed to 

 the atmosphere, they become valuable as manure. Fresh from the vat, 

 the lime has but little value to the farmer. 



As to the profitableness of dwarf pear culture, opinions differ. When 

 successful, near a good market, the grower often gets five times as much 

 as he would from any other crop. There is one thing certain, they will 

 never succeed upon such a soil as the gentleman describes. What is meant 

 by a dwarf pear tree, is a pear graft set upon a quince stock, which pro- 

 duces fruit earlier than upon a pear stalk, and it will fail sooner, unless it 

 is planted with the junction below the surface of the earth, and then the 

 pear strikes roots and becomes a standard tree, unless kept carefully cut 

 back in a dwarf size and shape. 



Mr. A.S. Fuller said that he believed a dwarf orchard maybe made more pro- 

 fitable than standard trees, if the owner has his heart in the matter and is 

 determined to succeed ; though no man can hope for success on such land 

 as this letter speaks of until it is underdrained. 



I can raise a better crop and realize more from an acre of strawberries 

 than I can from one acre of dwarf pear trees. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter — I am not now in favor of planting dwarf pear 

 trees. I prefer standard trees. A great many cultivators now plant their 

 trees three, four and five, and some even six inches below the juncture of 

 the pear and quince. After a few years the pear roots make a great growth 

 and the quince dies; in fact they become what is called standard trees. The 

 greatest enemy of feuch trees is the borer. 



Remedy for Borers. 



Mr. Farmer, who wrote the above questions, says that the remedy for 

 borers proposed some time ago by F. V. Thayer, Blackstone, Mass., he has 

 proved a perfect success. The Club objected to Mr. Thayer's proposition, 

 because it was a secret, and because so many similar secrets have proved 

 worthless; but Mr. Farmer thinks the discovery so valuable that any owner 

 of an orchard can afford to pay for it. 



