PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 291 



John G. Bergen. — I have often seen limbs taken off and heal 

 np without any covering. Is it not somewhat owing to the sea- 

 son when the pruning is done ? 



Mr. Lawton. — The best way to patch up an old vine is to dig 

 it up and throAV it away, and plant a new one, and properly cul- 

 tivate it. 



Mr. Lawton called up the question about propagating by grafts 

 from old or young trees. His opinion is that a graft produces a 

 new tree, and that the decay of the parent has no effect whatever 

 upon the graft. All that is necessary is to get a thrifty shoot 

 for a graft. 



CONTROLLING THE SAP OF PLANTS. 



The Chairman, Mr. Pell, made the following statement in rela- 

 tion to this question : 



I have tried several experiments during the past summer by 

 which I am led to believe that much advantage may accrue to 

 the agriculturist if he will adopt the plan I intend to propose of 

 controlling at will the sap of all plants, which the generality of 

 farmers give themselves very little concern about. It may be 

 because they are sometimes ignorant of physiological laws which 

 govern the course of sap. 



When we place manure near our plants it soon becomes a 

 liquid, enters the spongioles and rootlets, ascends through the 

 body of the plant, thickens, and descends again to the root, 

 depositing in its passage a layer of alburnum, not only making 

 the wood, but leaves when its circulation is rapid, and fruits 

 when that circulation becomes slack, either by nature or the 

 obstacles man may oppose to it. All pruning, root-trimming, 

 inoculating, and grafting are subordinate to this principle. The 

 past has been a very growing season, and I have had numerous 

 trees and plants which became entirely too vigorous, and gave 

 everything to luxuriant branches and wood, instead of fruit. 

 With a few specimens I cut off a portion of the roots, and thus 

 prevented the quick distribution of sap. I drove nails into the 

 trunks of others, thus breaking the capillaries, and impeding its 

 action, others I encircled with gimlet holes. All these modes 

 had the desired effect, but seemed a violent process. I then tried 

 the plan of bending the limbs and small branches some of which 

 were compressed against the stem of the tree, with the most 

 happy results, as at each curvature I retarded the sap, and 



