PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 195 



cannot counteract nature. I would just as soon undertake by high feeding 

 to make a hen lay two eggs a day as to make an apple tree bear full crops 

 every year. As to the cause being an exhaustion of the soil, so that the 

 tree is only able to produce a crop every other year, that is answered by 

 numerous cases on the western prairies, where the soil is forty feet deep, 

 and absolutely inexhaustible, and where trees commence bearing very 

 moderate crops, and not exhausting ones, and go on bearing a full crop 

 one year, and a very sparse one the next, just as nature's great law had 

 predetermined, and which man cannot alter. 



Prof. Mapes. — From my own experience and from the experience of 

 others, the apple and pear tree has produced crops yearly, 



Mr. John G. Bergen. — My father tried that e:^)eriment pretty well with- 

 out success. In my opinion, if a tree begins to bear full upon an even 

 year, say 1850, it will always bear even years; and even if it should not 

 bear a crop for half a dozen years, when it did, it would be upon the even 

 year; and no tree that naturally bears full, alternate years, can be made to 

 b(!ar as full upon the odd years. The Newtown Pippin, with me, used to 

 bear good crops every alternate year. You can never change the bearing 

 year; though I perfectly agree with Mr. Carpenter, that the better the 

 attention paid to an orchard, the better will be the result. An application 

 of manure to trees during the bearing year will be too late to affect the 

 next crop, as the fruit buds are previously determined. 



Mr. Pardee. — I would ask Prof. Mapes whether, if the soil is constantly 

 stirred, it would serve as a summer fallow. 



Prof. Mapes. — I am glad that question has been asked. Mr. Smith, of 

 Lois Weedon, has planted wheat in alternate strips of land. The other 

 strip is cultivated in root crops. By this means he is able to get a crop 

 of wheat from the same field every year. The soil must undergo the 

 necessary chemical change. 



How TO Make Good Bread. 



Prof. Nash. — I have just been reading, in Muspratt's Chemistry, that a 

 gain of twenty-five per cent, may be made in the manufacture of bread by 

 pursuing the following course: A quantity of wheat bran is put in 

 water and soaked over night, when the water becomes somewhat gelat- 

 inous, and has a milky appearance. This water is used to wet flour to 

 make up a batch of dough. If the weather is cool the bran may be kept 

 in soak, and even after the first water is used, more may be added for the 

 next baking. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



November 25, 1862. 



Mr. Edward Doughty, of New Jersey, in the chair. The object of the 

 day, " Pruning of Fruit Trees and Grape Vines," was first taken up. 



Mr. Geo. H. Hite explained the manner of grafting grape vines. The 

 cutting of the vines from which the bud is to be taken is cut about three 

 inches in length; the shoot is split and the sap scraped out; the upper part 



