PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 197 



Prof. Mapes. — Without alluvium and carbon I think the earth would be 

 sterile, as all nutriment would sink through the soil and render the surface 

 barren. Charcoal is an excellent divider of the soil. 



The Culture of Fruit in the Mountain Regions of New Eng- 

 land, AND the Middle and Southern States. 



Mr. Alanson Nash said: 



Fruit of various kinds, including apples, pears, peaches, quinces, cran- 

 berry, gooseberry, blackberry and strawberry, grapes and some others, 

 have within the last few years very justly received public attention; we 

 know of no business that can be carried on about a farm, by odd chores, 

 to better advantage than the culture of fruits. 



All along the Atlantic coast, from the Bay of St. Lawrence through the 

 whole length of the granite and primitive formations of the White Mount- 

 ains, Green Mountains, and the Alleghany Mountains, to Georgia, Alabama, 

 Tennessee and Kentucky, the apple, pear and plum are sure to yield the 

 choicest fruits; indeed, the apple likes a cool climate; so does the peai', the 

 plum, and the gooseberry and cranberry. No part of the United States or 

 the world produces a better flavored and a more healthy fruit than the 

 formations of earth derived from the granite, mica slate, and the horn- 

 blende rocks of New England. The apple tree will grow amongst the 

 granite and mica slate, and where the land is most rocky, there the tree 

 flourishes best, if there is a sufficient depth of soil lying over the rocks to 

 give the roots of the tree sufiicient foundation. The winds of winter are 

 never seen to hurt an apple tree, provided there is suflScient soil for the 

 roots to take proper hold — indeed, all our northern fruit trees seem to be 

 benefited by a fall of snow, lying deep over the roots of the trees; snow 

 operates as a mulch or covering around the roots and body of the tree, the 

 ground keeps warm, the heat and electricity ascend from the interior of 

 the earth towards the surface, the circulation of the juices in the roots of 

 the trees, when covered over with snow, is lively and active. Nature now 

 lays in a bountiful supply of nutriment for the wood and fruit, to be warm- 

 ed into life by the genial rays of the sun the succeeding spring and sum- 

 mer. The frost puts the upper part of the tree to sleep during the winter, 

 and gives it the necessary rest. 



The chemical an.alysis of fruits and the wood of fruit trees has opened 

 within the last few years a large field for the study of nature, and has 

 discovered most of the chemical combinations that produce and make up the 

 materials of the fruit, and wood of fruit trees. By referring to our analy- 

 sis and tables hereto annexed, it will be perceived that the primitive rocks, 

 when decomposed, produce a soil which yields more of the ingredients of the 

 difierent kinds of fruits than any other formation ; and it has been a long 

 time remarked by close observers, that nowhere, in this or any other 

 country, can fruits be found yielding so rich an aroma or flavor as those 

 grown amongst the granite rocks and the primitive formations. 



Fruit grown on these soils is rich in flavor, solid and compact and hardy; 

 keeps late, and with little care can be preserved during the winter, spring 

 and summer months. The whole of the region we have spoken of, from 

 the south end of the Alleghany mountains to the extreme land in the Gulf 



