208 •TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



from grafts upon the maple stock, are the largest and most delicious 

 flavored of any that he has seen in any part of America. 



The grafting is done in the fall, some time early in September, and pro- 

 duces fruit of an excellent quality the third year from the graft, the 

 trees blossoming in two years. When he has made his graft he binds it 

 up with oiled canvas and materials, so as to keep out the cold, rain, ice 

 and snow from the scion as it is set. The maple is first cut off square near 

 the ground, seldom higher than six feet. The sapling is not thoroughly 

 trimmed down for two or three years, but he keeps reducing the top of the 

 maple as the grafts grow, to absorb the sap; finally, when the grafts are 

 become bushy sufiiciently, the whole of the maple limbs and branches are 

 taken off, leaving the limbs occupied with the grafts. Grafting on maples 

 can be done only upon saplings. The young maple aifords a stock which 

 can be used to advantage for grafting. Sometimes the grafts have been 

 set on shoulders or branches, where the stock of the tree is from two to 

 six inches in diameter. Mr. Smith's orchards and nurseries are set on a 

 level plain; the soil, apparently, is inclined to hard pan and clay; the 

 bluffs, however, in that region of country, contain large quarries of gyp- 

 sum or sulphate of lime, from which vast quantities are taken out and 

 exported. 



Mr. Smith exports his fruit for the St. Johns and Boston markets, and 

 other seaports along the Atlantic coast, through Maine and New Hamp- 

 shire and the British provinces. He grows one particular kind of ^lum 

 called the " Egg plum," which grows to a large size, and is of a most 

 delicious flavor when set on the maple. His fruit chiefly consists of the 

 apple and the plum. Mr. Smith is one of the oldest residents in Windsor, 

 and has carried on the fruit business for many years. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary 



December 2, 1862 

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



New Seedling Potatoes. 



Mr. D. A. Bulkeley, of Stone Hill farm, Williamstown, Mass., presented 

 to the Club three new varieties of seedling potatoes, to compete for the 

 premium for seedling potatoes, and furnishes the following description: 



" The Bulkeley needling is the best potato for boiling tliat has ever come 

 into use. They were on the public table at the late commencement at Wil- 

 liamstown in August last, and were complimented and called for in prefe- 

 rence to new ones. They like manure, but will do well on poor land; grow 

 very large vines and very few small potatoes; many of the hills without 

 any small ones, with ten to fourteen fit for the table, and weighing from 

 ten pounds to twelve pounds to the hill, and all in a cluster. I have taken 

 the first premium at our agricultural society for the last two years. 



" The other two varieties are new, and have never been distributed until 

 last spring. 



