226 
saying* vegetable matter in contact with them, and is appropriated almost 
entirely to the formation of the solid woody matter. 
I might here add a paragraph or two on the subject of the inorganic 
elements of vegetable matter. But the horticulturist proper, will find 
them in other places; and the farmer who raises his fruit in common with 
his other agricultural products, would hardly be benefitted by it. I will 
only say that if he will dig in about the roots of his trees all the old bones 
he can pick up from year to year, adding a little lime occasionally, and a 
frequent wash of strong soap suds, chance and our fine fruit soils will 
constantly furnish him all the rest; provided that he shall not exhaust 
the soil of them, by growing too many other or improper crops with his 
trees. 
Having taken a cursory view of a few of the laws which govern veg¬ 
etable life and growth, and of the sources from which vegetables derive 
their nourishment, I shall proceed more directly to the consideration of 
the culture of the orchard, intending to refer to other physiological laws 
in places where their consideration will be better understood and appre¬ 
ciated. I proceed in the first place to 
THE SELECTION OF FRUIT TREES. 
Having already given a catalogue of a few of the apples best adapted 
to our climate amd soil, I will here remark, in passing, that although I 
dissent in toto from the common opinion that our clima'e is not adapted 
to the growth of the peach and its kindred fruits, including the cherry* 
yet I would advise the farmer, who cannot devote much time to the care 
of his orchard, that he had better, for the present, abandon the idea of 
raising any of them in perfection. But in a subsequent part of this ar¬ 
ticle I shall notice them again, showing the reasons why we have hitherto 
been unsuccessful in our attempts to grow them, and how to apply the 
remedy. 
From the multitude of fine plums adapted to our soil, it is almost 
impossible to make a selection, without passing over many of the first 
class. My chief object, then, shall be to advise such a selection as will 
give good fruit during the whole plum s season. I begin then with the 
Jaune Hative, ripening from the 15th to the 30th of July, and go on with 
the Imperial Ottoman, Imperial, Green, Yellow and Bleeker’s Gages* 
