188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and where he could make the most profit. Men thus employed 

 usually select the more thrifty trees, and cut them to a dead cer- 

 tainty, in order to get in as many scions as possible. Trees 

 treated in such a manner may sometimes survive the shock, though 

 the greater portion of them die in a few years. 



If trees six inches or more in diameter are to be grafted, great 

 care should be had to cut sparingly. Select a few of the most 

 vigorous branches, cut them where the diameter does not exceed 

 one and one-half inches, (less is better than more,) and leave suf- 

 ficient laterals to sheath them with sliver. The laterals may be 

 removed by degrees as the scions increase in growth, and thus 

 continue year after year to cut and remove laterals, till the whole 

 top is transformed. 



After a certain period in life, trees, like men, begin to decline in 

 vigor ; hence, if an old tree is to be grafted the scions should be 

 strong, fast growing varieties. Slow growing kinds, if desired, 

 will answer for young thrifty trees, but should never be set in old 

 ones, though perfectly healthy. 



In this vicinity I have found May the month — and the new or 

 old of the moon to be the better time to set scions. On or near 

 the full, the bark slips from the wood more easily, and a scion 

 seldom takes where the bark starts from the stock. Grafted trees 

 should be examined in spring and autumn, and the stubs, where the 

 wax has cleaved off, cemented over to keep out the rain and snow 

 till healed over ; this is important, as otherwise many stocks will rot 

 and the scion die. 



Plowing among tJdc/c set and full grown trees is of doubtful 

 utility, but remove the grass and weeds around the trunks, manure 

 the face of the whole ground liberally late in autumn, and the 

 trees will thrive and bear well." 



6. — Root Crops. 

 or late years more attention has been given to the cultivation of 

 root crops than formerly, but even now they do not occupy that 

 place among the products of the county which their merits de- 

 mand. Led to the culture of other roots from the ravages of the rot 

 among potatoes, many of the farmers of the county have become 

 aware of their value and importance, not only as an impor- 

 tant farm crop in themselves considered, but as a most valuable 

 substitute for the potato as a feed for farm stock. A great obstacle 

 to their more extensive cultivation is the labor required upon them, 



