52 Root Grafting, 6^c. 



the earth with a plank. When the bud has formed, between 

 the semmal leaves, I pluck up the weak plants, leaving a 

 stand about a foot apart. My cultivation is then to hill up 

 once, so as to support the stem erect, and keep clean. From 

 a bed of this size, I have fed my family of about twenty-five, 

 and have gathered, myself, a bushel at a time for hogs, that 

 were not yellow. I think the fruit sets earlier, and that the 

 earth, being well shaded, they last longer. How it will do in 

 your climate I know not, but my teacher — the lady alluded 

 to — says, in Virginia, it is decidedly the best plan. In con- 

 sequence of my success in this, pursuing it since 1838, 1 have 

 put my melons six feet by about four, my former distance be- 

 ing eight feet square. 



" My peach orchard numbers over one" thousand, instead 

 of " one hundred ;" these, with six hundred apples and three 

 hundred and fifty pears, will not admit of wrapping with paper 

 and then tarring. I must have something more readily ap- 

 plied. I will rely on whitewash with cowdung, for even 

 milk and soot would be too costly where one feeds his cows 

 entirely from his house, as I do, through choice, instead of 

 being uncertain, the cows not coming up. 



I use, in my nursery, narrow strips of the pasteboard from 

 sperm candle boxes, hung on lower limbs. This frightens off 

 the rabbit. 



I know the pear will succeed in this latitude, and do not 

 think Boston, or the northernmost limit in which they will 

 grow, can excel us. The only difficulty is winter pears. 

 My object is, not to prove this fact, but to prove which are 

 the best varieties. I am greatly pleased that you approve this 

 step of mine, for I really feel that I will do immense service to 

 my country, and of course secondarily aid all nurserymen. 

 \ am a cotton planter, rely only on that business for a living, 

 and ought to be considered a disinterested witness. But the 

 fruits will be here, side by side, to show for themselves. 



I am influenced by a desire to induce men and women and 

 children, to love home, be industrious and temperate. If they 

 could enjoy fruits and flowers in abundance at home, they 

 would, it seems to me, become attached to the trees and plants ; 

 they would be at home all the time, and would inadvertently 

 work among them ; ennui, the ruin of this country, could 



