262 



NEW engla:nd farmer. 



[March 10 



NEW ENGEAND FARMER. jf^C) he sn^'s, "From rery numerous experi- 1 at lenst two hundred years more. Mr Knight 



I mciits on the ascei;t and progress of the s;ip in found, in the course of his experiments, that 



FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1820. 



Hartford Agricultural Socieli/. We are happy to 



trees, made by meana of coloured infusions, and 

 by taking up the vessels in difl'erent parts, I am 



be able to slate, on ilie aulhority of the Connecticut ! perfectly satisfied that the ascending andde- 

 MiiTor, that the membeis ol this liociety are more nu- 1 scending fluids are carried to every part of the 



meroiis, and its funds more extensive, than they ever 



tree Ihrousih the folloviinrc chai 



ils 



Havinc: 



have been, and that they have every motive from the '^^en absorbed Iro.n the a.ljacenl mould, by the 

 prompt and efficient support ofthefarniersofthe county '">■•'' °' '^e root, the sap ascends wholly thro 

 topersevere in ihpir wish to form a State Society. The ' "'^ alburnum, or sap-uood, ol the_ root and 

 following vote is equally honorable to the Society and 

 to the gentlemen who are the objects of it. At a late 

 mcetiujf of the Society, on the recommendation of the 



i trunk; and it is by tiiis substance" [the sap 



' all the old kinds grew best in warm situniions- 

 and the most diseased flourished with the great- 

 est vigour 'i-lien he trained iheiii to a south -mali. 

 But this mode of culture (he remarks) -j^itl not 

 suit the cider innlcer.''* 



IMr Knight does not stand alone in relation to 

 his facts, or the theory buill upon them. They 

 are facts well known in the English cider coun- 

 ties. Mr Marshall! who wrote about ten years 



Executive Committee, the following gentlemen were 

 unanimously elected honorary members of the Society: 

 De Witt Clinton, Governor of State of New-York ; Levi 

 Lincoln, Gov. of State of Massachusetts; John Hare 

 Powel, Corresponding Secretary of Pennsylvania Agri- 



cultural Society ; John Lowell, President of iVIassachu- 



jetts Agricultural Society; Samufl W. Pomeroy, Vice | take place, into which the matter of lighl, ami 

 President .Massachusetts Agricultural Society; Joseph of heat, if the latter be material, may possibly 

 Sabine, Secretary London Horticultural Society. | enter. From the leaf the sap is returned, thro' 



, ; I another set of vessels, into the iiuier bark, and 



We understand the Mess. Ke.xr.cks of Newton have ', -^ -^^ passage downwards deposits the new mat- 

 t.pwar.,1. ot thirty s,,^(s of Pears, comprising ^i^^^ier, nhKh ^nm,Mw hrmH l\w. ]ncre.i^c ^m\ ex- 

 they consider the best variety hitherto known in New t j^,,,;^,^ of the branches, the trunk and the root." 



wood] " indejicndent of the bark, carried in the i prior to Mr KivrcHT, says — "The law of nature, 

 spring, to those buds wliir.h produce the annual (hough it suffer man to improve the fruits which 

 shoots of the succeeding summer. In llie budsj are given ns, appears to have set bounds to his 

 and annual shools, the sa|) is received by iinoth- art ; and to have numbered the years of his crc- 

 er species of vessels, and is impelled forward ations. Arliliciaj propagation cannot preserve 

 by a new agent into llia leaves, in the leaves (he varieties in perpetuity. A time arrives 

 it is exposed to the air and light ; and Some when they can no longer be propagated ivilli 

 portion of the water it contains appears to be success. .■?.'/ the old fruits, which raised the 

 decomposed; new combinations here probably f.imeof the liquors of this connlry, are now lost. 



England. We have their list of trees for the inspection 

 of any Gentlemen who may call at the Farmer olfice. 



A correspondent wishes to call the attention of our 

 readers to the Prospectus of a new Agricultural School 



Such being Mr Knight's discoveries resulting 

 from his iiumcrous experiments^ Dr Bigelow's 

 note, mentioned by Investigator, is perfectly ra- 

 tional, as applied to the practice of girdling 

 trees. There must be an error in Dr .Smith's 



at Chitentngo, \. Y. by the Rev. Dr Yates, former- ] book, if it represents, as from Mr Kn'Ight, the 

 ly of East Hartford, Cou. Dr Yates is now a Professor j ...cent of the sap (0 be through the hecrt-wood. 

 m Union College, and is believed to be fully able to j But besides that this would render Dr Bigelow's 

 discharge the duties of Principal of the new Seminary. I remark even absurd, every farmer, and every 



farmer's boy, knows that old apple trees will not 



A correspondent states that by "giving tiaibcr a 

 good pounding once a week, it will etTecturclIy prevent 

 all powder post." 



" A Manufacturer,"—" Horticulturalist,''— an arti- 

 cle on the Borer — one on the comparative produce of 

 different breeds of Cattle — and SEM.ral others will re- 

 ceive an early insertion. 



only continue alive, but bear abundant crops ol 

 fruit, after the hearts of their trunks are entire- 

 ly rollen, and the life of the trees, and their 

 fruit, dp[)end wholly on the ascent of the sap, 

 in Ibe (bin shell of sap-wood which then sup- 

 ports them. 



In the other piece above referred to. taken 



I from the Essex Register, the correctness of Mr 



As the time of year for cutting scions has arrived, i K.might'.s theory is (pieslioned, as to the natural 

 and the following useful and able article contains iu- ; length of life ol fruit trees. One writer quoted 

 formation, which we believe will be vaiuable-as re- (Sjieechly, the gardener of an English nobie- 

 gards the choice of such scions, by preventing orchard- j '"ail) pronounces it " apparently visionary ;"- 



ists from placi:ig too much dependence on old and \ ""'' another declares it to be unfounded ; being' my return to Salem, more than twenty year 

 nearly exhausted varieties, we give it a phice in this I •'•^I'l'Sn"'" 'o particular facts. But Mr Ks'icirr's ( since, 1 observed those trees were grown to a 

 iveek's pap;r, to the exchisiun cf som; otlic-r articles 1 '"^'^°"?''''°" '''' the subject led him to make a i large size — they stood in a good soil; but my 



or arc so tar on the decline, as to be deemed u- 

 recnverable. Tlie rcdslrfuk is given up ; the 

 celebrated .sV/rc o/'yi/e is going off ; and the it^Kos.'i 

 jiriir, which has probably furnished England 

 with more champaign l!ian i as ever imported 

 into it, can no Ifli'ge! be got to flourish ; the 

 storks canker and are iini>'-''<J-<-,''» b."' 



For the same re'ison trial tiie old fruits whicii 

 Mr K-MGHT plant. d ".gainst a south wall, flourish- 

 ed well,^-som.i c-'i:i'^'.k, ih Massachusetts, 

 which tail on farms in the country. inay succeed 

 in the shel'dred "a'd . of ni^puloos towns. — 

 This is a wei. knowi^ fact ; and is e^ipecially 

 verified iu Boston ; narticdlarly in some kinds 

 of pear?. F-f-.s'i grape«, ,<l50, are there pro- 

 ductive in gardens; tvhMe in tiie country, in 

 common <^p"c' c >, or 'u the open fields, they 

 genpi ..ly ii not universatly iSil. 



The pearmain is an adrfiired fruit, of long 

 sfpr:?".r i remember a large tree in Salem, 

 (il was probably brought from England) wliich, 

 more 'S;\n seventy years ago, had an opening 

 ti. ,Mie side, from the ground about five feet up- 

 wards, at which a stout boy might enter; the 

 heart being entirely rotten and gone. This 

 tree, eyery other year was loaded with fine 

 fruit. Desirous of introducing this pearmain 

 into my father's orchard, 1 grafted it on a num- 

 ber of young trees, about sixty years ago. On 



prepared for insertion. 



TO THE EDITOR OK THE NEW EiVGLA.ND FARMER. 



.b'u/e//i, j1/(I)-c/i 6, 182G. 



great variety of ingenious experiments from his j friends fold me they had produced very little 

 desire to preserve the good old /runs, which had | fruit, and the apples were small ; and so they 

 been celebrated a CHiitury before, but which ' have continued to this day. Some fifteen year3 

 seemed to he on a fatal decline, it was this slate I ago, 1 mentioned these facts to an observing 



of the old apple trees, well known to all the 



Mr Fessenhe.x — In the last number (32) of larmors in the great Eugl'sh cidi=r counly — 



your paper, are two pieces on fruit trees; and 

 both refer to the theory of Mr Knight, the en- 

 lighlenod Pre-ident of the I,ondon Horticultural 

 .Society, concerning the duration of fruit trees, 

 in both, Mr KNiGiri'".s ideas appear to me to be 

 erroatouslij or defectirchj represented. 



The writer who-e sisinaturo is •" Investiga- 



llerelord — which prompted ftlrKMoirrto make 

 his experiments, in ihc hope o( discovering a 

 remedy, but his labour was fruitless. He theii 

 in llie spirit of a pbilosoplior, attempted to solve 



farmer in Dinvers, who had an orchard of his 

 own raising from the seed. The trees were 

 grafted, some with the proper pearmain, and 

 others with the russet pearmain — (the latter I 

 have not seen out of the county of Essex--'lis 

 a good a[>pb, but very little resembling the old 



the phenomenon ; and the result-of bis invesli I pearmain.) — tjiat farmer fold me, that wliere 

 gallon was ihe theory now deemed by some to | the pearmain trees had yielded hirn a luishel of 

 be unfounded, and even visionary. But tbef'acts i apples, the russet pearmains had jiroduced a 



tor," (quoting a book ol Dr Smith's on Botany, stated in the Essex Regi.-ter by no means inval I dozen bushels, h few years after this, he jn- 



vepubli-ihed in IJnslon by Dr BioiLow) says, that i idate Mr K.nioht's theory. ■ He expresses his 

 according to Mr Kmoiit, "the sa(> is carried opinion, that the natural age of the apple tree 

 irom the root to the branches and leaves by a ; is 200 years, and that of the pear tree to be -100 



.set of vessels ranged along the medulla or pith 

 of the plant, which Mr l\Mr,iir calls the central 

 vessels'" This is directly contrary to .Mr 

 KmiUii'.s own stalcineni, in his Treatise ou the 



years. Governor fCndicott's pear tree brought 

 from England in 1628 (when be arrived at Sa- 

 lem) is now probably but a little more than 200 

 yeais old iVoni the seed; and being planted in 



Culture of the .\pple and Pear ; in which ([>age ' a more genial clime, may very well survive for 



formed me that he had cut ofl' the top limbs of 

 the pearmain trees, and grafted them with other 

 friiils; — when immediately the remaining limbs 

 became productive. The fact is remarkable. 

 Whether they continue to bear 1 am not inform- 

 ed. 



* TTalise on the apple and pear, pa^e '^~. 



t Rural Econ. of Gloucester, includiug Htrefordshire. 



