Vol. IV. 



NEW ENGLAZND FARMER. 



339 



ing them with single stems, aa trees. Advert, far- 

 ther, to the raspberry. The shoot of this year 

 from the root, will bear fruit the next, — and then 

 nb'sohitely die. Vet t!ie original root and the 

 vouns? shoots from its running branches, will con- 

 tinue'the plant, perhaps for a century. It may 

 nevertheless bo expedient, whether to continue 

 the plant in existence, or to obtain superior fruit, 

 to rais" View plants from the seed ; as is the prac- 

 tice of o-ardeners with currants and gooseberries. 

 It is to the vain attempt to perpetuate varieties of 

 the apple and pear, from grafts and their branch- 

 es worn out by age and bearing, that Mr Kniglit's 

 doctrine applies. And it is by cutting out the 

 branches of wall friiits.after a few years' bearing, 

 that the English gardeners are able to present 

 o-ood fruits to their employers. No one would 

 commit the folly of attempting to propagate the 

 raspberry by setting in the ground the shoot which 

 had once borne fruit ; and it must be comparative- 

 ly foolish to expect to continue forever the varie- 

 ties of the apple and pear from grafts and their 

 branches, not indeed absolutely dead, like the 

 raspberry, but in a state of d''crepilude, tending to 

 dissolution, and incapable, in the meantime, of 

 producing any fruit, or but a little, and that of an 

 ordinary kind. 



Mr Knight's doctrine was founded on facts, and 

 could not therefore be overtiirown. The in- 

 dividual instances mentioned in opposition, are 

 oii\y (rceptions to the general principle, and cor- 

 respond with his ov.n admission and actual ex- 

 periments. He had even anticipated the case 

 of Mr Coxe's Stire apple ; when lie says — " It 

 appears also probable that the latter period of the 

 existence of the apple tree would be considerably 

 prolonged in a sontliern climut''..''' I have eaten 

 very tine Newton Pippins whic>' grew in Mary- 

 land near the banit of the PotowinacJf ^ and I 

 have supposed that they with otlier !ip]-te3 origin- 

 ating in the nortli, might continue to flourish in 

 Maryland, Virginia, and the hiily pans of theCar- 

 olinas, long after the originals had perished in 

 their native climates. At the same time, I have 

 not imagined that in the most genial climes tliey 

 w ould last forever : adopting the seniiiiient so el- 

 egantly expressed by Mr Knjght, that " Vogeta- 

 " ble, like animal life, in individuals, appears to 

 " have its limits fixed by nature ; and that immor- 

 •' tality has alike been denied to the Oak and to 

 " the Mushroom — to the being of a few days, and 

 " of as many centuries." T. PICKERING. 



PRESERVATION OF BEES. 



Mr Pessendb-N — In your paper of May .5, I no- 

 ticed a communication, o-ver the signature of " a 

 Young Enquirer," on burying bees; I was inform- 

 ed a, few days ago by a Mr Annis of tliis town, 

 thatiic had a swarm of bees come out the "JOth of 

 last .Imie ; njjon examination of tlie hive last fall, 

 he found them very light, and in order to preserve 

 tliein through tlie winter, dug a hole in the ground; 

 put in the hive with some straw about it, covered 

 them up so deep,thathe thinks potatoes would not 

 have frozen in that situation ; — the last of March 

 he disinterred them, and found them alive and ac- 

 tive, as much so as those that had lived tlirough 

 Winter in the usual way — he found not over half a 

 dozen dead bees when he took them from their 

 snug winter quarters. They lived till about the lOtli 

 or I'Mh of April, when we had several days of se- 

 vere cold — and from neglecting to feed them they 

 died. 



Mr A. says he has no doubt, had they remained 



in tho ground till the 90th of the month, they 

 would have lived and done well — The idea of 

 burying them was suggested to him last fall, by 

 one ofhis sons who has lived in Lebanon and 

 Plainfield, N. H. and says it is there a very com- 

 mon way of preserving bees. 



There is now a yoiuig man (W. \V. Stickney 

 studying in the office of H. B. Chase, Esq.) whose 

 parents, reside in Enfield, N. U. he tells me there 

 is a Capt. Ticknor of Plainfield, who Iihs long 

 practised this way of saving light swarms and gen- 

 erally with success. 



I liave no doubts of the correctness of tlie above 

 statements. Yours rospectfnllv. 



LEVI BARTLETT. 

 Ifarner, jV. //. May 1.5, 1826. 



(J?°"The following has been mislaid or it would 

 have had an earlier insertion. We solicit a con- 

 tinuance of the favours of the writer. 



PRESERVATION OF YOUNG APPLE TREES 

 FROM FIELD MICE. 



Mr Pessendkn. — As I read your paper weekly 

 and am of the opinion that not only myself, but 

 the public arc receiving weekly benefits tliereby ; 

 if I in my turn can communicate any thing that 

 will prove beneficial to any one, I think it to be 

 my duty. My present communication relates to 

 fruit trees, and in the first place, to the preserva- 

 tion of young apple trees from the ravages offield 

 mice. I think the best wny is to take the comn;(;ii 

 tea-chest lead, and cut it first into strips about ten 

 inches wide ; then cut them crosswise into strips 

 to suit the size of the trees you mean them fox. — 

 Then place the lowermost edge as near the ground 

 as possible, and wrap the lead round the tree. — 

 The expense is very trifling and by changing the 

 leads so as to accommodate the =i. e of the trees, 

 they will last several year^i. Secondly, a word a- 

 bout peach trees. It is known to maay, but I be- 

 lieve not to all, that tlie use of common wood ash- 

 es is very beneficial to peach trees, not only in 

 prolonging their life, but also in causing them to 

 produce larger and better fruit. All stone fruits 

 are benefited by the use of ashes — Scrape away 

 the earth from the roots and put from half a bush- 

 el to a bushel of ashes to a tree, liaving regard to 

 the size, as it respects the quantity of ashes used. 

 This ought to be repeated yearly. 



J. CRANSTON. 



Marlborough, April 182C. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA 



The Bucks County Patriot contains a letter from 

 Saiilt.i,. Preston of Stockport, which gives many 

 interesting particulars relative to the founders of 

 Pennsylvania. Mr Preston states that his grand- 

 mother, upwards of 100 years old when she died 

 in 1774, often related that she had seen William 

 Penn firsit land near or where Philadelphia now 

 stands. There were great guns on the ship ; they 

 fired, and all the settlement at the mouth of Nes- 

 hamony, Indians and all, went to meet the Gov- 

 ernor. She was then of age and strength to trav- 

 el that distance, say 19 miles, through the woods. 

 She used to say that as the ship came up, the 

 mast struck the trees at Swede's Hill (the present 

 Navy Yard ;) that the white people had prepared 

 the best entertainment they could, for the Gov- 

 ernor and family, the Indians had dene the same. 

 Both invited them. William Penn walked with 

 the Indians ; sat down with them on the ground 

 and roasted Acorns and Hominy, that pleased 



them so that they began to show how tliey could 

 hop and jump. She said William Penn stepped 

 up and beat them all.* Such wise complaisance 

 won and secureci their friendship and aflectioa for 

 William Penn during his life. 



MODE OF SECURING WOODEN BUILD- 

 INGS AGAINST FIRE. 

 Two years ago a great theatre in Munich waa 

 I burnt to the ground. This unfortunate accident 

 j roused the attention of the c'.emists of Bavaria to 

 I endeavor to discover some means of destroying th? 

 inflammability of wood ; and of all the meti.od.^, 

 the best, and that which has been employed in the 

 new theatre just finislied, was invented and com- 

 posed by Dr Fii.:-hs, Professor of Mineralogy in 

 Munich. The following is the process : 10 parts 

 ' of potash or soda, 12 parts of quartz (sand) and 1 

 ' part charcoal arc melted together. This mass dis- 

 'sohed in water, and, either alone or n!ixe\l with 

 'earthy matters, applied to wood, completely prc- 

 i serves it from the action of fire. The detailed ac- 

 ] count of liis process will be iriven afterwards. As- 

 ; the materials, viz. the alkaH, quart/, and charcoa'i, 

 are in plenty in most ( istritts where houses are . 

 built of wood, the compound can always be had tt 

 ' a cheap rate. In America where dreadful fires 

 I are of too frequent occurrence, the preservative 

 materials are abundant; ml there we may e:>- 

 j pect to hear of the compound being extensively 

 , used. 



I A practical farmer in CoVv-Harbour recommends 

 ' sowing barley with oats — about one bushel of 

 barley to three of oats. The same gentleman has 

 observed that the tide-water overflowing land on 

 {which he had put ashes, greatly promotes the 

 1 growth of crops. Would not our farmers do well 

 t to put salt on ashed ground ? [Portico.] 



j - -■ SEED-CORN. 



Jonat'.'in Gardiner, Esq. of Eaton's Neck, finds, 



by a series of experrmenfs, that the kernels from 

 ! the butt-eiid are far better for seed-corn thanfror.i 



any other part of the ear. The nearer the seed i^ 

 i taken from the butt-end, the hirger will be the 

 I ears. He also recommends tliat those ears of corn 

 I which ripen first m the field should be selected 

 j for seed [Portico.] 



joN THE. LOADING OF STAGE COACSfES. 



I We have often wondered that a contrivance is 

 not made for placing the luggage of a coach much 

 I nearer the ground than is commonly dose. Wl;y 

 might nut a luggage box be fixed benecth the a.\- 

 Ictree instead of above it ? The w eight would 

 act as a ballast in a ship, and greatly tend to pre- 

 vent the carriage from overturning. We know that 

 the coachman will object, that the weight fixed so 

 low would drag heavier. But .this every well in- 

 formed mechanic knows is not true. The reason 

 why it is commonly supposed that a weight so fixed- 

 drags heavy, is, because the lower the weight is 

 placed, the smaller the wheels commonly are, and 

 small wheels, for several reasons, we know, do 

 produce a heavy draught,but,if the wheels continue, 

 the same, the draught no doubt, must be the same. 



I Dr Franklin observed '• The eyes of other peo- 

 ple are the eyes that ruin us. If &li but myself 



' were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine 

 hou-jes nor fine furniture." 



In Florida a delicious 

 berries. 



ine is made from Mul- 



*£Lun w<i3 38 ^/e'Xis old when he 6.mi laodca. 



