1835,] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



169 



hand, it" the graft be taken indiscriminately from 

 any tree, or from any part of a tree, and placed 

 either on tree or paradise, stocks, the young trees 

 so raised will, nine times out of twelve, be in 

 some respect or other detective; and particularly 

 if they be no( afterwards planted in their favorite 

 soil, where their wood would not be sufficiently ri- 

 pened. 



The golden pippin requires a dry and moder- 

 ately warm climate The best fruit are produced 

 in Normandy on the continent, in Sussex in Eng- 

 land, and on walls in Scotland, The south of 

 France is too warm, and the richer counties of 

 England and Ireland are too moist. This apple 

 is supposed to have been first raised at Parhani 

 Park, on the Southdpwns of Sussex. 



It has been noticed of late years, that neither 

 the golden pippin nor Nonpareil keep so well as 

 formerly. The author well remembers, that, 

 sixty years ago, both these kinds of apples were 

 plentiful in May; but it is not so at present. This 

 is attributed to two causes; our summers lately 

 being more moist, and perhaps too many free and 

 paradise stocks used in their nurseries. It has 

 been deemed a good practice to raise the golden 

 pippin from cuttings or layers. This plan is quite 

 practicable; and some practitioners have been 

 very successful in raising plants from cuttings, in- 

 tended for potting. Trees may also be raised by 

 layers from stools kept on purpose in the nur- 

 sery. 



THE MEAN'S OP RECOVERING AND PRESERV- 

 ING YARDS FROM FOUL WEEDS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Ben Lomond, June 6th, 1835. 



Though the subject of the following communi- 

 cation may be considered by yourself as unworthy 

 of a place in your periodical, yet I feel that it con- 

 tains information interesting io at least a small 

 portion of your readers. In this communication, 

 I shall make no pretensions to originality or dis- 

 covery, as my information was derived from an 

 intelligent lady near me. She informed me that 

 her yard was at one time infested with (I use her 

 own words) all kinds of foul weeds, the common 

 old field broom straw, &c. &c. While on a visit 

 to her this spring, I was struck with the peculiar 

 beauty of her yard, and its purity from all "foul 

 weeds." I inquired the cause, as it was a subject 

 of interest to me, having seen many beautiful sites 

 for yards, destroyed by allowing the foul weeds to 

 take possession of them. 



Her modus operandi is simple, but which I fear 

 will be no recommendation. At any time in the 

 spring, (before a rain is preferable) if ashes are 

 scattered over the yard, in a short time all the foul 

 weeds will be rooted out, and in their place will 

 come a beautiful bed of the greensward grass. 

 The ashes should be scattered frequently, always 

 before a rain, (I suppose during the year.) 



Query. — Would not the sulphate of lime (plas- 

 ter of Paris) accomplish the same object? Whe- 

 ther the ashes act as a manure, thereby facilitating 

 the growth of the grass, <^v whether they destroy 

 the weeds, I am unable to say, though I think 

 the former supposition the most probable. This 

 communication is induced from the reflection, that 

 there can be no ornament more superlatively 



Vol. Ill — 22 



beautiful, than a handsome yard about a hand- 

 some building — and trusting that these ideas will 

 serve a useful purpose, I am willing to submit 

 them to your discretion, though not clothed in 

 such a garb as I could wish for your truly useful 

 paper. 



As I highly approve of a piece which I met 

 with in your paper, suggesting the idea that all 

 communicators should aifix their true name, I sub- 

 scribe myself, 



T. B. "W ATKINS, 



Of Goochland. 



[The facts stated above are not only interesting as 

 furnishing matter for useful and often needed practice, 

 but because they also serve to illustrate the views al- 

 ready expressed in other articles in the early part of 

 this No. (pp. 129 and 130.) The principal, if not 

 the sole agent of the change produced by the applica- 

 tion of ashes, was the calcareous earth which they 

 contained — of which earth, the benefit to greensward 

 is as remarkable as to clover. Broom grass is not, 

 usually, at once destroyed by the use of this manure, 

 (as sheep sorrel is,) but the growth is evidently in- 

 jured by calcareous manures, so as to induce the belief, 

 that the destruction will be complete in time. We 

 have only irrone case observed the almost complete 

 destruction of the growth of broom grass, which was 

 previously the unmixed cover of a worn-out old field. 

 This was also produced by top dressing — but with 

 mail, instead of ashes. The piece of ground (about 

 an acre) was neither ploughed nor grazed for several 

 years after; and by the third summer, the broom grass 

 had generally disappeared, and was substituted by 

 other weeds, except in some small spots which it was 

 supposed the manure did not reach. After ploughing 

 in marl, and even after several years of tillage, broom 

 grass will return, and even grow luxuriantly — but it is 

 in separate and scattered hunches, instead of forming 

 a regular and unmixed cover to the land, as before 

 marling. 



We are the more pleased to be indebted to a lady for 

 this experiment — and hope that it may be noticed and 

 repeated by other ladies who can, and will, in other 

 matters, return equal value to the Farmers' Register — ■ 

 which might be well done by many.] 



RICH CALCAREOUS EARTH FOR MANURE IN 

 THE NORTH-WEST PART OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



[The following article is taken from a late Mead- 

 ville Messenger, sent us by the editor. We should 

 infer, from the description, that the earth was like the 

 "rotten limestone" which lies under all the prairie 

 soils of Alabama — and, as appears from Mr. Feather- 

 stonhaugh's Report, (see extract at page 147 of this 

 No.) also of the great prairies west of the Mississippi. 

 The fact stated below, presents additional proof, and 

 derived from a different and remote region, of the truth 

 of the opinion which we have before submitted, that 

 the cause of the peculiar features of prairie soils, par- 

 ticularly of the absence of trees, was merely the pre- 

 sence, in such soils, of a large proportion of lime. The 

 fact of the earth here called marl being made into the 

 '•best lime" by burning, is sufficient evidence of the 

 great richness of the material, and its suitableness for 



