NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



13 



market for more apples for eating and cooking 

 than the county furnished thirty years ago. Look 

 for a moment to that little world of brick walls 

 which we call New York, with its hundreds _ of 

 thousands of apple-eaters, and all to be supplied 

 by others, out of the surplus remaining after their 

 own wants are supplied. 



Look at our other large cities, Boston, Philadel- 

 phia, Albany and hundreds of lesser ones. Then 

 look at the broad south. Why, the market is not 

 one quarter supplied. But the prices are most ex- 

 travagantly high. The ground which would bring, 

 at an average of the seasons, five dollars worth of 

 greening apples, at present prices, would not keep 

 half a sheep, or the tenth part of a cow. If cider 

 apples were valuable productions at six cents per 

 bushel, good grafted apples should be offered at fif- 

 teen to twenty at the orchard, gathered in the usual 

 way, and should be picked and barrelled at twenty- 

 five cents. And when the price comes thus, the 

 demand will be increased four fold with the pres- 

 ent number of inhabitants. They will thus become 

 a profitable article for daily consumption in families 

 where they are now only occasionally admitted as 

 a luxury. 



But the population is constantly and rapidly in- 

 creasing, and this increase is mainly of non-pro- 

 ducers, especially in the old States. The farming, 

 fruit raising population is remaining about station- 

 ary, in many towns decidedly decreasing, while 

 the increase is in the commercial and manufactur- 

 ing cities and villages. This we deem an impor- 

 tant consideration, in a correct estimate of the 

 future demand. 



Viewing, then, the present scanty supply, at the 

 very high prices, the increased consumption which 

 would follow, a reduction of price, a reduction 

 which improved culture and a judicious adaptation 

 of kinds to the varying seasons of the year would 

 permit, and yet remunerate the producer, and the 

 increase of population ; that increase being al- 

 most wholly consumers. We bebeve there is no 

 danger of a surplus until the quantity is increased 

 twenty fold. And if the time should come when 

 it will not pay for sending to market, it will be 

 worth more than the cost of production to feed 

 to cows, hogs, and horses at home. — Culturist 

 and Gazette. 



brightened the straw, and caused it to ripen from 

 3 to 5 days earlier than it would otherwise have 

 done." Mr. Barrow has found salt improve the 

 strength and quality of his wheat straw, his neigh- 

 bors' crops having been laid while his stood well. 

 Mr. Mechi said — "without being able to give the 

 scientific reason, salt gave strength and brightness 

 to the wheat straw and prevented its lodging." 

 He applied it at the rate of 3 cwt. per acre, mixed 

 with the same weight of guano. — Selected. 



SALT AS FOOD FOR PLANTS. 



Professor Way, chemist to the Royal Agricultu- 

 ral Society, in a lecture on this subject, stated as a 

 conclusion to which his investigations had led him, 

 that common salt was neither directly nor indi- 

 rectly a constituent of the food of plants. He 

 stated, however, as his belief, that salt did, in some 

 instances, produce an action beneficial to vegeta- 

 tion, on some soils. He had not carried out his 

 investigations to such an extent as to say, posi- 

 tively, to what this effect is attributable, but he 

 was "led to believe that the common salt acted on 

 certain silicates of lime present, in a way as yet 

 not understood ; and at the same time as it afford- 

 ed a supply of lime to plants, gave rise, probably, 

 to a modification of silica, important to the straw 

 of the cereals." 



In reference to Prof. Way's remarks, other 

 members of the Society gave the results of their 

 experience in the application of salt to land. Col. 

 Challoner said he did not consider it acted simply 

 as a manure on grain crops, "but it stiffened and 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "NEW ENGLAND FARMER." 



BT F. HOLBROOK. 



The name, " New England Farmer," is a time- 

 honored name. The journal first bearing it was 

 most ably conducted through many volumes, re- 

 ceived the patronage and contributions from the 

 pens of men of the highest talent and influence, 

 circulated among the farmers far and near, and fer- 

 tilized the soil wherever it went. Most of its ear- 

 liest contributors, together with its first Editor, 

 men of a former generation, have passed from 

 this life. Who that knew them, or that now knows 

 of them, ever failed to render them profound re- 

 spect 1 They were an honor to their age and 

 country; they finely illustrated all those charac- 

 teristics which distinguish man as a reasonable and 

 an intelligent being, as an independent, a high- 

 minded and public-spirited citizen ; their zeal in 

 forwarding the improvements of Agriculture amount- 

 ed to no less than untiring enthusiasm ; _ and their 

 efforts gave a lasting impress to the agriculture of 

 New England. Their contributions to the old jour- 

 nal are remarkable for vigor and comprehensive- 

 ness, and for practical adaptation to the wants of 

 the farmer ; and many of them, if republished in 

 t*e New England Farmer of to-day, would grace 

 and enrich its columns, and instruct its readers. 



Then think of that old veteran agricultural soldier , 

 Thomas Green Fessenden, the first and principal edi- 

 tor of the old journal — a man whom every body knew, 

 and honored for his talents and loved for his virtues. 

 He was a most assiduous and untiring laborer in 

 his vocation. To a practical knowledge of the pro- 

 cesses of agriculture, he added an acquaintance 

 with all the writings of merit upon husbandry, a 

 respectable knowledge of science generally, a taste 

 for literature, a rich vein of humor, and perfect 

 readiness of pen in imparting all the information 

 upon any subject in hand which could be elicited 

 from books or from other sources. From early 

 boyhood, he had an ardent love for agriculture. 

 Hear him, in one of his editorials written in old age, 

 express his increasing fondness for it : " We may, 

 perhaps, be allowed to state that our predilections 

 to the Art of all Arts, increases in a direct propor- 

 tion to the attention we bestow on it ; for like 

 everything else possessing intrinsic excellence, the 

 more intimate the acquaintance, the more obvious 

 are its merits — the more we explore the avenues 

 of culture, the stronger the perception that its 

 ways are profitable as well as pleasant, and ' all 

 its paths are peace.' And, indeed, the world is 

 becoming practically impressed with the primary 

 importance of those pursuits which feed and clothe 

 the human race ; and to which we are indebted for 

 all that makes life a blessing, or^ gives civilized a 

 superiority over savage existence." 



I have all the volumes of the old Farmer, and 



