NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



As regards capacity for thrift, we "think that 

 the perfection of any animal depends essentially 

 upon his good keeping from birth ; and that se- 

 verity or hard fare, or negligence while in a grow- 

 ing state, do an injury to the constitution, and so 

 stint the growth, that no after keeping can repair 

 it. The animal condition always suffers essential- 

 ly by reverses. It is said that a sheep is never 

 fat but once. Perhaps this assertion is to be re- 

 ceived with some qualifications, but still it must 

 be admitted as a difficult task to raise an animal 

 from a low condition." If you keep no more ani- 

 mals than you can feed and grow well, they will 

 in nearly all cases yield a compensating profit. 



RENOVATING OLD ORCHARDS. 



BY W. R. COPPOCK, BUFFALO. 



In a former number of the Horticulturist, I de- 

 tailed some experiments in progress for rejuvenating 

 an orchard of old apple trees, by trenching, special 

 manuring, and cleansing the bark by scraping, 

 washing, &c. &c, (vide Horticulturist for March 

 last.) Another season's growth has passed, and 

 the results having become so apparent and decisive, 

 I hasten to notice them, for the benefit of others 

 similarly possessed. 



These trees are from twenty to twenty-five years 

 old, originally forming a part of a large orchard, 

 now merely divided by a division fence, the general 

 aspect and condition of all being alike. They have 

 no* had two season's growth since my application 

 began, and marvellous are the results. 



Not deeming in the onset, the fruit in its varie- 

 ties, of the least possible value, being extremely 

 small, knotty and bitter, at the same time unrecog- 

 nizable, and aiming only to make the trees availa- 

 ble, I grafted each season about one-third of the 

 top with choice kinds. 



By these processes a thorough metamorphosis 

 has taken place. The growth of both new wood 

 and grafts have been extraordinary, while the fo- 

 liage which before was small and sickly, and usual- 

 ly fell off at mid-summer, has in every way 

 changed ; becoming large, beautifully green and 

 full of vigor, while their neighbors on the other 

 side of the fence, untouched by art and left to na- 

 ture's skill, are denuded prematurely of their 

 foliage and seared by neglect. 



From the impetus given their growth by the 

 stimulating cultivation they have received, the crop 

 in quality — particularly in numbers — this season is 

 but small, while the fruit itself has become entirely 

 changed in all its characteristics. Before, no 

 specimen could be recognized — while now from 

 amid the ruin, we find the Porter, Ribstone Pip- 

 pin, Golden Reinette, Gildcn Sweeting, Swaar, 

 Twenty Ounce, Detroit Red, and other varieties in 

 the perfection of size, form and color! 



From forty trees, some of which bore but a few 

 specimens, thirty barrels of picked fruit have been 

 marketed, reserving some thirty bushels for home 

 use. 



Thus while we hear of various persons cutting 

 down old apple orchards and delighting in the blaz- 

 ing lire that does not "snap," I feel amply repaid 

 for the expense and labor in the successful experi- 

 ments I have thus made in the savin" of what was 



deemed useless cumbrances, and producing there- 

 from a balance fully equal to twenty dollars each. 

 ' It is far easier to cut down and despoil a tree , 

 than to replace one. So long as the tree is not 

 radically diseased and rotten, but simply neglected, 

 moss covered, and unpruned — its fruit in the mean 

 time degenerated until all its characteristics of size, 

 form, color, and flavor are changed, such trees 

 may by judicious methods be so restored as not only 

 to be profitable in their own fruit, but as stocks for 

 grafting, forming if desirable entirely new heads. 



Already have some of my grafts (two years old) 

 began to bear, while all have taken such start that 

 in a few seasons the whole tops will be blossoming 

 with the Northern Spy, Wagner, Melon, Baldwin 

 and other valuable kinds. Thus assuredly, aside 

 from present pleasure and profit, ten years of time 

 has been gained. — Horticulturist. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 IS FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND 

 PROFITABLE ? 



BY nEXRY F. FRENCH. 



Nearly two-thirds of the present inhabitants of 

 New England are Farmers, by which we mean those 

 who make Agriculture, in some of its branches, 

 their principal business, and it certainly is a ques- 

 tion of some importance, whether so large a portion 

 of our citizens are engaged in the occupation most 

 profitable to themselves, and most profitable to the 

 community. 



Again and again, do we hear the question asked, 

 in one form or other, Is Farming profitable 1 Can 

 you make anything by Farming 1 followed often by 

 the assertion that Farming is the poorest business 

 that can be pursued, and that nobody can live by 

 it, in New England. 



And yet it is a fact, admitted the world over, 

 that nowhere, on the earth, does there exist a 

 people so moral, so well educated, so well fed and 

 clothed and sheltered, as this same New England 

 community ! 



How is this admitted fact to be reconciled with 

 the idea which prevails so widely — an idea that 

 banishes so many of our young men from the homes 

 of their fathers — that New England soil does not 

 yield an adequate support 1 



There are several classes of men who propose 

 these questions. There is, in the first place, the 

 class of those whom Mrs. Trollope adopts as the 

 type of the whole Yankee nation, two of whom, 

 she says, never talk together five minutes without 

 using the word dollar. 



These men have no idea of wealthy or worth, or 

 comfort, or prosperity, except as it be measured by 

 "the almighty dollar!" They seem to imagine 

 the great end and aim of their pilgrimage on earth 

 to be, to die rich, and are ready to bow down and 

 worship any golden calf, whether on four feet or 

 two, so they be certain the gold is there ! 



Some of these men are of the grand order of 

 creation. They fancy that splendor is happiness. 

 They woidd have services of gold and silver upon 

 their tables, ride in splendid carriages, and be 

 " clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sump- 

 tuously every day." They can conceive of no idea 

 of Happiness, except it be a gilded image. 



As to labor, they regard it as degrading, and fit 

 only for servants and men of the lower classes. 

 They have no conception of a higher state of exis- 



