110 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



was invented by Louis S. Robbins, of New York, 

 by whom a patent of it has been secured. — Boston 

 Cultivator. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 KEEPING FRUIT— INQUIRIES. 



Mr. Editor: — Having had no experience in test- 

 ing the various modes of keeping fruit, I wish to 

 obtain your advice in regard to the situation of a 

 fruit (a.) cellar ; whether you would give it a 

 northern or a southern exposure. I have in my 

 orchard a small hill, on three sides of which I can 

 situate a cellar and get a convenient outside door. 

 Which of the three would you advise me to use 

 expressly for fruit ? I am about two miles from 

 Lake Ontario, and we are subject to much wind 

 from the west ; and in airing the cellar on the 

 west, may I expose the fruit to frost. Will there 

 be any advantage derived by building a hollow 

 wall ? I have now about forty acres of orcharding 

 and mostly spring fruit, and I should like to be 

 able to keep it till spring. Any suggestion you 

 may be pleased to make in regard to the accom- 

 plishment of that object, will be most gratefully 

 received. 



I design to put out about a thousand dwarf 

 pears in the spring, and the White Doyenne (b.) 

 being a favorite pear in New York, I have thought, 

 on that account, I should like to cultivate them if 

 they will do well on the quince. I would ask al- 

 so if the Bartlett (c.) will do as well on the 

 quince ? I have about forty growing on the pear 

 stock, and have been induced to think they were 

 not very hardy in this locality. I do not like yet 

 to give them up. Yours, respectfully, 



W. H. Rogers. 



Putney ville, Wayne Co., N. Y. 



Remarks. — (a.) Apples keep best in a cool, 

 damp cellar. In a recent conversation with Mr. 

 E. W. Bull, of Concord, in tins State, one of the 

 most intelligent cultivators of fruit among us, and 

 whose accuracy in horticultural matters is refresh- 

 ing, he said he had found apples perfectly sound 

 in his cellar long after their usual season, although 

 water had constantly stood in the drain, which 

 was one foot deep, near the wall, all around the 

 cellar — the soil being a heavy loam. In another 

 cellar which he occupied, the earth being a dry, 

 sandy loam, all kinds of fruits and vegetables de- 

 cayed early. 



A double wall in a fruit cellar is hardly neces- 

 sary. A large cellar under a building — damp, but 

 not wet, and furnished with ventilating tubes to 

 admit the cold air when necessary, so as to keep 

 the cellar nearly down to the freezing point, 

 would keep fruit better than any other place, ex- 

 cepting, possibly, an ice-house, which it would 

 nearly resemble. 



With regard to the aspect of a cellar, we should 

 prefer an eastern or northern exposuro ; and 

 doable doors, that is, two doors two or three feet 

 apart, would bo of great service in preventing an 

 access of air in the warm season. 



From the fact that apples have been kept two 

 years in a sound state by packing in plaster, there- 



by wholly excluding the air, it would not seem to 

 be necessary to ventilate the cellar for any other - 

 purpose than to regulate the temperature. 



(b.) The White Doyenne pear, we believe, 

 does well on the quince, in all locations. It does 

 well on the pear in New York, on the testimony 

 of Mr. Downing — which is good authority. 



(c.) The Bartlett does not succeed perfectly 

 here on the quince. On its own roots it is some- 

 times tender, though a great grower. It would 

 probably do best grafted on full grown trees of 

 hardy and vigorous habit. Treated thus, they 

 have proved hardy in localities where they could 

 not otherwise be grown. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



The public has already been apprized that a 

 course of lectures would be given at Albany, the 

 present winter, on sciences connected with Agricul- 

 ture. The lectures, which are given by professors 

 in the University, commenced on the 13 th of Janu- 

 ary, under favorable circumstances. A class of 

 some thirty-six young men from various parts of 

 the State are in attendance, and if they do not re- 

 turn to their homes at the close of the term, 

 viewing the farmers' profession in a new and en- 

 viable light, — fairly in love with its beauties, it 

 will be no fault of those who teach. 



And supposing they do go home altogether 

 wiser than they were, who will for a moment sup- 

 pose but that the knowledge they gain will turn 

 to so practical an account, that its benefits will 

 show themselves before another winter will whiten 

 the fields with snow? The consequence will be, 

 they will be anxious next winter to return to the 

 fountain whence they were refreshed, and a host 

 of others seeing the thing is no humbug, will be 

 anxious to go with them. 



And so the State of New York has set a new 

 ball in motion for the benefit of farmers, by open- 

 ing facilities for them to acquire the knowledge 

 which the complicated nature of their calling so 

 vigorously demands. And this ball will roll on, 

 propelled by the enterprise of her citizens, until 

 its influence will be universal through the State. 



An experimental farm will probably be secured 

 the present season, where practice will illustrate 

 the beauties of science for the benefit of her sons ; 

 and in troth, we believe that at no distant day, 

 she will have at least one experimental farm, in 

 each senatorial district, fully equipped with its 

 teachers and all the paraphernalia necessary to its 

 success. Surely New York is a great State. Great 

 in her territory, vast in her resources, but great- 

 est of all in the expansive views and enlightened 

 liberality of her sons. 



Where is our agricultural school in Massachu- 

 setts? Fifteen months ago we had one in pros- 

 pect with much more certainty than the State of 

 New York. The able report of the commissioners 

 on the subject fully explains the utility of the 

 thing. Many in different parts of the State were 

 anxious to see the experiment in a way of solu- 

 tion. But when shall we see it 1 Evelyn. 



Jtir No man has ever regretted that he was vir- 

 tuous and honest in his yout'h. 



