214 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



in carrots, and as we have, perhaps, not been 

 fully understood, shall refer to the subject again. 

 We will merely say now, that we regard Col. Lin- 

 coln as one of the most careful and successful 

 farmers in the State — a gentleman who is ever 

 ready to advance the interests of this most delight- 

 ful branch of industry, either with his hands, 

 purse or pen ; who strives to promote it as a 

 science, yet looks at each new development with a 

 scrutinizing eye, so that no false doctrines maybe 

 engrafted upon the system which he adopts in cul- 

 tivating the soil. 



For the New England Farmer. 



INQUIRIES. 



Mr. Brown : — Will you or some of your corres- 

 pondents -answer a few questions through your 

 valuable paper. 



(a) Is Guano profitable here, where freight costs 

 32 cts. per cwt. from Boston, and manure is worth 

 $3,00 per cord? 



(6) riow much is required per acre for corn or 

 wheat, and how is it best applied to each? 



(c) Is it superior to common manure for root 

 crops ? 



(d) Are the succeeding crops as much benefited 

 by it as by common manure'? 



(e) Is the Mexican, advertised in your paper, as 

 good as the Peruvian, according to the price? 



By answering the above questions, you will con- 

 fer a favor on An Inquirer. 

 Pittsfield, N. H. 



Remarks. — (a) No : use manure instead. 



(b) As much as you can afford. A neighbor of 

 ours applied 300 pounds of guano with 1500 pounds 

 of plaster, ten bushels of ashes and three ox cart 

 loads of old finely pulverized meadow mud. This 

 was intimately mingled on the barn floor. In 

 twenty-four hours it had heated a little, and was 

 then applied, a table spoonful to each hill for corn. 

 The earth was pushed over the mixture with the 

 foot before dropping the corn upon it. The ground 

 had been moderately manured — which was plowed 

 in. This mixture was applied to eleven acres of 

 rather light land, and the produce was 900 bushels 

 of good sound ears of corn to the eleven acres ; ma- 

 king, probably, forty to forty-five bushels of shelled 

 corn to the acre. Guano should always be inti- 

 mately mingled with loam, or swamp mud, and 

 then applied if possible in moist weather. Applied 

 to wheat, mix as above. Saw broad cast and plow 

 in shallow. 



(c) No : nothing is superior to good composted 

 manure for any crop, until we are better acquainted 

 with the component parts of both soil and manure. 



(d) We think not. 



(r.) The Mexican guano is said to contain more 

 of the phosphates and less ammonia than the Pe- 

 ruvian. If your land lacks phosphates the Mexi- 

 can is best. If your cows are in the habit of 

 chewing all the old bones they can come at, it 



would be one evidence that the Mexican would be 

 the best for you. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NURSERY AND TRANSPLANTING. 



BY A. G. SHELDON. 



Were I about to select a piece of land for a 

 nursery, I should choose a sandy loam that is free 

 from stones. I would be careful that there should 

 be no hollows where water would stand and ice 

 freeze in the winter. It will be found convenient 

 in cultivating the trees to have the land perfectly 

 free from stones. I think it well to have the rows 

 from 4 to 5 feeb wide. This gives good room to 

 take up the trees in one row without injuring the 

 roots of the others. When the trees become big 

 enough to inoculate and at the time of inoculating, 

 it is well to cover the ground with meadow grass. 

 This preserves the moisture in the earth, and if 

 the weather should prove dry, as it often does in 

 the month of August, the buds will be much more 

 likely to live. In wet, misty weather, sift ashes 

 on to nursery trees — this helps to preserve their 

 health. One, two, and three years' growth from 

 the bud is the right time to transplant the trees. 

 In taking the trees from the nursery, always be 

 sure that the spade is sharp, to cut the roots 

 smooth. Be sure that you cut off the tap-root un- 

 der the tree, lest you should strain the tree in 

 pulling it up. Trees should be taken up early in 

 the spring. If your ground is not dry enough for 

 setting out your trees, cover up the roots with 

 earth in a cool place where the sun will not shine 

 on the tops ; let them remain until the land is 

 fit to receive them. When you set them out 

 dig the hole broad enough to receive the roots 

 at the whole length in the same direction from the 

 trunk that they had naturally grown, and set 

 them as near as possible the same depth that they 

 grew in the nursery. Fine pulverized soil from 

 the garden or from the corn hills well warmed by 

 the sun is good to sift in among the roots. After 

 the tree is set out, it is well to lay some flat stones 

 around them ; this will keep down the roots and 

 steady the bodies in the wind much better than 

 staking. If the season should prove dry, put 

 about the trees some hay or straw by the last of 

 June or first of July ; let this remain till the first 

 of October, then remove it for fear of mice, and 

 put about the body of the tree compost manure. 

 In the spring, spread this out as far as the end of 

 the roots. If you can keep the whole of the 

 ground plowed in the young orchard it is well ; if 

 you cannot, never let the grass grow anywhere 

 within the length of the roots of the tree. 



Particular care should be taken in pruning trees, 

 that the top be well balanced. I have thought, 

 sometimes, that it needed a hard-hearted man to 

 trim an orchard, for if a branch be ever so thrifty 

 where it is not needed to balance the tree, it should 

 be cut off; this done, although you have nothing 

 but a bud left in the right place, you will soon find 

 the branch where it is needed. Very small limbs 

 may be cut off in May. Large limbs should be 

 cut in August. Wood, cut at this time, will re- 

 main sound and hard, although it may lie smne 

 years healing over. Wash trees once or twice a 

 year with soap suds and ashes, and scrub them 

 with an old broom. Destroy all caterpillars' eggs 

 in the month of March. From what I have 



