258 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



try or fodder-way, and with no more effort than it 

 would take to throw a handful of meal into the 

 trough, places the movable stanchion in its up- 

 right position, which, by a falling latch or key, 

 fastens itself. 



The Telegraph thinks this arrangement for se- 

 curing the "unruly beef" altogether ahead of 

 "our" way. To me it seems quite evident that 

 some of the cattle would start back just at the 

 critical moment and leave the "latch" to "fasten 

 itself" and nothing else ; the horns Avould happen 

 to be on the wrong side ! 



The Telegraph suggests that the crank might 

 move "when an animal was looking round or 

 driving away a fly ; and then the whole thing must 

 be done over again." No, sir. Just pull out a 

 spring key and bolt, and get in the struggler in 

 a hurry. 



The cut in the Farmer could hardly represent 

 the whole plan. The rope might be brought 

 down behind the cows and attached to a crank or 

 lever. Now the Telegraph says, "the cattle in a 

 day or two thrust their heads through as freely as 

 they enter their stalls." Very good; then why 

 not fasten all at once 1 The Telegraph says curi 

 osity or a fly may keep some out. I think a man 

 behind the cattle with an alder might counteract 

 any opposition of that kind. It would be better 

 to feed the cattle before driving in, and they would 

 not hesitate about going to their places. 



The Telegraph thinks the letting so many loose 

 at once would be perilous in the extreme. With 

 a proper number of wide, sliding doors, there can 

 be no danger. 



The Telegraph concludes his article by a warm 

 approval of the stanchion method, but bids his 

 readers beware of the "ropes, cranks, pulleys, &c, 

 recommended in the east." w. d. b. 



Concord, Mass., April 21, 1852. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CISTERNS VS. WELLS." 



Mr. Editor: — I have seen it stated, where or 

 by whom I do not now recollect, that the water 

 which annually falls from the various out-buildings 

 of the farm was sufficient to supply the wants of 

 the ordinary amount of stock, during the season. 

 And it struck me quite forcibly that such an amount 

 of water, judiciously preserved, together with an 

 'apparatus properly and systematically arranged, 

 might be made to supply the place of a well at 

 much less expense and decidedly superior in point 

 of convenience. If you or any of the readers of 

 the Farmer, who have had any experience in this 

 method, will be pleased to report progress, or give 

 us a system of their operations, they will certainly 

 confer a favor. 



Yours, &c. R. II. Howard. 



Burlington, March 18, 1852. 



A Rapid Growth. — It has been stated to us that 

 Mr. Sylvester Newton, of Southboro', Mass., 

 grafted an apple tree in 1848, and in 1850 he gath- 

 ered from those grafts nine barrels of good market- 

 able apples, of the Baldwin variety ! Well, we are 

 glad of it, — but if we get them at that rate in four 

 or five years after setting the scions, we think we 

 do better than most of our neighbors. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE TREE. 



BY S.P. FOWLER. 

 [concluded. 1 



The subject of heading down old decayed apple 

 trees, and renovating such as are hastening to de- 

 cay, although an important one to many cultiva- 

 tors, has been but seldom mentioned in modern 

 fruit books. It is to the old writers, who wrote 

 forty or fifty years since, that we must look chiefly 

 for information upon this subject. It was by Mr. 

 Forsyth, an English gardener, that we were 

 made acquainted with a method of renovating 

 diseased and decayed fruit trees, in a "Treatise 

 on the culture and management of Fruit Trees," 

 published by William Cobbett in 1803, befcg the 

 first American edition. 



Peter W. Yates, Esq., of Albany, wrote a com- 

 munication, under date of Sept., 1803, containing 

 his observations published in Forsyth's Treatise, 

 wherein he says, I am fully satisfied that Mr. 

 Forsyth's remedy affords a radical cure for diseases, 

 defects and injuries, in all kinds of fruit trees ; 

 and that it may with equal success and advan- 

 tage be applied in this climate, as in England. 

 The chief value of this discovery was supposed to 

 consist in a composition, which caused the wood 

 to form rapidly, and soon to fill up and heal over 

 large cavities, caused by rot, in old and neglected 

 trees. It was likewise supposed to be equally 

 efficacious, when applied to wounds, caused by 

 grafting or the heading down of trees. When 

 trees had become hollow, it was Mr. Forsyth's 

 method to scoop out all the rotten, loose, and 

 dead parts of the trunk, till he came to the solid 

 wood, leaving the surface smooth ; then cover the 

 hollow with the composition. In a few years, if 

 the cavity is not large, it would be filled with new 

 wood. How much success, if any, in the renova- 

 tion of old and decayed fruit trees in this country 

 has attended the system of Mr. Forsyth, we are 

 unable to say. 



In the year 1802, Mr. Knight, the great Eng- 

 lish pomonologist, published some doubts relative 

 to the efficacy of Mr. Forsyth's plaster, in renovat- 

 ing trees, where he observed of this quackery, 

 [for which Forsyth was rewarded Avith a grant of 

 money,] that it afforded a much better proof that 

 he was paid for a discovery, than that he had made 

 one. To make this composition of Mr. Forsyth's, 

 take one bushel of fresh cow-dung, half a bushel 

 of lime, rubbish of old buildings, half a bushel of 

 wood-ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of 

 pit or river sand ; the three last articles are to be 

 sifted fine before they are mixed : then work them 

 well together with a spade, and afterv#irds with a 

 wooden beater, until the stuff is very smooth, like 

 fine plaster used for the ceiling of rooms. Mr. 

 Cobbett informs us, that Mr. Forsyth's method of 

 curing diseased and decayed fruit and forest trees 

 was, after a very minute examination, made by 

 men of great skill, pronounced to be highly bene- 

 ficial, both to individuals, and the public, and his 

 Majesty, at the recommendation of both Houses of 

 Parliament, granted him a reward of four thousand 

 pounds. This treatise was translated into §evcral 

 of the European languages, and received the high- 

 est encomiums. In writing the History of the 

 Apple Tree, we have thus noticed this once fa- 

 mous composition, Avhich was probably one of the 

 greatest humbugs [to use a word, not much used 



