426 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WHirE WHORTLEBERRIES. 



Mr. Editor : — I send you a box containing a 

 quantity of white whortleberries, that you may see 

 the kind of whortleberries that grow in Mansfield. 

 There is a patch of them in the woods, about 

 three-fourths of a mile east of Mansfield Railroad 

 station-house. They have grown there from time- 

 immemorial. They are surrounded by the black 

 kind, in close continuity, without being mixed at 

 all : that is, they are surrounded by the black 

 whortleberry, but none are intermixed in the patch 

 — there is no amalgamation. The blossoms are 

 white, and appear the fore-part of June. The 

 black kind have red blossoms. The leaves, bushes 

 and all about them are exactly alike. They are 

 real Albinoes. 



Hayward, in his Gazetteer of Massachusetts, 

 mentions them, to which I refer you. I have not 

 the book at hand. 



I intend to plant the seed to see whether they 

 will produce the same kind. I apprehend not. 

 The late Dr. Roland Greene dug up some of the 

 vines to set in his garden, which grew well and 

 bore well. 



Yours, &e., Isaac Stearns. 



Mansfield, July 3, 1852. 



P. S. The sample I sent you are not very nice, 

 as the dry weather has injured them, and as I had 

 engaged a person living in the vicinity to pick them 

 when ripe, but he has picked them before they 

 were really ripe, as you may see that many green 

 ones are among them. He was afraid others would 

 pick them if he did not, as they are much sought 

 after. If I can have a better lot by and by I will 

 send them to you. 



_ I would state that there are a few of another 

 kind of white whortleberries about a mile east of 

 the above, which grow on bushes exactly like the 

 sweet blue kind — the berries taste like them, but 

 have a slight reddish tinge. i. s. 



Remarks. — The berries mentioned above we re- 

 ceived in good order, were handsome and of very 

 fine flavor. We hope they will be cultivated, and 

 made plenty, as such fruits are wholesome and 

 eagerly sought after. 



DEATH OP A. J. DOWNING, ESQ. 



^ The melancholy death of this gentleman will be 

 sincerely mourned not only by his personal friends, 

 but by the thousands who have become acquainted 

 with him through the medium of his writings. The 

 following just trihute to his talents and worth is 

 from the N. Y. Tribune: 



Among the victims by the destruction of the 

 Henry Clay there is none whom the country could 

 so ill afford to lose or whose services to the com- 

 munity can so little be replaced as Mr. Downing, 

 of Newburg. A man of genius and of high cul- 

 ture, thoroughly disciplined in his profession by 

 long study and observation in Europe ; with taste 

 refined and judgment true enough to feel the de- 

 ficiences and to know the need of our domestic 

 and especially of our rural, architecture ; still in 

 the prime of life and exercising a wide influence 

 by hia practical labors as well as by his writings, 

 he is snatched from a sphere of high and beautiful 

 utility, and a successor we cannot hope to find. 



What Mr. Downing had done and was doing to 

 improve the fashion of our dwellings, hardly sur- 

 passed in value his contributions, theoretical and 

 practical, to the kindred art of landscape garden- 

 ing. Under his directing hand the grounds of 

 the Capitol and the Smithsonian Institute at 

 Washington were being transformed into models 

 of beauty in their kind ; and the grounds about 

 many private mansions also bear testimony to the 

 same taste, the same wise sense of beauty and fit- 

 ness. 



As a writer Mr. Downing was remarkable for a 

 mixture of strong sense, thorough understanding 

 of his subject, and genial originality. The cessa- 

 tion of his monthly essays in the Horticulturist 

 will leave a permanent blank in the literature of 

 the Domestic Arts. While he drew his materials 

 from the most varied culture, he was always, and 

 in the most frank and manly way, an American. 

 His chief aim was to refine the taste, and elevate 

 the social life and habits of his countrymen to 

 something like the ideal proper to freemen. An 

 artist, a scholar and a gentleman, we deplore his 

 untimely loss ; and a wide circle of acquaintances, 

 who with us recall his eminent social as well as 

 public qualities, will join with us in this tribute to 

 his memory. 



For the New England Farmer. 



AN EXPERIMENT— THE BORER. 



Mr. Brown: — Your correspondent, "E. M.," has 

 discovered either anew species of apple tree borer, 

 or that the old is making "progress" in iniquity, 

 by sawing as well as boring. 



In relation to the common borer, I wish to say, 

 that three or four of my young apple trees, from 

 three to four inches through, were found in the 

 spring to exhibit evidence of deep infection, and 

 shortly the leaves began to fade, and I almost gave 

 them up for lost. As an experiment, I piled earth 

 in the shape of a cone round them, to reach some 

 inches above the entrance holes, and with the 

 shovel patted it hard. The object, to exclude the 

 air, and so kill the borer, or oblige him to loose 

 his hold. One valuable tree was full of apples, of 

 the size of a walnut. They all dropped off, with 

 most of the leaves. To my surprise, in July new 

 leaves came out, and on the 19th new blossoms. 

 This tree, as well as the others operated upon, 

 have recovered, and I have strong grounds to be- 

 lieve I shall save them all. j. p. 



Keene, JV. H., August 1. 



Remarks. — Simple experiments sometimes pro- 

 duce most beneficial results. The steam engine, 

 our farm implements, and in fact most that we 

 know has sprung from a series of simple experi- 

 ments. A few years since it was scarcely believed 

 that our most forbidding swamp-lands were good 

 for anything, while now we are getting the heaviest 

 crops of English hay from them. Some one with 

 a progressive spirit made the experiment of re- 

 claiming, and it has proved of great value to most 

 farmers. The borer is an exceedingly vexatious 

 and destructive creature. While we write, one of 

 them is wriggling about upon our paper, which we 

 have just extracted from the branch of an oak. — 

 Although three-fourths of an inch in diameter, he 



