NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



551 



ture and of the different products of his trees and 

 fields, I have sometimes thought that there was a 

 deep instinct of my heart which drew me to these 

 objects, as the natural interests and employments 

 of man. And who knows but such an instinct is 

 common to us all, giving to our thought and labor 

 an inborn direction, which all education and habit 

 cannot quite overcome, and which pleads with so 

 many of all callings and professions to go back to 

 man's primitive employment, the tilling of the 

 soil!" 



Very many of the same sentiments were ex- 

 pressed by Rev. Mr. Huntington, in his speech at 

 the Norfolk County Agricultural Society's dinner- 

 table, a few days since. He spoke of the course 

 of an upright, intelligent farmer, as being a con- 

 stant sermon to the minister. We are glad to see 

 the effect the preaching and practice of the New 

 England Farmer is having on the ministers. It 

 will do them good. w. R. d. 



THE HUSBANDMAN. 



Ah! but too happy, if they knew their bliss, 



The husbandmen; for whom the righteous earth, 



Far from discordant arms, pours forth her stores 



Of ready sustenance. What if for ihem 



No lofty mansion from its ample porch 



Vomit each morn a sycophantic tide; 



What, if no decorated columns move 



The admiring crowd; no broidered gold disguise 



Their simple vests, nor Grecian vase for them 



I'rnject its graceful form; no Tyrian dye 



Their spotless wool, nor vitiating use 



Of Eastern perfume taint their wholesome oil ? 



Yet rest secure, and life that ne'er deceives; 



Rich in various wealth of wide domains; 



Caves and the living lake; yet cooling vales 



And lowing herds and shaded slumbers sweet 



Are thine. For them the woodland glade expands; 



Tiieirs are the pleasures of the chase, a youth 



Oflabor patient, and of frugal fare; 



Theirs the pure altar; theirs old age revered : 



Leaving 'mongst them her vestiges extreme 



Departing Justice fled the haunts of men. 



For lite New Eng-land Farmer. 



MISMANAGEMENT WITH APPLE 

 TREES. 



Mr. Editor : — I send you some of my views re- 

 specting the improper management of apple trees, 

 which if you should think might be conducive to 

 the benefit of mankind, you will please to insert in 

 your valuable paper. I shall commence the sub- 

 ject in an abrupt style, by saying, if a coroner's 

 inquest were held over four-fifths of the apple trees 

 that have died in Vermont and Northern New 

 York within the past twenty years, the verdict 

 would be, died of starvation. There is scarcely a 

 person who has followed husbandry ten years, that 

 does nit know that it will not answer to take off 

 more than five or six crops of grain in succession 

 from a piece of land without manure ; but the 

 same man takes off from ten to fifteen crops of ap- 

 ples from his orchard without adding manure ; and 

 when the crops begin to grow light, the fruit small 

 and of inferior quality, he begins to inquire for 

 the cause of such light crops. He asks his neigh- 

 bor what is the matter with his orchard. (Pre- 

 tends to be very wise himself, but likes to get the 

 opinion of his neighbors.) His neighbor tells him 

 it needs pruning, and he soon prepares for the busi- 

 ness. He is very much afraid of cost, and there- 



fore tries to find a man that will do it cheap. 

 (Most farmers, if they are obliged to have a leg 

 or an arm cut off, employ the most skilful surgeons 

 who perform the operation with the sharpest and 

 finest of instruments, but the same men generally 

 employ the cheapest bunglers they can find to cut 

 off the limbs of their apple trees.) He soon finds 

 a cheap bungler ; and to make it come cheaper, 

 he hires him by the job, and gives him all the 

 branches to pay for the labor. This induces him 

 to cut off twice as much as he otherwise woul d 

 have done. (I wish to have it borne in mind, that 

 every branch above, has its corresponding root be- 

 low, and when a large branch is cut off, its root is 

 more or less paralyzed, and a derangement in the 

 circulation takes place, similar to that occasioned 

 in the human body by cutting off a leg or arm.) 

 He now commences the work of death upon the 

 orchard with an old dull axe, and cuts or haggles 

 off one-half of the branches. The next year the 

 apples being much larger, Mr. Unthrifty thinks 

 he has accomplished the great object. The reason 

 why the apples are larger is, the few branches re- 

 ceive the same nutriment that the many received 

 before. The branches being improperly cut off, 

 the stocks do not heal over, but soon die, rot, and 

 form holes into the trees ; these holes let in the 

 water, which soon destroys the inside of the trunk. 

 This, together with the great derangement in the 

 circulation, occasioned by cutting off too many 

 large branches, and want of food, act so powerful- 

 ly upon the vitality of the trees, that after vainly 

 struggling for a few years, they give up the ghost 

 and die ; and who blames them ? surely no man of 

 understanding can. 



The husbandman now finds his plans frustrated, 

 and again inquires of his neighbor what has caused 

 the death of his orchard. (His neighbor don't 

 know enough to tell him that starvation was the 

 principal cause.) He tells him that the climate 

 does not agree with old apple trees in this latitude 

 at the present day, and the only thing he can do, 

 is to set out a young orchard. He says to him- 

 self, this will be of no use to me, for I am now six- 

 ty years of age, but as I have children who are 

 find of good fruit, I will set out a few to gratify 

 them. The first step he takes is to find where he 

 can obtain the trees cheapest, without any regard 

 to the manner in which they have been trained. 

 (One tree properly trained, and properly set, pro- 

 duces more clear profit the first twenty years, than 

 ten set otherwise.) As he i3 a man who deals 

 mostly in cheap articles, he employs a man to fur- 

 nish the trees and set them by the job. (This is 

 the worst kind of jobbing I ever heard of.) This 

 he does for eighteen cents apiece. It is generally 

 the case that people who work by the job, try to 

 make as good a job as possible. He is therefore 

 very careful not to dig the holes too large. He 

 digs fiem about as large as a peck measure ; into 

 these small cavities, surrounded by a very hard 

 soil, he crams in the roots of the trees, and if he 

 cannot get them all into the hole, he cuts off a 

 part of them with his shovel. (Whenever the 

 roots of trees are cut off, it should be done with ;i 

 very sharp instrument.) He then throws back 

 the sods and lumps around the trees and pronoun- 

 ces them set in first rate order. He then receives 

 his pay and is off in a hurry. Mr. Unthrifty soon 

 expects to see a thrifty young orchard, but is very 

 much disappointed. The trees being improperly 



