'arm^r! 



l^isitcrt. 



COXDUCTED BY ISAAC HILI.. 



* Those who ladob in teje barth are the chosen peovle of Goo, whosb DREAiTs he has made iiiafeculiau deposit e fok sugsta.^tiai. and genuine virtue.*' — Jefferson. 



VOLUME V. 



CONCORD, N. H. JULY 31, 1843. 



NUMBER 7. 



TUH FAKMBK'S MONTHLY VISITOll, 



PlIBLISHEU BV 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED OX THE LAST UAV OF KVERY MO.NTH, 



At No. 3, UiliH Brick BI«»ck. 



{t:^GENEr.AL Agents. — B. Cook, Kofne, N H. ; Thomas 

 R. Hamptun, VVasIiiniiton City, Dt C. ; John Marsh, Wash- 



■ingtfcn St. Boston, Mass.; Charles Wahren, Brinley How, 

 Worcester, Mas^'. 



TERMS. — To single subscribert:, Fijly Cents. Ten per 

 cent, will be allowed to the person who shall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will be sent tor the advance 

 payment of Five Ehllars; twenty-five copies for Ten Dollars: 

 sixty copies for Ticcnty Dollars. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



^;^Moni:tj and suhscripiioiiSf by a regulation of the Poif Jifasttr 

 General, inaij in all cases be remitted try the Post Master, free of 

 postage. 



{fc5"A" genlleni'ii who have bereloi'orc acted as Agents aie 

 yequest::'d to continue their A^encj'. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of the names 

 already on our bookci. 



(S:hc i1loittl)lij lUsitoiv 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The Honse Alartin. 



This in one of the hirds that (bllovvs the resi- 

 <lence of" man, and mostly resides nloiij; with 

 hiin in populous cities and towns. Almost the 

 highest antiquity of literature mi>kes mention of 

 liini, and as the "guest of slimmer" the martin 

 is known in the temperate zone all over the 

 glohe. 



Viewed even as we are happy to believe most 

 birds now are becoming, he is harmless and no 

 donht quite lieneficial. Living upon flies the 

 multitudes of those insects that are generated in 

 such immbers in all populous places, there is no 

 estiiniiiing the vast nimibers that are daily, dur- 

 ing the season, destroyed by these birds. On 

 the wing ibr a greater part of the time from the 

 dawn of morning to the dusky twilight of even- 

 ing, and every deviation in their flight, every 

 curvature snaps up a fly or a ninsqnitoe, and the 

 number of insects amounting to thousands found 

 at once in the cruw of a martin only gives us an 

 idea of the quantity these numerous birds devour 

 in a day. How pleasant, is it not, to watch them 

 upon the stoops of their little miniature liouses, 

 with their shiny blue black plumage, talking, 

 scolding, and cliallerins with each other, as if 

 there were great diflieuhy in maintaining the 

 discipline and order of their little abodes; then 

 a whole group will take wing together and go 

 floating up and down, and sweeping off" in all 

 directions for tniles, and then relnrniMg as it were 

 by previous conse?it for another coBoquy for a 

 quarter of an lioiu-. In a hot day of midsimi- 

 mer as the heavy thunder cloud comes ptishing 

 column after column of heavy black clouds, 

 when the deep toned thimder that follows the 

 quick flashes, drives all other of the feathered 

 race to timely shelter, then the martin called in- 

 to action as it were by the sublimity of the war- 

 ring elements, may be seen high up and near the 

 coming clouds, whether the insect tribe are driv- 

 en into the eddy of the winds, which oppose and 

 lift u heavy cloud and push it onward, we cannot 

 tell but in that sli'Iness which pervades where 

 the onward wind that diives the cloud conquers, 

 unawed and apparently busy in this little wind, 

 and does not im-n or depart for his well known 

 shelter until the storm compels him, for when it 

 at length reaches him, when it is fast wafting its 

 torrents to the very place where his shelter is, 

 then, and not imtil then, with a hasty stoop he 

 drops to his shelter and cree|)s in. It is (ileasant 

 to hear as soon as the east is streaked with the 

 coming day the martin begins liis chatter, wel- 

 coming the day; and does it not speak in favor 

 of those who erect little houses or boxes for 

 their accommodation. Is it not probable that 

 those who thus care for these birds are pot also 



friends to each other, and whether it be fancy or 

 fact we, have sometimes been attracted to a pub- 

 lic house in preference because we saw a niartio 

 box on the sign post along with the sign. 



In the spring as soon as the weather is warm 

 enough to breed the insects, upon which they 

 live, the martin comes, or rather once carae, aryd 

 is now beginning to cotne again. In the spring 

 of 18.3(), during the mouth of May, when the 

 martins in New Vork, Ohio, and Baltimore had 

 built their nests, laid their eggs, and some of 

 them had young. -A long storn>from the North- 

 east prevailed for upwards of two weeks, during 

 the whole of which the sky was obscured by 

 clouds and rain or mist continued during the 

 whole time. An acquaintance had a number of 

 boxes peopled by martins, and unaWe to get food 

 all this lime, they died upon tliei*' nests, leaving 

 their eggs and young to perish, or dropped down 

 from their boxes. It was almost a complete 

 destruction of these birds in all our Atlantic 

 cities and a friend informed the writer that bush- 

 els of dead birds were found inone of the Uni- 

 ted' States sliip houses where tliey had built. So 

 imusual an event attracted my notice at the time, 

 and since in conversing with different persons 

 upon the subject, they have' informed me that 

 this desolating scourge of the martins was pre- 

 vented by the Alleghany range of mountains, as 

 they o|)posed a barrier to tlie storm. Beyond 

 them in the cities of the west, where sunshine 

 was while the storm existed hero, there of coiu'se 

 no such consequences followed. From 1836, to 

 the present, the martins have not made up 

 for the loss. Indeed for one or two of the suc- 

 ceeding simimers we did not see a single bird of 

 the species, and to this time they are {esv in 

 nunilier compared to the previous stock. Tliere 

 is, we believe, no doubt that the same birds re- 

 turn, if alive, and the young also to the places of 

 their former residence or birth, the oft'spring, of 

 course, to find new abodes in their native cities, 

 growing with their giowth. Hence may we not 

 expect that it will yet take years to su[)ply the 

 devastation of the cold rain storm of 183t), which 

 seven years since has scarce begim to make up. 

 The little houses of their ancestry still are open 

 for their reception, cheerless and still as the va- 

 cant hiunan habitations, they have been, but with 

 more propitious seasons may we not hope to see 

 the " temple haimting martinet" animating the 

 sky above us, hear again his spirited chattering, 

 as we awaken from the refreshing slumbers of 

 our sunnner nights. K. 



Budding. 



Budding, or grafting by germs, says Mr. Lou- 

 don, consists, in ligneous plants, in taking an eye 

 or bud attached to a portion of the bark, and 

 transporting it to a place on another or different 

 ligneous vegetable. In herbaceous vegetables 

 the same operation may be performed, but with 

 less success. The object in view in budding, 

 is almost always that of grafting, and depends on 

 the same principle, all the diflTerence between a 

 bud and a scion being, that a bud is a shoot or 

 action in embryo; in other respects, budding is 

 conducted on the same principles as grafting 

 In every case, the bud and the stock must be 

 botanically related. An apple may be budded on 

 a pear or thorn, but not upon a plum or peach. 

 Common budding is performed from the begin- 

 ning of July to the middle of August. 



It is indispensible that the hud, to bo inserted, 

 should bo fully formed or ripe. After the incis- 

 ion of the slock, great care nuist be taken in rais- 

 ing the bark, that the cantbium be not scraped or 

 injiu'ed. The cambium is that soft portion be- 

 tween the wood and the bark destined to give 

 support to the descending fibres of the buds, 

 which fibres subsequently become embedded in 

 it. In budding, therefore, the bark must be very 

 carefully lifted up, and not forced from the wood 



with n bone or metal blade as is too often done. 



For propagating choice fruit, the o|)eration of 

 budding possesses several advantages over that of 

 grafting. "It is," says Buel, " more readily per- 

 formed, with fevier implements, less preparation, 

 and with greater auqcess ; it does not injin-e the 

 stock if unsuccessful, and the operation may be 

 twice or thrice repeated the same year, as the sea- 

 son for its performance is protracted, for some one 

 or other of the varieties, for some three months. 

 Although Jtiiy and August constitute the ordinary 

 season for buddmg, the plum and cherry may 

 often be budded in the latter part of June, and 

 the [)each, apricot and. nectarine as laSe as the 

 middle of September. 



" The fii'st consideration is to pravide stalks, if 

 this provision has not already been made. Seeds 

 may be collected the coming season in almost 

 every family. Those of stone fruit may be mix- 

 ed with earth, or deposited in a hole in the gar- 

 den, and in the autumn buried superficially in 

 the earth, to expose them to the expanding in- 

 ftnence of the frost; and in the spring those of 

 the peaeh and plum that have not burst the shell 

 should be cracked, and the whole sowu in n well 

 prepai-ed seed bed. The cherries may be sown 

 immediately after they are taken from the fruit, 

 and the apple, pear, and quince either in autumn 

 or spring. All the kinds will generally grow the 

 first season. The same rule applies to plants as 

 to animals; the better condition they are kept 

 in while yoimg, the more profitable they will be- 

 come at maturity. Thus two or three rods of 

 ground will suffice a farmer for a nursery of 

 choice fruit, from which he may replenish his 

 orchard anil his garden at pleasure, and readily 

 appropriate to his use every new variety which 

 comes under his observation. No one will re- 

 gret the labor and attention which he has be- 

 stowed on a little plantation of this kind, after 

 he has begim to realize the fruits of it. Orna- 

 mental shrubs and tiees, to embellish the grounds 

 about his buildings, may be added without cost 

 and with trifling labor." — Fanners^ Encydop. 



New mode of Grafting. 



Editors of Cultivator: — Mr. C. L. Whiting 

 of Granville, showed mc a mode of grafting 

 which I do not recollect having before beard of. 

 It was done by taking young trees or sprouts 

 from the root or stump of a tree, of the size of 

 the finger, splitting them through the centre at 

 intervals of a foot or so, inserting scions in these 

 splits at right angles with the tree, and then 

 bending down the tree and covering it slightly 

 with earth— leaving above the surtiice two or 

 three buds of the scions, and leaving out, also, a 

 few inches of the top of the tree. Thus fixed, 

 it is said each scion will become a tree, and when 

 sufficiently grown, may be taken out and trans- 

 planted. Mr. Whiting showed me several apple 

 trees which had been grafted in this way, one of 

 which had some half dozen pear scions in it, 

 that all appeared growing v/e\l.—Mbany Culti- 

 vator. 



V'ermiiv OS VipEs. — We hope our gardeners 

 will make various trials this summer, to destroy 

 the bugs and worms thai, are so officious among 

 garden plants. Charcoal dust can be readily 

 procureii in most places, and this article is bene- 

 ficial to the plants in several ways — it improves 

 the soil by attracting nitrous substances, and it 

 raises the temperature about the plants around 

 which it is placed, since the rays from the sun 

 arc not reflected back as they are from light col- 

 ored substances. But charcoal dust is always 

 offensive to insects and grubs, and though it may 

 not kill them, it will djive them away. A little 

 may be sifted over the plants every day or two, 

 ami we incline to think that charcoal will prove 

 to be as good an article as any that has been re- 

 commended/or garden jilantn. — Mast. Plough'n. 



