The farmers* register. 



173 



as the other parts of llie field, and their bein^ 

 surrounded on all^ides by wheal very badly rust- 

 ed shows coftclusively that the lime and ashes 

 were the sole causes of the difference. 



1 hope the foregoing lacts will be sufficient to 

 induce some trials of the efficacy of" lime and ash- 

 es ill preventing rust, by those who have the 

 means of doing so ; the end in view is of suffi- 

 cient importance to jusiify 'he labor and expense 

 of many experiments. The quantity of lime and 

 ashes, in the example related above, is much great- 

 er than can, or perhaps ought to be applied in or- 

 dinary cases, but the lime operated effectively af- 

 ter 30 years, and the ashes alter 7 or 8. A much 

 smaller quantity applied annually might produce 

 the same effect. 



As lime is an essential ingredient of good wheat 

 soils, may not the many failures of the wl eat 

 crop be ov/ing, in some degree, to the absence of 

 lime* from most of the land cultivated in that 

 crop 1 



The efficacy of lime, on what is called lime- 

 elone land, is strikingly illustrated by the acciden- 

 <a^ experiment I have detailed above. 



Lexington, Fa. Feb. 20, 1S41. War. Tate. 



P. S. In one of the volumes of the Transac- 

 tions of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, (I 

 have not the work by me, and do not recollect the 

 volume,) there is an interesting article on the 

 causes of rust, which, if it has not already been 

 published in the Register, I have no doubt many 

 of your readers would be obliged to you for pub- 

 lishing. 



OF THE SOIL MOST SUITABLE FOR APPLE 

 TREES. 



From the Western Farmer and Gardener. 



The successful cultivation of the apple depends 

 very much on the suitableness ofthe ground they 

 are planted in. The size and flavor of the fruit, 

 the general health and duration of trees are most 

 commonly the result of good or bad soil. Cli- 

 mate and situation also affect both trees and fruit ; 

 but not in the degree in which the same are af- 

 fected by the qualities predominant in the land. 

 Of all the different descriptions of soil to be met 

 with, that of a soft hazel loam, containing a small 

 portion of sand, seems to be most congenial to 

 the apple generally. In such soil the tree is seen 

 to ffourish longest, is most productive, and re- 

 nnains freest from disease or attack of insects. 

 A great depth is not requisite ; eighteen or twen- 

 ty inches deep being quite enough, provided it be 

 on a dry subsoil of gravel or loose rock. If the 

 bottom be wet, the trees should be planted high, 

 and every means taken to drain the ground. A 

 wet bottom of gravelly clay should be avoided if 

 possible. 



Deep rich soils in sheltered situations are 

 not the most proper for the apple, for it is often 

 seen that apple trees succeed vveil in any kind of 

 loam, though it be not more than one foot in 

 depth, so as the bottom is sound and dry, the 

 roots fake on extensive horizontal range, the 

 young wood is always of more moderate growth, 



• Essay on Calcareous Manures. P. 61, 1st edition. 



and better ripened than when roots strike deep 

 into the ground. 



Although local circumstances often control the 

 works of the [ilanter, compelling hitn to fix on a 

 site where the soil may not be exacily what is re- 

 commended above ; he must, in this case, endea- 

 vor to make the soil by trenching, draining, and 

 by addition of the qualities wanting, biing it as 

 near to the standard as possible. 



Situation and aspect for planting apple trees. — 

 The situation of an orchard should neither be in 

 the bottom of a narrow valley, nor on the top of 

 a hill: in the first, the young wood is never so 

 well ripened, the buds are olien too early excited 

 in the spring, and there frosts are always more 

 intensely felt : in the second, Iruil-bearing trees 

 are always too much exposed to winds. The 

 most desirable site is the side of a hill which 

 slopes gently to the southeast, that being the 

 most sheltered situation in this western country. 

 But when the violence of a west wind is broken 

 by an intervening rise of ground, a south-west 

 aspect has been Ibund equal to any. 



FROZEN WELL. 



Near Owego occurs this apparent contradiction 

 of Nature's laws, which is thus described, by a 

 correspondent, in Silliman^s Journal. 



The well is excavated on a table ol land, elevat- 

 ed about thirty feet above the bed ofthe Susquehan- 

 na river, and distant from it three-fourths of a mile 

 The depth of the well, from the surface to the bot- 

 tom, is said to be seventy-seven feel ; but for four 

 or five months in the year, the surface of the 

 water is frozen so solid as to be entirely useless to 

 the inhabitants. On the 23d of the present 

 month, (Feb.) in company with a friend, I mea- 

 sured the depth, and found it to be sixty-one feet 

 from the surface of the earth to the ice which 

 covers the water in the well, and this ice we found 

 it impossible to break with a heavy iron weight 

 attached to a rope. The sides of the well are 

 nearly covered with masses of ice, which, increas- 

 ing in the descent, leave but about afoot space 

 (in diameter) at the bottom. A thermometer let 

 down to the bottom, sunk 38® in fifteen minutes, 

 being 68*^ in the sun, and 30° at the bottom of 

 the well. The well has been dug twenty-one 

 years, and I am informed, by a very credible 

 person who assisted in the excavation, that a man 

 could not endure to work in it more than two 

 hours at a time, even with extra clothing, al- 

 though in the month of June, and the weather 

 excessively hot. The ice remains until very late 

 in the season, and is often drawn up in the months 

 of June and July. Samuel Mathews drew from 

 the well a large piece of ice on the 25th day of 

 July, 1837, and it is common to find it there on 

 the 4th of July. 



The well is situated in the highway, about one 

 mile northwestof the villaoeofOivego, in the town 

 and country of Tioga. There is no other well on 

 that table of land, nor within sixty or eighty rods, 

 and none that presents the same phenomenon. 

 In the excavation, no rock or slate was thrown 

 up ; the water is never affected by li-eshete ; and 

 is what is usually denominated "hard,"' or lime- 

 stone water. A lighted candle being let down, 



