222 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



soon as frost came, I went into my garden to dig 

 them. To my surprise, I found not one potato in 

 the form of those I planted ; but I found their 

 roots had run one and two feet in length in the 

 earth ; the diameter of a few may have been two 

 inches, but the most of them were not over half an 

 inch. Now I presume I did not cultivate them 

 right, and 1 wish to obtain information from you. 

 I am a decrepid old man of 76 years ; but if I should 

 live, I want to raise potatoes and grapes. 



Nicholas Thomas. 

 Edeii, Hancock Co., Me., Feb., 1856. 



CULTIVATION OF THE PINE. 



In a recent nnmber of the JVew England Far- 

 mer the editor of that paper, Hon. Simon Brown, 

 while answering the inquiries of a correspondent in 

 regard to the cultivation of the Pine, alludes to a 

 thrifty young plantation of this valuable forest tree 

 of our planting, which he noticed during his visit 

 here last season, and asks for some information in 

 regard to our mode of cultivation. We are happy 

 to give the method we pursued in the planting of 

 a tract of about ten acres — if thereby we shall en- 

 courage even one individual to attempt a similar 

 enterprise, which, when properly begun and cai-ried 

 out , is sure to return an hundred fold. 



In the Spring of 1845, we fenced off half of a 

 tract of about twenty acres of land almost exhaust 

 ed from its manner of cultivation in many former 

 years : — the half we selected for planting had not 

 been used for grain or other crops for several years, 

 the soil being light, and sandy, and from the high 

 location of the ground, difficult and expensive to 

 cultivate. It was at the time we speak of mostly 

 covered with mosses and whortleberry bushes. — 

 We began its reformation from a brown, bleak, and 

 almost useless pasture, as it then was, to a very 

 thrifty and beautiful plantation of Pines, as it now 

 is, — the admiration of all eyes capable of apprecia- 

 ting "woodland beauties" — by first having shallow 

 furrows jjlowed to the depth of about five inches, 

 and four feet apart. The hills for the pine seed 

 ■were then prepared in these furrows in the same 

 manner as for corn, into which three or four seeds 

 ■were dropped and covered with about a half an 

 inch of soil — the hills were four feet apart, A 

 man and boy planted in this way about four acres 

 a day. 



Not more than two-thirds of the seed came up 

 after the first planting, and did not grow over four 

 inches during the first season. The first shoots 

 much resemble those of an onion and are nearly as 

 tender. In the autumn and spring following this 

 first planting, those portions of the ground where 

 the seed had failed to germinate were replanted, 

 and in due time were seen the tender shoots of the 

 Pine, which now covers the entire ground with a 

 dense and thrifty body of trees. 



During the first three years, their growth was 

 quite slow, but after that period, they averaged an 

 annual hicrease of more than a foot in height, and 

 at the present time, many of the trees are twelve 

 feet in height, and the majority will average about 

 nine feet. 



Others in this \icinity have been equally success- 

 ful, by a similar mode of cultivation. Amos Otis, 

 Esq., of Yarmouth, has planted about two hundred 

 acres, and is one of the most experienced cultivators 

 of the Pine in this section of the State. He plant- 



ed upon land of a light loamy, or sandy soil, which 

 was for the most part exhausted, and of but little 

 value for any other purpose. The experience of 

 our cultivators has shown, that land worn out and 

 too poor to sward over thickly, is best ada])ted to 

 the growth of the Pitch Pine. The months of 

 March and April are considered the most favorable 

 for planting, although Mr. Otis says he has planted 

 in every month in the year, — the summer months 

 excepted. 



Where a small lot of land for experiment is tak- 

 en, a plow may be run through the land, making 

 parallel furrows about six feet apart, then take a 

 common planting machine, such as is used for plant- 

 ing beets or onions, and run it along in the bottom 

 of the furrows, dropping three or four seeds in a 

 hill, about a foot a])art, covering them not more 

 than half an inch deep. If all the seed vegetate, 

 there will be a much greater number of trees than 

 can grow on the land, but they will die out in the 

 course of a few years. 



Large tracts of worn out land in Barnstable 

 county, that were worth comparatively nothing, 

 have been planted, within the past fifteen years, 

 with the Pitch Pine. In most cases, these experi- 

 ments have been very successful. 



The seed can be procured by gathering the cones 

 of the Pine in the autumn, and keeping them in a 

 ivann, di-y place, until a leisure season in the winter, 

 when the seeds, which have a small wing attached 

 to each, can be easily rubbed out. When planting 

 by hand it is not necessary to rub off this wing, 

 which must be done, if the seed is dropped by a 

 seed planter. 



The growth of wood upon the ten acres we plant- 

 ed in the sp;ing of '45 has been so rapid as great- 

 ly to increase its value. The value of the ten acres, 

 at that time, was less than $75,00. Within a few 

 months, $300 has been offei'ed and refused, for the 

 same land. 



We know of no way in which the many thousand 

 acres of poor, sandy lands in this State, can be made 

 so valuable, as by planting them with either White 

 or Pitch Pine seed. Such was the favor with which 

 the Barnstable County Agricultural Society viewed 

 the experiment we made in planting the seed of 

 the Pitch Pine, that a liberal premium was awarded 

 therefor in 1853. We trust similar experiments 

 to our own will be made by many others, and M'ith 

 equal success. — Barnstable Patriot. 



SuBsoiLiNG vs. Draining. — There is no doubt 

 but a soil made deep and mellow will resist both 

 drought and deluge better than a thin, hard soil. 

 The reason is obvious. If you have two inches of 

 soil on a board, or in a box, half an hour's rain 

 makes it complete mud, and a half day's sunshine 

 will convert that mud into hard lumps, especially if 

 the soil is clay, or any considerable part clay. But 

 if instead of two inches it is two feet, it will take a 

 long rain to wet it through, and no part of it will 

 be mud, until there is water enough to make it all 

 mud, and then in drying, no part will be very dry 

 until the whole is dry, A deep mellow soil will 

 bear a larger amount of rain without destroying its 

 loose, porous character to such a degree as to ex- 

 clude the air. So far as we have observed, a piece 

 of dry, gravelly soil, if plowed deeply, will stand a 

 drought better than wet clay soil if plowed shallow, 

 and underlaid by clay or hard pan. — Culturist and 

 Gazette, 



