262 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



trenched and highly manured asparagus bed. 

 These trees bear abundantly. Indeed, one of them 

 bears every year, supplying me with cooking apples 

 four months in the year. There stand several trees 

 whose roots extend beyond the enclosure into the 

 chip yard. These bear every year, or nearly so. 

 If we now will look at the roots of an old tree, we 

 shall find a few fibrous roots beneath the trunk, 

 but the healthy, large, growing roots, will stretch 

 off at a distance for suj)port. 



M]) conclusions. — If you have a wheelbarrow 

 load of manure of any kind, dig a hole eight or ten 

 feet from the tree, and bury it up, and you need 

 have no fears that it will be lost. But what is the 

 matter with those 



YOUNG BALDWIN TREES. 



They are dead ; every one of them, — winter- 

 killed. I believe that better success would attend 

 the setting out of young orchards, here in Maine, 

 if seedlings were allowed to grow until sufficiently 

 large to be grafted into the tops. This was formerly 

 practised with complete success. I do not believe 

 that one-half the trees brought into Maine, for five 

 years past, will ever bear apples. They are small, 

 liable to be broken down by snow, or cattle, as well 

 as to be winter-killed. Many become stinted, and 

 worthless. The Baldwin, here in Maine, should be 

 grafted only into old trees. To boast of a tree that 

 will bear in a few years from the seed, is no gain at all. 

 It never will make a great tree, no more than a pert 

 boy, much above his years, will make a great man 

 The first scion I ever got, bore an apple the same 

 year. This was seventeen years ago, and it has not 

 grown, nor borne much since. A forced develop 

 ment will be of short duration, whether in man, 

 beast, or vegetable. 



Ml) conclusions. — That I shall let my seedlings 

 grow till of sufficient size to graft into the branch- 

 es, transplant with care, graft the second year, and 

 have a bearing orchard sooner, and at less expense, 

 than my neighbors, who adopt the prevailing meth- 

 od. ' N. T. T. 



Bethel, Me., Jlpril 15, 1856. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



SUPEEPHOSPHATE OF LIME. 



Mr. Editor -. — Having been induced by the ma- 

 ny flaming commendations of the Superphosphate 

 of Lime, which have appeared in most of our agri- 

 cultural papers, to experiment a little with that ar- 

 ticle, I consider it but fair that others should have 

 the benefit of my experience. 



On a greensward field plowed deep, finely pul 

 verized, and manured at the rate of about twenty 

 loads per acre, I applied De Burg's No. 1 Super- 

 phosphate to corn, putting in each hill with the 

 seed as much of the fertilizer as could be dipped 

 out with a common table spoon. Part of the field 

 was treated in this manner, to a part plaster was 

 applied, and a small corner left without either. At 

 no time during the season could the slightest dif- 

 ference between the three portions be perceived 

 Soil a warm, rich loam. 



To another field, broken up the fall previous, 

 otherwise similarly treated, but having a soil not 

 quite so light or warm, I applied the SuperphoS' 

 phate, with the exception of a small portion left 

 without. Result the same. 



I also applied it to potatoes in the same manner 



and quantity. They were planted on old ground, 

 warm and dry, part treated with Superphosphate, 

 and part with plaster. The crop — as well as the 

 corn — was good, but no difference in favor of the 

 Superphosphate. 



A neighbor of mine made similar experiments, 

 with like results. The year previous, he made al- 

 most all sorts of experiments with Peruvian guano, 

 and never could discover, from its effects, where he 

 had but it. 



The conclusion to which these and other experi- 

 ments have brought us, is that although amateur 

 farmers may, with these much vaunted fertilizers, 

 produce some fancy {or fancied) results on your 

 sterile Massachusetts soils, yet up here in cold Ver- 

 mont, (where we have milder winters than they do 

 five hundred miles south of us,) nature is altogeth- 

 er too fast for them. r. A. D. 



Rutland, Vt. 



MELONS. 



Melons of all kinds require a light, warm and 

 rich soil. That which seems best adapted to their 

 growth, is a light sandy loam, with a pervious sub- 

 soil, and a texture susceptible of easy disintegration 

 and fine tilth. Pasture lands of this character usu- 

 ally produce abundantly, if limed or dressed with 

 house ashes. They should be broken the previous 

 year, say in August, and if practicable, on a wet 

 day, and allowed to lie fallow. The next Spring 

 they should receive a good dressing of well decom- 

 posed manure, which should be worked in and in- 

 corporated thoroughly with the soil, and the seed 

 planted in hills not less than six feet apart. Some 

 recommend eight feet as the proper distance be- 

 tween the hills, but this we consider as useless waste 

 of soil, six feet being space enough for the largest 

 and most luxuriant vines. Some gardeners prefer 

 sheep manure for the hills, allowing from one to 

 three bushels to every plant — the number preserved 

 in each hill. The strong tendency, however, of 

 this manure to ferment violently, and the conse- 

 quent speedy evolution of the fructifying gases be- 

 fore the plants have attained a development suffi- 

 cient to prevent their waste by assimilation, ren- 

 ders it less efficacious than that in which the econ- 

 omy of fermentation is less rapid and energetic, 

 unless indeed it be applied after the plants are ful- 

 ly developed, and in a condition to appropriate rap- 

 idly their pabulum. Like all plants with broad 

 leaves, the melon is not severely affected by mod- 

 erate degrees of drought. It stands a sharp drought 

 better than most vegetables, but when fruiting the 

 preservation of humidity occasions a shrinking of 

 the fruit, and circumscribes the productiveness of 

 the vines. Irrigation is frequently resorted to at 

 this season of its development, and always wit'i 

 beneficial results. Soap sud-: is the best article 

 that can be used, probably, for this purpose. It 

 contains the food of plants in a state of perfect so- 

 lution, and induces a healthful and rapid growth, 

 besides acting as a remedy for many diseases to 



