;82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



-led crops and small profits. The energies of the 

 form must first be concentrated upon a smaller 

 space, and then the power increased of gradually 

 raising the fertility of the whole. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SUCKER PLUM TREES. 



Me. Farmer : — The following article was written a year 

 since, in reply to an article by C. Smith, and accidentally 

 mislaid. If you think it may be useful to plum-growers, print 

 It ; if not, use it for lighting your cigars. 



Burlington, Vt., May, 1856. C. Goodrich. 



In your paper of April 21, is an article from C. 

 Smith, Shelbum, Mass., in which he says he finds 

 "that suckers from the plum tree, transplanted as 

 standing, almost invariably fail to produce fruit." 



This may be true with those planted by Mr. 

 Smith, and many others ; but the theory I think 

 entirely wrong. All suckers or layers from any 

 fruit tree, whether apple, pear, plum or grape, are 

 fruitful or barren, like the parent stock. If a tree 

 or vine is a poor bearer, or produces flowers with- 

 out fruit, all suckers or layers from it do the same ; 

 if a great bearer, the same quality by suckers or 

 layers is propagated indefinitely. 



More than three-fourths of the plums grown in 

 Vermont are from sprouts. Some bear very little 

 fruit, sometimes none, but generally they are pro- 

 ductive ; when sprouts are from varieties that are 

 good bearers, always so. 



Some sixty years since a lady from Connecticut 

 brought and planted pits from what she called the 

 "Blue Gage," in her garden in this town. Among 

 her seedlings was a medium-sized blue plum, which 

 is propagated by thousands from sprouts. In an 

 adjoining town, one of the first settlers raised one 

 so closely resembling the Mirabelle both in growth 

 of tree and fi'uit, that strangers call it such without 

 any hesitation. The Lombard, or Bleecker's Scar- 

 let, a well-known variety, was raised at Whites- 

 town, N. Y. Judge Piatt, of Plattsburgh, brought 

 sprouts from the original tree, from which thou- 

 sands of sprouts have been planted. From these 

 varieties, and others I can name, trees from suck- 

 ers or sprouts are uniformly gi-eat bearers. 



As a plum is a rapid grower and early bearer, 

 and as a sprout taken at two years old, tap-rooted, 

 and planted as a standard or in the nursery, soon 

 makes a bearing tree, and throws up no sprouts 

 until they begin to decay, most people prefer them, 

 so as to insure a constant succession with little 

 trouble. 



Any variety of plums may easily be had on their 

 own roots by grafting large stocks near the ground, 

 and after two years' growth plant them so as to 

 have the bottom of the graft a foot below the sur- 

 face; in three years after well rooted trees from 

 the scions only may be had by cutting the graft 

 from the original stock. I have the VVashington 

 plum three years bearing on its own roots, grown 

 in this manner. 



hung down, Kate, and kissed thy lily cheek ; azure 

 eyes half filled with tears bespoke a spirit meek. To 

 be so charmed as I was then had ne'er before oc- 

 curred, when the rattling of the beans, Kate, was 

 all the sound I heard. I thought it was not wrong, 

 Kate, so leaning o'er the dish, as you snatched up a 

 lot of beans, I snatch 'd a nectared kiss. And a sud- 

 den shower made my eyes blind, and I neither saw 

 nor stirred, but the rattling of the beans, Kate, was 

 all the sound I heard. 



Poetry Sobered Dowx. — I'm thinking of the 

 time, Kate, when sitting by thy side, and shelling 

 beans, I gazed on thee and felt a wondrous pride. 

 In silence leaned we o'er the pan, and neither 

 spoke a word, but the ratthng of the beans, Kate, 

 was all the sound we heard. Thy auburn curls 



For the New England Farmer. 



DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



In a late number of the Cultivator, is a state- 

 ment of the produce of a dairy of 14 cows, the kvSt 

 season, all of the common or native stock of the 

 country. This was 2920 lbs. of butter that sold 

 for 25 cts. per lb. Supposing the season for the 

 making of butter to nave been six months, or twen- 

 ty-six weeks, which is as much as cows ^fill aver- 

 age, this will be about 8 lbs. a week to each cow. 

 This is decidedly a good product ; I do not remem- 

 ber to have seen a better — taking so many cows to- 

 gether. If such be the product, on the best farm, 

 in the best counties of the State of New York, how 

 can more than this reasonably be expected, on the 

 shallow soil and threadbare farms of New England ? 

 1 know that single animals are here and there 

 found, yielding twice this amount or more ; — but 

 this is generally on extraordinary feed, or with ex- 

 traordinary care and attention. What particularly 

 arrested my notice, on reading this account, was, 

 that all the cows were of the common or native 

 stock of the country. As far as 1 have seen, or can 

 learn from others, seven-eighths of all the butter 

 made or brought to our markets, is from stock of 

 this character. Why then puff imported breeds as 

 superior to our own ? If they really are so, would 

 not the irwney-making, practical men have discov- 

 ered this fact ? Of itself, it tells the story. P. 



For the New England Fcmner. 



WILL GAS KILL TREES? 



Let the following facts answer the inquiry : — 

 Two years since, there stood in \igorous, growing 

 condition, on the westerly side of Washington 

 Street, in this town, a splendid elm tree, three feet 

 in diameter, supposed to have been there seventy 

 years, shading a circumference of three hundred 

 feet. The gas pipe was taken up the street, in the 

 centre to a point opposite the tree, and was heed- 

 lessly left, so insecure, that the gas when let on 

 escaped and saturated the region all around. It 

 was imbibed by the fibres of the tree, and in June 

 following, its deleterious influences became unmis- 

 takably apparent. Every imaginable effort, by 

 digging about, watering and fertilizing, was tried, 

 with no good efiiect ; — it languished, till the falling 

 of the decayed branches admonished of the insecu- 

 rity of its remaining. It now lies prostrate, with 

 perfect evidence that it fell a victim to this sulitle, 

 invisible fluid. The fact is mentioned as an admo- 

 nition to beware of the escape of gas — especially, 

 in the region of elms. It does not have the same 

 effect on horse chestnuts, the mountain ash, and 

 other trees — but it is death to the elm. P. 



South Danvers, May 1, 1 856. 



