1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FABMER. 



433 



are willing she should, — but until we try it our- 

 selves, can neither vouch for his declarations, nor 

 add any experiments of our own. We have a high 

 regard for clean linen, and for the "ladies hands," 

 too ; if they are honestly soft, so much the better. 

 But his soap comes to us too soft, altogether. We 

 must see it, feel it, rub it, lather it, wash with it, 

 before we can say anything more to the women 

 about it. 



For the New England Fanner. 



lUaUIRIES ABOUT APPLE TREES. 



Miv York, Aup;. 8th, 18o6. 



Mr. Editor: — In a recent visit 1o my place p.t 

 Westfield, Mass., I saw a number of your work, en- 

 titled the JVew England Farmer. I was very 

 much pleased with it, and read every chapter with 

 interest. The chapter on Lawns, in particular, 

 should be read by every farmer and rural improver 

 of the land. It is a subject in which our farmers 

 do not take near the interest they should. I hope 

 it will be the means of stirring up every one of 

 your numerous readers to the importance of the 

 subject. Enclosed you will find two dollars; please 

 send me the paper. 



In this connection I will take the liberty of 

 troubling you with a few questions in regard to the 

 setting out of a couple of orchards on my place. 

 There are two pieces which I intend planting with 

 apple trees, one of which is gravelly land. In set- 

 ting out some trees last year, in the same kind of 

 ground, we dug holes 3 feet deep and 6 feet across, 

 which we filled with good turf soil and set the trees 

 in it, and in the fall put manure around them a 

 short distance from the body of the tree. Do you 

 think the above a good plan ? My object is to 

 force the trees all that is possible. My other piece 

 is meadow land, on which, heretofore, I have first 

 dug holes large enough to admit the roots, but put 

 manure around them same as those on the gravelly 

 land. Do you think I have pursued the best plan 

 with these ? I want to set the trees a sufficient dis- 

 tance apart so as not to interfere with the usual 

 farm crops. Last year we put them some 30 and 

 some 40 feet apart ; this year we thought of put- 

 ting them 50 feet apart. Do you think the distance 

 too great ? Which do you think is the best season 

 to set trees out, spring or fall, and which the best 

 place to get them from to set out in Westfield cli- 

 mate ? 



Last year we set our trees out in the fall and got 

 them from Parsons', Flushing, Long Island, and out 

 of 300 trees nearly 40 have died. What age do 

 you think it is best to have the trees ? What are 

 the best varieties of winter a])ples, that is, the most 

 profitable to raise in our soil? I find what I in- 

 tended for a few inquiries have become a long list, 

 but I hope you will find time to answer them, as 

 many of the farmers in our vicinity would like to 

 have your opinions very much. I am with great 

 respect, your friend, C. L. Ingersoll. 



Remarks. — We are always gratified to learn 

 that the subjects discussed in these columns are 

 well received, and are affording suggestions for im- 

 provement. Indeed, this assurance, often freely 

 expressed, forms the spring of action Avith up, and 



strengthens and sustains and ennobles the calling 

 in which we are engaged. The money interest of 

 this establishment, to the proprietor, we know to 

 be entirely of secondary consequence, as the income 

 of another branch of industry, already immense, is 

 more than suffii;ient to gratify any personal ambi- 

 tion of a man self-taught, self-made, and who has 

 the happiness and welfare of the world at heart. 

 The things requisite to sujjply our own simple 

 wants might well be afforded by the acres we culti- 

 vated, and leave us sufficient leisure to gratify the 

 taste in exploring abstruse subjects and treasur- 

 ing up the lore of the books, did not the prompt- 

 ings of duty impel us to strike while the iron is hot, 

 and impart to the waiting world portions in due 

 season of such as has been committed to our care. 



We labor, therefore, with a happy zeal. Our 

 daily walks and conversations with you are all of 

 the most pleasing character. We impart some- 

 thing, but gain a great deal more from you through 

 the aid of your pens and your approbation of our 

 enterprise. 



In this spirit we receive and reply to the letter 

 of our correspondent from New York. The chap- 

 ter on Laions was written by our Associate, Judge 

 French, a gentleman qualified by observation, 

 reading, and actual experience, to write correctly 

 on the subject. To those who examine his grounds, 

 laid out by his own skill, and prepared mainly with 

 his own hands, no testimony of ours is necessary. 

 His articles are not only written with a graceful 

 ease, and in a most attractive style, but as Burke 

 said of a certain kind of oratory, they go home to 

 men's business and bosoms. They all have a direct 

 practical bearing, which at once pleases all practi- 

 cal men, while the purity, vigor and ease of their 

 style attract the student or scholar. 



The inquiries of our correspondent aff'ord us an 

 opportunity to speak once more of our favorite em- 

 ployment, the cultivation of trees. There is no 

 branch of husbandry to which we have given so 

 much attention, and none in which we have been 

 more successful. A budded or grafted tree is a 

 fair representation of civilization. It shows, in a 

 degree, the advance of scientific effect, and minis- 

 ters greatly to the necessities of man. Could we 

 fix the doom of bad spirits beyond the great river, 

 it should be no worse than to banish them to a 

 world without trees! Trees are social, living 

 things. They have a language all their own — they 

 stand between us and the fierce Euroclydon or the 

 burning sun ; — amid their branches the birds re- 

 pose, and cattle quietly ruminate in their grateful 

 shade. They condense atmospheric moisture and 

 renew the springs. But in the date, the almond, 

 the hickory, and numerous other nuts, and in the 

 apple, pear, peach, plum, and a variety of other 

 fruits, they compose a very considerable amount of 

 the food of man. Thev warm, siiellei, and feed 



