172 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



of apple trees. I have observed these black spoti 

 .'or some years. I have asked many farmers the 

 cause of them, but I found that they disagreed 

 respecting their origin, and the information re- 

 ceived from them did not satisfy me. 



These black spots on the trunk and limbs of 

 apple trees, where the bark dies, are very injuri- 

 ous to the health and longevity of the tree ; they 

 form blemishes v/hich are exceedingly disagreea- 

 ble, and are often ruinous. 



If the cause of these blights could be ascer- 

 tained, possibly a remedy might be applied to 

 prevent their occurrence. I acknowledge, that I 

 have not been able, as yet, to satisfy myself as 

 to their origin, but am desirous of information 

 on the subject. The way I manage them is thus : 

 I pick oft' the old, dead bark clean, then if the 

 live bark has rot begun to grow over the wood, 

 I take my knife and pare off the bark on the 

 edges till I find the bark alive and healthy. As 

 the tree or limb grows, new bark will continue 

 to form on the edges, and increase on all sides 

 till the whole space is covered. If the old bark 

 is not removed and the edges of that bark on 

 the blight pared off' till new and healthy bark is 

 found, it takes a long time for the spot to be cov- 

 ered over with new bark. During the time the 

 new bark is forming, I keep the wood painted 

 thoroughly, being careful not to let the paint 

 touch the bark. If the wood is not kept painted, 

 it very often occurs on trees not in a thrifty con- 

 dition, that the wood decays so much where these 

 black spots are, that the bark never grows over 

 the spots and then the wood continues to decay 

 till the limb breaks off, or if it is situated on the 

 trunk of the tree a bad hole is made which event- 

 ually destroys the tree. So far as I have been 

 able to observe these black spots, they come on 

 the upper sides of the limbs and on the trunks 

 of the trees on the southerly side generally. 



Apple Tree. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ■WHY IS CHEESE POROUS? 



Mr. Editor : — I noticed in your January No. 

 of the monthly Farmer a request of a "New Sub- 

 scriber," that you, or some of your readers would 

 ii.form him of the cause of porous cheese. 1 

 would most gladly give him all the information 

 in my power, especially as he hails from the 

 Green Mountain State, my own native place. I 

 cannot but express my surprise, if he urns raised 

 in that far-famed cheese-making Slate, that he 

 should not have learned in his childhood, from 

 his own mother, the cause of porous cheese. But 

 to remedy his condition, let him visit some go-a- 

 head farm-house wife, who is in the habit of do- 

 ing all her work in a hurry, with a slat and a 

 slam ; who frequently does her washing, ironing, 

 baking and making cheese in a day, and gets it 

 all done in season to go a visiting in the after- 

 noon, — and when he sits down at the tea-table, 

 if he does not see a plate of porous cheese, it is 

 because there is no cheese of any kind on the ta- 

 ble. 



To make porous cheese, in the first place, 

 heat the milk very hot, not scald it, then throM' 

 in the rennet; be sure to get in enough, and if 

 you want a very porous cheese, put in a great 

 deal too much, so that it will come in a very 



short time, but don't put in but very little salt, 

 (not half enough,) and then don't let the curd 

 stand long enough for the whey to drain off, but 

 hurry it into the press as quick as you possibly 

 can ; then let it stand in the press until it is 

 pressed enough, or until you can conveniently at- 

 tend to taking it out — and my word for it, if you 

 don't have a porous cheese to your satisfaction, 

 a slice of which will stretch out by pulling it at 

 each end, like a piece of India rubber, as long as 

 your arm, and on letting go of it, will contract 

 into its original dimensions. The world was not 

 made in a moment, neither can good cheese be 

 made without time and care. L. D. 



East Plainfield, Vt., 1859. 



MB. MORRILL'S LAND BILL. 



We copy in another column, from a letter of 

 the Washington correspondent of the Daily Ad' 

 vertiser, the leading provisions of Mr. Morrill's 

 Land Bill, that the reader may see for himself 

 what the bill proposes to do, and what are some 

 of its conditions. He will observe, we trust, that 

 if Massachusetts accepts the provisions of the act, 

 she must erect one college, at least, within five 

 years, and must do it with money yrom her otvn 

 treasury ' She cannot aid any existing college, 

 purchase lands for sites or experimental farms, 

 beyond the sum of ten per cent, of the interest 

 accruing on the money she obtains from her 

 share of the lands sold! She must also incur 

 "all the expenses of management and superin- 

 tendence of the lands, previous to their sales," 

 and when she has made the sales and got the 

 money, she must invest it so as to establish a 

 permanent fund, and if all, or any portion of it, 

 "by any action or contingency, be diminished or 

 lost, it shall he replaced by the State to which it 

 belongs," so that the annual interest only can be 

 applied, to promote the interests of agriculture. 

 The amount of land which Massachusetts could 

 claim if she should accept the provisions of the 

 bill, would be 260,000 acres, — and this immense 

 tract of land must be guarded from invasion by 

 squatters, managed, superintended, sold, and the 

 money for the same securely invested so that not 

 a shilling of it shall be lost ! It is scarcely prob- 

 able that all this land could be sold to a single 

 party, but in the course of time, to actual settlers, 

 one hundred acres at a time, so that perhaps 

 some twenty-five or thirty years might be occu- 

 pied in getting it all sold, and the money for it 

 invested ! What a splendid commission would 

 be required for such an enterpri_se. The "Back 

 Bay" and "North Eastern Boundary" are mere 

 babies compared with it. Think of the $5 per 

 diem, hotel charges and travelling expenses from 

 the good old Bay State to Dacotah, Arizona, Co- 

 ahuila, or some other equally enlightened and 

 promising region, that would pour out its trcas- 



