NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



For Vie New England Farmer. 

 FBUIT TREES. 



Mr, Editor: — Nothing in the Farmer, for 

 ears, has been to me more instructive, and in 

 ^eneral, more sensible, than the remarks from 

 your own pen of Feb. 2G, on pruning fruit trees. 

 First, because in your reasonings you start, not 

 with experience, which is ever more doubtful, 

 but with first principles ; and secondly, because 

 your remarks come in exactly the right time and 

 season, so that they are like what some writer 

 has defined wit to be, viz.: a good thing well ap- 

 plied. Particularly am I pleased to find you be- 

 ginning at the beginning, that is, with first prin 

 ciples, and considering what is called experience 

 afterward. They who begin with experience — 

 valuable as that is in its place — must forever 

 wander. This is true of most things, as well as 

 with agricultural and horticultural matters. 



However, believing as I do, in starting right, 

 and desirous that there should be no fl iw in your 

 reasoning, especially at the outse.t ; and al)ove 

 all, as your argument is strong enough without 

 the aid of analogies which are not according to 

 truth, let me say that when you tell your corres- 

 pondent that in cutting off a branch of a tree in 

 the spring, we do not save the sap for what re- 

 mains, any more than one would save a man's 

 blood to strengthen the rest of his body by cut- 

 ting off one of his arms, you forget or overlook 

 a fact, which is both in accordance with fact and 

 experience, but also with the first principles of 

 physiology. Some of the best anthorities might 

 be quoted on this subject. Feeble constitutions 

 are often greatly improved by amputations, and 

 it is according to nature that they should be. 

 Truly yours, \v. a. a. 



For the New En<^lanJ Farmer. 



VAIilTE OF MUCK. 



Explanations— Errors sometimes Useful — Evidence of Drs. Em- 

 inona and Dana, in regard to value of Muck— 35 acres of Mow- 

 ing keeps 40 Cows. 



Mr. Brown : — I regretted the typographical 

 errors in my notice of the climate and soil in Or- 

 leans county, Vt.,and forwarded the corrections, 

 which you promptly gave. The corrections had 

 not been seen, I presume, by your correspondent 

 at Brookfield, Vt., before writing his article, in 

 v;hich he represents me as making statements 

 '^so wide of the truth." 1 merely gave the esti- 

 mate of my friend, who is one of our most relia- 

 ble men in the county. I have no doubt that the 

 stock mentioned by him was fully equal to forty 

 ordinary cows. Let me assure your correspond- 

 ent, that he will find nothing in the article allud- 

 ed to by him, which "is wide of the truth," except 

 what is made so by typographical errors.* 



I shall not, however, seriously regret those, as 

 they were promptly corrected by you, if my ar- 

 ticle and that of your correspondent shall call 

 attention to the immense value of the "muck" 

 or peat beds of Vermont. For the information 

 of "VV."and others, I will give a few extracts 

 from the remarks of reliable writers. Mr. Em 



* The estimate made of the stock wintered by me, as alluded 

 to by Mr. Hall, in a late article on the climate and soil of Or 

 leans county, Vt., I regard as fully correct. 



Coventry, Ft., Jan., 1859. J. B. Wheelock. 



mons, one of the geological surveyors of New 

 York, in his report on the third district, 1839, 

 after describing several peat bogs, speaks of one 

 in Warren county : — "It occupies about 60 acres ; 

 is upwards of 60 feet deep ; is of an excellent 

 quality and of easy access. The value of a marsh 

 of peat may be estimated by determining the 

 worth of a cubic yard or load, or any given quan- 

 tity, and calculating the amount of peat which is 

 contained in the area. The quantity of peat in 

 a square rod of surface, and worked to the depth 

 of 30 feet, would furnish 284 loads, which may be 

 considered as worth 50 cents per load. Or, if we 

 estimate it as worth only half so much, we per- 

 ceive that 50 or 60 acres of it is almost invalua- 

 ble, when favorably situated. Even a small bog 

 in the centre of a farm might be employed to in- 

 crease its value one-half. There are four pur- 

 poses to which peat may be applied. 



"First, as a manure. It should be raised in 

 the fall, spread in the barn-yard, or placed in 

 heaps and mixed with animal matter and lime. 

 Placed under these circumstances, it is exposed 

 to the frost and atmospheric agents, which pro- 

 duce incipient chemical changes, necessary to 

 convert it into the nutriment of plants. This is 

 especially the case when lime is added to it, which 

 forms a soluble salt, the geate of lime, v/ith a 

 portion of the vegetable matter. It will not an- 

 swer a good purpose when employed without 

 preparations." 



])r. Emmons might have added, as a prepara- 

 tion of peat or muck — let it receive the urine of 

 cattle in a barn cellar, or the night soil and wash 

 of a house, or combine ashes, instead of lime, 

 say two bushels to a common cart-load, and it is 

 well prepared for use. Ten or twelve cords may 

 be made thus by any common family, yearly, near 

 the dwelling-house. 



After stating the importance of peat for fuel 

 and for producing gas-light, he adds: — "Perhaps 

 it would be saying too much to assert that peat 

 is more valuable than coal ; but when we consid- 

 er that for creating heat, it is not very inferior 

 to bituniinous coal, that it contains a gaseous 

 matter equal in illuminating power to oil or coal 

 gas, that its production is equally cheap, and in 

 addition to this, it is a valuable manure, if prop- 

 erly prepared, its real or intrinsic worth cannot 

 fall far short of the poorer kinds of coal." 



Dr. ]>ana, in his Muck Manual, has given the 

 analysis of both peat and cow-dung. He found 

 more soluble geine in peat than in cow dung. 

 He says, "The salts and geine of a cord of peat 

 are equal to the manure of one cow for three 

 months." "Departing from cow-dung and wan- 

 dering through all the varieties of animal and 

 vegetable manures, we land in a peat bog. The 

 substance under our feet is analyzed and found 

 to be cow-dung, without its musky breath of cow 

 odor, or the power of generating ammonia." 

 "Peat approaches dung moistened with the liquid 

 evacuations of the animal." 



If we moisten peat with the liquid evacuations 

 of the animal, its value is greatly increased. In 

 experiments reported to Dr. Dana, by Hon. Wm. 

 Clark, Jr., of Northampton after giving the pro- 

 cess of manuring corn land with several kinds of 

 manure, he says : — 



"The land was treated alike in all respects, 

 except the diflierent kinds of manure ; all of which 



