304 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



ular form, sufficiently scientific for the general 

 reader, and we hope will find its way to thous- 

 ands of the homesteads of our people. New York : 

 Harper & Brothers, Publishers. For sale by A. 

 "Williams & Co., 100 Washington Street, Boston. 



Essays on the Soilinq op Cattle, Illustrated from Experience, 

 and an Address, containing supigestions which may be Useful 

 to Farmers. ByJosiAU QuiNCT. Boston: Printed by John 

 Wilson & Son, 22 School Street. 



No man, probably, on this continent, has had 

 so much experience on the subject of soiling cat- 

 tle, that is, keeping and feeding them through 

 the entire year in the barn — as Mr. Quincy has ; 

 and throughout his long experience, he has un- 

 doubtedly attended to it with a persistency of 

 care and observation that characterize very few 

 of our agricultural experiments. 



He says "there are six distinct advantages 

 which those who advocate soiling, propose to 

 themselves by the practice, and on which they es- 

 tablish the preference of this mode to the com- 

 mon one of pasturing cattle during the summer. 



1. The saving of land. 



2. The saving of fencing. 



3. The economizing of food. 



4. The better condition and greater coigfort of 

 the cattle. 



5. The greater product of milk. 



6. The attainment of manure. 



The only offset to all these advantages, is the 

 labor of raising and cutting the food, and feeding 

 and taking care of the stock." 



Mr. Quincy discusses each of these heads with 

 considerable minuteness; and sustains them by 

 such reasons, as will go far to convince any per- 

 son that his mode of managing his stock is a 

 successful and profitable one. The Essays are 

 full of important suggestions, and ought to be in 

 the hands of our farmers generally. 



We have enjoyed the pleasure of passing over 

 Mr. Quincy's farm, and of listening to brief rela- 

 tions of his manner of treating his grass lands, 

 of feeding his stock, cultivation of fruit and for- 

 est trees, &c. &c., and in their appearance found 

 ample corroboration of what he states in his Es- 

 says. They ought, with his permission, to be 

 published in the annual volume sent us by the 

 State Board of Agriculture. We feel under per- 

 sonal obligation to him for the clear, comprehen- 

 sive and valuable facts communicated, and will 

 find an early opportunity to lay portions of them 

 before the reader. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ■WATER CRESS. 



The Water Cress, ( Nasturtiicm officinale,) is 

 considered to be one of the most wholesome of all 

 our salad herbs, and one of the oldest in use. Its 

 qaalities are warm and stimulating — the very 

 reverse, in some respects, to most other plants 



used in a green or uncooked state. The Dutch 

 and English people use great quantities of this 

 cress in spring, as an antiscorbutic. A salad so 

 easily procured, being found in many of the 

 running fresh water streams throughout Massa- 

 chusetts, and withal so wholesome, particularly 

 for those persons of sedentary habits, we should, 

 at this season, when it is the proper time of the 

 year to gather it before it runs up to seed, re- 

 commend its use. 



The supply of water cresses brought every day 

 to one market in London, is said to be, at least, 

 ten thousand bunches, and this is probably not 

 one-half the quantity sold in other parts of Eng- 

 land daily. j. M. I. 



Salem, May, 1859. 



For the Neui England Farmer, 

 DECAY OP PEAR TREES. 



Writers for agricultural papers disagree as to 

 the cause of the failure of the pear tree of late 

 years, but all seem to concede the fact. Some sug- 

 gest a sea-air, others ascribe it to a faulty cultiva- 

 tion, and others to raising them from the sprouts 

 from the roots instead of the seed. My experience 

 makes all these suggestions erroneous. I was 

 born and brought up in York, Maine, a seaboard 

 town, where the pear tree, sixty-five years ago, 

 grew and flourished ; natural fruit was abundant, 

 from which much perry was made, more than in 

 all other towns within my knowledge. The tree 

 then sprouted up abundantly so as to be trouble- 

 some. Farmers in setting an orchard, generally 

 set few pear trees for that reason. Two horse 

 teams would come from Massachusetts yearly, 

 and get these sprouts to graft. 



About thirty years ago, 1 wanted some to set 

 in the town of Parsonsfield, and went to my broth- 

 er's in York to get them. I knew the few trees 

 he had used to sprout so as to be a nuisance. I 

 was disappointed when I got there, on being in- 

 form°d that pear trees had almost entirely ceased 

 to sprout up, not only on his, but on other 

 farms. I procured a few, however, and set them 

 out, but they did not grow well. I procured 

 young, thrifty, grafted trees from the West, and 

 they did no better. I planted seeds and raised 

 several trees, and they did not succeed any bet- 

 ter. I have still a few trees that bear sparingly, 

 and are gradually dying out. I at first attribut- 

 ed my failure to various causes of location and 

 culture, but am now convinced, from constant 

 poor success under various circumstances, that 

 the tree has ceased to flourish as formerly. 

 Whether this deterioration will continue, or after 

 a series of years the tree will again succeed as 

 of old, remains to be seen. In the culture of the 

 psach tree, since my remembrance, there has 

 been a series of years when the tree was easily 

 raised and did well, and then for a series of years 

 none could be raised, and then again they suc- 

 ceeded well, except their liability to winter kiil 

 occasionally. It may be so with the pear. The 

 cause seems to be among those hidden things in 

 the operations of nature we cannot fathom. 



Farsonsjield, Me., 1859. Rufus McIntire. 



E^ Somebody says the conversion of & South 

 Sea Islander is an easy matter, compared -vvith that 

 of a Fifth Avenue heathen. 



