1S59. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



327 



judge for themselves, and apply in practice what- 

 ever appears to be right and reasonable. They 

 are not only practical, but progressive far- 

 mers. They are continually learning more and 

 more, and doing better every year. They go on 

 from one degree of improvement to another, so 

 that you may know them by their good fruits, as 

 well as by their good Avorks. 



John Goldsbuet. 



For the Nete England Fanner. 

 TASTE AMONG FAKMEBS. 



Mr. Editor : — There seems to be a great 

 want of taste among many of our farmers. They 

 appear to think that taste is of no importance 

 whatever — something which they have nothing 

 to do with — and if they only attend to the impor- 

 tant duties of the farm, they care nothing for 

 appearances. 



One way in which they show want of taste, is 

 in the surroundings of their dwellings ; they will 

 leave an ox-cart, sled or hay-rigging, in the door- 

 yard, or in close proximity to the house, rather 

 than be at the trouble of removing it a rod or 

 two farther, where it would not be so unsightly. 



Some will have piles of manure, heaps of 

 stones or huge piles of wood, left where they 

 give an air of slovenliness to the homestead, no 

 matter how new or handsome the buildings may 

 be. 



There are eome farmers who limit their shade 

 trees to a few so situated that they cannot damage 

 land which they care anything about, making that 

 the standarfl, and sacrificing a noble elm, or hand- 

 some oak, or maple, because they draw the juic- 

 es of the soil, and they fear they shall have a 

 few less hills of potatoes or corn, if they let them 

 remain. 



Perhaps some will say, well, my buildings are 

 old, and 1 don't think it makes much diflerence 

 what I have around them ; but /say it does make 

 a great difference. What if the buildings are 

 old ? if there is an air of thrift and neatness about 

 them, they will not look one-half so unsightly. 

 Who would not see a difference between even a 

 hovel without a shade tree or a rosebush, and 

 one precisely like it with rosebushes and wood- 

 bines, climbing up its «veather-beaten walls, cov- 

 ering its numerous imperfections, and with the 

 addition of one or two shade trees, making the 

 spot look really attractive ? It makes nearly as 

 much difference as there is between neatness and 

 negligence, in the interior of a dwelling. 



Think not that I believe all farmers show a 

 want of taste, for many a farmer's home exhibits 

 an appreciation of the tasteful and beautiful 

 highly creditable to the proprietor. Let not the 

 farmer think it is beneath him to attend to such 

 things, nor consider that time lost, which he 

 spends in making the surroundings of his house 

 tasteful and attractive. 



"Let the green tree wave by thy cottage door, 



And the rose in thy garden bloom ; — 

 With them shall the planter's memory soar, 



Whfn he rests in the quiet tomb : — 

 And oft shall the travellers yiause to view 



The works of thy patriot hands, — 

 The rose and the tree — the elm or the yew, 



That now by thy door- way stands." 



Concord, Mass., Feb., 1859. 



Taste. 



For the Neic England Farmer. 

 PRUNING AND RAISING APPLE TREES. 



My attention was called to make this commu- 

 nication by seeing one signed by Thomas Ellis, 

 of Rochester, in the N. E. Farmer, monthly, 

 vol. 10, page 539, 



I have got into the same dilemma myself that 

 the writer of that article did. I have tried for a 

 number of years to raise an orchard, and have 

 succeeded in getting about a dozen trees to bear 

 about as many apples each, and a small nursery 

 for my own use of about one hundred trees large 

 enough to set, all grafted. Now I am willing to 

 confess I pruned my trees the wrong season of 

 the year. 



About a year ago I examined articles on pru- 

 ning in the N. E. Farmer, from vol. 2 to that 

 time, and with more light, as I thought, than I 

 had possessed before, made up my mind to prune 

 my trees about the middle of June, althougii the 

 editor quoted in one place from Downing, that 

 "small branches may be taken off any month in 

 the year with safety." This can't be so, and I 

 did not believe it when I read it, but did think 

 it would be safe to prune about the middle of 

 June. I began to prune some the 11th of June, 

 but did the most of it just after the middle. I 

 covered the wounds M'ith cement, but they soon 

 commenced bleeding, and I could not stop them. 

 I thdtf'ght of searing them with a hot iron, but 

 had never seen that recommended. If they run 

 very much, the tree is ruined ; it makes it sickly, 

 and soon dies ; the sap running down, kills the 

 bark and rots the tree. I have lost a number of 

 trees by haying them injured by cultivating 

 among them, by breaking the branches off, or 

 otherwise maiming them. And with all the light 

 of the present day, probably not one tree out of 

 four lives to grow up a healthy tree. A great 

 many orchards are killed by pruning, some by 

 mice, some by cattle, so that the chances for get- 

 ting an orchard are small. From what little ex- 

 perience and observation I have had, it is my 

 opinion that any farmer may set an orchard on 

 good ground with trees grafted or budded, then 

 cultivate yearly, and in ten jears from the time 

 the trees are set, not more than one in four will 

 be worth what it cost when set. 



We think the present age is an enlightened 

 one ; that our forefathers were "old fogies." It 

 may be so, in some instances, but is it so gener- 

 ally ? I think not. Even in orcharding, farmers 

 took great pains to get trees ; some carried them 

 miles on their shoulders to set orchards, selecting 

 the best situation, preferring a side-hill. After 

 being set, they were left to grow, not torn up by 

 the roots with a plow, or barked by the ox-yoke 

 or the harrow, nor pruned to death. Grafting 

 and budding were not practised as now, it is 

 true ; the object was then to raise apples/or the 

 family, and apples for cider. This they did to a 

 good purpose. It is true they did not have so 

 good a variety as at the present day, but many 

 of our best apples are from the "native" trees. 



The editor, in his remarks on Mr, Ellis' com- 

 munication, when speaking of our fathers, says : 

 "They probably pruned apple trees in March or 

 April, because it more was convenient, and as 

 they did not graft nor bud and produce as many 

 valuable trees as we do now, they cared less if 



