1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



347 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LETTERS FKOM MAINE— No. 1. 



As the Netc England Farmer is fast growing 

 into favor among the farmers of Maine, I wish to 

 make it a medium of communication for some 

 facts — the result of experiment and observation 

 — which may be both interesting and useful. 



I will begin with some observations more par- 

 ticularly applicable to the latitude of Maine, than 

 to that of Massachusetts, but the facts I shall re- 

 cord may suggest a test of certain theories and 

 principles relative to fruit culture, which would 

 be more likely to escape notice in a warmer lati- 

 tude, and which may still be of essential impor- 

 tance to the fruit culturist in the location of mil- 

 der winters. 



The last winter has proved to be a disastrous 

 one to fruit trees in the interior of Maine. Not 

 that the average coldness of the winter was in 

 any sense peculiar or remarkable, but from the 

 fact that on the intervales, and generally in the 

 valleys, in all the central and northern parts of 

 the State, on one occasion, the mercm-y sunk to 

 the point of congealation, 40° below zero. — 

 This circumstance affords an opportunity to test 

 the capacity of different varieties of fi'uit trees to 

 resist the effects of climate. It may likewise ena- 

 ble us to decide what varieties may be generally 

 ventured upon with safety. 



The past winter has proved that the Baldwin 

 is the most tender variety of the apple yet intro- 

 duced into general cultivation in Maine. 



Some ten or fifteen years since, the universal 

 popularity of the Baldwin apple induced its wide- 

 spread introduction into the State. It was in- 

 troduced by grafting on the tops of trees that had 

 attained maturity, and the first observed results 

 seemed to promise unlimited success. Nor has 

 this part of the experiment, up to this time proved 

 a failure, for immense sums of money have been 

 brought into Maine, for Baldwins exported which 

 have been produced on new tops furnished to old 

 trees. 



But notwithstanding the measure of success 

 which has attended this experiment, orchardists 

 have suffered material loss by the winter-killing 

 of one after another of the branches, and occa- 

 sionally of whole trees. This has been generally 

 attributed to too hard pruning. And undoubtedly 

 thousands of valuable trees might have been 

 saved if more science had been called into requi- 

 sition in pruning ; but the past winter has proved 

 that no care in this respect can prove an absolute 

 security for the Baldwin in our high northern 

 ■atitude. Excessive pruning always endangers 

 the winter-killing of the tree, and in proportion 

 to the coldness of the climate. A tree in New 

 Jersey will receive no injuiry from the pruning 

 that would invariably prove fatal in Maine, and 

 one of the lessons I wish to impress upon the rea- 

 der, is that less interference with nature must be 

 practiced as the fruit culturist approaches the 

 north. A much larger amount of leaves are re- 

 quired to mature the sap for resisting the frosts 

 of high northern latitudes, than is found to be 

 necessary where frosts are less severe. Hence in 

 all attempts to cultivate less hardy varieties of 

 fruit in colder regions, much caution must be used 

 in pruning so as to reduce the quantity of leaves. 



Another fact, proved by observation is that the 



Baldwin is less liable to winter-kill when grafted 

 at a considerable hight above the ground, and on 

 the slowest growing trees. 



In fact all attempts to raise new orchards from 

 Baldwin trees grafted at or near the ground are 

 likely to prove failures in all parts of Maine. The 

 last winter has destroyed tens of thousands of 

 Baldwin trees in our state, and swept ofi" almost 

 the whole Baldwin departments of nurseries, 

 i while many other varieties have escaped in the 

 same locations, bidding defiance to the tempera- 

 ture that causes mercury to congeal. 



Money enough has already been sqandered in 

 the attempt to raise young Baldwin orchards in 

 this State, and we must either seek a substitute 

 in some hardier variety, or lose most of the ben- 

 efit to be derived from the crop second only in im- 

 portance to one other of the crops of our latitude. 



In my next I propose to detail some observa- 

 tions npon the relative capacities of different va- 

 rieties of fruit trees to resist the extreme temper- 

 ature of winter. Sandy River. 



For the New Ensland Farmer. 



THE SEASON—ONIONS- 

 HIES. 



STRAWBER- 



Mr. Brovv'n : — Ml/ Dear Sir, — The last»week 

 of May and three days of this month, the 1st, 3d 

 and 4th, have been abundant in rain, with chilly 

 east winds, and on the night of the 3d and 4th 

 there were two drenching thunder showers, the 

 lightning frequent and vivid, and the thunder 

 powerful. Yesterday, the oth, required overcoats 

 out doors, and fires within. The thermometer 

 at 4^ o'clock this morning, 6th June, stood at 35° 

 and white frost was seen on the top boards of 

 fences, but vegetation has here been uninjured. 

 The prospect for grass and spring grains, thus 

 fai', is promising. 



Accidentally I have found strawberries flour- 

 ish best upon a stony, gravel bed, south of a 

 stone wall terrace. The adjacent ground was 

 cleared of pebble-stones, thrown and raked up to 

 the wall, and then levelled for a walk of two feet 

 in width. Finding that a row of strawbery plants 

 might be inserted at the foot of the wall, I placed 

 them in that unpromising position, to take care 

 of themselves, if they would, but hoping little 

 from them, stones alone being their companions. 

 They took root and produced some fruit, and 

 from year to year extending their runners, they 

 form.ed new plants among the stones by sending 

 down roots from the joints of the runners, in the 

 interstices of the stone-pebble walk, till the sur- 

 face was nearly covered. No grass or weeds in- 

 terfered with their growth, and the size and 

 amount of the fruit now exceeds that which I can 

 raise, upon the same area, elsewhere upon my 

 premises, and it matures a week earlier than in 

 other positions. The ground cultivated, above 

 the terrace, with roots and peas, descends gently 

 to the terrace wall, and rains wash rich, manured 

 soil in some degree into the pebbled bed below, 

 and this doubtless feeds the strawberry roots. 

 Yet I am satisfied that if a gardener has such an 

 amount of pebble stones that he hardly knows 

 how else to dispose of them, he may, by a moder- 

 ate intermixture of rich earth, form them into 

 productive strawberry beds. The propagation of 

 the plants by the runners whose roots will get 



