372 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



and his other work better than he would do with 

 fifteen days' extra labor, is it not better for him 

 to pay the interest of what the machine costs, 

 and work, hts horse, than to pay out so much 

 money annually for extra labor in haying time, 

 which, my experience has taught me, is the poor- 

 est of all help if told to do anything but work 

 at haying? He says that it is but one-third of 

 the labor to cut the hay ; this may be true, but 

 on many farms it is difficult to get this third 

 done ; some have not the strength, and more 

 have not skill enough to do it advantageously. 

 He says, "good mowers will cut down two acres 

 per day, and be pleased with the job." It is easy 

 to tell what we can do at mowing, and what we 

 have done when we were young, and what a 

 man ought to do, but the most practical question 

 is, how much do hired men mow, per day ? I 

 think the farmers in this county pay for more 

 days' work at mowing than they mow acres. 

 Dmwers, June 15, 1859. Wm. R. Putnam. 



Remarks. — It is our opinion, that taking low 

 land and high, thick grass and thin, the average 

 ground gone over by the farmers of Essex coun- 

 ty, or any other county in the State, does not ex- 

 ceed one acre per day. We never have, and 

 never expect to hire men to mow, who will make 

 a greater average than this, taking all kinds of 

 mowing into account. 



For the New England Farmer. 



TBANSPLANTINQ WHITE PINES AND 

 HEMLOCKS. 



Mk. Editor : — I have received letters from 

 many gentlemen in your vicinity requesting me 

 to inform them, or publish in your paper, my 

 method of transplanting white pines, hemlock 

 and other evergreen trees. After having tried 

 and failed to a great extent in all other ways, 1 

 determined to try winter transplanting. I pro- 

 ceed as follows, viz : — Late in the fall of the year 

 I drive a stake where I wish the tree to stand, 

 make a circle around it five feet in diameter, take 

 off the sod and lay it out of the way and cover 

 the hole well over with refuse hay or straw to 



firevent freezing ; it might perhaps be better to 

 eave the sod on, as the grass affords much pro- 

 tection against frost. I then select such a tree 

 as I wish to transplant, preferring those about 10 

 or 12 feet high, limbing close to the ground and 

 thick in foliage, make a circle about it four feet 

 in diameter, dig a trench outside of it the width 

 of the blade of the spade, and about a foot deep, 

 cutting down square and smoothly, fill the trench 

 with leaves, hay or straw, leave until the ground 

 is frozen five or six inches deep, (if any snow falls 

 clear it off,) then clear out the trench. Apply 

 a stout lever, and raise the ball of earth suffi- 

 ciently to run under a couple of short planks, one 

 end of which rest on a stone drag ; apply the 

 lever on the opposite side to free the ball there, 

 pass a chain around it, and with the team slide it 

 carefully on the drag, and unload in the same 

 way. Be careful that no spaces are left under 

 the tree ; make a good pit and fill in the earth 

 around the edges. If the situation is very much 

 exposed, three or four large stones may be placed 



about the tree, or what is still better, increas« 

 the size of the ball, and not only will the same 

 object be effected, but the tree will suffer less by 

 the removal. 



In all operations of this kind it is important 

 that they should be carefully and well done, and 

 if possible, the owner should give his peisonal 

 attention to the subject ; having done so, I ven- 

 ture to assert that not one tree in fifty will fail 

 to grow the next year. 



The size of the hemlock, in my communication 

 published in your paper of June 11th, is 9-3 in- 

 ches in diameter instead of cirrumfcrence, and I 

 find by measurement, that it is 30^ feet high ; the 

 frozen ball in this instance was 9 feet across. 

 Samuel Raymond. 



J\'orth Andover, Mass., June 20, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 APPLE OECHAHDS. 



Thanks to S. P. Baker for speaking out on this 

 subject, in the Farmer of the lltli inst. I have 

 no doubt but his experience and observation will 

 substantiate all he says. At any rate common 

 sense, (which has become quite too uncommon a 

 quality in our days,) is on his side. Common ob- 

 servation, also, will sustain him in the main dec- 

 laration, that the seeds should be planted where 

 the trees are to remain, to make healthy, long- 

 lived trees. Transplanting and root pruning may 

 help forward an early productiveness and short- 

 en the life of the tree, which, in order to have 

 durability, provides itself with just so many roots 

 as it needs for its special benefit. 



Many of the best and healthiest specimens of 

 modern apple trees may be found in those that 

 have sprung up from accidental planting by some 

 wall, or in the corners of fences by the wayside. 

 They sprung up by chance, and have grown by 

 neglect, at least by letting alone. Their tap root 

 has never been taken off. Their side roots have 

 never been shortened. There they stand, firm 

 as young oaks ; if disease attacks them they have 

 a constitution to baffle with it. The borer sel- 

 dom takes quarters in them ; worms may weave 

 their web there, but these are easily destroyed. 

 In old fields we see the same facts illustrated. 

 How many thousand trees there may be in Mas- 

 sachusetts, scattered in a higglety pigglety way 

 over meadows, we know not, but there are prob- 

 ably many more than there are in young orchards. 

 We sometimes see them slow growing, shrubby 

 things, and well they may be, for they stand in 

 places where ordinary crops give labor but a 

 poor remuneration — in exhausted, shallow soils, 

 where they cannot grow, though they live on, and 

 show a good disposition to do so. They are the 

 offspring of neglect. Cattle browse there, still 

 they live. The borer sometimes attacks them, 

 but very seldom, for if it preyed upon them as it 

 does on cultivated trees, thousands of them would 

 long ago have been clean gone forever. I have 

 looked upon the teaching of nature and have re- 

 ceived instruction, and the deductions I make 

 correspond with the suggestions of the man who 

 has rounded his fourscore years. If we would 

 have healthy trees, and leave them for posterity, 

 we must plant the seed where the tree is to re- 

 main. 



