1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



373 



. To raise trees from seed the ground should be 

 well prepared, the soil made deep and well pul- 

 verized, thoroughly drained, and put and kept in 

 as good condition as though corn, wheat or any 

 other paying crop was put upon it. The seeds 

 should then be selected from fair fruit, for I am 

 confident that for grafting purposes a good, 

 healthy stock is desirable. I know not why dis- 

 eases and other objectionable qualities may not 

 be hereditary in trees as well as animals. Select, 

 then, the plumpest seeds from the best fruit for 

 planting, and if half a dozen are planted where 

 you wish a tree, no harm if they all start. Let 

 them grow one season, and then select the most 

 promising for the future tree, (removing all oth- 

 ers,) and bud or graft it with the desired variety 

 as early as may be. I have no doubt but an 

 orchard may be raised in this way as cheap and 

 of a great deal better, longer lived trees, than by 

 any other course. It may require mere care for 

 a year or two than is necessary for trees started 

 in the nursery, but in the end I firmly believe it 

 will be better. 



A tree, like an animal, is an organic being, and 

 a perfect tree, like a perfect animal, has all its 

 parts furnished by a provision of nature. Take 

 away any of those parts, and you deprive nature 

 of its perfection. Who would think of giving a 

 drawing of a horse divested of its tail, mane or 

 ears, or of a bird with its vv'ings clipped, or of a 

 man with either hand divested of a finger, or 

 minus an eye ? In such a case, the drawing would 

 represent the object claimed, in perfection, but in 

 a mutilated form, divested of a part essential to 

 its perfection as the object represented, and ne- 

 cessary to its growth and healthfulness. We have 

 no members we would willingly dispense with, 

 none but what contribute to our success. They 

 are all provided by the God of Nature for useful 

 purposes. So with a tree ; it has its parts and 

 proportions adapted to its circumstances. 



Of the thousands of apple trees that have been 

 t-ransplanted for the last dozen years, the num- 

 ber now living is discouragingly small, and those 

 actually promising to make good and durable 

 trees is still less. In most instances, these fail- 

 ures have been attributed to want of care in the 

 cullivators,while the unfortunate purchasers have 

 laid the blame to the localities from which their 

 trees were originated. In some instances, proba- 

 bly, the failures have been justly given to right 

 causes. But there are, no doubt, other and more 

 tangible reasons operating collaterally with these. 

 I have heard of a practice among some nursery 

 men of dividing roots to an indefinite extent pro- 

 portioned by the quantity of them, and grafting 

 and making a tree of each of the parts. Of 

 course, these would make but part of a tree and 

 a sickly, short-lived part at that, for a piece of a 

 root can never make a full root to sustain and 

 nourish the plant. Another cause has probably 

 been that very ma.ny trees have been sold by 

 travelling agents, whose trees, to say nothing of 

 their quality when standing in the nursery, are 

 often, judging from the scantiness of root, dug 

 with great haste and little care, and hurried off 

 to their destination. If they fail, where is the 

 responsibility ? Not in the nurseryman. He fills 

 the orders sent in by Mr. A. for so many trees. 

 He has them of every quality, and like every one 

 else, is anxious to dispose of his wares. There 



are some poor trees, which he is not willing to 

 lose — they must go with the rest. He does not 

 know who will have them, so he is not responsi- 

 ble. Mr. A. has ransacked the country to sell 

 trees, and agrees to furnish Mr. B., Mr. C, and 

 so on, so many each. Each purchaser must sign 

 the contract, but the vender of wares is left on 

 his word to bring such a number of trees, the 

 very best, of course. What arrangement he 

 makes with the nurseryman I know not, but I 

 have seen more than one sorry looking, almost 

 rootless bundle of trees, brought on, and the pur- 

 chaser must take them. It is not strange that 

 they die. 



When trees are purchased, it is better for the 

 buyer to deal direct with the nurseryman. It 

 will save the percentage that the middle man 

 works for, and as we may well suppose, secure 

 better trees ; for what nurseryman will fill an 

 order for reliable trees with an inferior article ^ 

 No one who has any regard for reputation. I 

 have sent orders to nurserymen direct, with cash 

 accompanying, three hundred miles, and were as 

 well accommodated as though I had been on the 

 ground and made my selection and taken up the 

 trees myself. I should not hesitate to do the 

 same again, but I should hesitate, twice at least, 

 before I purchased of a travelling vender, un- 

 less he gave me a warrantee, signed and sealed, 

 that the tree should stand on the full roots of a 

 seedling stock, carefully taken up and delivered 

 in a good condition. William Bacon. 



Bichmond, Mass., June 20, 1859. 



For the Neu) England Farmer. 



WHITE SPECKS IN BUTTER. 



Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent "T.," asks, 

 "What makes the white specks in butter ?" I 

 answer, they are occasioned by the milk being 

 "set" where there is a current of air, as from an 

 open window, or by the milk-room being too 

 warm, so that the surface of the cream in the pans 

 before skimming becomes dry, and in the process 

 of churning does not mingle with the rest of the 

 cream, but remains in the butter and butter-milk 

 in the form of specks. 



In your "Remarks" appended to "T.'s" inqui- 

 ry, you say that the white streaks in butter may 

 be occasioned by some of the cream being more 

 recently taken off", and not come so readily as 

 that does that has been taken off longer. My 

 theory is, that they are caused by the salt being 

 imperfectly worked in at the time of salting, the 

 white streaks are not so salt as the rest of the 

 butter. 



Since writing the above, I have read the com- 

 munication of Henry Holmes. He says, "if you 

 scrape what cream there is on the lid of the churn 

 into the cream-pot, you will not be troubled with 

 those white specks." The cream on the lid, or in 

 the corners of the churn has nothing to do with 

 the specks or streaks in butter, and had Mr. 

 Holmes spent the last five years in person, churn- 

 ing, working, and putting down butter for mar- 

 ket, or so much of the time as would have been 

 requisite to taking care of a good dairy, in- 

 stead of "manufacturing and selling churns," he 

 would have learned that fact. II. Blake. 



Hardwick, Vt., June, 1859. 



