1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



429 



or rind of any trees, like bass or linden and elm, 

 is good. Suitable materials can be had at agri- 

 cultural stores. Some use cotton wicking. Wool- 

 en yarn will answer. Some budders use strips of 

 cloth listing from the tailor's. This stretches as 

 the stock grows, and needs no loosening. Sheet 

 India-rubber and gutta percha are used by the 

 curious. Matting and such material should be 

 wet before used, to make it soft and pliable. 



After Management. — In ten 

 or twenty days after budding, ac- 

 cording to the vigor of the stock, 

 the bud will have united with the 

 stock, and if the band binds close- 

 ly, so as to cut into the bark, it 

 must be loosened and re-tied as 

 before. If the bud has dried and 

 shriveled, the stock may be re- 

 budded, if the bark peels. In 

 about three weeks after budding, 

 if the bud is well united to the 

 stock, the band may be removed. 

 But if it does not bind, it may re- 

 main. If it remains on during 

 winter, the ice is more likely to 

 gather around the band and injure 

 the bud. As the bark of the cher- 

 ry curls, the band needs to remain "growing bud 

 on longer than on other stocks. 



In the spring, from the bursting of buds to 

 the leaves becoming half size, cut off the stock 

 in which the bud is good, to within two or three 

 inches of the bud, and when the bud has started, 

 tie it to the stump, if it inclines off. Keep down 

 the sprouts ; and in July, cut off the stump even 

 with the bud, and keep down sprouts and suck- 

 ers. — Cole's American Fruit Book. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 AN" ANCIE?JT TB.EE. 



Yesterday, in company of friends, I visited the 

 renowned Endicot pear tree. I found it vigor- 

 ous in growth and fairly loaded with fruit, of me- 

 dium size ; not yet matured. The tree now con- 

 sists of many sprouts from the shell of the trunk, 

 rising to the height of twenty feet or more. The 

 trunk has a hollow appearance, indicating that 

 the original tree was about two feet in diameter. 

 Tradition says that it grew to the height of 40 

 feet or more. If my reccollection is right, a sketch 

 of the appearance of the tree was furnished a few 

 years since for the.V. E. Fanner, by your observ- 

 ing correspondent, Mr. S. P. Fowler. As it is 

 beyond doubt the o\d.e<ii fruit -hearing tree to be 

 found on our shores, having been in bearing con- 

 dition more than two hundred years, all reliable 

 acts relating o it are worthy to be recorded. 



I could not but regret that the fence, which 

 twenty years ago, or more, was erected for the 

 preservation of the tree, has fallen into a dilapi- 

 dated condition ; which together with the over- 

 grown weeds and meagre crops about, impressed 

 me fully with the belief that the estate had fallen 

 into hands that "knew not Joseph." The site of 

 this Endicot farm is one of the most picturesque 

 and beautiful in the county ; and it is a disgrace 

 to the name, that it should be left in a condition 

 so abandoned. p. 



July 29, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer 



THE IMPKOVBMENT OF LAND 



BY FEEDING OUT ITS PRODUCTS AND GIVING 

 BACK THE MANURE. 



BY FREDEKICK HOLBROOK. 



It appears to me that, generally speaking, the 

 great aim in farming, here in New England, 

 should be, to devise and perfect ways for expend- 

 ing the various products of the soil upon the 

 farm, so as to get about as much for them in the 

 growth of stock, the meats, dairy products, or 

 wool, &c., into which they have been converted, 

 as though they had been sold off for money ; 

 thus giving hack to the land the manures the 

 crops may make, increased in quantity, of course, 

 by all judicious modes of composting with them 

 the various unemployed or waste vegetables and 

 other substances of the farm which contain the 

 elements of fertility. 



The mistake has been, and still is, too com- 

 mon, of selling off a considerable proportion of 

 the grain crops especially, and converting them 

 into money. If any surplus were left after pay- 

 ing debts and expenses, that has generally been 

 invested either in the purchase of more land, or 

 at interest, or in stocks and other property out- 

 side of farming. The farm thus not receiving 

 back a sufficient compensation for the products 

 it has borne, has been undergoing a gradual 

 waste of fertility, and generally has not been as 

 profitable to the owner as it would have been un- 

 der a more generous cultivation. Indeed, his in- 

 come, from all sources, is perhaps less than if he 

 had invested more from year to year in the im- 

 provement of the soil, looking to a highly culti- 

 vated farm for dividends, and less in merely add- 

 ed acres, or in stocks and other outside proper- 

 ty. Cases are not rare of men who have worked 

 hard, during the best working period of their life, 

 to get enough income from their farms, over and 

 above expenses, to make an annual investment 

 of money at interest, or in some kinds of stocks, 

 so as to have something, as they term it, laid up 

 for a wet day, or for old age. But the difficulty 

 is, they have been exhausting the farm by so do- 

 ing, and as life advances and they find themselves 

 less able to labor on the land, the farm is less 

 productive than when they were young, will not 

 reward labor as formerly, and much hard and 

 discouraging work must really be done to get a 

 tolerable return from the investment. They are 

 not so well situated to live easily and pleasantly 

 in old age, and, perhaps, their income or resour- 

 ces, all told, are not as good as though larger in- 

 vestments had from time to time been made in 

 the improvement of the soil, the farm growing 

 more and more productive, and requiring less 

 hard labor than formerly, in proportion to the in- 

 come derived from it. 



There may be instances where it is best to sell 

 off the products of the farm to a considerable ex- 

 tent, and purchase town manures ; and this 

 course will do, provided enough manure is bought 

 to compensate the land for bearing those pro- 

 ducts. But in by far the generality of cases the 

 farmer must mostly rely upon the manure made 

 on his own farm. 



The hay and coarse fodder are generailj most- 

 ly fed out on the farm, but often the principal 



