Vol 6. 



GENESEEFARMER. 



191 



SCIONS OF FRUIT TREES.— CAUTION! 



The desire which at present exists very generally, 

 to procure scions of new and rare kinds of fruit, will 

 undoubtedly lead 'to fraud and imposition : and we 

 would now caution those who intend to procure 

 grafts during the ensuing winter or spring, to be 

 careful who they trust to. There is no business but 

 what is infested with quacks and impostors, ready to 

 take advantage of every occasion to make money, 

 honestly or not, as it may happen. 



Either cut your scions from the tree yourselves, 

 or procure them from persons of character and re- 

 sponsibility, in whom you can rely. Do not be in- 

 fluenced by a few shillings extra cost — that would 

 be but a poor recompense if you should happen to be 

 deceived. The first inducement which the quack of- 

 fers you in any business is cheapness. He appeals 

 to your pockets, and his appeals are too often not 

 impotent. 



TREE PLANTING. 



In No. 3, of that splended periodical the " Farm- 

 er's Library and Monthly Journdl of Agriculture," 

 which every Farmer in the land should read, even if 

 it does cost $5 per year, we find a beautiful letter 

 from the Rev. Jno. O. Choules on " The opportu- 

 nities and power of the Clergy to improve the 

 public taste for Agriculture and Horticulture.^' 



We would be glad to copy the entire letter, for 

 we admire every syllable of it, but must content 

 Qurself with the following extract : 



"For my own part, I would rather get the popula- 

 tion of a village all out to plant trees, and beautify 

 the walks and avenues of the hamlet, than convene 

 them to argue upon abstract notions of no possible 

 practical utility. We may learn a great deal that is 

 good from the example of men who went before us. 

 If we dislike the faith, at all events we may admire 

 the taste, of the Churchmen of other days, whose 

 abbeys and cloisters all testif)' to a sound taste, and 

 whose noble avenues and orchards proclaim good 

 husbandry. 



"I wish I could set hundreds of men planting trees 

 who seem to delight in worse labors. I do love 

 trees, and I love the men who planted the Elms of 

 New-Haven, Newark, and those of the sweet village 

 I live in. Why does not every man plant out a 

 tree — many trees? In Providence there are some 

 noble Elms which I saw planted only twenty years 

 ago ! A man may see the result of his labors, and his 

 children would be proud to point out the trees, " the 

 old ancestral trees," of his forefather's planting. — 

 Men may rail at the world as much as they please, 

 but it is a beautiful one, and if we are only cheerful 

 and active in it, it will become yet more beautiful. 

 Nearly all the beauty of a residence, a village, a coun 

 try town, arises from its trees: and not only should 

 every man carefully adorn his own habitat, but men 

 should club together to beautify their vicinage. 

 The strong attachment felt by men in England to 

 homesteads arises in no small degree from the pains 

 which have been taken to adorn and enrich them by 

 a previous generation." 



TAKING A HINT. 



It is very su, \ rising to see how slow men are to 

 take a hint. T, ' frost destroys about half the bloom 

 on fruit trees; every body prognosticates the loss 

 of fruit; instead of that, the half that remains is 



larger, fairer, and higher-flavored thanususl; and the 

 trees instead of being exhausted, are ready for an- 

 other crop the next year. Why don't the owner 

 take the hint and thin out his fruit every bearino- 

 year ? But no, the next season sees his orchard 

 overloaded, fruit small, and not well formed ; yet he 

 always boasts of that first mentioned crop without 

 profiting by the lesson it teaches. 



We heard a man saying, " the best crop of celery 



I ever saw, was raised by old John , on a 



spot of ground where the wash from the barn-yard 

 ran into it after every hard shower." Did he take 

 the hint, and convey such liquid manure to his trea- 

 ches in the garden ? Not at all ; he bragged about 

 that wonderful crop of celery, but would not take 

 the hint. 



We knew a case where a farmer subsoiled a field 

 and raised crops in consequence which were the ad- 

 miration of the neighborhood; and for years the field 

 showed the advantages of deep handling. But we 

 could not learn that a single farmer in the neighbor- 

 hood took the hint. The man who acted thus wisely, 

 sold his farm and his successor pursued the old way 

 of surface-scratching. 



A stanch farmer complained to us of his soil as 

 too loose and light ; we mentioned ashes as worth 

 trying ; "well, now you mention it, I believe it will 

 do good. I bought a part of my farm from a man 

 who was a wonderful fellow to save up ashes, and 

 around his cabin it lay in heaps. I took away the 

 house and ordered the ashes to be scattered, and to 

 this day I notice that when the plow runs along 

 through that spot the ground turns up moist and 

 close-grained." It is strange that he never took the 

 hint ! There are thousands of bushels of ashes ly- 

 ing not far from his farm about an old soap and can- 

 dle factory with which he might have dressed his 

 whole farm. 



A farmer gets a splendid crop of corn or grain 

 from off a grass or clover lay. Does he take the 

 hint 1 Does he adopt the system which shall allow 

 him every year just such a sward to put his grain on ! 

 No, he hates book-farming, and scientific farming, 

 and 'this notion of rotation;' and jogs on the old way. 



A few years ago our farmers got roundly into debt 

 — and they have worried and sweat under it, till some 

 ef them have grown greyer, and added not a few 

 wrinkles to their faces. Do they take the hint ? — 

 Are they not pitching into debt again ? 



Because, this year, the wheat crop has been very 

 large and fine, and the price low, not half as much 

 will be put in this fall as was last fall. Those who 

 are wise, foreseeing this fact and sowing largely 

 will, if the season favors wheat, reap a handsome 

 profit. 



Auctioneers tell us that a "wink is as good as a 

 word." We give both, and hope our readers will 

 take fhe hint. — Indiana Farmer and Gardener. 



The Plum. — Mr. Downing in his valuable work 

 on Fruit and Fruit trees, says that the plum tree 

 "only bears its finest and most abundant crops, in 

 heavy loams, or in soils in which there is a consider- 

 able mixture of clay. 



In sandy soila, the tree blossoms and sets plenti- 

 ful crops, but they are rarely perfected, falling a 

 prey to the curculio — an insect that harbors in a 

 light soil and seems to find it difficult to penetrate 

 or live in a heavy one. It is also undoubtedly true 

 that a heavy soil is naturally the most favorable one 

 for the plum." • . .^ ,--.«,; ->■ , . ^^, 



