No. 2. 



Culture of the Peach. 



49 



factory, that we requested liim to continue 

 it to the end of the year, which he has oblig- 

 ingly done, and now here is the result. 



lie commenced on the 1st of January, 

 1844, with 67 hens and 3 cocks. Out of 

 this flock were sold and lost by the 1st of 

 May, 7 hens; from that time up to the 16th 

 of September, they lost two more. Since 

 Vien we are not informed what the losses 

 have been. It would probably be fair to set 

 down the average stock of hens during the 

 year a.t 60 head. These laid in the tbllow- 

 ing months, all of which were consumed by 

 tlie family or sold : 



6558 eggs. 



In addition to this number, it is supposed 

 full 309 were used for sitting, got lost, broken, 

 or spoiled, which are not taken into the above 

 account. The average price that the eggs 

 brought at Poughkeepsie, was $1 per hun 

 dred, which makes their value $65 58 

 Chickens raised 101, at 20 cts. each 20 20 



$85 78 



We suppose that this flock of hens may 

 have consumed grain enough during the 

 year, equivalent to 70 bushels of corn. This 

 is allowing three-fourths of a gill per day 

 throughout the year to the flock of hens, 

 and nothing to rear the chickens; but as, 

 during the summer, hens that have the 

 range of a farm need no feeding, this quan- 

 tity of grain is considered ample for their 

 support. 



At 50 cents per bushel for the corn, this 

 would make the expense of their feed, .$35, 

 which, deducted from the value of eggs and 

 chickens, leaves a nett profit of 850 78. It 

 is considered that the manure of tlie hens, 

 and the insects they destroy during the sea- 

 son, are equivalent to taking care of them. 



The actual feed of the above hens was as 

 much corn mixed with a few oats, as they 

 would eat; the grain being placed where 

 they could always get at it. In the winter 

 they had a little meat. They were not con- 

 fined at all; and had access to lime and gra- 



vel while the ground was covered with snow. 

 Their roosting place was comfortably en- 

 closed under the barn. — Agricultural Alina- 



From the Ameiican Agriculturist. 

 Culture of the Peach. 



In reading a communication a few months 

 since, of N. Longvvorth to the Cincinnati 

 Horticultural Society, I was surprised to find 

 that this eminent cultivator had imbibed se- 

 veral material errors in relation to the peach 

 and its cultivation. He remarks, " that the 

 pit of a seedling peach will produce its kind, 

 is well known," &c. 



There certainly can be no distinction in- 

 tended here between a seedling or natural, 

 and an inoculated peach tree. All our va- 

 rieties of peaches are seedlings ; there can 

 be no other way of originating new varie- 

 ties of any fruit whatever. Budded or 

 grafted trees bear fruit precisely the same 

 as that of the tree from which the bud or 

 graft was taken ; suckers from the root will 

 produce fruit similar to that of the stock 

 from whose root they spring. Consequent- 

 ly, all new varieties must spring from seed, 

 and the above assertion cannot be correct, 

 that seedlings will produce their kind, be- 

 cause, if such were the case, no new varie- 

 ties could arise. 



It is, as Professor Lindley truly remarks, 

 an axiom in vegetable physiology, that seeds 

 reproduce the species only, while buds will 

 multiply the variehj. That the pit of the 

 Oldmixon peach will reproduce a peach is 

 certain; but it is equally uncertain that it 

 will produce a tree, whose fruit can claim 

 the most distant aflinity to the Oldmixon 

 variety. Although there is always this 

 uncertanty in perpetuating a variety, and it 

 is the general nature of a seed to perpetuate 

 the species only to which it belongs; yet 

 there is always a visible tendency in it to 

 produce a seedling more like its parent, 

 than any other variety of the species. For 

 example, suppose the pit was sown of an 

 Oldmixon peach, if this peach stood isolated 

 where the stigma of the flower that pro- 

 duced the pit could not have been impreg- 

 nated with the pollen of other varieties, it 

 would be more likely to produce a fruit, fine, 

 large, and sweet, like its parent, than one 

 that was small and worthless. Yet there 

 would be no certainty of obtaining a fruit 

 resembling the Oldmixon, although it might 

 be equal, if not superior, to it in size and 

 flavor. 



The remarks of N. Longworth quoted 

 above, have, therefore, a tendency to mis- 

 lead the tyro in horticulture, although such 



