290 



Disease of Plum Trees. 



Vol. X. 



charge 25 bbls. in twenty four hours, the cost of which 

 is six cents a foot. Printed directions accompany 

 the Machine. " In one instance," says the Ameri- 

 can Farmer, " a gentleman having a spring of water 

 in a meadow 1000 feet from his house, and 65 feet per 

 pendicular depth below it, by the power of a small 

 branch of impure water, that affords five gallons per 

 minute, with a fall of eight feet, has 720 gallons of 

 pure spring water per day, delivered into a reservoir in 

 his kitchen by means of this simple apparatus. Prom 

 this reservoir, by a lead pipe, all the water not used in 

 the family, is conveyed from the reservoir into a trough 

 in the barn yard, where the coldest weather never 

 freezes it, and where his cattle have a copious supply 

 of water during the whole year. In another instance, 

 with a stream of water with nine feet fall, the water 

 is elevated to a height of 156 feet." 



Several Chester County farmers have been success- 

 ful in raising water, at a small cost. The address of 

 B. S. Benson, the Patentee, is Jerusalem Mills, Harford 

 Co., Maryland. — Ed. 



Harford Co. Md. March 19th, 1846. 



Dear Friend : — Your request relative to 

 the usefulness of the improved Ram of B. S. 

 Benson for raising water, shall be complied 

 with. 



I had one of them put up on my farm, and 

 I pronounce it to be the best mode of raising- 

 water that I have ever seen or heard of; it 

 is simple in its construction, and of course 

 not so liable to get out of order as more com- 

 plicated machinery, doing more work than 

 can be done in any other way yet invented 

 with the power. 



I have a fine spring on my farm, which 

 passes through a one and a quarter inch lead 

 pipe, making the power for driving the ma- 

 chine, with a fall of about eight and a half 

 feet — a part of this water is thrown up to 

 my house, through a half inch lead pipe, and 

 furnishes us with a sufficiency of water for 

 our stock, as well as the household purposes. 

 The distance that the water is thrown is 44.5 

 feet, the perpendicular height about 75 feet; 

 all done by the power of a good spring ; 

 where springs are not sufficiently strong of 

 themselves to afford power to drive, and wa- 

 ter for the use of farm buildings, a small 

 stream of branch water may be used for the 

 power, whiL-^t the spring water can be intro- 

 duced and driven to the buildings without 

 mixing wiili the branch water — giving at all 

 times clean, cool, spring water for the vari- 

 ous uses about the house. And I do not hesi- 

 tate to say, that he who has once seen in 

 operation, one of these machines, and loves 

 a clean house, will not fail to place withm 

 the power of the female, that element most 

 needed for that purpose. There might be a 

 great deal said about the convenience af- 

 forded, but it is sufficient when I say, that I 

 can have water from the garret to the cellar. 

 Yours, &,c. Cheyney Hoskins. 



Disease of Plum Trees. 



John Owen, of Cambridge, Mass., believes he has 

 discovered a remedy for the wart in the Plum tree. In 

 a late number of tlie JVcw Englavd Farmer, we find 

 a letter from him to Th. Wm. Harris, from which we 

 make the following extracts Tiie editor has found in 

 New Jersey the diseases of this tree so annoying as 

 almostto amount to a prohibition to planting it. If 

 Plum trees are planted in hog pastures, and properly 

 protected for three or four years, till the rubbing of 

 these animals against them will not injure them, it 

 will be found advantageous. In planting fruit trees, 

 farmers should persevere. If disease overtakes their 

 trees, let them reflect, and search for a remedy. What 

 greater, and yet cheaper luxury does the farmer and 

 his household enjoy, than that of fruit? How little 

 time is required, to plant a tree ? But the bare plant- 

 ing, let it be remembered, is but part of the duty ; sub- 

 sequent care and protection are requisite; and he who 

 plants and protects, will hardly miss the time or the 

 expense, and may enjoy in cheap and wholesome lux- 

 uries, the reward of his care. When within reach of 

 a market, what product of his field or garden is more 

 profitable than good fruit?— Ed. 



Cambridge, March 6th, 1846. 

 In the spring of 1841, 1 had a Washington 

 plum tree badly affected by a wart upon the 

 main stem, commencing a little above the 

 lower branches, exactly in a fork formed by 

 the stem and one of the principal limbs, ex- 

 tending about three inches on the limb and 

 about ten inches up the stem, and covering 

 quite one-half of the bark for that distance. 

 Amputation seemed the only thing to be 

 done, and had it been merely a limb which 

 was diseased, I should have cut it off with- 

 out he-sitation. But the part most affected 

 was the trunk itself. While considering 

 what I had brtter do, the appetency of the 

 plum tree for salt, occurred to me, and I rea- 

 soned thus: if the plum tree was found to 

 flourish best in those soils in which the mu- 

 riate of soda (common salt) abounded, which 

 appears to be a well established fact, then, 

 disease of this ti-ee might arise from the 

 absence, or an insufficient supply of the salt, 

 and if so, the tree could only be restored to 

 a healthy state by furnishing to the soil what 

 it so essentially lacked. I accordingly salted 

 the earth about the tree. But here a serious 

 difficulty presented itself The case is that 

 of a valuable tree, and the disease is upon 

 -the very trunk, and may soon girdle it. The 

 question arose, cannot the canker be arrested 

 and possibly cured, by a direct application 

 of the brine to the part affected, while the 

 permanent remedy is provided by the slower 

 operation of dry salt applied at the roots'? I 

 resolved to make the experiment, which I 

 did in the following manner: Having cutout 

 the excrescence with some care, I washed 

 the wound with a strong solution of salt and 



