No. 10. 



Fruits. — Hay and Fuddcr Crops. 



sm 



which have been brought to their notice, 

 and conclude by recommending to the meet- 

 ing the adoption of the following Resolu- 

 tion : 



Resolved, That the Agent of the New- 

 Jersey flirmcrs be respectfully invited to call 

 at Petersburg on his visit to Virginia, and 

 that the members of this Society be request- 

 ed, individually, to offer him the attentions 

 due to a brother farmer, and to render him 

 such aid as may enable him in the best man^ 

 ner to accomplish the object of his mission 



Petersburg, Feb. Cth, 1846. 



Fruits. 



According to my observation horticultu 

 rists have experienced as much or more 

 trouble and disappointment with pears and 

 plums than with any other fruit. Slow to 

 grow, the pear tree seems to lead a precari- 

 ous life, subject to blight and barrenness, 

 which it is as difficult to account for as to 

 prevent or cure. Yet what fruit have we 

 to excel the seckle pear. From some facts 

 which I have seen but lately, apparently on 

 good authority, I am inclined to think that, 

 like some animals, the pear tree becomes 

 hide-bound, and that like them also good 

 scrubbing and cleaning, to open the pores 

 and promote free perspiration, would greatly 

 contribute to their health. I have lately 

 met with the following statement, which| 

 seems highly worthy of attention. It is 

 known to all who know any thing of botany, 

 that the bark of a tree when divided hori 

 zontally, presents three parts; the liher or 

 inner bark, which lies next to the wood 

 the cellular tissue or parenchyma, distin 

 guished in the bark of a tree by its fine 

 green colour, but colourless in the bark of 

 of the root ; and lastlj', the epidermis, or 

 outward bark, which is the universal cover- 

 ing of every part of a tree. Now the ex- 

 periment to which I refer, to ascertain the 

 effect of removing this rough hardened epi- 

 dermis or outside coating from the trunk 

 and limbs of a very large and aged pear 

 tree, was this : the limbs or branches of the 

 tree, as is often the case in Europe, were 

 trained espalier fashion, or horizontally 

 along the west wall, the branches extend- 

 ing in the most perfect order on each side 

 of the large trunk. Tlie stem or body of 

 the tree was cleared of the rough epidermis, 

 entirely, and the branches on one side also 

 were treated in like manner. The branches' box 



which extended on the other side of the stem,lihay will continue to rise in our markets, 

 had only every alternate branch stripped ofjl We can do much to regulate the price, 

 the rough hardened epidermis. Previously [by doing as our Northern neighbours have 

 to thisl;he tree had for many years ceased jdone— sowing oats, millet, &c. It is the 

 to bear fruit, except occasionally one or two jextrcme of folly in any planter to buy hay, 



at the extremity of the upper bmnchcs. 

 The first season after the above oponilion 

 the foliage assumed a more healthy ajipnar- 

 ancc on the decorticated branches, ami in 

 the course of the second year many fruit 

 buds were formed, wiiicii ntlorwanls pro- 

 duced fruit of very good (luality, while the 

 branches which were sufl'orcd to remain 

 with their hardened epidermis, continued 

 barren. Adjoining this tree was another of 

 the same age, which was sickly an<l barren. 

 From this every alternate branch was cut 

 off" and their places supplied by grafts of 

 different kintls of pears, all of which bore 

 well, while the original branches continued 

 barren. Frequent applications of soapsuds 

 would doubtless have secured a yet higher 

 degree of health and fertility. I have" ob- 

 served in the garden of the late John Willis, 

 at Oxford, in Maryland — one of the best 

 practical horticulturists I ever knew — that 

 the bodies of his bearing pear trees were — 

 to use almost the strongest figure I can em- 

 ploy — as smooth, as clean, as polished, and 

 as fresh-looking as the arm of a beautiful 

 young bride when just stripped of its glove 

 to receive the wedding-ring. The truth is, 

 disguise or shy it as we may, young trees 

 require as much watching and cleaning, 

 washing and nursing, and to undergo as 

 many vermifugent operations as young chil- 

 dren do; and those who cannot make up 

 their minds to bestow strict and careful at- 

 tention upon both, had better make up their 

 minds not to get either the one or the other; 

 for in both cases they well deserve the stig- 

 ma which should always be affixed to cruel 

 and unnatural parents who wilfully neglect 

 their young ones. 



J. S. Skinner. 



Hay and Fodder Crops. 



Hay is now quoted in N'ew Orleans at 

 ^26 per ton. In tlie river towns above, it 

 is still higher. The hay crops in the North 

 and West were very light this past season; 

 so light were they, in many places, that dis- 

 tress amongst the stock must have ensued, 

 had not their agricultural journals pointed 

 out to the farmers the means of remedying 

 the evil — by sowing corn and oats mixed; 

 drilling corn alone, so thickly as to cover 

 the ground; sowing millet, and other fodder 

 crops ; and by cutting up all the fodder they 

 feed out, by running it through a cutting- 

 Until the next year's crop comes in. 



