130 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



KOVEMBER C, 1S33. 



cook, it sKould always be washed with fresh water, 

 and cooked without the addition of any other vege- 

 table. A piece of fat pork, beef, or a fat goose, 

 enclosed with the Sauerkraut in a close tin vessel 

 and stewed three hours, forms an excellent dish; 

 and is the more valuable as it can be had at the 

 season of the year, and under circumstances that 

 vegetables canuot be procured. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 SUMMER FRUIT, AND FRUIT GARDENS. 



I never travel through the country in summer 

 without regret on observing the small number of 

 fiue fruits at our most wealthy farmers ; and what 

 they have seems to have been obtained more by 

 chance, than any settled plan to have them ripen- 

 ing in regular succession through the season. I 

 have seen children devouring unripe cherries and 

 apples, after our earliest varieties were gone, while 

 a few dollars worth of trees from a nursery might 

 have constantly supplied them with such sorts as 

 were ripe and wholesome. 



The subject may be set in a stronger light by 

 calculation. If the price of a fruit tree be 50 cts. 

 and the expenses of transportation and other ex- 

 tras should make it cost £1 when planted, the an- 

 nual interest on this expenditure would only be 

 seven cents. Now I would appeal to any man who 

 owns a fine fruit tree, if this is not a profitable in- 

 vestment of capital ? 



But I will make a closer calculation on a larger 

 scale. Any independent farmer can appropriate 

 one acre for a fruit garden without detriment to 

 his other arrangements or business. When prop- 

 erly fenced against the depredations of children, 

 suppose the garden with one hundred trees, con- 

 sisting of cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, nec- 

 tarines, pears, and early apples, — will cost (inclu- 

 ding the soil) $150, then it will appear that for the 

 annual interest ($10 50) he may have the product 

 of one hundred trees, all ripening in regular series, 

 and yielding through the summer and autumn, a 

 constant supply of the best fruit for his family. I 

 say nothing of the crops of corn and potatoes to be 

 raised on the ground for the first three or four 

 years, — or of the pasture for swine after that pe- 

 riod, leaving these to cover the expenses of de- 

 stroying caterpillars, circulios, and other contin- 

 gencies. What other acre of that man's farm would 

 yield him as much comfort ? 



From the Braltlcboro' Messenger. 



AFPL.ES good for cattle and hogs. 



Mr. Editor. — Allow me, through your col- 

 umns, to lay before your readers a few facts on this 

 subject, which may perhaps prove advantageous 

 to farmers. 



About ten years ago, in that part of New- York 

 where I then resided, it was found by actual ex- 

 periment to be a fact, that hogs, turned into an or- 

 chard with only the slops of the family, would 

 gain two pounds per day. In 1S28, while living 

 with Mr. C. of Buckland, Mass. I persuaded him, 

 though with much difficulty, to let me give apples 

 to his hogs, during his absence. He was gone 

 nearly a fortnight, and on returning, came into the 



garden where I was and says, " S , what in 



the world have you been doing to my hogs while 

 I have been gone ?" I was startled, and answered 

 "I don't know, sir; why, what is the matter?" 

 " Matter! why I could not get one of them out 

 of his stye -this forenoon." I was really afraid I 



had somehow killed his best hog, and exclaimed, 

 " Why, what is the matter?" "I should think 

 you had been stretching their skins a little, for I 

 never saw hogs fatten so fast in my life." " I have 

 given them apples a plenty," was the reply. 



A man in Brattleboro', last week, on showing 

 me a hog that weighed nearly fifteen score, said, 

 "Here is a hog, I am fattening entirely on sweet 

 apples, boiled: — father thinks they are better for 

 hogs than potatoes." 



A man in Guilford, conversing on the same sub- 

 ject, said to me, — " There is a hog that will weigh 

 over two hundred. I brought it home in July on 

 my back. I have given it nothing but apples and 

 a little slops for drink. I had no thoughts of his 

 thriving so well; and my pigs do nicely on noth- 

 ing but sweet apples." 



To this list of facts I might add scores of simi- 

 lar ones ; but a word to the wise is sufficient. 

 Sweet apples are better than sour ones, but an oc- 

 casional meal of the latter, for store or fatting bogs, 

 I verily believe will be found to make them grow 

 or fatten faster than so much com. Hogs partly 

 fattened become cloyed, dainty, and somewhat res- 

 tive, and apples are just the thing to relax and 

 open their intestines, and give them appetite and 

 variety. And there is withal a deal of nourish- 

 ment even in sour apples. A meal every day, or 

 every other day, will help to put on the flesh fas- 

 ter than perhaps any other thing. Let any reader, 

 who doubts, just try it for himself, and he will be 

 surprised at the effect. A trial can certainly do 

 them no harm. Store bogs that have a plenty of 

 apples, sweet or sour, or both, will thrive remark- 

 ably well. 



Apples are also good for cattle, and even for 

 cows. On this point allow me to state what I have 

 seen, and therefore know to be true. I proposed 

 to this same Mr. C. of B. to give apples to his 

 cows. " No, by no means," said he; "nothing 

 will dry them up so fast." This he confirmed by 

 numerous instances of cows getting into orchards 

 and becoming dry. But after a while be consent- 

 ed to let me fry it. I did try it' perhaps ten times, 

 giving them apples for a few days, weighing their 

 milk, and then doing the same without giving 

 them apples. — They gave from a quarter to one 

 half more milk when they bad apples than when 

 they had none. The experiment satisfied Mr. C. 

 and he bade me put up near two hundred bushels 

 of sour apples for his cows and hogs. He gave a 

 few occasionally to his horse. I think it was Jan- 

 uary before we gave out the last. 



Ripe apples are peculiarly good for the human 

 constitution, especially when taken in the fore part 

 of the day. And why not equally good for beasts? 

 I know that an opinion generally prevails that sour 

 apples will dry up milch cows quicker than almost 

 any thing else; and so they will when taken in 

 too large quantities at a time. Let cows break 

 into an orchard and fill themselves with apples 

 until they can scarcely move, and it will dry up 

 their milk — but not more than green corn will. 

 Too many potatoes eaten at a time will have the 

 same effect. But this argues nothing against a 

 moderate quantity, and no more in the case of ap- 

 ples, than in that of corn or potatoes. Let any 

 man begin with a small quantity, say less than a 

 peck, and increase the quantity as they become 

 accustomed to them, and a hundred to one if he 

 does not find the growth of both store and fatten- 

 ing cattle and hogs, as well as the milk of his cows, 

 to be thereby iucreased from a quarter to one half. 



But it is objected that cattle are liable to get 

 " choked" by them. So they are when they break 

 into an orchard and you run to get them out. 

 They will go to one tree and fill their mouths, and 

 before they have masticated these sufficiently to be 

 able to swallow them they again fill their mouths, 

 greedy to secure as many as possible. But let 

 them go quietly to a pile and take their own timo 

 for eating, and there is little if any danger of their 

 choking. 



Now if these things are facts, let me in conclu- 

 sion ask if it is not evidently the design of God 

 that we give our superabundance of fruit to our 

 stock, rather than that we should distil it into a 

 poison, the effect of which is most destructive to 

 the mind and the body of man ? 



A HAS BEEN FaRMEE. 



application of salt to trees. 



Several years since I had a large tree of the 

 kind commonly called Balm of Gilead, proper- 

 ly the populus candicans, standing in my front 

 yard, where it had been set as an ornamental tree 

 before its reproductive powers were understood. 

 Its roots extended a great distance, and every 

 where threw out a multitude of suckers or shoots, 

 which again taking root seemed in a fair way to 

 convert the yard to a thicket, and bid defiance to 

 extermination. I bad witnessed the destructive 

 effects of a few pails full of strong brine accident- 

 ally poured near the body of a tree of the same 

 species, and I determined to make an experiment 

 for the destruction of the tree that gave us so 

 much annoyance. Accordingly had the tree cut 

 down about three feet above the ground, where it 

 was fourteen inches in diameter, and with an axe 

 scboped out the top of the stump into a hollow capa- 

 ble of holding a quart of water. This I filled with 

 salt, and pouring water upon it, kept the bason re- 

 plenished with brine of the strongest kind, and 

 when the salt was dissolved and taken up I added 

 another small quantity. It was in the fall that the 

 tree was cut down, and so effectually did the salt 

 penetrate to the remotest ramifications of the roots, 

 that of the multitude of shoots, but two or three 

 in the spring showed any signs of life, and these 

 soon perished. I have since tried salt upon other 

 trees that had become troublesome ; particularly 

 the common wild meadow plum, and the black 

 English cherry, trees which sprout in abundance, 

 and with the same effect. It is necessary that the 

 whole surface of the stump should be covered 

 with brine that no part of the pores of the wood 

 may escape, and therefore a gouge, or an axe 

 where the size of the tree will admit, is preferable 



perforations made in the top by an auger, as 



1 have sometimes done. In this application of 

 salt, 'another striking aanlogy between animal and 

 ■egetable physiology is shown, viz. that substances 

 vhich used in small quantities are conducive to 

 lealth and vigor, become deadly poison when 

 ised in quantity, or thrown into the immediate 

 circulation, W. G. 



Olisco, Sept. 1833. [Gen. Farmer. 



Nurseries of mulberries have been planted in 

 various parts of the country during the past year 

 fir the cultivation of the silk worm. Successful 

 experiments in the growth and manufacture of silk 

 have excited emulation, and individuals are reap- 

 ing large profits by it. The time is probably not 

 distant when silk will cease to be an article of im- 

 portidon. — Belvidere Jlpollo, New-Jersey. 



