372 



■ r' 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MAY 2S, 1S34. 



From Ike Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 

 OKCHARDS IN CLYDESDALE. 



The orchardists in Lanarkshire have relinquish- 

 ed the practice of placing flags under the fruil 

 trees; and they neither make pits, nor trench the 



ground eighteen inches deep, or more than ordi- 

 nary delving with spades. They plant the trees 

 only from six to eight inches deep, and raise the 

 earth of a foot or eighteen inches round them, a few 

 inches above their roots, to enable them to with- 

 stand the blast. 



Young fruit trees require ropes of straw, or 

 sprigs of hroom, to he tied round them, to pre- 

 vent their hark being eaten by hares. Either of 

 these means are preferable to besmearing the trees 

 with soot, or any other nasty substance. 



The produce of the Clydesdale orchards, consist- 

 ing of apples, pears, plums and small fruit, has 

 hitherto been disposed of as fruil for family use, 

 or sold to retailers in Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton, 

 Lanark, &c. ; and part of it has been disposed of 

 in Edinburgh. But now that the price of apples 

 and pears have fallen to less than one third part oi 

 what they brought about twenty years ago, and 

 from the great expense of carting fruit to market, 

 the orchardist would do well to consider if it 

 could not he manufactured into cider and perry. 



It is well known that apples raised from a clay 

 soil make the best cider ; and from the best infor- 

 mation 1 have been able to procure, from twenty- 

 four to thirty bushels of apples yield a hogshead, 

 or 110 gallons of cider, the price of which varies 

 from £1 5s. to £2 2s. per hogshead. In Here- 

 fordshire, twenty hogsheads of cider have often 

 been made from the apples grown upon an Eng- 

 lish acre of land although no more than folly trees 

 grow on an acre. If a part of the fruit in Lanark- 

 shire were converted into cider and perry, when 

 the crops are most abundant, and only the mar- 

 ketable part of the crop, or what is known in Glas- 

 gow by the name of " shop fruit" were Sold, a 

 considerable sum might lie raised by these bever- 

 ages, while the value of the marketable fruit 

 might be kept at a remunerating price. Should 

 the return from perry and eider i'all short of the 

 price the fruit brought some lime ago in the Glas- 

 gow market, the expense of the carnage of the 

 fruit at all events would be saved. I unUerstand 

 that the whole apparatus and utensils for making 

 cider may be fitted up for about £50, and thai 

 two or three of these establishments would be suf- 

 ficient to bruise one-half of the fruit these orchards 

 produce annually. 



From thfl \-a-i quantity of gooseberries and 

 currants now raised in the Clydesdale orchards, 

 and in every garden in that country, their prices 

 have fallen to about one-half, or two-third parts 

 of what they brought some years ago. Put as 

 immense quantities of them are now made into 

 jam, jelly, and wine, as well as Into tarts ami oili- 

 er Confectionary articles, condiments so vvhulr- 

 SOni.e and pal. liable cannot fail to he in high re- 

 quest among all ranks ot people. These finds in 

 fact, occupy the same place' in Scotland, iti.it tin 

 vines do in Warmer countries. Apples and pears 

 are eaten in Prance and Belgium as food along 

 with bread of rye; and in Cornwall ami some 

 parts of England, the laboring people eat fruil in- 

 stead of bread or potatoes, and prefer the fruit to 

 either id' them. 



Under crops of potatoes, oats, beans, barley, &e. 

 are raised to a considerable extent among the fruil 

 trees in the Lanarkshire orchards, though not in 



that regular order as to be traced to any specific 

 rotation ot' cropping. 



The fruit in the orchards in Camnctban Priory, 

 the property of Robert Lockbart, Esq., and which 

 extend to 24 acres, the trees mostly full grown 

 and in good order, was sold a few years ago at up- 

 wards of £900 ; but it was sold another year as low- 

 as £30. In general it fetches from £400 to £600 

 per annum, besides a considerable portion' of the 

 best fruit being retained every year for family use. 



The orchards at Dalziel House extend now to 

 18 acres, with 5 acres more recently planted. 

 The fruit on about twelve acres of it was sold one 

 year at £617, and the lowest sum that part ever 

 gave was £100. The small fruit gives from £17 

 to £36 per annum, besides the value of the valua- 

 ble under crops. 



But a most fatal and common disease in the 

 CI) desdale orchards proceeds from the atmosphere, 

 at the critical period of the blossoms expanding, 

 or the fruit setting. A few days of dry withering 

 easterly wind, or a damp easterly hour, or a few 

 flashes of electricity, at the lime the trees are 

 in flower, or when the fruit is just beginning to 

 set, often blast the finest prospects of the orchard- 

 ist. Cold rains sometimes benumb or wash away 

 the pollen ; strong winds blow it off, and sudden 

 changes from heat to cold vitiate the fecundating 

 mailer, the farina withers in the anthers, and im- 

 pregnation is prevented. Caterpillars and grubs, 

 of the various species of the phahena, papilio, 

 and iiiusca, tribes of vermin fix themselves on the 

 buds or leaves of the trees, and destroy not only 

 the fruit, but, like their devouring brethren- oi 

 Egypt, eat up every green thing, and render the 

 trees, for a season at least barren of fruit. 



BIRDS. 



"The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of 



the singing of birds is come." 



•■ See si.sier sec. on yonder bough 

 'lb.- rubin sus, 1 liuar it now : 

 Listen, sister, lo the nuie 

 From robin red-breast's iiitle throat." 



The birds have returned to cheer us with their 

 mi hidy. Who conducted them? who was their 

 pilot through the long journey ? How manifest is 

 that power which is above all animal instinct ! 

 We si e (in. I in all his works. These little warb- 

 lers, that wing their way through the devious air, 

 have ilnir instinct. It is true, but who gave them 

 that instinct ? Is it a matter of chance altogeth- 

 er ? O, no ; the life of the sparrow alone will re- 

 fill.- all infidel schemes, These annual migrations 

 are conducted by a power supreme ; die country, 

 the plain, the hill-tops, the accustomed tree, the 

 safe shelter and secure retreat, are all pointed out 

 by the finger of Him, whose care and regard are 

 evri extended to the minutest of his works. 



The return of the birds is in the most undevia- 

 ting order. Those, who left us last, who seemed 

 Unwilling to depart from their accustomed haunts 

 and to inni from those whose friendship they win 

 wont In experience, are the first to greet us with 

 their vernal melody. Thus as soon as the spring 

 op. ns, vie hear the blue-bird chirping upon our 

 house-tops, and the song of the robin awakens us 

 from our morning drowsiness. The marsh lark, 

 ion, is si-en skimming through the air, and the 

 black-bird returns lo his lavorite meadow lauds. 

 The air is soon repeopled with iis multitude of 

 songsters, and the fields and woodlands resound 

 wuh mvi Ming nines of music. What a signal ex- 

 ample lo man also lo join in the Anlheiu, and to 



make the song of praise universal ! Man is the 

 only reasoning creature on earth ; yet seems to he 

 the only doubting and thankless creature among 

 the vast millions the Creator has formed. 



'■ Ye ravage carles, in mischief rife, 

 Why rob svveel innocence ol life?" 



If we recollect aright, we said something on 

 the subject a year ago ; we stated the importance 

 of preventing the destruction of the birds, and their 

 use to farmers and gardeners by their destroying 

 millions of troublesome insects. 



Put on the whole, what signifies preaching or 

 talking, or writing on these subjects? Sad experi- 

 ence may, after a course of years, bring people to 

 an acknowledgement that Ihese litlle animals were 

 made for some other purpose, than to be spoiled 

 with and murdered by lazy men and worthless 

 boys; that they are of essential benefit to the agri- 

 culturist, and it is to his interest as a cultivator of 

 the soil, and to his credit as a man of true feeling, 

 i hat they be preserved. — Old Colony .Memorial. 



From the Aim i iccn Farmer. 

 DOCKING HORSES, ITS IMPOLICY AXD CRU- 

 ELTY. 



I have long considered the practice.' of docking 



horses highly injudicious ; and I now ask the ta- 

 vor of a little space for the insertion of my pro- 

 test against it. It is, 1 believe, peculiar to this and 

 the mother country, from which we derive it. In 

 Spain, France and Italy, long tails are universal. 

 The Cossacs, Arabs, and South Americans, who 

 almost live on horseback, never duck their horses. 



The tail is to the horse, highly useful and orna- 

 mental — nature makes no mistake; nothing super- 

 fluous is given to any animal. As a defence 

 against the cold in winter, and flies in summer its 

 use is obvious. A horse that loses the smallest 

 particle of his tail bone never has the free use of 

 it. That he carries it more gaily ill consequence 

 of having been docked is a mistake. 



As to nicking and foxing, practices of the same 

 origin, still more cruel and absurd, they have gone 

 so much out of fashion, that it is unnecessary to 

 say any thing as to them. Nothing but a vitiated 

 laste could have tolerated mutilations productive of 

 so much deformity. I am happy to acknowledge 

 that ihe practice of which 1 complain is gradually 

 subsiding. The tail of a two year old appears to 

 be too large for his body, because one has got 

 its growth, the other not half. When he arrives 

 at maturity this disproportion vanishes — all is sym- 

 metry. 



Put you will be told that carriage horses, par- 

 ticularly gig horsrs, must lie docked, or they will 

 throw then- tails over the reins '. — that saddle horses 

 must be dock, d because in wet weather, their tails 

 get muddy ! — and that all horses should be dock- 

 ed, in improve their beauty. There is no account- 

 ing for taste. To improve his appearance the Af- 

 rican files his teeth lo n senible a saw ; the Indian 

 slashes and distends his ears, whilst the females of 



i e civilized life an- content wuh boring holes 



through Ihe bottom of their children's ears, there- 

 unto suspending bunches of beads, coral, &e.; 

 the Chinese compress the li-et of their females un- 

 til ihey are useless; and ihe South sea Islander 

 of fashion, speuds more than hall' of his life in tat- 

 tooing his svv.ii thy skin. 



Those who breed horses for sale, lose more in. 

 ibis way than they are aware of. Bring to niar- 

 kel iwo rolls, as equal in merits as possible, one 

 ducked, the oilier not — ami a preference from ten 



