NEW ENGLAND FARML 



Feu. 



IS merit in such introduction, I sec no reason why 

 my dish should not be the right side up, in order 

 to receive what may legitimately fall therein ; if 

 nothing prior to the foUoAving can be shown, then 

 perhaps it may be well to record the fact, viz. : 



Being at Copenhagen in the fall of 1825, I no- 

 ticed at the wharves a number of small craft from 

 Holstein, with fruit, principally apples ; I bought 

 some which were recommended as the Graven- 

 stein, a very superior apple, high flavored as to 

 the taste and smell. I was so much delighted 

 with this fniit, having never heard of it before, 

 and being desirous of cultivating it in my little 

 garden in Boston, that I requested my friends 

 Messrs. llaynolds & Co. to purchase for me at 

 the nursery two trees of that kind of fruit, and 

 to be sure that they were genuine Gravenstein, 

 which they did. 



On my arrival in Boston in May following, the 

 trees being seven months out of the ground, I 

 had some doubts as to my being able to make 

 them live. Knowing General Dearborn to be an 

 amateur in trees, I presented him with what I 

 thought to be the best one, and planted the other 

 mj^self ; they both lived and grew vigorously. — 

 About a year afterwards I moved to Bristol, 11. 

 I., and took my tree with me, and planted it there, 

 and when I left that place several years subse- 

 quently, it was in a bearing state. 



I was desirous to know the origin of its name 

 and place, and was informed that it originated in 

 a nobleman's garden in Holstein, near to a family 

 gravestone, — hence the name Gravenstein. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 CULTURE OF THE CARROT. 



It is said this crop the present season has fal- 

 len short of expectations nearly one-third! How 

 is the fact? 1. What is a proper expectation 

 of crops ? 2. What has been the product ? Past 

 experience has shown, on strong land well and 

 carefully cultivated, a product of from twenty-five 

 to thirty.five tons to the acre — estimating forty 

 bushels to the ton. 



Mv. Rogers, of South Danvers, informed me 

 that he had twelve hundred bushels of the orange 

 carrot on about one and a half acres — or twenty- 

 four tons to the acre. Before they were dug the 

 product was estimated much more than this. The 

 land was strong, the appearance of the field very 

 fine, but the crop turned out less than was ex- 

 pected. JNIr. BuxToy had a field of about half 

 an acre, which yielded at the rate of thirty-four 

 tons to the acre. Only two cords of stable ma- 

 nure v;cre applied upon this field. In all other 

 respects it had the most careful culture. Mr. B.'s 

 land is strong, rocky and fertile. The short 

 home carrot was the variety grown, thirty-five 

 bushels of which weigh a ton, or fifty-seven lbs. 

 to the bushel. Mr. Waters' field of carrots 

 promised well early in the season, but when I last 

 saw it, there was more yeUovncHS above than be- 

 low the surface, and I expect the product did not 

 exceed twenty tons to the acre. ]Mr. Brown's 

 field yielded at the rate of thirty tons to the 

 acre. His land is first-rate, and his supply of 

 of manure not limited — not less than ten cords 

 to the acre. I saw, in the course of the sea- 

 son, many other fields, but have no good reason to 



believe that any of them yielded more than twen- 

 ty tons to the acre, genei-ally less, so that twen- 

 ty tons may be set down as a fair product of the 

 season. These sold, delivered, for $10 a ton. 

 Is not this a good use of land ? 



Is there any crop, with the same labor applied, 

 that will pay better than the carrot ? True, it re- 

 quires at first particular care, but when it gets a 

 going, as the boy said, it icJiisflcs itself, ancl often 

 fills out abundantly. I remember a few years 

 since, a gentleman from Berkshire county, who 

 had acted as chairman of the committee for view- 

 ing crops, stated at one of the farmers' meet- 

 ings in Boston, that he had seen fields of carrots 

 yielding forty tons, or two thousand bushels to 

 the acre. When asked how this was made cer- 

 tain, he said, the committee dug a patch in Sep- 

 tember, and found twenty tons to the acre, and 

 knowing the propensity to increase in weight un- 

 til the end of November, they judged there 

 would be twice as many at the time of harvest- 

 ing. Essex cultivators do not come at their re- 

 sults in this way. Nothing short of actual meas- 

 ure and actual toeiglit satisfies them, such as hon- 

 est men would be willing to buy or sell by. 



December 5, 1857. Essex. 



PRACTIO^rS OF AN ACRE FOR EXPERI- 

 MENT. 



It is often very desirable to the farmer to 

 measure off from a lot of land fractions of one 

 acre, for the purpose of making a series of ex- 

 periments upon different modes of planting, cul- 

 tivating or manuring. To facilitate this we give 

 below the measurement of a side of a square, 

 containing the following fractional parts of an 

 acre : 



Feet Square. 



1-16 of an acre contains about 52J 



1-8 " " " 73i 



1-4 " " " 1041 



1-3 " " " 121i 



1-2 " " • " 147S 



1 acre " " 209 



We cannot but suggest to our readers the im- 

 portance and advantage of combining with the 

 usual duties of the farm such experiments as may 

 easily be conducted without any interruption of 

 the work, and yet will often lead to the most de- 

 cisive results. If one is to plant an acre of po- 

 tatoes, for instance, divide it into quarters, and 

 each quarter into eighths if needed, and plant 

 one part with small seed, another witli large, 

 another cut, and another whole ; manure one 

 part in the hill, another outside. On one quarter 

 try salt to prevent the rot, on another lime, 

 another ashes, &c. No man can do this without 

 soon increasing his agricultural knowledge, and 

 soon after, his wealth. — Granite State Farmer. 



Pear-shaped Tomatoes. — Mr. Isaac B. Rum- 

 ford, of Oakland, brought to our office a box of 

 fine pear-shaped tomatoes, raised by him from 

 seed imported last spring. They look very nice, 

 having the regular pear shape, and a smooth skin, 

 with very few seeds. They can be divided near- 

 ly in the middle so that one-half will show no 

 seeds, and appear to be quite an improvement in 

 the ordinary tomato. We thank Mr. Rumford 

 for his attention. — Cal. Far. 



