136 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



planting of trees. Unlike other crops, they en- 

 rich rather than impoverish the soil. Moreover, 

 trees preserve tlie snow, (the "poor man's ma- 

 nure,") and by breaking the -wind, secure a more 

 even covering of snow to the ground. The sudden 

 alternations of freshet and drought are also pre- 

 vented. 



The French government, which has done more 

 than any other in the culture of forests, rather 

 favors this theory, and encourages the separa- 

 tion of kinds, where large returns are expected. 

 In the Department of Landes it has chiefly re- 

 planted pines ; on the slopes of the Pyrennes the 

 box is the favorite variety ; while in Brittany 

 and Normandy the linden abounds. In Scotland 

 the larch has been most extensively cultivated ; 

 and more than ten thousand acres, with more than 

 fourteen millions of trees, were planted in less 

 than a century, by the single family of Athol. 

 This example has been copied in other parts of 

 Europe, and one is often surprised to find in se- 

 cluded places, like the region of the Tegernsee, 

 in Southern Bavaria, beautiful artificial forests of 

 larches. In Greece the prepossession seems to 

 have been for plane-trees, and on the hills of La- 

 conia a recent traveller, M. About, has remark- 

 ed the wanton and wasteful destruction of these 

 noble monuments of the Turkish dominion. 



The writer says, "If the rate of disappearance 

 goes on for the next half-century as it has for the 

 last, the child is now living who will see the soil 

 of New England everywhere as bare as the soil 

 of Attica, and its noble rivers shrunken in sum- 

 mer, like Achelous and Cephissous, to shallow 

 brooks." 



For the New Ensland Farmer. 

 POSITION OP APPLE TKEES. 

 Mr. Editor : — Your suggestions on this top- 

 ic, as to setting trees by the stone wall, by the 

 borders of the field and by the road-sides, accord 

 entirely with my early lessons. I was born and 

 reared on a farm, where several hundred barrels 

 of cider were made annually, and Avhere the prof- 

 its of the cider-mill was esteemed better than 

 any four cows kept on the farm. In those days, 

 no one was ashamed to make or drink a little 

 good cider. My father reared on his farm four 

 boys and two girls ; the average height of the 

 boys was more than six feet — the average weight 

 of the whole was more than 200 lbs. each ; so 

 that we lost very little of the growth that was 

 our due, by the cider that was made on the farm 

 True, for several years past, I have made very 

 little use of cider ; but my father continued to 

 use it, until the day of his death, and apparently 

 ■with a good relish. For more than eighty years, 

 he was favored with a soundr mind in a sound 

 body, and this is enough for any one. 



He was of the opinion that one tree, properly 

 placed by the wall or by a large rock in a hollow, 

 was worth half a dozen trees in a row on an 

 open plain. I remember we used to gather the 

 major part of our fruit from such isolated trees; 

 and the fruit they will yield is the chief object 

 for which trees are grown. *,* 



January 16, 1858. 



an apple grown on his farm, five miles north-y est 

 from this city. This is the first apple grown in 

 Nemaha county, and for aught we know, in the 

 Territory. It is a beautiful specimen both in ap- 

 pearance and taste ; a bright yelloM', medium 

 size, and slightly SAveet, rich and juicy ; was 

 grown upon a tree planted one year ago the past 

 spring. The early production of this tree is evi- 

 dence of the adaptation of the Neliraska soil to 

 the growth of fruit. — Ohio Cultivator.- 



The First Apple in Nebraska. — Judge J. 

 W. Hall, of this county, has presented us with 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MANAGEMENT OF COLTS. 



Mr. Editor : — There is in the December num- 

 ber of your much esteemed journal, an inquiry 

 upon the above subject, by JNIr. Gray, followed 

 by your reference of the question to Islv. Vining. 

 His reply I have waited for, and read with inter- 

 est. I consider it in the main excellent, and the 

 right thing to follow. The one exception that I 

 take is in the matter of grain. I have changed 

 my course in this, within the last ten years. Af- 

 ter observing that colts grained during winter, 

 do not thrive so well in the summer — after hav- 

 ing one of the best colts I ever owned nearly 

 ruined, by contraction of the fore feet and en- 

 largement of the ankles, gradually brought on, 

 as I could not doubt, by constant, though small 

 allowance of grain, and increased, probably, by 

 being kept a part of the time on a fioor — -I have 

 dispensed with grain, and feed only with good ■ 

 hay, (early cut, well cured clover is good,) and 

 give once or twice a week a mess of roots, or 

 even apples, for a change, and to keep up the 

 appetite. A colt should not be kept tied, nor 

 should he be blanketed. His stable should be 

 warm enough without. A yard for exercise, as 

 Mr. V. says, is very important. Let there- be in 

 it a good supply of water, but no ice for him to 

 slip on, and no sharp points in the fence to injure 

 him, and let him be secured from all cold storms. 

 I have had better results from this than the for- 

 mer course. In this way I raised the mare now 

 owned by Adna Storrs, of Hanover, N. H.,Avhich 

 took the first premium at the New Hampshire 

 State fair, at Concord, last fall, as a brood mare, 

 and also the first at the Connecticut River Valley 

 fair, held last October, at Bradford, Vt., in the 

 class of Giff"ord Morgans. 



It seems to me reasonable that a horse kept 

 without grain till the age he is put to service, 

 should have a better constitution ; that the own- 

 er will then be free to adapt the quality of feed 

 to the severity of labor. Horses, when not at 

 work, should be capable of keeping good flesh, 

 and a smooth coat, without grain. So kept, they 

 will be more healthy, and last longer. This can- 

 not well be done with those that have always de- 

 pended upon having it. I said a colt should not 

 be tied. Now let me digress a little, and say that 

 a horse kept up to hay, during summer, should 

 not be tied if it can be avoided. I have found 

 with four different ones, thus kept up, great ben- 

 efit from giving the horse liberty to go into the 

 yard or under the sheds Mhen he pleases, always 

 keeping water to which he can help himself. It 

 amounts to this. The feed that will keep a horse 

 fat and sleek with this freedom, will not keep 

 him from growing poor, lied in a stall, and stand- 

 in": on a floor. 



