276 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



standing the wetness of the season. The pota- 

 toes were very fine, mealy and delicious, with no 

 symptoms of disease. These good old friends 

 were true to us, and if I farm it again, I shall 

 cultivate their acquaintance more closely. 



We used to scold a little, Mr. Editor, because 

 you were not more sanguine about the results of 

 Sorghum, and thought your cautiousness very 

 largely developed. A. E. P. 



Sprintifield, Vt., 1858. 



Remarks. — We yielded a good deal of space 

 last year for a fair discussion of the merits of the 

 Chinese sugar cane, advised our friends to try it 

 in a small way, and have more recently given 

 many accounts of results in various quarters, — 

 and the conclusion we have come to is this : — 

 When molasses is 75 cents a gallon in the win- 

 ter or early spring, and the prospect is strong 

 that it will remain so, it will be wise for those who 

 have light, early land, to cultivate the cane. 



We give the above article because the story is 

 so pleasantly told, and because its results are 

 probably those of nine cases in ten wherever 

 the trial was made in New England. We do not 

 care to occupy much more space in our columns 

 on this subject, at present. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PEABS ON" THE QUINCE AND APPLE. 



"Where is the benefit of thus cultivating?" 

 asks your correspondent "Essex," considering the 

 trees are to be set so deep that roots may start 

 anew from the pear stock. As quince roots will 

 cause an earlier bearing, and continue to bear 

 during the development of pear roots, we ulti 

 mately get pear trees on their own permanent 

 roots, which have borne from the time they were 

 three or four years old — which is not the case 

 with original pear stocks. 



But "why not graft on the apple stock ?" fur- 

 ther inquires your correspondent. The affinity 

 between the pear and apple is not so close as be- 

 tween the pear and the quince ; and although 

 the pear takes well on the apple, it is very short 

 lived — much shorter than when on the quince, 

 under the most unfavorable circumstances. Per- 

 haps if the pear were grafted low on the apple for 

 the purpose of re-rooting, it might not live to ac- 

 complish it — though I have heard of one person 

 who has tried it with some degree of success. A 

 few years ago I grafted about a dozen of young 

 apple stocks with the pear, about a foot from the 

 ground. Though growing well for a year or so, 

 they soon died, and only the Jargonelle bore one 

 early specimen, and then also perished. I have 

 since grafted some apple stocks close to the 

 ground, to ascertain if they can be easily re-root- 

 ed. I have heard that fine specimens of the Sec- 

 kle pear have been grown on the standard apple 

 tree ; it is thought, however, that this is an ano- 

 maly. Perhaps most any pear might be made to 

 bear a few fruit on a bearing apple tree, as the 

 union need not last long to effect it. Some one 

 exhibited, during the last autumn, at the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, a very handsome 



Flemish Beauty pear, grown on the apple. Such 

 unions being short, are not profitable. 



I confess I have some sympathy with "Essex" 

 in his implied distrust of the "little quince." 

 Where, however, persons are planting a fruit gar- 

 den, they are generally impatient to see their 

 pear trees bear. In such cases, it would be well 

 to set a few on the quince, being careful to plant 

 them in a rich soil two or three inches below the 

 junction. 



Query. — As the pear will grow on the quince, 

 the quince will probably grow on the pear. Has 

 any one tried this on a standard pear ? If the 

 union Avould last any length of time, it might be 

 advisable, as the quince-borer would be avoided, 

 and the trees would present a full, weeping top. 



W. Medford, April, 1858. D. "W. L. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 HOW THEY" PEED THEIR CHOPS IN 

 MARBIiEHEAD. 



Mr. Editor : — As some of yovir readers may 

 like to know what we call high farming down 

 our way, I send the following "table of contents" 

 of several heaps of compost on the farm of Mr. 

 Setii Hatha w'ay, of this town. These masses 

 of manure Avere fourteen in number, having a di- 

 ameter of from ten to thirty feet, with an average 

 depth of about four feet, and were all designed 

 to be applied to between fourteen and fifteen 

 acres of tillage, devoted mostly to onions and 

 cabbages. Contents, viz. : 



Glue manure 30 cords. 



Night soil 2S cords. 



Rotten kelp (see manure) 10 cords. 



Beech sand 10 to 12 cords. 



Muck and surface soil 14 to 16 cords. 



Lime grounds,— being the sediment — remaining in the 

 pots in which skins are prepared for the man- 

 ufacturing of glue 11 cords. 



Bone manure 6 to S cords. 



Waste onions, which did not fully bottom last year. .250 barrels. 



With such data before them, I think some of 

 your readers may cease to wonder at the mam- 

 moth cabbages, onions, and other vegetables 

 which have made ^larblehead famous in Boston 

 market, and made the names of her handful of 

 farmers occur so frequently as successful compet- 

 itors in the reports of the Essex County Agricul- 

 tural Society. * * Mr. H. works up and com- 

 bines his glue manure most thoroughly and mi- 

 nutely with composting materials, and in this 

 state, considering its strength and durability, es- 

 timates it at nearly double the value of barn ma- 

 nure ; yet his father-in-law, a glue manufacturer, 

 informs me that within three years he has had 

 difficulty in disposing of it to farmers at $2 per 

 cord ! I intend to keep my eye on Mr. 

 Hathaway's acre, and, perhaps, by-and-bye, may 

 report how such manuring pays. Whatever re- 

 turns she may make him, we will all agree that 

 he does not design to cheat mother Earth. 



Marblehead, Mass. J. J. H. Gregory, 



CilALK FOR AVarts. — A Correspondent — W. 

 H. Bennett, of Warwick, R I., informs us that by 

 rubbing chalk frequently on warts, they Avill dis- 

 appear. In several instances known to him in 

 which this simple remedy M'as tried, it proved 

 successful. We have known slightly moistened 

 pearl-ash to remove warts by rubbing it upon 

 them. — Scientific American. 



