1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



521 



be made for the purpose. If in either of their 

 modes of dressing, one-half or more of the labor 

 can be saved, as compared with the ordinary 

 manner of culture, it is a saving worthy of no- 

 tice, for it should ever be borne in mind, that 

 "accumulation does not depend so much on get- 

 iing, as on saving." I believe that much labor is 

 lost, by attempting to renovate fields of grass, by 

 the use of the plow and the hoe, when it can be 

 come at in a shorter way. I believe that it is so 

 done, because our fathers so did it. I remember, 

 when a boy on the home farm, it v\'as thought 

 absolutely necessary to break up all our mowing 

 fields, once at least, in every eight or ten years. 

 The inquiry in the spring was, what field shall be 

 plowed for corn this year ? and to answer this, 

 the next inquiry was, how long since it was laid 

 down ? and so the rotation of crops went on from 

 generation to generation. 



One of the Old School. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 A BARREN GRAPE VINE. 



A few years ago, I set out a grape vine, and I 

 have taken great pains with it from that time till 

 the present ; pruned it every fall, manured with 

 old bones, wash from the house, Szc, yet it has 

 not borne a grape. It blossoms full, and then 

 comes the blasting, and they are all gone. 



Now, can you, or any of your subscribers, give 

 me any information what to do ? cut down, or 

 try another year ? Some say that there is a male 

 and female root — that one was destroyed in trans- 

 planting, therefore, the vine is worthless ; others 

 that the vine would bear if a bud was inserted. 



Burlington, Vt., Oct. 1, 1858. B. c. 



Remark-s. — Your case is not an uncommon 

 one. We know of grape vines by the way-side 

 that blossom annually, shedding a delightful fra- 

 grance all around them, but never bear a grape. 

 But such vines stand alone, far from any other 

 grape. Yours is probably in the same condition, 

 needing fructification from some other plant. 



FINE SECKEL PEARS. 



Supposing that you are, like other men, in fa- 

 vor of good fruit, I take the liberty to send you 

 a small box of Seckel pears, in hopes that they 

 will give you as much pleasure in eating them, 

 as it gives me to send them. I am a constant 

 reader of your paper, and hope they will in some 

 measure repay you for your exertions in the cause 

 of fruit-growing. 



Yours truly, B. Hedge. 



Phjmoutli, Oct. 6, 1858. 



Remarks. — We make you our best bow, sir — 

 and if the goddess Pomona were present, she 

 should bow and smile upon you too. Why, we 

 never saw such a basket of Seckel pears given 

 aimy before. Had it not been for the plain note 

 before us, under your own "sign manual," we 

 certainly should have supposed the Express man 

 under a mistake, and sent him over to Quincy 

 Market with them. They beat all the Cattle 

 Show Seckels we have seen. Thank you, sir: 



ages of animals. 



Will you inform me through the Fanner, the 

 time when Cambridge and Brighton cattle deal- 

 ers change on the ages of young cattle, or in oth- 

 er words, when is a two year old called a three 

 year old ? Some drovers have represented, that 

 they change on the age late in the summer when 

 younger cattle are taken to market, while here 

 we change on the age in the spring, when cattle 

 are wintered through. 



Is the sumac of commerce, the same that 

 grows wild in Vermont ? Here it is a small tree, 

 very branching, fi'om 12 to 20 feet in height,, 

 with red berries in compact clusters, and wood 

 of a yellow color.' Vermont. 



Ryegate, Vt., 1858. 



Remarks. — We cannot say when the Cam- 

 bridge and Brighton dealers, change their terms of 

 age in cattle. Your change is right, whatever 

 they may do. It is the easiest and safest way to 

 call things by their right names. A calf that was 

 born in April, 1856, is two years in Api-il, 1858, 

 of course. Farmers about us use the terms "past" 

 or "coming." That is, if an animal has just 

 passed two years, and the age is inquired after, 

 the reply is, "two years past ;" or if its age is 

 nearer three than two years, then it is "three 

 years old coming." Everybody can understand 

 this. 



The sumac you describe, is the sumac of the 

 shops. 



grasses. 



I send you some grass which grew in a piece 

 of bog meadow of one of my neighbors, which he 

 broke up lately, to seed down to English grass. 

 This grass is unknown to us. It grows about 

 three feet high, and appears to' be of a wild na- 

 ture ; my neighbor says it makes first rate fodder. 

 Please give us the name of it, if you know. 



Will fowl meadow grass do well on bog or 

 peat meadow, where the stumps were taken out 

 some ten or fifteen years ago ? It is covered 

 with steeple weed, or hard-hack, moss, and oth- 

 er foul stufi"; the mud is from two to five feet 

 deep. If it will do well, tell me how I must pre- 

 pare it for the seed, how much to the acre, and 

 when it must be sown. S. Denham. 



South Hanson. 



Remarks. — The grass sent we do not remem- 

 ber to have seen before. The fowl meadow grass 

 will undoubtedly do well on the land you describe. 



plums and melon vines. 

 Dear Sir : — I herewith send you $2, which I 

 believe pays for your valuable and interesting 

 paper one year from Sept. 1st, 1858. I notice 

 that a very beautiful engraving of those plums I 

 sent you a little more than a year ago, has made 

 its appearance in your paper of Oct. 2d, and as 

 one of your readers, I agree with you, in saying 

 it is an admirable work of art, as much so as the 

 plums themselves were an admirable work of na- 

 ture. There is, however, a slight mistake. In- 

 stead of H. P. Wiswall, Marlboro', Mass., it 



