1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



539 



If thou hast travelled with us, kind reader; 

 through these twelve essays, one for each Month, 

 and hast not found the way wearisome and dull, 

 there must now be a sympathetic chord between 

 us. We trust that it shall not lapse into indif- 

 ference, but that our mutual readings and writ- 

 ings shall tend to [illumine all our paths, and 

 make them paths of profit and peace. 



FijT the Netc England Farmer. 

 PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 



Friend Brown: — On or about the first of 

 last May, wishing to till a portion of my orchard, 

 as I do every year, for the benefit of the trees, I 

 found a few that needed pruning, Avhich I com- 

 menced to do ; but became a little suspicious 

 that I might be doing wrong, for as soon as the 

 first few limbs were taken off, the sap flowed from 

 the wounds so freely that it ran down the trunk 

 to the ground. Thinking it would soon stop, I 

 kept on with the operation, and trimmed four or 

 five good sized, valuable trees, considerably, and 

 others but little. Four of the five that were 

 trimmed the most, were Rhode Island Greenings ; 

 the other a natural, late fall apple. The wounds 

 on the last mentioned tree did not run much at 

 first, and soon stopped; but the Greening trees 

 coutinued to run all summer, and have not en- 

 tirely done yet. The wounds were painted over 

 soon after they were made, but the paint did no 

 good, soon coming off — and they have been, and 

 some of them still are, covered with a bitter 

 filthy gum, and the bark from the wounds down- 

 wards, in some instances to the root, is stained, 

 or turned black, where the sap has run down, giv-j 

 ing it a very unhealthy appearance. I 



On looking particularly about my orchard, last I 

 summer, with a friend, we found several trees i 

 that had been pruned, some one and some two i 

 years before — with the wounds still moist withi 

 the flowing sap ; but none of them had the ap- , 

 pearance of having flowed so profusely as those 

 that were pruned last May. I am not certain 

 when the last mentioned pruning was done, but | 

 presume it was in May, or the first of June, as j 

 that is the time that I have usually taken to 

 plow my orchard, and look a little to the welfare 

 of my fruit trees. 



Now can you, or any one of your numerous 

 correspondents, explain this matter, and show 

 me and others, wherein I have erred, that we 

 may do better for the future, and tell me what I 

 shall do to save my trees ? I am fearful that 

 they cannot live ; or if they do, that they can- 

 not bear fruit with such a drain on their life- 

 blood as they have had to sustain since they 

 were pruned, but a few years at most, if they are 

 not ruined already. Thomas Ellis. 



Rocliester, Mass., October, 1858. 



sent the same appearances in greater or less de- 

 gree. Our fathers were an exemplary set of gen- 

 tlemen in a great many things, no doubt, but 

 they did not know everything. They probably 

 pruned apple trees in March and April, because 

 it was convenient, and as they did not graft and 

 bud, and produce as many valuable trees as we 

 do now, they cared less if they did die, and 

 would supply their places with another set of 

 trees of natural fruit. But with a clearer light, 

 their sons ought to know better than to begin to 

 destroy their orchards just as they are coming to 

 maturity. Many of them do know better, but 

 with precisely such examples before them as Mr. 

 Ellis describes, still persist in the error. Well, 

 let them do it, if they will, those who cultivate 

 judiciously will reap the larger profits. 



Who can tell Mr. Ellis how to save his beauti- 

 ful trees ? That is the question with him. The 

 flowing sap from these wounds in the spring, will 

 burst off paint, shellac, or anything else we have 

 ever known tried. It is a disease to which we 

 cannot minister. Who can ? But we can tell 

 you how to prevent it — and prevention is better 

 than cure. Prune from the loth of June to the 

 10th of July, as the best time, of in October, af- 

 ter the leaves have fallen. 



Remarks. — There is no doubt, whatever, on 

 our minds, what has caused the appearance of 

 the trees which our correspondent describes — he 

 pruned tliem at the wrong season of the year, 

 when the sap was in great abundance, and very 

 thin. Nearly all the orchards in New England 

 that are twenty-five years old and upwards, pre- 



SnipriNG Apples to Europe. — The most 

 successful exporter of apples from this country, 

 R. L. Pell, of Ulster County, New York, owe^a 

 considerable portion of his success to careful 

 picking and careful handling. The fruit is picked, 

 one apple at a time, from the tree ; when trans- 

 ferred from the hand-basket to the larger one, 

 only two are taken at a time by hand. These 

 baskets are then drawn, not even on a spring 

 v/agon, but on a sled, to the building for storing, 

 so as to secure them from jolting. When packed 

 in barrels they are again taken two at a time by 

 hand. They are drawn on a sled to the North 

 River, and lifted by two men on board the steam- 

 boat, to be taken to New York and shipped. 

 When lowered on shipboard they are caught, one 

 at a time, on men's shoulders, and carefully car- 

 ried to the coolest part of the ship. At London 

 they are carried by two men on a hand-barrow, 

 with the same care that we carry a costly looking- 

 glass. With these precautions they arrive in 

 London in better order than market apples usu- 

 ally reach our own cities, and having been care 

 fully selected, sell for $10 per barrel, and some 

 as high as $20. 



TuE California Culturist. — This is the ti- 

 tle of a monthly, published at San Francisco by 

 Messrs. Wadswortii & Turrell, and edited 

 by W. Wadsworth. It is printed in a very 

 high style of the art, handsomely illustrated with 

 engravings of fruits, cattle, &c., and the articles 

 of which it has been made up so far, are well 

 written and upon important topics. 



