552 



NEW ENGIAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



of Mr. Sheldon. His specific is a simple oyster- 

 shell ; but it is not mine, for I have within a few 

 days seen several hills containing rotten potatoes 

 in close contiguity with this crustaceous protec- 

 tor! 



Mr. Lyman Reed, in his communication speaks 

 ■with great confidence in his remedy ; but I ap- 

 prehend the farmer's confidence in his antidote will 

 ,be signally feeble when he learns that he is "pre- 

 pared to dispose of rights to use the remedy." 

 With Mr. Proctor, I must yet remain — sceptical ! 



West Mcdford, Oct. 10, 1858. i). w. l. 



For the New Englaml Fanner. 



BOOK KCrO^WIiEDGE VS. EXPaRIBNCE— 

 SALTING PLUM TBEES. 



Mr. Editok: — I read the "Farmer" with 

 much interest. I have been wont to place con- 

 fidence in its teachings, but my faith is waning ; 

 I am feeling more and more every season, that 

 we know nothing until we learn it by actual expe- 

 rience. For an illustration, I refer to one instance 

 now. I have read again and again in the Farmer, 

 that salt was good for plum trees. In the July 

 number, 1856, of the monthly, there is an article 

 by "Norfolk," on the "Treatment of Plum Trees." 

 I had in the spring a number of fine growing 

 trees. Some were grafted the year previous and 

 were doing very well. But not satisfied with 

 "doing well," I wished to "do better." So I 

 made what I suppose Norfolk would call a "free 

 use" of salt, and the result. is, what trees are not 

 dead outright, are stationary, — have not grown 

 any, neither produced fruit. 



From my experience, I venture the assertion 

 that with the "free use of salt," I can kill in one 

 month, at a given period, every plum tree which 

 "Norfolk" owns, or anybody else, for that matter. 

 I have yet to be convinced that any amount of 

 salt, ever so prudently used, is of any service to 

 plum trees. Still the presumption is that small 

 quantities may be of utility. But if the indis- 

 criminate use is liable to be followed by such re- 

 sults as I have witnessed, in the case of my own 

 tiees, ought not more caution to be used in 

 recommending the application of "salt freely to 

 the roots of the tree?" If I wanted to kill my 

 trees this would be the course I would pursue. 



I have sometimes felt, as I have looked upon 

 my lost plum trees, that the friend whose advice 

 I was fool enough to follow in killing them, 

 ought to be informed of the result, and so I have 

 written these lines. West Boylstox. 



Sept., 1858. 



KEEPING SWEET POTATOES FOE, SEED. 



We generally select potatoes from one-half to 

 one inch in thickness ; the smaller ones general- 

 ly dry up so as to be worthless in the spring. 

 The next thing is to store them properly. Take 

 old flour barrels or shoe boxes or almost any 

 vessel that is not so tight as not to admit the 

 air. A tight barrel or box we have always found 

 unfavorable ; old salt barrels, ruinous, the salt 

 every time rotting the potatoes. We fill them, 

 car''^'':Uy shaking them down, then cover the top 

 with well dried saw-dust, or dust from the road, 

 or drv riar.d, or the soil they were raised in, well 



dried, will make a good covering. Then store 

 them away in a room not subject to sudden 

 changes, be careful in storing, however, not to 

 cover so close as to leave no opportunity for the 

 sweat from the potatoes to pass off, for sweet po- 

 tatoes are like other things, they will pass through 

 a sweat, and if there is no chance for the mois- 

 ture to pass off", they must rot. The room must 

 be kept warm by fire ; you might as well throw 

 them away at once as to attempt to keep 

 them in this climate without fire. The proper 

 temperature is about 50° by our common ther- 

 mometers ; though where you have a stove in 

 your room the temperature may be raised to 70 

 or 80° without injury, as the air is much easier 

 warmed than the potatoes. In the spring be not 

 in too great haste to unpack and remove them : 

 we have frequently been deceived by spells of 

 warm weather, into removing our potatoes too 

 early, and got them chilled and lost more by rot 

 than we had all the winter before. — G. S. Innis, 

 Columbus, 0., in Ohio Cultivator. 



TREES ABOUND BAHNYAKDS. 



Much attention has been paid in your valua- 

 ble pnper lately to the management and cultiva- 

 tion of fruit trees. The subject is one of impor- 

 tance, and worthy of your consideration, a swell 

 as more attention among farmers than it gener- 

 ally receives. I am willing to do what I can to 

 call more attention to this subject, and would 

 therefore suggest a plan in which a few dollars 

 might be profitably invested by every farmer who 

 has a barnyard ; it is this : to set out as many ap- 

 ple or other fruit trees around the barn and yard 

 as the room will permit. 



Trees so planted will soon throw out their 

 roots under the barn and yard, where they will 

 find an abundance of nourishment which has 

 soaked downward from the surface of the yard, 

 and which, did they not save, could not be avail- 

 able in any other way. In consequence of their 

 proximity to the yard and barn, they will not 

 need any manuring or further attention, save to 

 protect them from cattle, till they get out of 

 their reach, Avhich they will soon do, and come 

 into bearing. 



The fruit from trees so planted is large and 

 well developed, and they almost always hang 

 full. One of my neighbors who has a row of ap- 

 ple trees on one side of his yard, has two trees 

 of the same kind, one near his yard and the other 

 some distance off"; the one near his yard produ- 

 ces apples of twice the size, and more than four 

 times the quantity of the other. jSIy neighbor's 

 trees are about sixty years of age, and the largest 

 that I have ever seen ; a number of them are 

 about eight feet in circumference, at a distance 

 of sixty feet across them through the heads, and 

 are still growing vigorously. 



It is also a great advantage to a yard to have 

 trees around it, especially in winter, as they do 

 much towards breaking the cold winds, and pre- 

 venting much sufliering among the cattle. I hope 

 that those who feel disposed will try it this fall, 

 as the outlay is so small, and the result so sure, 

 that T ^'oubc i.ut they Y/ill Le satiifieJ v\ith the 

 {result, and an additional attraction be given to 

 jthe old hoq}est,ead. — Homestead. 



