1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



37 



the end from tlic beginning. Therefore, we .ippcal 

 to you, Mr. Editor, mid tliroiigli you to your cor- 

 respondents, at this time — the first of the feeding 

 season — for directions to transmute our forage 

 crops into gold, — for that is tlie end of all labor. 

 Don't give us directions tliat will result in killing 

 the goose that laid the golden cp^g. 



By way of setting the ball in motion, we won'd 

 give as our opinion that hogs sliould be fatted wiiile 

 the weather is warm ; that they should be "done" 

 wiicn it is cold enough fn freeze in their troughs; 

 t^iat old corn sliould be u^cd rather than new; 

 tli:it it should be ground re;;/ fine; that if you 

 would have hogs grow fat as fa.'-t as possible, give 

 thcni raw meal mixed with water or milk, and 

 quite thin, so that they can drink it, — not forcet- 

 tiiig the dry comfortable place they need while 

 tiny are manulaeturing your corn into pork. If 

 you give them a wet, cold place, they will tise 

 mu h of vour corn to dry and warm it. f. 



Mast Yard, N. H., Oct., 1868. 



PLANTS FOR A NAME AND DESCRirXION. 



Can you, from the enclosed dri< d specimen, teU 

 the name and qualities of the plant, and whether 

 the berries are poisonous or not. It is the opinion 

 of soiue that they are, and I have hesitated to set 

 out the plant in my grounds, although I think it 

 a ];retty shrub. There is also a shrul) hero having 

 bright red berries at the point of junciion of the 

 leaf stalks with the brancli, which berries stay on 

 until near mid winter. Would the two be safe to 

 set around a house where there are children ? 

 Yours, for the dissemination of knowledge and 

 beauty, Wm. McAlwyn. 



tiandwtch, Mass., Oct. 19, 1863. 



Remarks. — Mp. Joseph Breck, to whom your 

 note and the specimen received were submitted, 

 has kindly furnished the following reply : — 



The specimen of the plant sent is so broken up 

 that it is almost impossible to recognize it. I 

 think it is Mespilvs Canadensis ; synonym : Py- 

 Rus OvALis, or Sioanq] Pyrus, which is a shrub of 

 moderate size, very common in swamps, and con- 

 spicuous for its white flowers in the early part of 

 Maj^ Fruit dark blue, of the size of "Whortle- 

 berries ; ripe in June. It is not poisonous, and is a 

 desirable plant for the garden among other shrub- 

 berj"^. Plants to be recognized should be sent when 

 in bloom, with leaves on a small branch or twig. 

 The other shrub mentioned by your correspon- 

 dent producing red berries in the axil of the leaves 

 is without doubtP/7'H05 Verticillatiispr Black Alder, 

 \vhich is a great ornament to our swamps and low 

 ground at this season of the year. You will tind a 

 full description of it in Breck' s Book of Floicers, 

 page 416. In modern times, this plant has been 

 transferred from the genus Prinos to Ilex. 



Yours, &c., J. Bkeck. 



The following is the description alluded to in 

 "Breck's Book of Flowers," an excellent work of 

 480 pages, price $1.75, which ought to be accessible 

 to e\cry cultivator of flowers, and should be in 

 every town and neighborhood library : — 



Ilex Verticillata.—( P;-inos Verticillatus) — 

 Black Alder. — This indigenous shrul), so orna- 

 mental in low grounds anel swamps in autumn, is 

 worthy of a place in every collection of shrubs. 

 "It is a liandsomc shrul), live or six — rarely ten or 

 twclve-^feet high, with crowded branches and 



leaves, conspicuous for its bunches of axillary 

 blossoms and scarlet berries, remaining late in the 

 autumn, or even into the winter. The recent 

 shoots are clothed with an apple green bark, 

 which, on the large branches, turns to a pearly 

 gray, and, on the older stems, is of a poli>hcel and 

 cloudeil dark color, whence the plant derives its 

 common name." The flowers are white, and not 

 very ornamental. The berries are' of a bright scar- 

 let, covering tlie twigs, the size of peas, in bunches 

 of two or three, anel remain long on the bush. The 

 flowers expand iti June; the berries are ripe in 

 September. The Black Alder will require a peaty, 

 moist soil. 



apple trees on an old orchard. 



I have two acres of land all walleel anel in a good 

 location for an orchard, but it has been used f )r 

 that purpose. The trees arc now dead or nearly 

 so, anel what I Vi'ant to know is whether a new or- 

 chard in the same place will do as well as in a new 

 one, provided I take the old stumps out and ma- 

 nure it well. John BATCHELDiiii, Jk. 



Laconia, N. H., Oct. 19, 1868. 



Remarks. — We do not suppose that apple or 

 other trees Avill do as well to follow those of the 

 same kind, as they would in a different location. 

 Nature teaches us thus much by her well known 

 system of rotation, by which a different kinel of 

 tree usually succeeds those which have grown to 

 maturity on any particular lot of land. Jlr. Cole 

 compares a tree to a tethered horse. No one would 

 expect a horse to do as well where another horse 

 had ftarved to death, as he would on a new spot. 

 Siill with hay and provender enough a horse will 

 flourish almost anywhere; and with similar care, 

 trees may be made to grow in soil impoverished 

 by the same kind of trees. If our correspondent 

 will make a compost of a large proportion of muck, 

 good soil, Eods, woods mould and leaves, some 

 ashes and just enough "agricultural yeast" or 

 manure to leaven the whole lump, he can make 

 apple trees grow on the site of an old orchard. 



THE fall "WEE-AVORM, OR CATERPILLAR. 



In your remarks following the queries of your 

 correspondent Jack, in the Monthly Farmer for 

 vSeptember, page 435, you describe exactlj^ a worm 

 that has been quite numerous about here this fall. 

 I find no better way to get rid of them than to pull 

 them off with the hands and tread on them, or 

 burn theiH where they are very numerous. I have 

 destroyed them by the bushel, but of what use is 

 it, when my neighbors on either side regard them 

 with perfect indifference, until their orchards look 

 as though a fire had run through them ? If such 

 things are not nuisances, what are ? I move our 

 legislature pass a law requiring people who will 

 keep caterpillars to pay a license, the same as for 

 keeping dogs. J. w. o. 



Cumtnington, Mass., Oct. 23, 186S. 



Remarks. — The old objection to agricultural 

 papers tliat they were filled with the writings of 

 "Fancy Farmers" and "Big Bugs" genei-ally, is 

 one for which practical farmers themselves v.ere 

 responsible, because a few years ago the editors 

 could induce nobody else to write. Farmers are 

 now outgrowiug this false modesty, and agricul- 

 tural papers are improving in value as fast as prac- 

 tical men are acquiring the habit of communicating 



