PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. fi2 NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)— 'f- G- FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



NO. 16. 



VOL,. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1831. 



(g(Dsasa;T2r£raiSii't£a©srs» 



LIVE FENCES OF THREE THORNED 

 ACACIA. 



Mr Fessenden — The rain having driven nie 

 within iloors, I sit down to comply with your 

 request, in regard to the culture of live fences. 



Your Providence correspondent should take up 

 his three thorned locusts in his seed rows, and 

 replant, for three reasons: — 1. That he may dig 

 and pulverize his ground, an important requisite ; 

 2. That he may size his plants ; and 3. That he 

 may insert thcui at regular distances. The two 

 latter are essential to the beauty and regular 

 growth of the hedge, and to its after manage- 

 ment. 



My practice is to plant at ten or twelve inches, 

 generally in a single row, but sometimes in dou- 

 ble parallel rows, one foot apart, where I require 

 a very strong hedge. At two years from planting, 

 autumn of 1830, I cut a part off at the uniform 

 height of two feet. Another part I splashed, or 

 bent and partially cut at that height, and wattled 

 the tops horizontally to the right and left, alter- 

 nately, of the contiguous plants, but all one way. 

 Last spring I laid in a third parcel when in full 

 foliage. All these have done well, and have made 

 from three to five feet of new wood. I think the 

 laying or splashing is far the preferable way, as '.t 

 J>resents a formidable horizontal barrier, wliicfi 

 must strengthen with the growth of the hedge 

 A fourth jiarcel, planted three years, about an. 

 ineh in diameter, and 7 to 9 feet high, I design 

 to lay this fall. 



I generally manure the strip T intend for a 

 hedge, and cultivate it with potatoes the summer 

 preceding planting. I prefer two men and a hoy 

 to assist in planting. I draw a line where I in- 

 tend to plant, and throw up a trench of the re- 

 quisite depth and breadth for the roots of the 

 quicks, and if the soil below is jjoor, go a little 

 deeper, and throw in some surface soil at the 

 bottom. The earth is all thrown to the front, and 

 the back edge of the trench is made perpendicu- 

 lar, that the plants may be set upright and in a 

 line. A boy drops the plants on the line or back 

 side of the trench, and I proceed to plant, placing 

 the heel of the plant against this side, and guag- 

 ing it to a proper depth with my hand, when a 

 man throws upon the roots a shovel full of earth, 

 which keeps the quick in its position. This is 

 repeated imtil the planting is comi)leted. A se^ 

 cond hand fills the trench ; when the earth is trod- 

 den and the quicks are maile to present a straight 

 regular line. With two men and a boy I have 

 planted 1000 and 1500 quicks in a day in my 

 grounds. 



The plan which I have resolved to pursue for 

 after management, is to omit laying or splashing 

 till the third year after planting, when the quicks 

 will be about an inch in diameter, and then to lay 

 then! in at a slight angle of ] to 15 degrees, and 

 at the height of two feet ; to cut in the side 

 wood every summer with the bill hook ; keep the 

 lower part of the quicks free from brush wood, 

 and the ground about them free from weeds and 

 grass ; and at two years from the first splashing, 

 four years from planting, to repeat the operation at 



the height of four or four and a half feet, when 

 I think the fetice will be complete, and require 

 only an annual clipping with the bill hook, and 

 become a complete barrier to every decription of 

 domestic animals. 



I feel a strong confidence, that a substantial 

 fence may be grown from the honey or three 

 thorned locust in six, or at most seven years, from 

 tlie seed, and at a less expense than it will cost to 

 build and maintain any good dead fence for two 

 years. Upon this last point, however, I am not 

 prepared to give precise data. Yet I will hazard 

 a calculation. Twenty plants are amply sufficient 

 for a rod, ofcourse 1000 quicks will plant 50 rods. 

 Lotus assume this as the basis of our calculation. 

 The 1000 quicks, at one or two years old, will 

 cost $5. Three men will easily plant them in a 

 day. Allow a day and a half every year for 

 cleaning and clipping the 50 rods. This will re- 

 quire 9 days' labor in the six years. Estimate the 

 lab»r at $1 per diem, and it gives for this item an 

 agpegale of $12; add $5 for the quicks, and it 

 makes a total of $17, or 34 cents per rod, as the 

 c:;|ense of planting and growing a live permanent 

 fcM;e, proof against the depredations of boys and 

 buls. Treble this sum, and call the cost $1 per 

 rod what a pittance is the expense compared 

 wit) the advantages afl'orded by a fence of this 

 destription, which shall protect your crops from 

 depredation, and in a measure from the bleak 

 wine's of winter, and which is permanent in its 

 il'r:ion. The lowest price of a post and board 

 fence here is $1 per rod. It will last 12 years, 

 and requires 5 per cent per annum to mend and 

 keep it in repair. 1 have used no extra fence for 

 protecting the hedge. I plant near an existing par- 

 tilion fence, and exclude cattle while the growth 

 is tender. Cattle will seldom eat browse while 

 they have good pasture. J. Buel. 



Albany JVurseiy, Oct. 20, 1831. 



ECONOMY IN FATTENING HOGS. 



1 have thrown by my steamer for hog food and 

 substituted a boiler, and I think with manifest ad- 

 vantage. The former consisted of a 60 gallon 

 cask, over a potash kettle, badly set. I could only 

 work off four or five casks a day, with great labor 

 and trouble and the apparatus required to be luted 

 with clay at every operation. With my new ket- 

 tle, holding 30 galls, which is a thin beautiful 

 casting, I have cooked eight and nine barrels in 

 half a day, and much better than by the steam 

 process. This food consists of small refuse pota- 

 toes, of which I have nearly 100 bushels, or 15 

 per cent of my whole crop, pumpkins and a small 

 quantity of Indian meal. A half day's boiling 

 serves my hog family four or five days ; and it is 

 always kept prepared in advance. The actual 

 expense of fattening hogs thus upon the refuse 

 of llie farm crop, is 50 to 75 per cent less than 

 feeding with dry corn. 



The economy of my apparatus consists much 

 in sotting the boiler so as to have all the advantage 

 of the fire. The interior brick work is made to 

 conform to the shape of the boiler, leaving an in- 

 terval of foiu' to six inches between them for the 

 fire, round the whole exterior of the kettle, with 

 the exception of a few inches at top, where the 



flange or rim rests upon the projecting brick. 

 Thus the boiler is not only encompassed by the 

 flame but the heat is augmented by radiation from 

 the brick work. The fuel is burnt on a grate, 

 which extends nearly to the kettle, four or five 

 inches above the level of its bottom. My boiler 

 being in operation while I am penning these re- 

 marks, I have ascertained, that a kettle of pota- 

 toes, with three pails of cold water, covered with 

 boards, has been completely boiled in 18 minutes 

 from the time they were put in, another boiling 

 having been just previously taken out. My kettle 

 was set by a son in his teens, without assistance, 

 and was his first eflbrt in masonry. J. Buel. 

 Albany JVurseri/, Oct. 20, 1831. 



CHINESE MULBERRY. (Morus multicaulis.) 

 We had two jilants of the Chinese mulberry in 

 our nursery last season, one budded, the other on 

 its natural root. They both grew vigorously, and 

 both were killed by the f werity of the winter, 

 root and branch. I mention this fact as suggest- 

 ing a doubt whether this desirable plant will en- 

 dure our winters. I would like to learn how il 

 has faired in your neighborhood, during the last 

 winter. J. B. 



Albany, 1831. 



BLIGHT IN PEAR TREES. 

 The disease of the pear tree, termed blight, has 

 been less prevalent this year than during years 

 past. But it seenis to^vje assumed a new charac- 

 ter, or changed'^ts mode of attack. In the early 

 part of the season I discovered that the epidermis 

 on the bodies of several trees, of two to four 

 inches in diameter had become brown in spots, 

 and was cracked and separating from the true 

 bark ; and in some instances I found the disease 

 had extended to the wood. I immediately had 

 them washed with a weak solution of chloride of 

 lime, which seems to have restored them to health. 

 I applied the chloride the preceiling year to the 

 stimips of some amputated branches, in some of 

 which cases the disease had extended down upon 

 one side of the bole of the tree. In every case 

 the disease was checked, and the live parts have 

 protruded beyond the dead wooil. Although Mr 

 Lowell, whom I highly respect, and whom I am 

 ambitious to propitiate, detests all theories, I am 

 nevertheless induced to hazard my theory in this 

 case. It is this, that the disease is owing to a min- 

 ute insect, which Jireys upon the bark, and vi- 

 tiates and poisons the elaborated sap ; and that the 

 chlorine destroys the insect and becomes an anti- 

 dote to the poison. From partial experiments 

 I am induced to believe, that chloride will prove 

 an efficient preventative to the mildew on grapes 

 also. These suggestions are hazarded in the hope 

 that they may lead others to make more satisfac- 

 tory experiments. J- Buel. 

 Oct. 20, 1831. 



MANUFACTURE OF SILK. 



Mr Editor — In a late journey to the eastward 

 I called on Mr Enoch Boynton, innkeeper, of New- 

 bury, and had some conversation with him relative 

 to the growth and manufactu'-e of silk. 



He informed me that he had made the silfe busi- 

 ness a study for forty years, and was convinced of 



