78 



NEW ENGLAND FAUlMER, 



March 14,1832. 



ill ilry weather, freed from leaves, webs of 

 insects, and decayed or defective fruit. To a gal- 

 lon of currants add a gallon of water; break the 

 currants and press out the liquid by strong pres- 

 sure, but in such a manner as to detain as much 

 )iiil|i as possible. To every gallon of liquid thus 

 obtained, aild three pounds of good clean sugar ; 

 one fourth of an ounce of alum, pulverized; and 

 two gills of good brandy. Let the whole be well 

 incorporated together, put into a clean vessel and 

 placed in a cool situation, before the fermentation 

 commences. Place the bung loosely in for a few 

 days and then tighten it, leaving at its side a very 

 small vent, which in a little time more may be 

 stopped. All the utensils used in the process 

 should be perfectly sweet and clean, and the busi- 

 ness be carried on with expedition. The alum 

 jirevents a too rapid fermentation ; it should be 

 ailded in the beginning of the process and com- 

 ))letely incorporated with the liquor, that its pecu- 

 liar astringency may be lost in the compound, 

 which is to be made by the vinous fermentation. 



The above process, I communicated to Mr Otis 

 Pettee of Newton. He has made fhe wine ac- 

 cording to the rule above del.ailed. His wine, I 

 understand, has found its way into the market, is 

 much approved, and thouglit to lie inferior to 

 none. '^ R. GUEEN. 



Mansfield, Feb. 10, 1833. 



ground as brick ; it is covered with thick plank 

 and we drive loaded carts over it. Whole ex- 

 pense, about thirteen dollars. It ought, however, 

 to be larger, as it often runs over before we have 

 an opportunity to carry it out. I think it has been 

 perfectly tight from the first, as I have seen i 

 stand full, within an inch, for many days. 



An Irishman who lived with me, said he had 

 lived in the neighborhood of a farmer who had a 

 large one, and used to tln-ow in every dead animal 

 he could procure, and would run it over land 

 drilled for potatoes, with as many tap holes in the 

 cask, as there were drill rows under it. B. 



Bridgeport, Feb. 6, 1832. 



MANURE. 



Few farmers are aware of how much of the 

 strength of manure is lost and carried off, by 

 rains, from their barn yards ; especially w hen sit- 

 uated on the road and descending towards it, as is 

 often seen, and a stream the color of strong ley or 

 brown stout, constantly running from it. Bly 

 yard is about GO by 40 feet, and dishing towards 

 the centre — the cattle stalls under the hovel on 

 one side, with a clay bottom, also descend without 

 any obstruction to the same point. There is a 

 wooden tank sunk at one end, which will contain 

 eight puncheons, but no drainings can run into the 

 tank, until it is over eight inches deep in the cen- 

 tre ; and yet although the litter is generally a foot 

 thick, such is the quantity of moisture which accu- 

 mulates from the 1st of March to the 1st of July, that 

 •ne rainy day that will fill a puncheon which re- 

 ceives a quarter of the rain which fidls on the roof 

 of a house 40 by 40 feet, fills the tank after satura- 

 ting the litter. How much then would be lost 

 from a level yard or from one descending toward 

 the street ? and how much the dung must be de- 

 teriorated, after having such a quantity of its 

 strength carried off by every rain. This liquid 

 is drawn up into a puncheon, mounted on a horse 

 cart, thence conducted into a sprinkler, such as is 

 used for watering the streets of cities, and driven 

 over my grass lands nearest home until the grass 

 is half knee high, after which it is drawn out of 

 the cask in buckets and thrown on the compost 

 heap, which is generally in the highest part of the 

 field which is intended to be next ploughed or 

 broke up. My hired man can, when he chooses, 

 carry out and sprinkle the contents of the tank in 

 half a day. 



Perhaps some of your readers would like to 

 know the dimensions, materials, and expense of 

 the tank. Material, the hea\y southern 1^ inch 

 pitch pine, joined by a straight edge as if to be 

 glued. Dimensions, 6 feet long, 4 wide, and 4 

 deep. I think this material will last as long under 



INJURY TO FRUIT TREES. 

 Thomas G. Fessendeh, Esq. 



Dear Sir — As I am the first to announce the 

 destructive effects of the past winter, upon ev- 

 ery species of fruit trees, I am induced to hope 

 that my suffering has not been extensively shared 

 in other parts of the country. Having been ap- 

 plied to by several friends in New Hampshire, 

 Connecticut, Maine and New York, for scions of 

 the new varieties of pears, I was surpiised and 

 distressed to find that the shoots of last year were 

 pretty uniformly destroyed. This led me to fur- 

 ther examination, and I am grieved to state that, 

 with ine, the peach, the cherry, the pear, and even 

 the apple, have suffered more severely, than with- 

 in my memory, a period of fortyseven years, since 

 my attention to these subjects. The whole of the 

 last year's growth is destroyed, so far as the ex- 

 amination of fifty young and old trees in every 

 variety of situation, enables me to judge. My 

 friends vsho have requested grafts from me, will 

 consider this as a general reply to all their re- 

 quests. I have not been able to find one pear 

 scion which I could send to a friend. Nor is this 

 the worst part of the case." The injury to the trees 

 will be far greater than if the scions had been re- 

 moved by the knife. They will become diseased 

 and one can scarcely tell where this disease will 

 terminate. All my hope is, that I have been 

 more severely visited than others. It will be time 

 enough afVer we have settled the facts, to discuss 

 the cause. I have no doubt that it is not to be 

 attributed to the cold of the late winter, but I should 

 rather look to the extraordinary and unnatural 

 heat of the last summer, which enabled gentlemen 

 to ripen the Black Hamburg grape, and even the 

 Muscat, on open trellises. 



I said to a friend, who showed me some of those 

 tender grapes nearly ripened in the open ground, 

 last year, " My friend, I have a deep concern at 

 your success, because, if you live thirty years lon- 

 ger, you will never see the same success. It is a 

 misfortune to you." 



The sap continued up and not inspissated till the 

 30th of November. The severe, unusually prema- 

 ture severity of December, burst the vessels of the 

 plants, filled as they were with a watery fluid. 

 Such is my conjecture, but what are conjectures 

 worth ? The alarming facts are the most impor- 

 tant to us. May these facts be limited in their 

 extent. " JOHN LOWELL. 



Boston, March 9, 1832. 



flJ'^Ye are fearful that the calamity described 

 above, has been very extensive as well as destruc- 

 tive, within the hmits of its visitations. We have 

 heard from Maine and many parts of New Eng- 

 land, and are told that many if not most of the 



frbit trees have been seriously injured, if not utter- 

 ly ruined. — Editor q/'jV*. E. Farmer. 



DAMAGE TO FRUIT TREES. 



Mr Fessenden — I think it very desirable for 

 the ])ublic to ascertain, from New Jersey and the 

 middle States, whether the eflecis of the past win- 

 ler and autumn, have been so severe on fruit trees 

 there as in this segtion of the Union. 



The damage done to the pear, cherry, peach 

 and apjile, (more particularly young trees) is in- 

 conceivable, in every part of New England, as far 

 as can be learned. Many young trees that appear 

 to be green and healthy at first sight, are found, 

 on removing the bark with a penknife, to be black 

 and dead. I lately examined a young orchard of 

 forty trees, every one of which was injured more 

 or less, many utterly ruined, with the exception 

 of two or three native cherry trees, that had never 

 been budded. It is desirable to know whether 

 native fruits in general have escaped, more than 

 foreign varieties. An intelligent farmer in a tovyn 

 in Middlesex county, where thousands of barrels 

 of winter apples are frequently raised in a season, 

 infiirmed me, he feared they should not produce a 

 barrel this year, nor a pint of cherries. As it will 

 be a long time before the trees can recover from 

 this shock, we may calculate on a great scarcity 

 of fruit, for ten years to come. 1 hope your cor- 

 respondents in various ))arts of the United State!, 

 will furnish information of the state of orchards 

 in their vicinity, through the New England Frtr- 

 mer. A. B. 



Salem, March 12, 1832. 



LARGE OX. 



MrThom.ns T. Farnswonh of Worcester, Mass, 

 lately slaughtered an Ox of the Durham short 

 horn breed, originally owned by his Excellency 

 Gov. Li.«!COtN, which exhibited unequivocal tes- 

 timony of the value of that race of animals. His 

 weight was as follows : — 



Alive, 2.525 ; 



Total, 17(1.3. 



The Ox was five years old, only. He had no 

 meal, except five bushels last sjiring, and twenty 

 bushels of cob and corn meal since the com- 

 mencement of autumn. 



Betrking the stetns af Fruit Trees. — A writer for 

 the Gardeners' Magazine says, in substance, that 

 his gardener in Holland, at the winter pruning, 

 siven in that country in February, cuts off with 

 his common pniniug-knifeall the outer bark,dowTi 

 to the liber, of his apple and pear trees, and vines, 

 above eight or ten years old ; not so deeply, how- 

 ever, with the young as with the old trees. This 

 man's practice is said to have been always success- 

 ful in producing larger and better flavored fruit, 

 than can be obtained without that process. 



To Correspondents. We are obliged to defer thi» 

 week, the Proceedings ol the last stated nieetiag of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and many other, 

 favors. 



