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VOT^. X. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 62, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warkhouse.) — T. U. lESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



JVO. 37. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 28, 1832. 



© © sa saw sr j: ^ ii s a CO sr Sa 



THE PLANTER AND FARMER: 



A CONTRAST. 



The traveller in passing tliroiigli llie eastern, 

 middle, and southern States, cannot hiit notice the 

 different modes ol'cnitivnling: the soil, in the soiitii- 

 ern and northern region. The planter and iiirni- 

 cr, though engaged in the same emi)loyinent, are 

 as distinct classes in our conununity, as any 

 amongst us. This is doubtless owing to a variety 

 of causes, some of which I will endeavor to point 

 out in this communication. The northern and 

 middle States were originally laid out into farms, 

 of from one to three hundred acres each ; and 

 these were transmitted to their children ; were 

 frequently divided into fifties, and in some instan- 

 ces, of late years, (more especially in the neighbor- 

 hood of the large cities,) subdivided into smaller 

 ones of from ten to thirty acres. In all these 

 changes and mutations, one thing is extraordinary ; 

 the income of these small farms, by a different 

 mode of culture, frequently exceeded that of the 

 large ones, and instances have occurred, where 

 less than ten acres, devoted entirely to fruit and 

 vegetables, have yielded a greater net income than 

 tliree hundred acres as formerly cultivated. In 

 tlie southern States, plantations were laid out from 

 five hundred to three thousand acres each, and 

 with slight and unimportant variations, remain the 

 same at the present day 



I but is gratuitously bestowed upon every poor 

 child of the community. Here, I am sorry to say, 

 with many, education stops. The higher order of 

 sciences, a taste for reading and polite literature, 

 are confined to a few ; yet these few, when found 

 among the mechanical or agricultural part of the 

 community, are the pride and ornament of the 

 East. From such cottages s])ring the Websters 

 and the Adamses of New Enjriand. O. 



DESTRUCTION OF FRUIT TREES. 



Sprinokield, Mnrcti 17, 1832. 



Mr Fbssenden — I have recently examined my 

 fruit trees, which I was induced to do, on reading 

 a cotnmunication from Hon. John Lowell, in the 

 last New England Farmer, upon that subject, 

 stating that he found the last year's growth, on the 

 ends of the limbs, dead and unfit for grafts. If 

 that should prove to be the extent of the injury 

 done by the last winter, to Mr Lowell's trees and 

 to the fruit trees generally, in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, yoi. may consider yourselves peculiarly fortu- 

 nate. I have this morning been with several of 

 my friends and examined hundreds of fruit trees 

 in \arious orchards and gardens, and in different 

 situations, and the result is disheartening in the 

 extreme. The Indian cholera has not been one 

 half as destructive in any part of the world, where 

 it h.TS j)revailed in the most malignant form, to the 

 liunan species, as this cholera or disease has been 

 This circumstance I or will be to our fruit trees, judging from our ex 



with the juices that had not become sufficiently 

 insj)issated, to burst and diffuse their contents 

 throughout the stem of the tree, which will prove 

 as certain death to it, as the bui sting of numerous 

 blood vessels around tlie heart, would to animal 

 life. 



There were from two to three hundred fruit 

 trees, various kin<ls, destroyed in this town the 

 winter before tliis last, by the same disease. I lost 

 nine, and one gentleman lost nearly a hundred 

 tine healthy trees, that had been growing several 

 years ; he thought some enemy had destroyed 

 them by applying oil of vitriol, or some acid, to 

 the bark, if this disease is not caused by the un- 

 common wet and heat of the last summer, togeth- 

 er with the severity of the last winter, horticultu 

 rists have much to fear in future. I hope the 

 nurseries in the vicinity of Boston and at Long 

 Island, are uninjured, so that we may obtain a 

 new supjdy of healthy trees. 



Respectfully, your friend. Sec, 



E. EDWARDS. 



alone, in my opinion, will account in a great m<;j>..s- 

 ure for the difference of the two classes. The 

 fonder course produces a dense population, the 

 latter a sparse one. Towns, villages, and ham- 

 lets grow up with the former ; everything pro- 

 gressing ; not a year passes without its improve- 

 ments ; the mechanic, the manufacturer, and the 

 tradesman, are continually employed ; look where 

 you will, and you will discover the marks of vigor 

 and enterprise. A scattered population is the 

 mark of the latter ; plantations, perhaps a mile 

 a])art, which remain the same from generation to 

 generation, the same round of tillage and old fields, 

 and with little variation, the same succession of 

 crops — if growing tobacco or indigo — impover- 

 ishing and exhausting the soil. 



And now let us take a bird's-eye glance of the 

 inhabitants of these two regions. The phmterhas 

 much of the polish of refined life; he may justly 

 pride himself as a descendant of British ancestors. 

 In the main, he is liberal, intelligent, high minded; 

 in many instances, possessed gf a gi'aceful elo- 

 quence, and ever delighting in generous emotions 

 and in acts of hospitality. In acquirements, too, 

 he is respectable, as he has genei'ally a private or 

 a classical education. — The farmer has the rougli- 

 ness of the unhewn granite ; from his boyhood to 

 old age, his delig'it has been to till the soil vtith 

 his own hands ; labor has made him robust and 

 given strength and energy to his character ; he has 

 little of the refinement of com-tly manners, but he 

 needs it not, as he has that whidi is more substan- 

 tial, an honest simplicity and sound common sense. 

 Located amidst schools, education is a part of his 

 ordinary pursuit; and to read, to write, and to cast 

 accounts, is not only the privilege of the farmer, 



soination, thus far. But the injury here is on the 

 body of the tree. Many trees, the limbs" of which 

 and buds, were green and apparently in good 

 health, on cutting away the bark to the wood I find 

 the inside bark, the growth of last year, turned to 

 a brownish color and in many instances entirely 

 detached from the wood. On many trees in tiiis 

 situation the scions of last year's growth are green, 

 aiid Ibave no doubt would grow,if inserted into good 

 healthy stocks. I should think, from present ap- 

 pcarmces, that I should lose from two to three 

 hundred of the choicest varieties of the peach, use 

 tarine, apricot, pear, cherry, plum, and ajjple 

 trees, that have been growing from four to seves 

 years, luxuriantly ; and many of them have yield- 

 ed their fruit for several years. I fear, that in 

 most of our gardens and fruit orchards in Spring- 

 field, there will not be one tree in ten alive, in 

 i833. I think most of them will fcafout, blos- 

 3ni, and perhaps bear some unhealthy fruit, the 

 coming season ; but I have no more hopes of their 

 lecovering or surviving, than I should have if they 

 |vere all hewn down and cast into the fire. 



The damage and disappointment to horticultu- 

 Jlsts is incalculable; five himdred dollars would 

 iiot make good my loss in a pecuniary point of 

 |iew, and tnoney could hardly pay for the disap- 

 |iointment and vexation. The conjecture of Mr 

 Lowell, as to tiie probable cause, I hope will prove 

 ■rue, and as far as my limited experience and ob- 

 iervation extends, I think it will. The trees con- 

 nued to grow till late in the fall, and the sap or 

 jUices remained up till the first of December, at 

 (vhich time the cold commenced with uncommon 

 ieverity and contmued through the month, and 

 jaused the veins of the bark, wliich were filled 



BOTTOMS OF CORN STALKS FOR JIA- 

 NURE, COMPOST, &c. 



Almost every farmer draws together the bottom 

 stalks of Indian corn, with his harrow in the spvitt'g, 

 gets them itito heaps and burns them, and scatters 

 the ashes, what little there is of them, though very 

 trifiing. Otiers draw what they can upon the 

 head lands, and perhaps throw some of them 

 into the road and some into their neighbor's 

 field, whore tiiey remain, an excellent nursery 

 for weeds, and the reinainder is scattered by the 

 harrow and bush, over the oat and barley ground ; 

 where remains of them may he seen for three 

 years after ; which gives the impression that they 

 will never rot. But this is a mistake, tliey will 

 rot itr a barn yard under cattle, as soon as straw. 

 I get out the contents of my yard as soon in 

 the spring as the ground is thawed. I cast in 

 and litter my yards with the bottom stalks obtain- 

 ed from five to seven or eight acres, which, with 

 the trampling of cattle, (which are not driven out 

 of the yard to water,) get broken up and saturated 

 with dung, Tduring the rest of the spring and sunv 

 nier nights, while the cattle are out of pasture, by 

 October or Noveml^er, so that they may be carted 

 out and stacked, and the yards relittcred for the 

 winter ; and the stalks thus stacked in a manure 

 bed, will be rotted and fine enough to plough in 

 the spring following. And why should not the 

 stalks thus rotted with the dung of the barn yard, 

 be good manure ? It is only the rind that re- 

 sists decay, and that does not resist long, when 

 combined with the contents of the yaril ; ail the 

 inside is like a fine sponge, which when green was 

 filled with ^saccharine matter. AVhen the rind is 

 broken by the cattle's feet, the sjiongy inside will 

 absorb a large quantity of juice, which for want of 

 some such absorbing substance would be carried 

 off by rains. They are very good for littering 

 beep folds, when levelled off and covered by a 

 thiii coat of araw, as the weight of the sheep will 

 not break thnugh them ; and their lying so open 

 admits the ran and leaves the surface dry. 



It behoves us to use every means in our power 



