NEW ENCJL-ANI> FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, VORTH MARKET STREET, (at the AnRicuLTURAi. Warkhouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, 3IAY 9, 1832. 



NO. 43. 



® vo sa m; ^ ij Jt ^ ii le a ® i? Si» 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SEASONS, PRODUCTIONS, &c, IN THE 

 STATE OF OHIO. 



Mr Fessenden' — Through the medium of the 

 New Englaiul Fanriei- I have learned with sin- 

 cere regret, the ruinous effects of the past winter 

 on the fruit trees in the Eastern States. A com- 

 bination of unfavorable circumstances would seem 

 to have been concerned in producing this wide 

 spread ruin ; a very warm and moist summer and 

 autumn, and sudden, severe, protracted cold in the 

 winter. The wood of last year's growth must 

 have been as little prepared for enduring frost in 

 November, as it usually is in August and Septem- 

 ber of common years. Vegetable nature was 

 completely deluded by the elements ; and contrary 

 to her usual custom, continued to eliminate sap 

 and put fortli fresh leaves, When she should have 

 been curtailing her supplies and preparing to hard- 

 en the new formed laburnum for the coming win- 

 ter. The climate of these United States is marked 

 with strange vicisitudes ; the se.tsons sometimes 

 sport with their own productions, and fruits and 

 flowers of indigenous plants, to say nothing of ex- 

 otics, are often brought forth merely for de- 

 struction. 



The past winter, in Ohio, has been one of unu- 

 sual severity, and the whole year of strange and 

 altered features. The summer of 1831 was cool am! 

 extremely wet, more so than ever was known since 

 the settlement of the State. The mean tempera- 

 ture of the summer months was "IJlflj degrees of 

 Fahrenheit ; greatest elevation 91* in June. The 

 mean temperature of the autunmal months was 

 52". In the year 1830, the mean temperature of 

 summer was '2j?gSj degrees, and that of autumn 

 STJjSj degrees ; making a difference of five and a 

 half degrees in favor of the autumn of 1830. 



The mean of the winter months in the year 18.30 

 was 33 j5j''j^ degrees, while that of 1831 was 26 de- 

 grees, being seven and a half degrees colder than 

 the winter of 1830. The mean, for the last six 

 years, being SS-J^jL for the winter months. In the 

 summer months of 1831 there fell 26yyij inches of 

 rain ; 12yij-|j inches of which fell in July. In the 

 autumnal months there fell 8y',y^jy inches of rain ; 

 and iu the whole year o3JjAj inches, or nearly 

 four and a half feet ; a quantity equal to that of 

 the West India islands. In the summer months 

 of 1830 there fell 10 inches of rain ; in the autum- 

 nal months Q-^ip^j inches ; and in the whole year 

 37^jyS_j. inches ; making a difference of lOj-Jj in- 

 ches in favor of the year 1831. The mean annual 

 quantity of rain and melted snow being for eleven 

 previous years 4'2-j?yj inches, and may be fairly 

 assumed as the average quantity for this climate, 

 or about three and a half fcet per year. In the 

 \viiuer of 1831 there fell 48 inches of snow ; the 

 greatest quantity at any one time being 15 inches. 

 In 1830 there fell only 13 inches, which is about the 

 ■ mean quantity for one winter. The mean tern 

 perature for the year 1831 was SO-jSJ^y degrees ; 

 while that of 1830 was 54^^^* degrees, and i; 

 about the annual temperature for this part of thi 

 State, 



The ])ast \\inter comnjenced the latter ])art of 

 November, which is nearly a month earlier than 

 usual ; the whole month was cool, the mean tem- 

 perature being 40^^^^^^ degrees. We had but a 

 few days of that beautiful weather called "Indian 

 simimer," instead of the four or five weeks coiii- 

 nioidy allotted to us. Snow fell as early as the 

 21st of the month, and with high winds from the 

 west and northwest, continued to fall in small 

 quantities almost every day, to the end of the month. 

 The 28th and 29th of November the mercury fell 

 to 12 degrees; the rivers became filled with ice, 

 and navigation by steam-boats soon after ceased. 

 Hundreds of flat boats laden with the produce of 

 our farms, became frozen to the shores or forced 

 y the ice on the heads of islands, and their car- 

 goes, mostly composed at this early season of ap- 

 iles, cider, and potatoes, were destroyed by the 

 ntensity of the frost. The harvesting of corn and 

 potatoes had but just commenced, and nearly half 

 tie crops of both these articles were undug and 

 mgathered at the setting in of this Siberian winter, 

 "he whole month of December was uniformly 

 lold, and for several mornings the mercury was 

 ;t and below zero. On the 18th it was 10 degrees 

 lilow for a short time in the morning, which is 

 tie greatest degree of cold we have had for several 

 jears. The fore part of January the weather be- 

 (ame moderate, and on the 8th of the month, after 

 I heavy rain, the ice, now from twelve to eighteen 

 iiches thick, was broken up by a rise of eight or 

 (line feel in the Ohio river, wrecking and destroying 

 nearly every boat not secured in some safe harbor. 

 The weather became very cold after the 25th of 

 tlw month and the mercury sunk below zero ; the 

 26th it was nine helow. February commenced 

 with mild and pleasant weather, attended with fre- 

 quent showers of rain and considerable thunder; 

 the thermometer rising on several days to 65". 

 There fell ten incftes of rain in this month, eight 

 of which were between the 3d and 12th of the 

 month, occasioning, together with the melted snow 

 on the high lands, the greatest flood in the Ohio 

 and western rivers ever known since the settlement 

 of the State; the bottom lands were covered from 

 eight to twelve fcet deep, and the Oliio appeared 

 a vast sea rolling its proud waves from hill to hill, 

 and bearing on its bosom the floating ruins offen- 

 ces, stacks of hay and grain, and numerous frame 

 and log buildings. Very few lives were lost either 

 of man or beast. The rise of water was so grad- 

 ual, from three to five inches per hour, that the 

 inhabitants had suflicient time to prejiare for their 

 own safety and that of their domestic animals. 

 The water was five feet and three inches higher 

 than at any former flood. 



The spring, so far, has been cold and vegeta- 

 tion backward. Pear and plum trees are now in 

 full bloom, and contrary to my expectation, the 

 peach tree in situations a little sheltered and on a 

 light loamy soil, is full of living blossoms ; [ find 

 diat soil has considerable influence on the consti- 

 tution of trees and their ability to resist cold. The 

 fruit buds of peach trees on a clayey soil are gen- 

 erally killed, arid the wood much injured. It has 

 been conceded by writers on the subject, that a 

 degree of cold equal to seven or eight degrees be- 

 low zero, is fatal to the blossom buds of the peach 



— and eighteen or twenty, ruinous to the tree itself. 

 In February, 1818, the latter degree of cold de- 

 stroyed all the peach trees in the western country 

 killing them to the surface of the snow, which was 

 then two feet deep. By heading them down to 

 the sound wood, fresh vigorous shoots were 

 thrown up, producing fruit in one or two years. 

 Cherry trees are beginning to blossom and bid 

 fair for an abundance of fruit. Aj)ple trees are 

 full of fruit buds, already opened in warm expo- 

 sures and apjiear not to be injured by the severity 

 of the winter. The apricot has suffered more than 

 any other tree, the branches being generally killed. 

 The foreign grape vines in my garden are ruined, 

 excepting such as I took the precaution to lay 

 down in the autumn and cover with straw. Even 

 the Bland grape is killed down to the old wood ; 

 it is not more hardy than the Madeira, and has ev- 

 ery appearance of being a seedling from that grape, 

 although Mr Prince, who is high authority, is of 

 the opinion that it sjirung frnm our native stock. 



I made numerous experiments the last season, 

 for protecting the fruit of my plum trees from the 

 depredations of the "curculio," that feeble but 

 irresistible enemy to all horticulturists : one was 

 to suspend small bunches of rags dipped in Sen- 

 eca oil and sulphur, under the branches of the tree ; 

 to these they paid no attention, but deposited their 

 eggs in the fruit notan inch from the rags. An- 

 other tree was sprinkled frequently with soapsuds 

 mingled with sulphur, but with little better suc- 

 cess. On a tliird tree which crew near a shed 



lixture of equal parts of fine tiour of suljihur 

 and wood soot, was scattered from a sieve over 

 the leaves and fruit, when they were moist wi(ii 

 dew or wet with a shower — this proved a com- 

 plete protectioi3. The fruit was not attacked by 

 the little destroyer, but attained nearly its full size 

 and began to change its color for ripening. I had 

 calculated on the fine eating we should have 

 shortly, when, lo, a new calamity appeared in the 

 form of numerous cracks and fissures, first appear- 

 ing on the upper surface of the fruit and in a few 

 days spreading to the stem, and exuding the gum 

 of the tree in small drops; they rotted and fell to 

 the earth without affording me a single ripe one. 

 The trees were the Orleans plum and blue gage. 

 The aisphcation had no influence in causing the 

 cracks, as the same thing happened to some branch- 

 es which were covered with tnillinet, and to which 

 none of the powder ^^as applied. It must arise 

 from an exuberance of sap, ])roduced by a soil too 

 rick for the healthy growth of the plur?G. It does 

 best ;n a poor hard soil, vi'hile mine is rich and 

 mellow. It is the same \yitli the pear tree. The 

 only healthy trees within my knowledge are grow- 

 ing on a poor clayey, or dry gravelly soil. 



As the welfare of the honey bee is deservedly a 

 favorite theme with many of the writers in your 

 paper,I will close tliislong communication by a few 

 lines on that subject. They have flourished ex- 

 ceedingly with us for the last thirty years, and so 

 concenial is the climate to their health and prop- 

 agation, that the woods and prairies west of us are 

 filled with wild bees, uiqirotectcd and unassisted 

 by the fostering hand of man ; indeed he is there 

 their only enemy. Until the last season the bee 

 moth was unknown in this part of the State. Last 



