NEW ENCJ1.AND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR, 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 30, 1832. 



NO. 46, 



H o r t 



i c u 1 t u r e . 



The following should have appeared sooner in our col- 

 umns, but was by accident mislaid. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DESTRUCTION OF FRUIT TREES. 



Mr Fessenden — The effect produced upon 

 my fruit trees by the past season, I regret to find, 

 is very similar to that mentioned by your other 

 correspondents. . My peach trees, of which I had 

 about fifty, varying from three to fifteen years of 

 age, are all killed, with the exception of about half 

 a dozen small trees which grew in the shade of 

 large ones. Jly pear trees, all of them small and 

 thrifty, appear to be about one fourth part dead, 

 the remainder apparently not much injured. 



I find my young apple trees, (some of which 

 were just beginning to bear,) which were situated 

 on land that had been tilled for several years past, 

 have uniformly suffered severely ; I fear they are 

 all killed. While those situated on grass ground, 

 in a tough green sward, and wiiich wei-e no less 

 thrifty than the others, have mostly escaped. 



But what is no less remarkable and for which I 

 ghall not pretend to accoimt, is, that my tender or- 

 namental trees and flowering shrubs have suffered 

 less by the severity of the winter, than I have be- 

 fore known them for several years. A stnall um- 

 brella tree, (Magnolia tripetela,) which for several 

 seasons previous to the last the most prominent 

 buds have been winter-killed, has withstood the 

 last uninjured. This tree is in a colcl soil and in 

 a very bleak place. In the same exposure, two 

 year old plants of the Althea frutex, which by rea- 

 son of the abruptness of the winter were left with- 

 out protection, are apparently uninjured.* 



In common, I presume, with some other of your 

 readers, I should like to be informed to what ex- 

 tent those flourishing nurseries in the vicinity of 

 Boston, have sufiered from the severity of the past 

 extraordinary season. 1 hope we shall not be un- 

 der the necessity of sending to the South to re- 

 plenish our gardens. 



Having somewhere seen the statement, that thin 

 sheet lead placed around the trunks of trees was 

 a sure protection against the ravages of the field 

 mouse, and having a few apple trees in an exposed 

 situation, I was induced in the fall of 1830 to make 

 trial of it. Through forgetfulness, the lead was 

 suffered to remain on the trees till haying-time ; 

 when upon removing it, T found the bark of the 

 trees, under the lead, to be in a damp, cold and 

 unhealthy situation ; all of them had evidently re- 

 ceived some injury in consequence, and one of 

 them, a fine thrifly tree, was entirely ruined. No 

 doubt the sheet lead is an effectual protection, but 

 it should be removed before the trees begin to veg- 

 etate. Truly, yours, T. WARE. 



Franklin, April 16, 1832. 



To ripen fruit. — To lovers of gardening it may 

 not be unacceptable to know, that painting the 

 walls hlaek greatly forwards the ripening of fruit. 



• Our correspondent is referred to a note to a commu- 

 nication, by " Agricola," published in the New En{;l;inil 

 Farmer, page 318, col. 2, of the current volume, for what 

 appears to us to be a solution of this mystery. 



I'Voin the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal. 



DESTRUCTION OF FRUIT TREES. 



Tlic extraordinary destruction of the last yearns ivood 

 in fruit trees, and the probable causes of it. 



Gentlemen — I shall assume as a fact, founded 

 nn my own experience and the information derived 

 f -om various extensive inquiries, that the last win- 

 t r has most injuriously, possibly destructively, af- 

 f-cteJ every variety of fruit trees. The extent of 

 the evil cannot be accurately settled until we have 

 more information than we possess at present — 

 neither can the extent of the injury be ascertained 

 even where we have the most perfect means of 

 examination, until we shall know with what vigor 

 nature may exert itself to restore or repair its loss- 

 es. I perfectly recollect, that about forty years 

 since, there occurred a frost late in May, which 

 wholly destroyed the young slioots of every spe- 

 cies of fruit and forest trees. Tliey recovered 

 from that loss in one or two years. But the case 

 difl'ered in many very material respects from the 

 present. The injury in that case only extended 

 to the young and green shoots of the existing year, 

 hut it did not affect the last year's shoots ; this is 

 a very important distinction. The last year's 

 shoots were not deprived of their functions ; the 

 numerous latent buds, which were not developed, 

 instantly shot forth and supplied the place of those 

 which were destroyed. In the present case, the 

 '•'■cle of the last year's wood, all that part of the 

 tree which was designed to extend its growth, is 

 wholly destroyed in very many if not in a majority 

 of cases. The vegetative or conservative power 

 has been destroyed in its natural source ; it is pre- 

 cisely as if you had pruned back all the growth of 

 the last year. I have no doubt that the root and 

 the stock still retain their powers of renewal, and 

 that the trees will send forth new and vigorous 

 shoots from the older limbs. It is interesting to 

 the cultivator to inquire, what will be the proba- 

 ble effect of this new and extraordinary demand 

 on the powers of the plant. I mean to state only 

 what appears to my mind to be its probable effects. 



As to plants which are herbaceous and peren- 

 nial, and which do not shed their leaves, th'e efliects 

 of destruction or excision of the last year's growth 

 are very trifling. To some of them, such as the 

 geranium, it seems to be questionable whether any 

 serious injury results from such a loss. It is also 

 true, that many woody plants which are deciduous, 

 possess a power of reproduction which renders 

 them almost insensible to the eflects of the 

 constant and repeated deprivation of the last 

 year's growth. It is from this law or princi- 

 ple, that the ptonts which we select for hedges, 

 will endure for an almost unlimited period the 

 barbarous clippings and privations to which, for 

 use or ornament, they are annually subjected — 

 nay, more, they seem even to thrive the better un- 

 der this treatment. This, however, is only decep- 

 tive. The plant does in fact sufl'er as much as its 

 more noble and more useful congeners— as the 

 finest fruit tree. But as its use to us is of a dif- 

 ferent character ; as we value it not for its fruit, 

 but for ornament and protection against cattle, we 



disregard the mutilation of its natural powers ; we 

 treat it as the Italian connoissem- treats his eunuch, 

 we deprive it of its power of reproduction, in or- 

 der to gratify our taste ; but we as truly and eflfect- 

 nally mar the designs of nature in the one ease as 

 in the other. Let me exemplify this by a simple 

 case. The white thorn of Great Britain is kept as 

 a dwarf; it rarely flowers; it is a feeble, helpless 

 plant. I liave one which was left in iny meadow 

 by an English gentleman, who owned the estate I 

 now possess, sixtyfive years since ; it stan<ls alone ; 

 no rude hand has disturbed it ; it is as large as a 

 pear tree, and flowers and ripens a bushel of fruit 

 every year. It is man, who has dwarfed it for 

 his own purposes, as he has improved the button 

 pear to the Beurre and St Michael, by his atten- 

 tion to it ; as he has raised the black cattle of the 

 north of Europe, and the wild Aeepof the steppes 

 ofAsia, tothe noble short-horned bull, and the 

 Saxony buck. It is not distinctly understood, ex- 

 cept in China, where they raise the oak, the no- 

 blest oaks, to eighteen inches in height, that it is 

 as much in the power of man to degrade as to 

 improve that vast realm of nature, over which God 

 has given him the absolute dominion. 



To return to our principal inquir)', after an 

 illustration which some may consider a rhapsodyj 

 but which, I hope, more reflecting minds may 

 view in a very different light, as exhibiting some 

 sound and philosophical views of a subject which 

 has as yet received no very definite development. 

 What will probably be the efl'ect of the late de- 

 struction of til'-, '^-iJt year's growth of fruit trees? 

 VV ill it not be, at least, the procrastination of fruit .' 

 May it not result in permanent disease ? Will it 

 not be the policy of those who are younger than I 

 am, to set about planting new trees ? Why should 

 they be discouraged ? If for two hundred years 

 no such calamity has occurred, why should they 

 dread its recurrence ? No. It would be as un- 

 manly as it would be irrational, to despond. — 

 Pears, apples, plums and peaches, will decorate 

 our tables ten years hence in as great a profusion 

 as now. Those who escape the evil will obtain 

 greater profits. The nursery-men, though imme- 

 diate suflerers, will be greater gainers in the end. 

 After all, we may be deceived as to the extent of 

 our losses. Nature is more powerful than we are 

 aware of and she may restore what now seems to 

 be irreparable. 



To what cause is this extensive destruction to 

 be attributed ? Most certainly not to the extrem- 

 ity of the cold. The trees affected are subjected 

 every winter, in Holland, Germany and Russia, to 

 a lower state of the thermometer. To what, then, 

 is it to be ascribed '^ It is painful to be obliged to 

 offend our national pride, by saying, as we believe 

 to be the fact, that it is owing to the variations of 

 our climate — to our proximity to the gulf-stream, 

 which, within twelve hours, throws upon us the 

 temperature of spring in the midst of winter. Am 

 I singular in this opinion ? By no meaus. Writ- 

 ers in this country and in Europe, of great intelli- 

 gence, have long since attributed the destruction 

 of fruit trees, not to the cold, but to the occasional 

 heal of winter. I have many important facts in 

 my possession, to prove this to be true. I vnM 

 select one among one hundred : The ivy of Great 



