NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



247 



EARLY-BEARING FRUIT-TREES. 



Friend Hoi.mks : How soon ought a tree, of suit- 

 able size for setting, to produce fruit, under ordinary 

 circumstances ? This is a question often asked, but 

 vague and ditficult to answer; still, it may be some- 

 what moditied by the following conditions : — 



1. Varieties. — It is well known that certain varie- 

 ties of the apple, pear, plum, and cherry are dwarf- 

 ish by nature, bear abundantly while quite young, 

 and consequently they are rather short lived, but 

 well calculated to satisfy Yankw impatience. 



2. Artificial Mean^s. — Trees which are naturally 

 of coarse growth and lofty habits are often broiight 

 early into a bearing state, by bending the branches 

 so as to compress the sap vessels, and prevent rapid 

 growth, girdling, &c., or any method to check the 

 descending sap, and cause the formation of fruit buds. 



3. By assisting Nature. — Trees are endowed by 

 nature with the necessary organs of fructification, 

 and man can do much to aid in developing those 

 organs, by furnishing them with sufficient nourish- 

 ment, containing the specific food, or the elements 

 of the tree and its fruit — by judicious pruning and 

 training, so as to form low and open tops, and strong, 

 vigorous branches. Where there is a disposition for 

 a long and slender growth, the heading-down or 

 shortening-in system is admirably calculated to in- 

 duce fruitfulness. 



If trees are in a vigorous condition, well trained 

 and well set, three years from the graft or bud, they 

 ought to produce fruit in from three to live years 

 after setting. It is re(iuiring too much to expect a 

 young tree to produce a full crop of fruit, and at the 

 same time to make rapid growth, soon after setting. 

 We must dispense with one, and, if we look to the 

 real value of the tree, it will be the former. 



To those who have fruit on trees which were set 

 last spring, I would say, Be sure and pick it off, or at 

 k-dst the most of it, if you look for future profit. A 

 few days since, I observed an apple-tree, set last 

 spring, with seventy apples growing on it. I imme- 

 diately picked one half; the remainder would be 

 quite too many to remain, under ordinary' circum- 

 stances ; but the tree was well set and mulched, and 

 it is now making a fine growth. 



We once had a small pear-tree, about four years 

 from the graft, which set a very full crop of fruit, 

 and viewing it with feelings somewhat allied to those 

 of the parents of a precocious youth, who pnide 

 themselves with the idea of astonishing their neigh- 

 bors with an enfant prodige, we sufi'crcd it to rally its 

 whole physical strength in ripening the crop ; but 

 it was too much for vegetable nature to endure. It 

 lingered a year or two, and then died. SIGMA. 



Vassalboro'. 

 — Maine Farmer. 



ON THE GOOD EFFECTS OF MULCHING. 



It seems to me, that when any one has found a 

 practice in horticulture not generally known to be 

 of great value, he owes it to his neighbors and fellow- 

 laborers in the cause to make it public. 



I tried the value of mulching — i. e., covering the 

 soil over the roots of trees with straw, litter, sea- 

 weed, or whatever else may be most convenient for 

 retaining the moisture, keeping the earth cool, and 

 preserving a uniform temperature — pretty exten- 

 sively last year. I not only mulched newly-trans- 

 planted trees, but garden vegetables, egg plants, 

 okra, &c. Encouraged by the good results, I covered 

 the ground under melons with straw ; and this year 

 I am trying it with various flowering shrubs and 

 plants. 



The great advantage of mulching is unquestionably 



for transplanted trees. I think it may be safely said, 

 that a tree having only one third of its original roots 

 left, (and the top, of course, shortened back in pro- 

 portion,) — such a tree as would die, nine times out 

 of ten, with common treatment of watering, &c., — 

 may be invariably saved by mulching. Watering 

 the trees that have been transplanted every day or 

 two, for a month or six weeks afterward, as I have 

 seen many do, is a matter of no small labor and cost. 

 It helps to kill the tree, I am satisfied ; if not by the 

 constant and violent alternations of wet and dry, 

 which the tree suffers in this climate, then with the 

 hardening and baking of the ground which it causes. 

 On the other hand, the tree once planted, it can be 

 mulched (if the materials are at hand) in five min- 

 utes ; and from that time forth it demands no more 

 attention, no carrying of water, no stirring of the 

 ground. The ground is also kept in that state of 

 steady moisture and coolness most favorable to the 

 growth of new roots ; and, if there is any vital power 

 in the tree, it is sure to show itself in this way. 



As to the importance of preventing the soil from 

 parching up in the summer, especially when j-ou are 

 raising somewhat delicate plants, every one can see 

 it for himself without demonstration. I have found 

 it easy to cultivate some garden favorites in this way 

 that gave me a good deal of trouble before I tried it. 

 Indeed, so great is its efficacy that some German ag- 

 ricultural Avriters, as you are doubtless aware, have 

 not hesitated to take the ground that covering the 

 earth with a coat of straw acts more beneficially 

 upon a crop than giving it a coat of manure of any 

 description. Although I am not prepared to take 

 this extreme ground, I am confident that mulching, 

 especially to the fruit and ornamental tree-grower, 

 is a practice of great value, and much too little un- 

 derstood by most persons. Yours, 



A CONSTANT HEADER. 



DrxciiESs County, N. Y., Mag, 1850. 



Remarks. — Our correspondent is not a stronger 

 advocate of the advantages of mulching than we are. 

 Indeed, we have, for the sake of experiment, covered 

 a piece of ground with straw in the German manner, 

 in a small vineyard of about an acre in our o\m 

 premises, in order to notice if there is any other 

 value in the application than that arising from main- 

 taining the soil in the best condition for growth. — 

 Ed. IIort. 

 — Downing' s Horticulturist. 



DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER. 



A remarkable instance of the divisibility of matter 

 is seen in the dyeing of silk Avith cochineal, where a 

 pound of silk, containing eight score tlireads to the 

 ounce, each thread seventy-two yards long, and the 

 whole reaching one hundred and four miles, when 

 dyed scarlet, does not receive above a drachm addi- 

 tional weight ; so that a drachm of the coloring mat- 

 ter of the cochineal is actually extended through 

 more than one hundred miles in length ; and yet this 

 minute quantity is sufficient to give an intense color 

 to the silk with which it is combined. — Familij 

 Visitor. 



A SptKN-mn Plant. — At a recent .sale in Eng- 

 land of exotics, a rhododendron arboretum (elcgan- 

 tinum) was exhibited, which had upwards of one 

 hundred and fifty blossoms. The plant measured 

 seventeen feet in "circumference, was six feet in di- 

 ameter, and six feet in height. 



