vol.. XI. NO. 49. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



38iJ 



pared, may lie used in considerable quantities in 

 whenten bread. 



Eighlhlij. We must use the ])loiigli more and 

 sow something. Pease will grow on the poorest of 

 land : (If it be tillage land) without much manure, 

 and they are a substitute for Indian corn if mixed 

 with oats and gromid for Hogs, Horses, &c. Hogs 

 may be fattened by turning them into the field, 

 and permitting them to eat them directly from the 

 ground. 



JVinthhj. Let our agricultural societies give a 



respectable premium to the man who grows the 



greatest number of bushels of breadstuff" without 



regard to the number of acres on which it grows. 



A Maine Farmer. 



From the Geiusee Farmer. 

 THE NEW AMERICAN ORCHAKDIST, 



BY WILLIAM KENRICK, 



Has recently been issued from the Boston press 

 in 12 mo., pp. 430. 



It is but recently that the public attention has 

 been directed to American works on fruits, and 

 our general knowledge upon this subject has been 

 extremely superficial. Coxe was for a long time 

 the only writer to whom we could refer for a de- 

 scription of the fruits most worthy of cultivation ; 

 and although his was a valuable book of reference 

 to the young orchardist, and is so still, it is in the 

 hands of but comparatively a few, and does not 

 take cognizance of a great many fine varieties 

 ■which have, since its publication, been brought 

 into notice at home, or introduced from abroad. 

 The best half of our pears, in particular, have 

 originated since the commencement of the present 

 century, and had not been heard of when Mr. 

 Coxe wrote. The splendid Pomological publica- 

 tions which have recently appeared in Great Brit- 

 ain, France and Germany, have made us acquaint- 

 ed with the names and merits of all the finer 

 kinds known in Europe; and the enterprise of our 

 nurserymen, stimulated by the increasing taste for 

 horticultural improvement, is annually transplant- 

 ing them to our soil. Every publication, there- 

 fore, which ssrves to advance our knowledge jn 

 this branch of rural labor, and source of substan- 

 tial enjoyment, nmst be acceptable to the American 

 public. 



The author of the work under consideration, is 

 a practical nurseryman, of high standing in his 

 profession, and is a man of worth, qualities which 

 peculiarly fit him for the task he has been engag- 

 ed in ; and he has been aided in its execution by 

 the most eminent pomologists of the eastern states. 

 He has also had access to all the modern works 

 on fruits published in Europe. The volume con- 

 tains " an account of the most valuable varieties 

 of fruit adapted to cultivation in the climate of the 

 United States, with their uses, mode of culture 

 and management: remedies for the maladies to 

 which they are subject, from insects and other 

 causes; also a brief description of the most orna- 

 mental trees, shrubs, flowers, &c." It is written 

 in a concise chaste style, and neatly printed. The 

 apples and pears are described under the heads of 

 summer, autumn, and winter fruits, and those 

 adapted for the kitchen, for cider and for perry — 

 new and old varieties. From the superficial ex- 

 amination which we have been able to give to the 

 volume, we feel a confidence in recommending it 

 as entitled to public patronage, and consider it a 



valuable acquisition to our stock of pomological 

 literature. 



Lest, however, our approbation should be deem- 

 ed unqualified, it may be well to remark, that there 

 are some passages in the work to which we can- 

 not tacitly subscribe. They involve principles 

 however, upon which orchardists have been, and 

 are, divided in opinion ; and our object in ques- 

 tioning their correctness, is rather to invite inves- 

 tigation, and elicit truth, than to find fault with 

 Mr. Kenrick. Among the passages noted in our 

 cursory perusal, as questionable on the score of 

 correctness, are the following : 



In page 20, iirtioduction, on the subject of plant- 

 ing, Mr. K. says: "The peach, the plum and 

 cherry, and ever green trees, are thought by many 

 to answer best by being transplanted in spring." 

 This language is too equivocal for a practical 

 man, whose province and whose object are to in- 

 struct others ; and the inference left to be drawn 

 in favor of spring planting, seems at variance 

 with our best pomological authorities. Professor 

 Lindley, who holds a pre-eminent rank among 

 practical as well as scientific horticulturists, is de- 

 cidedly in favor of planting in autumn, as prefer- 

 able to spring planting. There is no doubt, be- 

 cause experience every year affords ample demon- 

 stration of the fiict, that trees ordinarily grow, 

 whether transplanted in spring or autumn ; but 

 the question at issue is, which season is the best. 

 And where practical men doubt, or differ, it is well 

 to call in the aid of science, as umpire. It seems 

 now to be admitted, that the sap is elaborated by 

 the leaves ere it becomes wood ; and that the elab- 

 orated saj) continues to descend, and to be trans- 

 muted into wood, and particularly into radical 

 fibrils, after the leaves have ceased to perform their 

 functions, in autumn. Upon these data it follows, 

 that if a tree is trans|)lanted early in autumn, it pro- 

 vides itself with a new set of mouths* for absorb- 

 ing the vernal supplies of food which nature pro- 

 vides, ere the circulation is seriously retarded, or 

 checked, by the frosts of winter. The tree, be- 

 sides, becomes settled and firm, and the earth is 

 brought in complete contact with the roots, by the 

 influence of the early and latter rains, ere a new 

 foliage puts forth. Whereas, if the tree is planted 

 in the spring, the supply of elaborated food of the 

 preceding year, is apt to be exhausted before new 

 mouths can be furnished to replace the exhaustion ; 

 and although the buds may unfold, they are more 

 liable to fail, for want of an early supply of sap 

 from the roots. Our personal experience would 

 seem to warrant the conclusion, that the best sea- 

 son for planting deciduous trees, i. e. those which 

 shed their leaves annually, is the autunm ; and 

 that the sooner the operation is performed after 

 the leaves become useless to the plant, the better. 

 A different rule applies to evergreens. Both 

 theory and practice warrant us in saying, that 

 these should be transplanted, either early .in au- 

 tumn, or late in the spring, while the plant is in a 

 state of actual growth, and the evaporation not 

 great — in September or May, the latter being pre- 

 ferai)le on account of the flow of sap being then 

 more abundant, a necessary requisite to retain the 

 foliage, and to supply the waste of moisture by 

 eva[ioration. 



Page 107, Mr. Kenrick says, " the most suita- 



ble season for pruning Ik that interval between the 

 time the frost is out of the ground in spring, and 

 the opening of the leaf." 



In a former No. of the Farmer, we gave quota- 

 tions from a treatise on planting, which indicated 

 a preference for summer pruning ; and we added 

 practical observations in support of the advantages 

 of the new practice. These it will be necessary 

 to recapitulate. The arguments in favor of sum- 

 mer pruning were briefly these : 



1. That it causes no loss of sap. 



2. That the wounds readily heal, by the aid of 

 already descending elaborate sap. And 



3. That shoots seldom grow from the edges of 

 the wounds. 



And that none of these advantages result from 

 spring, autumn or winter pruning. B. 



* These will ^ow after the tree becomes leatiesss, and even 

 in winter, the reservoir of elaborated food being sutficiently 

 abundant to produce them j but they are destroyed or greatly 

 diminished in the ordinary process of transplantiujf . 



PliANTS. 



In plants there is an infinite diversity ; some re- 

 quire a long succession of ages to bring them to 

 perfection, while others attain their full maturity 

 in a few hours ; some are of immense magnitude, 

 while others are of an inferior stature, descending 

 by gradation till they become too njiuute to be 

 cognizable by the senses. The mighty baobob of 

 Senegal, described by Adanson, whose stem is 75 

 feet in circumference, stands a stately monument 

 on the face of the earth for many thousand years; 

 while the mushroom, which it much resembles in 

 foriu, springs up in a day, perfects its seeds, and 

 is withered to-morrow ; and when we carry our 

 views still farther, into that immense profound of 

 minuteness, which has but of late been partly laid 

 open to us by the invention of the microscope— 

 into the class of mosses, which are in some meas- 

 ure cognizable by the naked eye — and still farther, 

 into the more minute class of plants denominated 

 monld, which, even in those of the largest species, 

 are too small to have their parts cognizable by the 

 naked eye, and which, when viewed by the best 

 microscopes, discover a series of existences dimin- 

 ishing by a regular gradation, like stars in the 

 galaxy under the best telescopes, till they are lost 

 in the infinity of minuteness, leaving every reason 

 to believe, that, could the magnifying powers of 

 our instruments be augmented a thousand fold, we 

 should still find ourselves as far from discovering 

 the termination of this series of infinite diminu- 

 tion, as we were at the commencement of our im- 

 perfect survey. The world that we see, there- 

 fore, seems to be a very small part of that which 

 exists; our feeble optics are capable of taking in 

 scarcely a point of that universe which surrounds 

 us ; and our imperfect understanding can scarcely 

 obtain a glimpse of that infinity of objects, how- 

 ever, we can clearly perceive the most perfect 

 regularity and order prevailing in every part; and 

 that all the operations of nature proceed witli UD- 

 variable steadiness to effect the purposes for which 

 they have been designed. 



A SHORT time since, a Bear was captured in a 

 trap and killed by Messrs. D. & B. Morris, of 

 Penn township in this county, which weighed near- 

 ly ybtir hundred pounds. This monster was recog- 

 nized as an old offender, having levied his tythes in 

 shape of pigs, sheep, &c. for many years, but al- 

 ways managing to avoid a close contest with the 

 legitimate owners thereof. His skiu when taken off 

 was very large, and the hair on it was of a most 

 beautiful shining black. — Muncy Telegraph. 



