1855. 



NEW ENGLA^T) PARJIER. 



167 



course of draining and thoroughly subduing. His straw at about fifteen dollars a ton. He uses rye 

 drains are throe feet deep, or more, most of thorn and corn, ground together as provender for his 

 covered. They are made by placing short logs, horses. He cultivates his crops very much ia the 

 across, and covering with old rails, and then with ; New England style, employing free labor entirely 

 sods, bushes, and roots, deep enough to be below on his farm. Tlie price of labor here doo« not 

 the subsoil plow. His meadows seem to be fulh differ materially from New Engl.ind prices. It is 



of springs, and to require more ditches than any 

 land I have ever seen. Hay usually sells at twen- 

 ty dollars or more a ton, and upon land like this, 

 which will produce as well at least as our best 

 grass lands, hay must be a profitable crop. He 

 sows his herds-grass, or timotliy, as he calls it, 

 in the autumn, and clover in the spring, as we 

 do, on most of our reclaimed land. He has some 

 forty acres in grass, most of which has been re- 

 claimed, at an expense equal to that of reclaim- 

 ing our worst swamps. We found his team of 

 four oxen engaged in plowing his orchard, (on 

 the 10th of January, remember,) with a Boston 

 plow and a Yankee driver. These oxen were pur- 

 chased by Mr. Morrison, in Brighton, Mass., and 

 brought here, at an sxpense of about fifty dollars 



notorious that slaves do not perform so much la- 

 bor as freemen, here or elsewhere, and when we 

 add to this, the fact, that they always steal what- 

 ever they can lay their hands on, we naturally 

 enough infer, that they arc rather unj)roii table 

 stock. I suppose the poor uneducated creatures 

 cannot understand their moral obligati(.>n to do 

 all the work for the benefit of others, wiio do 

 none ! Everything here is kept under lock and 

 key, and it is said not to be an uncommon occiir- 

 rence for the servants to steal and sell the grain 

 allotted out for the provender of the horses in 

 their charge. Mr. Morrison had two big dogs 

 chained near his house, which are let looeo at 

 night, to prevent pilfering about his premises. 

 I suppose three-quarters of the corn-barns in New 



a yoke. I saw a fine yoke of oxen at M'ork a few j Hampshire were never locked or otherwise guard- 



days, on the Capitol grounds, moving blocks of 

 marble, and remarked to the contractor that they 

 looked like northern cattle, when ho informed 

 me that he brought them from Massachusetts. 



Although there are plenty of bullocks raised 

 and driven into market here for beef, suitable for 

 work, yet most of them have never been yoked. 

 Mr. Morrison has tried mules for farm labor, and 

 is of opinion that, except for the heavy work in- 

 cident to cl.'aring new lands, they may be more 

 profitable than oxen. They arc more hardy, less 

 expensive to keep, and much longer lived than 

 the horse. Indeed, a negro, of whom I inquired 

 how long tliey lived, gravely informed me that he 

 had heard a great many men say that they never 

 saw a dead mule, and his inference seemed to bo, 

 that they never die at all ! I have long had the 

 impression that mules might bo profitably em- 

 ployed iu Now England, on our farms ; and were 

 it not tliat they arc so unnatural a production, I 

 should be glad to sec tliem tried among us. Mr. 

 M. is trying the subsoil plow thoroughly, on his 

 farm, running it to the deptli of seventeen inches, 

 and has full faith in its utility. 



lie has horse teams, carrying stable manure 

 from the city daily to his farm, having purcliased 

 for three hundred dollars all that is made at a 

 stable, which will give him al)out a two-horse 

 load daily. lie showed mo also a lime-pit where 

 he had burned about a thousand bushels of oys 

 ter shells, much after the fasliion of burning a 

 coal-pit. This lime he applies broad-cast, at the 

 rate of one hundred bushels to the acre. He con- 

 siders corn liis best crop, and in good seasons gets 

 sixty bushels to the acre. He raises rye also, to 

 considerable extent, and finds a market for the 



ed, except by the consciences of the people, and 

 such considerations are to be Aveighed, by north- 

 ern men, who are tempted to seek a home, under 

 diSiirent institutions from their own. 



The question of emigration from home coraes 

 up to every New England youth, and 1 know of 

 no better service that can be rendered to New 

 England, than to present fairly to view the ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages of a life in other parts 



of our country. 



Washinrjton , D. C. 



Uexry F. French. 

 Jan. 11, 1855. 



APPLES-THE RIBSTOHE PIPPIN. 



There are many varieties of the apple •Jv'hich 

 appear to be susceptil)le of successful cultivation 

 in almost any variety of soil, and indeed, in al- 

 most any position in which it may be found de- 

 sirable or convenient to place them. There uro 

 others, on the contrary, which are more fastidi- 

 ous, and wliich can only be made to grov,' in the 

 richest and most aflluent soils. Of tliis latter 

 description, we may mention the Kibstone pip- 

 pin, which is certainly, in many respects, a most 

 desirable and valuable fruit, and one that de- 

 serves to be extensively cultivated in every reo'ion 

 where it can possibly be made to grow. 



Ives, (in his "Book of Fruits,") suggests that 

 the best soil for it is one rather moist and warm ; 

 and Mr. J. W. Rtssell, in a communication on 

 the Ribstone, published in "■Hoi^cifs Magazine 

 of llorticuUure,'' XiA X., says that, "Tre^s of 

 this kind of apple, growing on a flat level plain, 

 ripened their fruit about three weeks too early, 

 therefore did not keep so well througli the sea- 

 son, as those that were not so early matured." 



