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NEW ENGLAND F.iEMER. 



Mat 



ELEVENTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTU- 

 RAL MEETING. 



Reported for the New England Farmer, 

 BY WILLIAil W. HILL. 



The eleventh Legislative Agricultural Meeting 

 was held in the Representatives' Hall, at the 

 State House, on Tuesday evening, March 27, at 

 7i o'clock. The subject for discussion was the 

 same as at the last meeting — Fruit and Forest 

 Trees. 



Elias Grout, Esq., of Ashland, presided. He 

 remarked that he had been so unexpectedly called 

 upon to preside at the meeting that he had 

 had no opportunity for preparation, and felt that 

 his audience was better able to instruct him than 

 he them. He alluded to the almost wanton de- 

 struction of forest trees in New England, and 

 hoped that a reform would be effected in this 

 matter. In cultivating forest trees, he thought 

 they should be allowed to grow as thick as possi- 

 ble, in order to secure handsome trees and good 

 timber, and they should not be trimmed for a 

 number of years. In the West, the woods grow 

 tip thick and prune themselves, producing fine 

 tall trees with very few limbs. Coming to the 

 subject of fruit trees, he remarked that it is 

 sometimes asked why the old apple trees are 

 wasted — why not graft them, as by so doing you 

 can save time and trouble and get earlier fruit ? 

 The answer is, they last but a few years, and if 

 they have grown up near stone walls, where they 

 could not be cultivated, surrounded by bushes, 

 and have felt the axe or the saw but rarely, the 

 borers are found in them abundantly, and they 

 thus becoiue nests of these destructive insects. 

 When, on the contrary, the trees are in an open 

 lot, it is a good plan to take as much green ma- 

 nure as one horse can draw and place it around 

 tlie tree, covering it with straw, and allow it to 

 remain a year, after which plow it in. Ley is 

 often used with injury in washing trees, but if 

 green manure is mixed with it the ill effects will 

 be prevented. Upon stone fruit trees ley may be 

 used much stronger than upon apple trees. The 

 speaker suggested that a wash of strong lime 

 water, mixed with salt, would have a happy ef- 

 fect on the growth of trees. It is of no use to 

 dig about trees unless a considerable space is dug 

 over. The ground should be deeply plowed 

 about the roots at proper distances. In regard 

 to trimming trees, they should be kept open, giv- 

 ing, say, a border of two to three feet of foliage. 

 It is the practice to allow trees too, much foliage, 

 particularly the apple. Fruit that is not shel- 

 tered by foliage will ripen quicker, (a.) Vigor- 

 ous shoots that come out after grafting, should 

 be cut down very close, because they will absorb 

 too much of the nutriment of the tree. As 

 regards manuring fruit trees, pears will bear very 



rich treatment, and a trench should be dug 

 around them and filled up with rich manures. 

 Mr. Grout also alluded to the effect of electricity 

 on trees, — their growth, &c. — and suggested 

 whether a tree could not be made a proper con- 

 ductor. For instance, attach a wire to the roots 

 of some tree which does not bear very well, and 

 carry it along to the water in some spring. 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, followed, and re- 

 marked that trees, which he pulled up in his 

 pastures and wherever he could find them, would 

 grow much better when transplanted, than those 

 he obtained from nurseries, and were much less 

 infested by the borer. He thought this plan the 

 most judicious in growing fruit trees, — take the 

 natives and plant them, no matter what they are. 

 He had some trees, which he obtained from a 

 nursery, that did not grow any for four or five 

 years. He recommended digging five or six feet 

 around trees, and apj^lying manure and muck, 

 one-half of each, as operating exceedingly well — 

 not only on dry, but moist, clayey lands. In re- 

 gard to the cultivation of forest trees, he thought 

 it a matter of much practical importance to far- 

 mers, for besides beautifying an estate,' if plant- 

 ed around the farm buildings, they will break ofi 

 the cold winds and make them warmer, and also 

 protect them from decay by exposure to the 

 weather. Mr. Brooks doubted the expediency of 

 the suggestions of the Chairman in regard to 

 opening the tops of trees, because the sun will 

 be let in too much, which is a serious evil in our 

 hot, dry climate, inasmuch as the tree will be 

 burnt up and destroyed. He said he had had 

 good success in following up borers with a wire 

 when they are boring into the trees ; and as to 

 washing trees, he had used ley of such a strength, 

 that an egg would just sink in it, and he could 

 see no ill effects accruing from it. 



Mr. Darling said he had washed his trees with 

 ley, (in the proportion of one pound of potash 

 to a gallon of water) during the month of July, 

 for three successive years, and by that means had 

 got rid of the borers. 



JMr. FisK, of Framingham, remarked that he 

 considered it a good plan, in setting out trees, 

 to set them a little to the south south-west, as 

 they thus receive the rays of tlie sun less direct. 



Mr. Flint remarked that nothing showed the 

 progress of agriculture for the last twenty years 

 better than the attention which is paid to the 

 cultivation of fruit trees, and as an interesting 

 historical fact, remarked that the first fruit trees 

 cultivated in this country were planted on Gov- 

 ernor's Island, in Boston harbor, by Gov. Win- 

 throp. Mr. Flint also enforced the necessity of 

 great care in the process of transplanting trees. 



Mr. Merriam, of Fitchburg,madea detailed state- 

 ments in regard to an experiment which he tried 



