238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



May 



being grown, particularly dui-ing the last few 

 years, when tlic extra crop roipiired each year 

 for the consiiniption of the half iiiillion emigrants, 

 has been a million and a half of bushels beyond 

 the requirement of the previous year, and which, 

 at the average crop of 100 bushels per acre, 

 would require 15,000 acres of land for their cul- 

 tui-e. This is not only true of potatoes, but ol 

 other roots, the consumption of wliich is not only 

 increased from the same cause, but from our own 

 citizens becoming convinced that a large appro- 

 priation of vegetable diet is conducive to health. 

 The formers and livery-stable keepere are also 

 feeding roots more liberally to cattle and horses, 

 and as a consequence, carrots arc now sohl read- 

 ily in the New York market at fifty cents per 

 bushel ; and even parsnips and ruta-baga turnips 

 bring prices equally large, as compared with 

 those of former years. — Workinr/ Farmer. 



tree had better be dead than drag out a sickly ex- 

 istence. You want new shoots of the real thrifty 

 color to burst out with unmistakable energy. 



I wish, Mr. Brown, that all your readers 

 could see my neighlior Goodman's orcliard in 

 Autumn; trees all in stmight, handsome rows; 

 thrifty crops growing among them, — and a team 

 going to market with the abundance which seems 

 to have no end. w. n. b. 



Concord, Mass., March 23, 1855. 



For the Aew Enfrland Farmer. 



SETTING ORCHARDS. 



Mr. Brown : — Spring is at hand ; and many 

 of your readers are planning to set out fruit trees 

 this season. How can they invest a few dollars 

 better than to buy twenty, or fifty, or more, 

 trees, and choose a good place to set them, and 

 get them growing as fast as possible. What 

 "marketing'' costs less than the piles of great 

 apples so speedily gathered from the bending 

 trees? Folks talk of potatoes being a profital)le 

 crop, — they are, but apples are more profitable. 

 There is little danger of there being a glut in the 

 market for apples. The demand more than keeps 

 pace with the supply-. Better apples are called 

 for in unlimited quantities. Some that have 

 raised apples in a slovenly manner, have been 

 discouraged )jy the prices obtained. They have 

 almost shovelled them into dirty, mean bar- 

 rels, and because they have had to sell tliem to 

 poor customers at a low figure, — 0, apples are 

 not worth raising. The better way is, to be lib- 

 eral with the trees. Give them something to 

 live upon. Don't be afraid to in plow manure a bout 

 them. It is better than to pile up a lot hj the 

 trunk to dry up and feed insects. If you think 

 to raise a good crop of grass under your trees, 

 'you will injure the fruit very seriously. Tree 

 ro jts want a mellow soil io t/icmselccs, and no ob- 

 structitin from grass. 



The easiest way to manage an orchard is to 

 have it the cvltirated field — the jilace to raise the 

 potatoes and corn and vines. It should be on 

 good land, accessible from the house readily, not 

 hiliy, and so situated that it might be easily over- 

 looked. If trees are sot on good land, they will 

 make a handsome growth witliout having so 

 much good eartli carted about tliem. An or- 

 chard near at hand will be ))etter protected from 

 vagrant animals, — four-legged and two-leo"red. 

 If you are to be robb;id, it is desirable to see how 

 it is done ! 



Every year thousands of trees are thrown away 

 by being stuck down in grass land. When are 

 people ull. to know, that such an expenditure is 

 the slieerost f)l]y? Suppose the trees are dug 

 around. Soon the grass gets up again ; — it is 

 difficult to get around to tlie trees, and they come 

 to the general stand-still. But suppose they do 

 just live, and perluips, grow an inch or two? A 



STAY WHERE YOU ARE. 



In the West we have met with persons pos- 

 sessed of a mania for clearing land. As long as 

 their farms afford unlimited o{)portunities for 

 chopping down huge trees and burning up huge 

 logs, they work away with the ardor of passion ; 

 but the moment they have made their farms tilla- 

 ble and their houses inhabitable, they take no 

 further interest in them whatever, and are eager 

 to sell out and plunge deeper' into the woods to 

 ply again the axe and the brand. Thus the coun- 

 try is cleared rapidly ; but the blood of the people 

 is fevered, and the passion for change continues 

 after the good done by it has been accomplished. 



The necessity for a rapid clearing of land has 

 ceased. We have cleared faster than we have ap- 

 propriated. The Eastern and Middle States pre- 

 sent an expanse, almost unbroken, of half-culti- 

 vated land, dotted with unattractive homes. A 

 large number — probably a majority — of those who 

 occupy those homes are, at least, ivillmg, if they 

 .are not desirous, to sell their fiirms and try their 

 fortune in a newer region. They know that the 

 burden of life is heavy to be borne where they 

 are ; they hope it will be lighter somewhere else. 

 They forget that the life of no honest man is easy. 

 They omit from tbeir calculations all the unseen 

 and spiritual advantages of a permanent residence. 

 They overlook the fact that the real nutriment of 

 a tree or a man flows in from the minute tendrils 

 of the root, scarcely visible to the eye, which a 

 removal rudely tears away. They have neglected 

 to make their homes charming, by planting the 

 ornamental shrub, the shading tree, the beautiful 

 flower. They have not enlisted in their corps of 

 co-operators the next-to-omnipotent aid of Science, 

 nor bound themselves to the fields they till by the 

 interest of varied, intelligent Experiment. They 

 do not know that new lands, though they give a 

 large increase, yet draw large tribute from the 

 men who go to live upon them. The forest and 

 the prairie do not yeld without a struggle, nor 

 without imparting some of their wildness to their 

 conquerors. It is a game of Give and Take be- 

 tween civilized man and wild nature. 



To most men, over twenty-five years of age, who 

 have a footing upon their native soil, we believe 

 the advice is good. Stay where you are, and de- 

 termine to stay as long as life lasts ! Persevering 

 toil, guided by a thinking head and ennobled by a 

 worthy purpose, wiU reduce the mortgage by de- 

 grees, and beautify the old home, and fertilize the 

 sterile field, and drain the too fertile marsh, and 

 convert stones into stone-fence, and make the farm 

 the pride of the township and the delight of its 

 owner. Stay where you are, and try it ! There 

 are those who should remove — the young, the 

 strong, the uncapitaled, the one-too-mauy in a 

 famil}-. But, if possible, such should remove but 



