1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



373 



ground upon which the small potatoes were 

 planted received the same amount of manure and 

 the same attention in hoeing. I received 120 

 bushels from the acre ; 70 bushels from the part 

 planted with large and CO from the part that was 

 planted with small potatoes. Now if "B. W." 

 will explain thia falling off, not only of the amount 

 but size of the potatoes, I would be obliged. 



Yours truly, c. s. 



TO DESTROY THE ONION MAGGOT. 



Tobacco steeped in water and poured along the 

 rows, directly upon the plant, will effectually 

 prevent the ravages of the onion worm. This I 

 have from several reliable gardeners, who speak 

 from experience, and thinking it worth knowing 

 through the community, I send the statement to 

 the Farmer, {everybody' s newspaper,) for publi- 

 cation. Ingham. 



Lebanon, N. H., June 18, 1855. 



BUCKWHEAT OR TURNIPS. 



What can I sow to advantage on a piece of new 

 land prepared for millet, (but cannot get the 

 seed,) a part of which is well fished. 1 am more 

 in want of a crop than benefit to the land. 



W. p. H. 



Remarks. — There is plenty of time for a crop 

 of buckwheat, ruta bagas or flat turnips. 



GRAPES AND WINE. 



In your paper of last July, I observed a valua- 

 ble piece on the use of tlie grape as a food or med- 

 icine, which was too good to pass unnoticed. 



The most eminent physicians, and men who 

 have travelled in grape countries, agree with you. 

 It is a common saying, that in wine countries 

 there are but few drunkards. The writer in the 

 Observer finds an exception in Paris? What less 

 could be expected of a city like Paris. There is 

 a wonderful difference between a man's sitting 

 under his own vine, eating the fruit and drinking 

 the juice, and going to grog-shops and other de- 

 testable pdaces, and taking their wines and other 

 intoxicating poisons. 



Alcohol, whether clear or adulterated, tends to 

 create unnatural thirst, till, like a poisoned rat, 

 he drinks himself to death. The pure juice of 

 the grape, or the fruit, tends directly the other 

 way, and also to give strength and health and 

 vigor to the system. 



The grape is of the easiest culture, by slips, 

 cuttings, grafting, or transplanting from the 

 Bwanips. There is in tliis region the best of ta'ile 

 grapes, and the best of Avirte grapes of native 

 growth ; tlic former ripening in August, and 

 being sweet, productive, and free from pulp. I 

 suppose they may be found elsewhere. There are 

 families in this place wlio have made and kept 

 for years excellent wine for medical purposes, of 

 fine flavor and color, and without adding alcohol, 

 spirit, or cohering matter to the wine. There are 

 two skilful physicians near by, who use this 

 wine, and no other, for medicine. 



One of the greatest pleas for using intoxicating 

 liquor is, the idea that our Saviour used, di- 

 rected it, &c. A very great niis^take and alisurd- 

 ity. The wine he made was that wliicli he dis- 

 tinguished by calling it the fruit of the vine. 



Pliny, who lived at the time of our Saviour, says 

 good wine was that whicli was destitute of spirit. 

 Plutarch calls that wine l>est whiel) is harmless, 

 and tliat the most useful whieli has the least 

 strength, and that the most wholesome in which 

 nothing has been added to the grape. 



The Commissioner of Patents lias had a bottle 

 of excellent wuie presented to hiin, wliich, he 

 says, has no intoxicating power. 1 apprehend 

 no difficulty in making such wine, and having it 

 improve by keeping. The grape can l>e kept the 

 year round, and the juice pressed out when 

 wanted. Every family, or physician, or church 

 officer can make what is needful, and keep it in 

 small quantities easier than in laige, and know 

 what they are using. — Puineas Pkatt. — Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist. 



PEOFITS OF FRUIT. 



Examples almost without number may be given, 

 where single trees have yielded from five to ten 

 dollars a year in fruit, and many instances in 

 which twenty or thirty dollars have been ob- 

 tained. If one tree of the Rhode Island Greening 

 will afford forty bushels of fruit, at a quarter of 

 a dollar per bushel, which has often occurred, 

 forty such trees on an acre would yield a crop 

 worth four hundred dollars. But taking but one- 

 quarter of this amount as a low average for all 

 seasons, and with imperfect cultivation, one hun- 

 dred dollars would still be equal to the interest 

 on fifteen hundred per acre. Now, this estimate 

 is based upon the price of good winter apples for 

 the past thirfy years, in our most productive dis- 

 tricts ; let a similar calculation be made with 

 fruits rarer and of a more delicate character. 

 Apricots, and the finer varieties of tlie plum, are 

 often sold for three to six dollars per bushel ; 

 tlie best early peaches from one to three dollars ; 

 and pears, from hardy and productive trees, two 

 to five bushels per tree, with good management, 

 is a frequent crop ; and on large pear trees five 

 times tliis quantity. An acquaintance received 

 eight dollars for a crop grown on two fine young 

 cherry trees, and twenty-four dollars from four 

 young peach trees, of only six years' growth 

 from the bud. In Western New York, single 

 trees of the Doyenne or Virgalieu pear have often 

 aflbrded a return of twenty dollars or more, after 

 lieing sent hundreds of miles to market. An 

 acre of such trees, well managed, would far ex- 

 ceed in profit a five hundred acre farm. 



But the anxious inquiry is suggested, "Will 

 not our markets be surfeited with fruit ?" This 

 will depend on the judgment and discretion of 

 cultivators. With the exception of the peaches 

 of Philadelphia and the strawberries of Cincin- 

 nati, a great deficiency is still felt in all our large 

 cities. Of these two fruits, large plantations are 

 brought rapidly into full bearing. The fruit, 

 when ripe, quickly perislies, and cannot be kept 

 a week ; yet thousands of acres in peach trees, 

 l)endiiig undt'r their iieavy crops, are needed for 

 tiie consumption of the one city, and broad, fifty 

 acre fields, redden witli enormous products, send 

 many liundred busliels of strawberrits daily into 

 the other. If, instead of keeping but tlu-ee days, 

 sorts were now added that would Icecp three 

 UKjnths, many times tiie amount would lie needed. 

 But the market would not be confined to largo 



