38 



Orcharding. — The Carrier Pigeon. 



Vol. VI. 



Orcharding. 



When the profits of a good applo-tree are 

 con.-^iderec], some boinij known to give twenty 

 dollars worth of fruit a year, it is surprising 

 that more attention is not paid to orciiards. 

 Mr. Marret, a cloroyman of some town in 

 Maine, dependent on a scanty salary, con- 

 trived to give his two sons a liberal education 

 from the avails of an orchard, cultivated by 

 his own hands. Most men think, if they plant 

 an orchard now, or even engraft one already 

 planted, tliey may not live to dciivo any ad- 

 vantage from it — the fact is, too many culti- 

 vate their land more with a view to present 

 profit than to more lasting benefit in future 

 years, and this accounts tor such bad manage- 

 ment as is witnessed around us. 



The present season, Mr. Peter Foster, 

 whose orchard was noticed in the Monthly 

 Visiter tor August last, came over and spent 

 the greater part of two days upon the little 

 orchard attached to our premises; on some of 

 the trees he placed as many as twenty-five to 

 fifty grafts, first taking off the limbs that 

 were unnecessary to the proper shape of the 

 tree, and filling those that might be usefully 

 left with two scions each ; and with this stock, 

 another limb was left to be resorted to, in 

 case both grafts should fail. In this state, the 

 trees were left until about a fortnight since, 

 when on viewing them, and finding that most 

 of the scions had started from the bud, Mr. 

 Foster stripped one of the trees of its super- 

 numerary limbs and branches, leaving direc- 

 tions to have the others treated in the same 

 way; and this has since been done, the trunks 

 of the trees standing divested of their foliage, 

 except only the grafts themselves. The 

 grafting took place on the lUth of INIay, and 

 the stripping was performed about the lOlh 

 of June : the trees now present a beautiful 

 appearance, and knowing that all the foliage 

 upon them has sprung from the small shoots 

 that were inserted only this spring, the idea 

 associates itself with the appearance, that a 

 tree of sour and distasteful apples, is, in a 

 few weeks, converted into a tree soon to bear 

 the choicest fruit. By this operation, we can 

 readily perceive how the bearing of grafted 

 fruit-trees may be hastened — the whole sap 

 of the tree is at once thrown into the grafts, 

 which w ill probably grow more the first sea- 

 son than they would have done in four, while 

 the roots and body of the tree were affording 

 nourishment to their natural limbs, and foliage 

 often times the amount. Some of the newly- 

 grafted scions had blooms upon them the pre- 

 sent season, which will not, of course, be expect- 

 ed to produce fruit ; but it would not more sur- 

 prise us, to have those scions bear next year, 

 than it has, to witness the progress which 

 they have already made. 



The orchard which has been grafled and 



nurtured by Mr. Foster, at Canterbury, only 

 six years ago, produced last season something 

 like one hundred bushels of the choicest fruit, 

 and the product will soon be increased ten- 

 fold; it has now seven hundred trees, em- 

 bracing most of the choicest kinds of apples 

 produced in New England, and in half-a- 

 dozen years more, no orchard in the state will 

 probably compare with it. — Monthly Visiter. 



To the Editor of the Farmers" Cabinet. 



The Carrier Pi^jeon. 



Sm, — I see by the late English papers, 

 that these messengers were in requisition to 

 convey the result of the Derby stakes to Lon- 

 don — the distance from Epsom, where the 

 races were held, is fifteen miles, and the pa- 

 pers say, " The flight of pigeons, carrying the 

 all-important result to London and elsewhere, 

 was the largest ever witnessed, and proves 

 the increase of this favourite mode of trans- 

 mitting intelligence. The result was known 

 in London in sixteen minutes from the termi- 

 nation of the race." So, it v,'ould appear that 

 the ordinary rate of flight is about one mile a 

 minute! It is added, "It was a singular 

 sight ; one after another was let off', each pi- 

 geon having a slip of paper tied to his wing 

 or to his foot, on which was written the word 

 ' Coronation' : they all rose very high into the 

 air, made several circular sweeps, and then 

 suddenly darted off like an arrow, to the place 

 of their destination." The account concludes, 

 " The races were attended by more than 

 10l),000 persons; immense sums of money 

 were lost and won, and there was an incon- 

 ceivable amount of vice and crime perpe- 

 trated !" D. 



I HAVE observed, that a married man fall- 

 ing into misfortune, is more apt to retrieve 

 his situation in the w-orld than a single one; 

 partly because he is more stimulated to ex- 

 ertion by the necessities of the helpless be- 

 ings who depend upon him for subsistence: 

 but chiefly because his spirits are soothed and 

 relieved by domestic endearments, and his 

 self-respect kept alive by finding that though 

 all abroad is darkness and humiliation, yet 

 there is still a little world of love at home, of 

 which he is the monarch. Whereas, a single 

 man is apt to run to waste and self-neglect ; 

 to fancy himself lonely and abandoned, and 

 his heart to fall to ruin, like some deserted 

 mansion, for want of an inhabi^fint. — Wash' 

 inglon Irving. 



The size of a plant is proportional to the 

 surface of the organs which are destined to 

 convey food to it. A plant gains another 

 mouth and stomach with every new fibre of 

 root, and every new leaf. 



