224 



Fruit Trees. — Profits of Farming 



Vol. V 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fruit Trees. 



The season for transplanting' fruit trees 

 being now near, it behooves those who are 

 not amply supplied, both as to quantity and 

 quality, to bestir themselves in this important 

 matter, for a few weeks' delay at the proper 

 season of plantinpr is the loss of a whole year. 

 Procure an assortment of the best apple, pear, 

 plum, cherry, quince and peach trees, for it 

 is attended with the same trouble and ex- 

 pense to cultivate inferior fruits, as it is to 

 be furnished with the best kinds. 



Be careful in planting to give the trees a 

 fair chance for life and health by digging the 

 holes in which they are to be set wide and 

 large, so that they may be surrounded by 

 loose earth, that can be easily penetrated by 

 the tender fibres of the roots which are to 

 convey nourishment for their sustenance and 

 growth. A tree properly planted will grow 

 as much in five years as one carelessly and 

 badly set in will in ten ; and often the chance 

 of survivorship is dependent on slight circum- 

 stances. 



An excellent plan for preventing young 

 fruit trees from becoming hide-bound and 

 mossy, and for promoting their health and 

 growth, is to take a bucket of soft soap and 

 to apply it with a brush to the stem or trunk 

 from top to bottom; this cleanses the bark, 

 destroys worms or the eggs of insects; and 

 the soap becoming dissolved by rains, de- 

 scends to the roots and causes the tree to 

 grow vigorously. A boy can make this 

 wholesome application to several hundred 

 trees in a few hours. If soft soap was ap- 

 plied to peach-trees in the early part of April 

 to remove or destroy any ejjgs or worms that 

 might have been deposited in the autumn, 

 and again in the early part of June, when the 

 insect is supposed to begin its summer depo- 

 sites of eggs, it is believed we should hear 

 less of the destruction of peach-trees by 

 worms. But the application should not be 

 suspended for a single season, on the suppo- 

 sition that the enemy had relaxed in his hos- 

 tility. Try it this spring, and communicate 

 the result with all the circumstances. 



POMA. 



Profits of Farming. 



We believe there are many farmers who 

 take an incorrect view of the business of farm- 

 ing as far as its profits are concerned. They 

 seem to suppose that what is sold from the 

 farm is alone to be accounted profit, while no 

 note is taken of what goes to the support of 

 the family, or is invested in improvements on 

 the farm. To give an instance, we will refer 

 to a conversation we had with a farmer a few 

 days since, a man worth some six or eight 



thousand dollars, industrious and thrivin; 

 but who complained that he is only able 

 raise in cash only some 3 or $400 annual! 

 As a contrast, he mentioned a friend of 1 

 who had about the same amount in fun 

 that he had himself in real estate, and i 

 seemed to consider the interest his friend ! 

 ceived as a clear profit on his capital, and th 

 money so invested gave more income th; 

 the farm would. We knew that our farm 

 had a large family to provide for, and si 

 pecting he had overlooked the cost of pi 

 viding for them in his estimate of what 

 received from his farm, inquired how mu 

 he thought he should have left in cash, aft 

 maintaining such a family as his, from t 

 sum his friend received as interest] I 

 hesitated a moment and answered. Not ai 

 thing; his receipts would barely foot my b 

 of family expenses for one year; in truth 

 has little or nothing left after supporting 1 

 own. 



So, we doubt not, it often is with the fan 

 er. That which he and his family eat, drir 

 and wear, that which goes to make the 

 comfortable and respectable, because it is t 

 product of the farm, the gift of a kind Pro' 

 dence, and the result of their own toil, is fi 

 quently overlooked by him in the estimate 

 the profits and loss of farming, and nothing 

 counted but the cash which remains after e 

 penses and outgoes are provided for. This 

 not treating the farm fairly. In one case t 

 farm is capital, in the other the capital is 

 the funds. That which goes to the supp( 

 of the family is as much the product of ca] 

 tal in one case as the other, and in both cas 

 should be considered as the profit; and if t 

 farmer, after the maintenance of his famii 

 and defraying the expenses of labour, impi 

 ving his farm, &c., has some three or fo 

 hundred dollars left to purchase more lar 

 and dispose of as he pleases, while his frier 

 the fund-holder, has little or nothinor left, 

 surely cannot be reasonably inferred that t 

 farmer's profits are least. Ay, but the fan 

 er has to work for his profits, while the oth 

 lives at his ease. True; and here we si 

 pect lies the great difficulty, and it is an ei 

 that should be corrected at once. The c 

 jection implies that it is disgraceful, unhei 

 thy, or unprofitable to labour, suppositioi 

 entirely erroneous. It cannot be disgracef 

 to labour in a country where every man is tl 

 architect of his own fortune, and makes or ma 

 his condition for life; it is not unhealthy, 

 the experience of the whole world proves; ai 

 as to profit, where can be found a class of m« 

 more prosperous, accumulating wealth fast 

 than American farmers 1 Before the farmi 

 concludes there is no profit in farming, let hi 

 look at the whole ground, and we think a di 

 ferent conclusion will be reached ! — Alb.Cui 



