246 



THE farmers' cabinet. 



VOL. I. 



of March is preferred by the best farmers." 

 We believe, as a general rule, neither oats 

 nor any other sort of spring grain can be 

 sowed too early after the ground can be put 

 in order to receive the seed in the spring. 

 Early sown spring wheat as well as oats is 

 much less liable to blast than such as is put 

 into the ground late in the season. 



Culture oi Peacli Trees. 



BY THOMAS COULTER, ESQ. 



Of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. 



The death of young peach trees is prin- 

 cipally owing to planting, transplanting and 

 pruning of the same stock, which occasions 

 it to be open and tender, with a rough bark ; 

 in consequence of which insects lodge and 

 breed in it, and birds search after them, 

 whereby wounds are made, the gum exudes, 

 and in a few years the tree is useless. To 

 prevent this, transplant your trees as young 

 as possible, if in the kernal it will be best, 

 as there will be no check of growth. Plant 

 them sixteen feet apart. Plough and harrow 

 them, but avoid tearing them up by the roots. 

 In the month of March or April, in the 

 third year of transplanting, cut them off by 

 the ground, plough and harrow among them 

 as before, but with great care, to avoid 

 wounding or tearing them. Suffer all the 

 sprouts or scions to grow, even if they 

 should amount to half a dozen or more; 

 they become bearing trees almost instanta- 

 neously, on account of the strength of the 

 root. Allow no animals but hogs to enter 

 your orchard, for fear of their wounding the 

 shoots ; as a substance drains away through 

 the least wound, which is essential to the 

 health of the tree and the good quality of the 

 fruit. 



If the old stock is cut away the third year 

 after transplanting, no more shoots will come 

 to maturity than the old stump can support 

 and nourish, the remainder will die before 

 they produce fruit, and may be cut away. — 

 Take care and not wound any other stock ; 

 the sprouts when loaded with fruit, will 

 bend and reston the ground in every direction 

 for many years ; all of them being rooted as 

 if they had been planted, their stocks re- 

 maining tough and their bark smooth, for 

 twenty years and upwards. If any of the 

 sprouts from the old stump should happen 

 to split off and die, cut them away; they 

 will be suppl'ed from the ground by others, 

 so that you may have trees from the stump 

 for one hundred years as I believe. I have 

 now, trees from one to thirty-six years old, 

 all from the same stump. 



Young trees, formed in this manner, will 

 bear fruit the second year, but this fruit will 

 pot ripen so early as the fruit on the older 



trees from the same stump. Three years 

 after the trees are cut off, the shoots will be 

 sufficiently large and bushy to shade the 

 ground so as to prevent the growth of grass 

 that might injure the trees ; therefore plough- 

 ing will be useless and may be injurious by 

 wounding them. 



It is also unnecessary to manure peach 

 trees, as the fruit of manured trees is always 

 smaller and inferior to that of trees that are 

 not manured. By manuring you make the 

 peach trees larger and apparently more 

 flourishing, but their fruit will be of a bad 

 kind, looking as green as the leaves, even 

 when ripe, and later than that of the trees 

 which have not been manured. Peach trees 

 never require a rich soil ; the poorer the 

 soil the better the fruit ; a middling soil 

 produces the most bountiful. The highest 

 ground is the best for peach trees, and the 

 north side of hills is the most desirable, as 

 it retards vegetation, and prevents the de- 

 structive effects of frosts which occur in the 

 month of April, in Pennsylvania. Con- 

 vinced, by long experience, of the truth of 

 these observations, the author wishes they 

 may be published for public benefit, and 

 has been informed that Col. Luther Martin, 

 and another gentleman in the lower part of 

 Maryland, have adopted a similar plan with 

 great advantage. 



Preparing Oreen Sward. 



The following is part of a letter from 

 Horace Wilder, of North Dixmont, to the 

 editor of the Maine Farmer. The success 

 of the practice is encouraging. 



"In the spring of 1834, I prepared seventy 

 rods of ground in the following manner : — 

 The ground had been well laid down and 

 mowed seven years. About twenty loads 

 of manure, mostly from the barn windows, 

 were carried and spread on the grass. On 

 the 22d of May, the ground was ploughed 

 about six inches deep, and turned over flat ; 

 it was then rolled witji a heavy roller till it 

 had the appearance of an onion bed. Five 

 loads of a mixture of hay manure, chip ma- 

 nure, and leached ashes, were then spread 

 evenly over the surface and harrowed length- 

 wise of the furrows. It was planted with 

 corn, potatoes, ruta bagaandwliite beans, and 

 produced as follows : — Corn, twelve busliels ; 

 potatoes, forty bushels ; turneps, fiflv bushels ; 

 beans, one busiiel. I have not stirred the 

 ground since the crop was taken oft" — choosing 

 tliat the manure should remain covered till 

 the next spring, when I intended to apply a 

 dressing of fresh manure, and plough it and 

 plant it with corn. I considered the above 

 method of preparing green sward for plant- 

 ing, as far preferable to the usual practice 



