296 



THE farmers' cabinet 



VOL. T. 



Stood by an observing, intelligent gardener, 

 can scarcely be comprehended by the laborer, 

 employed in the business of pruning an or- 

 chard — from the rapidity of vegetation, which 

 is generally ascrijjed to the nature of our cli- 

 mate, excessive pruning is very apt to generate 

 an infinite number of suckers from the limbs 

 of apple trees; wliich, if suffered to grow are 

 more injurious to the production of I'ruit, than 

 the woody branches which are removed : our 

 great heat and dry atmosphere, render pruning 

 less necessary here than in England, whence 

 we derive most of our instruction on this 

 point. A good general rule is, never to short- 

 en the branches, unless to improve the figure 

 of the tree; and then to take tliemoffat the 

 separation, very close, so that the wound may 

 heal well and soon : the branches should shoot 

 as much as possible in increasing distances, 

 as they proceed from the common centre, 

 inclining a little upwards, by which means 

 the sap will be more evenly impelled, and 

 better distributed ; the ranges should not ap- 

 proach too naar to each other; for the admission 

 of the rays of the sun is necessary to the pro- 

 duction and perfect maturity of fine flavored 

 fruit — in cutting offa branch, it should be done 

 as close as possible, never leaving a stump, for 

 the bark cannot grow over it, and disease in 

 the wood will inevitably follow. If the wound 

 produceJ by the separation be very large, cover 

 it with tar or thick paint ; if small, fresh cow 

 dung will be the best plaster; 1 have healed 

 very large wounds from the knawing of 

 calves, horses, and sheep, by a liberal appli- 

 cation of this plaster, secured by a bandage 

 of paper or linen. 



When trees are much pruned, they are 

 apt to throw out numerous suckers from the 

 boughs in the following summer ; these should 

 be rubbed off when they first appear, for they 

 may 'be easily broken oft' when young and 

 brittle — cutting is apt to increase their num- 

 ber. Trees differ much in their form, and 

 require very different treatment in pruning; 

 H may not be necessary in our warm climate 

 to trim quite as close as in England, but great 

 care should be observed to take oft" every 

 limb which crosses another, or is likely so to 

 do at a future time : those who can conve- 

 niently do it, will find a benefit from forming 

 the heads of their trees in the nursery, the 

 year before they remove them — when trans- 

 planted, they will thrive more rapidly from 

 not having been pruned at the time of re- 

 moval, which in some measure exhausts and 

 weakens the tree. I have been latterly in the 

 habit of giving the principal pruning to my 

 orchards, afler they have been planted out 

 about five or six years; their growth, with 

 proper cultivation, is then so vigorous, as to 

 permit any natural defects in their forms to 

 be corrected with safety, by free pruning, and 



forming their branches: the peculiarity of 

 growth which characterizes each kind is then 

 visible, and uniformity of shape may be more 

 easily attained. 



Apple trees should be so formed, as to al- 

 low a man and horse lo pass under them in 

 ploughing; this elevation of the branches, 

 while it protects them from cattle, opens the 

 ground to the salutary influence of the sun, 

 on the crops of grain or grass. 



No error is more universal, than an anxiety 

 for early productiveness in an orchard ; it is 

 generally obtained at the expense of much 

 eventual profit, and by a great diminution of 

 the size and vigor of the trees; believing 

 early fecundity to be injurious to the vigor 

 and perfection of plants, I am always atten- 

 tive to pluck from the trees these evidences 

 of early maturity, in the first stages of their 

 existence. 



It was a common practice some years since 

 to apply Mr. Forsyth's celebrated composi- 

 tion to large wounds produced by pruning : 

 that novelty, like many others, had its day 

 among us; and finally lost its popularity, 

 from a general belief of its ineflicacy — Mr. 

 Forsyth, at a later period, announced as a new 

 discovery, which had been long known in this 

 part of dur country, that cow dung and urine, 

 was more efficacious in healing the wounds 

 of trees than his plaster, even in the moist 

 climate of England. In America our winter 

 frosts decompose it, and our summer heats 

 dry it up so completely, as to render it use- 

 less for the purposes intended. — Coxe on 

 Fruit Trees. 



On Plongliing. 



As this is the season for using that invalua- 

 ble instrument, the plough, perhaps it may 

 be well to call the attention of our readers to 

 the subject. There seems to exist quite a 

 diversity of opinion in regard to the proper 

 depth that land should be ploughed. Many, 

 and in our opinion too many, advocate shallow 

 ploughing. " What's the use," say they "of 

 ploughing up the sand and burying up the 

 manure and the soil out of the reach of the 

 plant 1" Let us reason together. — What's 

 the use of ploughing at all 1 Is it not that 

 we may pulverise the soil, and bring it to 

 such a state that the little roots and fibres of 

 the plant may shoot out and gather up what- 

 ever they can find to nourish it? Is it not to 

 incorporate the manure and make it of a 

 uniform consistency as it regards quality, &c. 



Now the deeper you make the soil the 

 deeper will the roots plunge, and the deeper 

 and more extensively the roots plunge, the 

 more nourishment will they be likely to find, 

 and the less liable will they be to injuries from 

 drought. Plough deep ; don't fear burying 



