No. 15. 



Peach Trees — Canada Thistle. 



277 



The following cnmmunication from Col. Kex- 

 BKRTOif Smith, Secretary of the Agricultural 

 Society, is worthy attentive consideration. The 

 plan recommended is simple, and no doubt effi- 

 cacious; and if generally adopted, in sections 

 where coal ashes may lie easily obtained, the best 

 results may be anticipated. The gi-eat value of 

 caoal ashes has been almost entirely overlooked. — 

 We are promised an article on this subject by a 

 gentleman who is acquainted with the value of 

 it, and who has applied it to his land with the 



best effect. 



To ihe Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Peacli Trees. 



About this time last year, I sent to the 

 e'ditor of the Gerniantown Telegraph, a com- 

 munication, which was published over the 

 signature of Penn, recommending the use of 



CSOAL ASHES AS A MANURE FOR PEACH TREES. 



Another year has rolled around, and I still 

 have no reason to doubt their efhcacy. The 

 result of my observation has confirmed the opi- 

 nions I advanced in my communication of 

 last year. I have tbund very few worms, 

 although many of my trees are in a garden, 

 and the earth round about them, is more or 

 less i7iixed with the ashes in its cultivation. 

 Most of those I found were above the ground, 

 and their presence was indicated by an oozing 

 of gum, accompanied with the woody-borings 

 tlrrown out by the worm. By looking tur 

 tliese their presence is easily indicated. 

 My trees during the last year have made a 

 great quantity of wood, and have been re- 

 markably healthy. They have this spring 

 an appearance of vigor, that seeins to justify 

 me in expecting a large crop. My confidence 

 in the advantage of the use of coal ashes is 

 now fully established, both for peach, apple, 

 plum, and apricot trees. I open a hole around 

 tlie root extending to about tiie distance of a 

 foot from the stem, then after having care- 

 fully exatnined to ascertain that there are 

 no worms, I till up the hole with ashes, and 

 raise it about four or six inches above 

 tlie level of the adjacent earth. I find the 

 ashes afler being wet adheres very closely 

 to the stem, and holds the tree firmly in its 

 position. The ley therefrom, whether it 

 proceeds from the lignious or mineral ashes, 

 (for there are usually both in the coal-ashes, 

 to say nothing of the theory tlmt mineral 

 coal is a vegetable deposite) certainly acts as 

 a powerful promoter of the rapid growth and 

 vigorous and healthful appearance of the 

 tree, and in bearing seasons insures an abun- 

 dant crop of fruit, and that too upon a soil in 

 which the cultivation of the peach tree has 

 been almost abandoned for thirty years past. 

 This delicious fruit, can now I think be culti- 

 vated in the county of Philadelphia, with 

 complete success, if care is taken to have 



the trees examined twice in the fall, between 

 the 1st of September and December, and 

 once in the spring, a labor which is soon per- 

 formed, as the presence of a worm is so easi- 

 ly detected when ashes are used, and the 

 worms are seldom found below tlte surface of 

 the ashes. 



SUGAR BEET WITH CORN. 



A friend has mentioned a plan of growing 

 beet roots that has been adopted by a distin- 

 guished farmer in Chester Co. Pa., which is 

 said to have been very successful. — They are 

 grown in alternate rows with corn ; the corn 

 being planted in rows six feet apart, a row of 

 beets intervenes — the corn crop is very little 

 if it all diminished — the labor is not much 

 increased, and a very good crop of beets is 

 obtained; the siiade of the corn is supposed 

 to be favorable to the beet. This plan may 

 be worthy of a trial by those who have not 

 prepared a piece of ground tor roots, and who 

 are anxious to have good winter food for their 

 cattle, — Baltimore Farmer. 



EzEKiEL Rhoacs, states — Tliat within one 

 week after his sugar beets were exhausted, 

 the butter from three cows was reduced from 

 twenty to fourteen lbs. per week. His butter 

 was in much higher repute while feeding 

 on the sugar beet, than it had ever before 

 been durmij winter. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabimt. 



Canada Thistle. 



Dear Sir, — In looking over the March 

 number of the Farmers' Cabinet, I took no- 

 tice of an article headed, "Canada Thistle," 

 setting forth the nature, the pernicious effects 

 and untbrtiinate introduction cf tliat most per- 

 nicious weed into the state of Pennsylvania, 

 Unfortunately, some years back, I sowed one 

 of my fields wich timothy seed, said to have 

 been brought from the slate of New-York. 

 About three years after, I observed one large 

 parent stock, with several of a smaller 

 growth, of the Canada Thistle, the first I 

 ever saw of that species. My mind imme- 

 diately recurred to a conversation I iiad with 

 a neighbor some months previous to this pe- 

 riod of time, relative to this kind of thistle, 

 introduced in a similar way upon his farm. 

 I immediately took one of my men with a 

 spade and bucket, and had the whole of the 

 ground occupied by the thistle spaded from 

 one foot to eighteen inches deep, and a dili- 

 gent search made for every root and fibre 

 thereof, being determined to eradicate it at 

 once. About two years after this (which was 

 last season) on examining the spot where the 

 thistle was first found," I think there was 

 double the former number of them spread 

 and growing on inore than double the space 

 of land, so amazingly had they multiplied, 



