1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



293 



twenty years ago. Science has demonstrated 

 that the physiological laws of growth and de- 

 cay positively forbid the perpetuation of vari- 

 eties. They ai'e simply incidental. I know 

 of no pomological society, no agricultural or 

 horticultural association, that has at any time 

 offered premiums or inducements of any kind 

 for the production of a^seedling apple or pear 

 that should possess merit. We must advance 

 from this position, or our fruit crop is a nullity. 

 Apply the money appropriated at State and 

 County fairs for horse-racing, to stimulate the 

 production of new and valuable seedlings, and 

 these New England hill-sides and vallies would 

 again smile with golden fruit. With proper 

 treatment, a seedling orchard may be brought 

 early into bearing, to test its fruit, and but a 

 few years will be required to top and change 

 them into trees of some good or valuable va- 

 riety. 



How to Procure Good Trees. 

 Thousands of trees are annually set in this 

 country that are worse than worthless at the 

 time of setting. The nursery business has- 

 become an important one, and many abuses 

 and "tricks of trade" have crept Into its de- 

 tails. Not that nurserymen do not prosecute 

 an honest and legitimate business, and some 

 of them have proved themselves benefactors 

 of their race by disseminating valuable fruit ; 

 but irresponsible peddlers of fruit trees are 

 constantly travelling with fruit books of highly 

 colored plates of scores of varieties of fruit, 

 entirely unadapted to our soil and climate, for 

 the purpose of selling refuse trees from dis- 

 tant nurseries, trimmed up like whip sticks to 

 facilitate transportation, but precursors of un- 

 timely decay. It is not surprising that we 

 make failures in setting orchards from these 

 worthless sprouts. The free interchange of 

 fruits between States and nations, even, is 

 very desirable. But still, as a general rule, 

 •we should raise our own stocks. Into which we 

 should introduce such varieties as are known to 

 succeed in our particular localities, and on our 

 varied soils. These stocks should be cut off 

 to the ground the second or third year, and 

 budded or grafted with a perfect scion from a 

 good, healthy, bearing tree — using none but 

 those from the ends of bearing limbs of the last 

 year's growth, — never use buds from a sucker 

 or sprout from the trunk of the tree ; train it 

 close to the ground, by cutting the leader or 

 upright shoot back to within about six buds. 

 Do this In the early spring of the next 

 season after grafting, before the buds start. 

 Cultivate as well as you would a field of 

 corn, in order to fully develop the natural ca- 

 pacity of the tree for productiveness. Never 

 allow it to overbear. Mulch well, to keep 

 moist and maintain an equilibrium in the sap 

 and fluids of the tree. Keep the borers out, 

 and the worms off, and God will assist you in 

 making a tree that shall be a pleasant and 

 profitable thing to you and to those that shall 

 come after you. 



From this system of planting and training 

 would come orchards productive and remuner- 

 ative, by having a native hardihood peculiarly 

 adapted to our soil and climate. I have said 

 varieties are incidental, — they appear and dis- 

 appear. The tree In its old age is unfit to 

 continue the propagation of its species. This 

 system of producing new seedlings, opens up 

 to us an intensely Interesting field of enterprise. 



Varieties, — Maniiring —Mulcliing. 



The Baldwin is our leading variety, though 

 It may not equal the Spitzenburg or Spy, It is 

 a rapid grower; acclimated and productive. 

 The Roxbury Russet and Rhode Island Green- 

 ing we originated. New York adopted them, 

 but with varied success. After the Baldwin 

 come Green Pippin, Porter and Dan vers Win- 

 ter Sweet, &c. New York has the Spitzenburg, 

 Spy, Rambo, Melon, Twenty-ounce, Newton 

 Pippin, Codlin, Swarr, Wagener, Smoke House 

 and Primate, all good and nearly all their own 

 by origin. We also have the Nonesuch, Seekr 

 no-further, Tolman Sweet, Pippin and others — 

 the Pippin paying best, and only, for generous 

 cultivation. The Red Astrachan, Williams 

 and Gravenstein are fine apples. The first 

 named I would plant In my garden if for nothr 

 Ing but the beauty of its fruit. 



We must revise and increase our list from 

 seedlings. Most varieties of apples will bear 

 but little animal manure. It stimulates and 

 fills the tree with diseased sap, producing a 

 rapid growth of wood, which is immature and 

 will not elaborate into healthy leafy tissue or 

 woody fibre, and resulting in a constitutional 

 disease which proves fatal to the tree. A soil 

 well drained, made rich with a liberal mixture 

 of leaf mould from the woods, and wood 

 ashes, well mulched, will make a tree that shall 

 be enduring. This treatment will produce a 

 strong, healthy growth, and the tree will ma- 

 ture its wood every year. I have only spoken 

 here of the apple. From the nature of the 

 case, I am strongly inclined to believe that 

 the pear will soon become our most profitable 

 fruit crop. L. L. Pierce. 



East Jaffrey, N. E., F.eb., 1868. 



BIDDY vs. PORKEY. 

 J. C. Thompson of Staten Island, after re- 

 ferring, In the Country Gentleman, to the re- 

 ports of various individuals who obtained re- 

 spectively, per annum, from single hens 145, 

 156, 126 and 115 eggs, goes on to make the 

 following humorous comparison between the 

 profits from Porkey and Biddy. 



1 gather from the numerous reports m your 

 paper, that porkey does well if he turns out 

 ten pounds of grease for every bushel of corn 

 consumed. But let us allow the swinish mul- 

 titude a fair average, say 12.^ pounds of flesh 

 for one bushel of corn, although It is oftener 



