116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



and heat. Most of the bacon I meet with at public 

 houses is too salt, or to freshen it has been soaked, 

 and the flavor injured. I have also used thesame 

 reduced pickle for keeping beef through the winter ; 

 have boiled the pickle, and added some saleratus 

 and molasses, and poured it on to the beef in the 

 barrel hot. Beef will keep in this pickle till April, 

 and can then be taken up and salted for summer 

 use. I very much prefer beef preserved in this way 

 to that put down fully salted and saltpetred. 



lluFUs McIntire. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WHATISATEEE? 



Mr. Editor : — As the season for transplanting 

 fruit trees is approaching^ and orders will soon be 

 given for them, permit me to make a few sugges- 

 tions in regard to their treatment and selection. I 

 will commence by calling your attention to a com- 

 munication from Mr. Dodge, of Sutton, on purcha- 

 sing trees, as published in the June number of your 

 Monthly. Mr. D. there says that he has paid from 

 seventy-five cents to a dollar for his best apple trees, 

 and that these high-priced trees are regarded by 

 him as much the cheapest in the end. Assuming 

 Mr. D.'s estimate to be a correct one, it becomes a 

 matter of some importance to know what consti- 

 tutes the difference between a high and a low-priced 

 tree, as we find them in the market. If certain 

 nurserymen have arrived at such perfection in the 

 cultivation of trees, that their trees have an intrin- 

 sic, as well as market value, equal to three or four 

 times that of the general run of trees, and this dif- 

 ference is retained and even increased for years af- 

 ter transplantation, as Mr. D. says was the case 

 with his, it is certainly a matter that should be 

 much better understood than it generally is. My 

 own experience and observation furnish nothing 

 corroborative of his statement, and yet I am not 

 disposed to question their correctness in regard to 

 his trees. 



The common price of trees, in this State, of suita- 

 ble age for transplanting, is twenty-five cents. I can 

 buy any quantity of them at that price. Now what 

 is a tree ? and Tvhat should it be in the market in 

 order to command a good price, and at the same 

 time prove remunerative to the purchaser ? Will 

 Mr. D. be so good as to aid us to a solution of this 

 problem? It seems to me not improbable that very 

 much of the difference that is found to exist among 

 trees after transplanting, is occasioned by the man- 

 ner of removing them from the earth in which they 

 grew. My attention has been particularly called to 

 this subject in consequence of having been several 

 times offered trees that had been horribly mangled 

 and torn, both root and branch, as they left the 

 nursery. One vender, particularly, offered me trees 

 having very good, thrifty tops, but returning noth- 

 ing but a bunch of stubs about six inches long for 

 roots. I once ordered a quantity from a distant 

 nursery, which, on being delivered, contained roots 

 about two feet in length, but almost entirely with- 

 out laterals, the main roots having penetrated the 

 earth in growing, much like the taproot. Again I 

 was offered a quantity of pear trees which had been 

 carried several days in a wagon till nearly all the 

 fine, fibrous roots, on which the tree was mainly de- 

 pendent for its growth in the ground where it grew, 

 were dry and brittle, and of course entirely unavaila- 

 ble for the immediate, to say nothing of the pro- 



spective growth of the tree ; and yet the vender as- 

 sured me that they would all live. Live ! that is 

 the secret of many, and I believe most of our mis- 

 fortunes in purchasing trees : we do not set our 

 standard high enough. 



If we would come to the determination to pur- 

 chase no trees at any price, but such as would not 

 only be likely to live, but grow, and grow rapidly 

 too, and would also pay a fair price for them, we 

 should be much the wiser for so doing. It seems 

 to be a new idea with many that trees should do 

 any thing more than barely live for one or two 

 years after transplanting. They do not seem to con- 

 sider, that, with such a protracted and unnatural 

 sleep, the tree sustains a loss of its original vigor 

 and thriftiness, not soon, if ever again to be recover- 

 ed. If a young animal that is starved and dwarfed 

 at the commencement of life, receives a fatal check 

 to its animal devolopment for the rest of life — if a 

 first crop that is neglected and down-trodden when 

 young, afterwards fails to pay the reward of care 

 and industry, no less is it true that the tree, when 

 subject to a like treatment, is also destined to a 

 similar fate. Now a perfect tree, like a perfect ani- 

 mal, must be proportioned and symmetrical through- 

 out. We all hold to the importance of this rule in 

 animals ; why not in trees ? We are ready to de- 

 tect any defect of this kind in animals, why not in 

 trees ? When we see a beautiful, thrifty and well- 

 proportioned tree springing up from its native earth, 

 we are too prone to look upon what we see above 

 ground, as the whole tree, regardless of the numer- 

 ous roots and rootlets through which it has been 

 fed and nourished up Into its beautiful and perfect 

 form. We do not sufficiently realize that when re- 

 moved from its native bed and made an isolated in- 

 habitant of the field, where space invites to ample 

 growth, it will then need, and much more need all 

 those life-giving fibres, as well as the larger arteries, 

 by which its future may become but a continuation 

 of the past. In purchasing trees, then, let us have 

 the whole tree, root and branch. The roots like 

 the branches may need pruning, in order that each 

 may occupy its appropriate place, but this should 

 be done with discrimination and judgment, and 

 with a view to the formation of a perfect tree. I 

 have forgotten to mention the name of Col. Wilder 

 in connection with my notice of Mr. D.'s letter, as 

 the producer of his best trees ; but I had not for- 

 gotten to take a look at the index to the last vol- 

 ume of the Farmer, to see if it did not refer us to 

 some communication from him which should reflect 

 the light of his experience. If the Col. would just 

 put on martial alvs and deploy a column or two in- 

 to the service, I doubt not it would prove an excel- 

 lent recruiting stimulus to both subaltern and pri- 

 vates. There is ample room for display. He may 

 form on the right or left, in front or rear, close or 

 open, directly or obliquely, in regular order or by 

 echelon — any way he likes best — he can hardly fail 

 to make his mark ! C. Blakely. 



Bristol, Ct. 



Agriculture in Germany. — A traveller by rail- 

 road from Dresden to Hanover on the 18th of !May 

 gives the following description of the appearance 

 of the fields on the route of his day's journey : _ _ 



"The country through which we passed is smiling 

 in all the luxuriance of spring. The fields of rape, 

 glowing on all hands with their blossoms of intense 

 yellow, looked as though columns of butterflies had 



