1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



151 



Hot allowed to preserve them in sugar ?" Do with 

 them ? I aslv, by way of reply. Is there no other 

 course than to preserve them artificially ? Are they 

 adapted to any other season than their own, even 

 though they could be preserved without impairing 

 their properties ? Is the strawberry adapted to 

 August, September or December ? Is the currant 

 adapted to any other season than July or August ? 

 Are our melons — so well adapted to dilute and 

 thus purify our feverish blood in August and Sep- 

 tember — well adapted either to a later season, or 

 an earlier ? Are our pears and apples as well 

 adapted to spring and summer, as to autumn and 

 ■winter ? In other and fewer words, do not the 

 fruits, in their natural order and sequence, so suc- 

 ceed each other as to furnisli us with a supply for 

 nearly every month of the year ? The smaller sum- 

 mer fruits thus supply us from June to September, 

 the larger ones for the rest of the year. For 

 though the greater part of our pears and apples ri- 

 pen before winter, yet the horticulturists tell us of 

 certain kinds that do not ripen, or at least do not 

 become mellow, till winter — some in the early 

 months, some in the later, and a few even in 

 spring. Or, if it were contended that they become 

 deteriorated in being so long ripening, we can, at 

 least, dry the apple, the whortleberry, and perhaps 

 a few other fruits, and by stewing or even soaking 

 them, have them in tolerable perfection in March, 

 April and ^lay, or till the strawberry arrives. 



And will your correspondent ask what is to be 

 done with our fruits, if we are not allowed to ])re- 

 gerve them in sugar ? I meddle not with the free 

 agency of males or females ; but I must say, as Dr. 

 Duylion says of made dishes, that all preserved 

 substances "are more or less rebellious" to the 

 powers of the human stomach. 



Has our correspondent ever tried to preserve 

 fruits by placing them in an ice-house ? Nothing 

 like fermentation (of course nothing like decompo- 

 sition, so one would think) can take place at the 

 low temperature of S0° or even 55° of Fahren- 

 heit; could it then in an ice-house? I have not 

 tried the experiment, because I am satisfied with 

 the simplicity of the Divine intention as intimated 

 above. But those who are not, and who, like Mrs. 

 H., would gladly be emancipated from pie-making, 

 and from the kindred toil of preserve-making, at 

 least with the aid of this most unwholesome objec- 

 tion, ycleped sugar, might easily do it. 



I am a believer in cookery ; but not in much 

 that is called by the name. If your correspon- 

 dent can subscribe to the ultra Schlemmer doc- 

 trine of abjuring cookery, and of "eating turnips, 

 cabbages and even cf.rrots, as they come from the 

 hands of the Creator," I cannot, at present. She 

 may, however, be right, and I may be wrong; or, 

 perhaps I misapprehend her meaning. But while 

 I cannot algure cookery, in toto, I must protest 

 against most that is called cookery in modern 

 times, and must be allowed fearlessly to affirm 

 that I see no way of emancipating mankind from 

 that worst of slaveries — the slavery of appetite — a 

 slavery which lies at the threshold of most other 

 evils, physical and moral, till our modern abomina- 

 tions of the cookery system are forever abolished. 

 Your correspondent asks about the necessity of a 

 little grease, in our New England winter climate. 

 We have nothing to do with the Polar regions in 

 this matter; hut if a little grease is really necess- 

 sary to u? in New England, as seems to be tlie 



fact, has not the Creator attended to this matter in 

 the best possible manner ? Is not the percentage 

 of oil which is incorporated by His kind hand into 

 our ordinary vegetable products, just that which is 

 best adapted to health, — aye, and economy too ? 

 Take Indian corn, for example, which though 

 hardly fit for man or beast in dog days, is most 

 admirable for both in winter, and is cheap, too, 

 withal ; does it contain a surprisingly large quantity 

 of oil or grease ? 



But I must stop for the present. Your readers 

 like short articles ; and so does 



Boston, Jan. 26, 1857. W. A. Alcott. 



HUESEEIES. 



Every farmer who intends to raise fruit, should 

 appropriate a small portion of his soil to nursery 

 purposes, and in which young trees may be grown 

 to be afterwards transplanted and grafted. Plums, 

 apples, pears, peaches, cherries, &c., may be much 

 more easily and cheaply produced in this, than in 

 any other way, and the care of watching and tend- 

 ing them will be a pleasure, when the work has 

 been once commenced. In (his way choice and re- 

 liable trees may be obtained, and such as will not 

 disappoint the expectations of the grower by turn- 

 ing out something different from what he had sup- 

 posed them to be, as is too often the case where 

 trees are purcliased. 



"Many kinds of trees," says a writer on terracul- 

 ture, "are so short-lived, particularly in our climate, 

 that unless som.e eiTorts are made to ensure a sup- 

 ply, and renew them as they fail by age or other 

 causes, we mu:it for the greater part of the time be 

 destitute of some of the most desirable fruits. We 

 may mention, for the convenience of those who 

 in moving or travelling from one part of the 

 country to another, would be glad to secure a sup- 

 ply of some favorite fruit for projiagation, that if 

 the twigs on which good buds are found are cut, 

 (and the longer the better) and immediately de- 

 prived of their leaves by cutting the leaf stem v.ith 

 a pair of scissors or a sharp knife, and wrapped in 

 wet moss or even wet cloths, they may be pre- 

 served for many days, or weeks, in a fresh state, so 

 as scarcely to foil of growing where skilfully in- 

 serted." 



By sowing fruit seeds in autumn, or by collect- 

 ing stocks that may be found in the pastures, and 

 transplanting them, a handsome, thrifty nursey may 

 soon be started at the most trifling expense, and 

 one from which the cultivator may draw his future 

 supplies with a certainty that will be gratifying. 

 Stocks collected from pastures usually have excel- 

 lent roots, and when grafted and well tended, soon 

 throw up a fine, thrifty tree. Two or three square 

 rods of ground will frequently supply all the wants 

 of the farm in trees. 



We have seen a handsome and productive orch- 

 ard produced by grafting trees in the pasture ; 



