1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



543 



of soda or pearl ash is highly beneficial, and a sav- 

 ing of labor ; but, if in excess, is very injurious. 



The strong lisivum, recently recommended for 

 •washing linen, has long been known to those who 

 require to cleanse metals from impurities on the 

 surface only. Printers, for instance, may use it with 

 safety to cleanse the face of their type from the unc- 

 tious ink used in printing, because the ley is not 

 strong enough to affect the metal. The very low 

 priced soaps are by no means the cheapest in use ; 

 and they also impart an unpleasant odor to the lin- 

 en, which cannot be got rid of. 



The use of "blue" in rinse water is too well known 

 to need comment further than to our purpose. The 

 ordinary blue is a compound of Prussian blue and 

 starch. The color that it gives merely covers the 

 yellow tint of the goods, without doing more. We 

 would suggest the use of pure indigo instead of the 

 common blue. This advice is founded upon prac- 

 tice as well as theory. Indigo, in this operation, is 

 ■without any bad action on the fabric. Persons em- 

 ployed in the "indigo department" of the docks 

 have the whitest linen of all people in London. — 

 Scientific American. 



PEOPER TIME FOR PRUHIHG. 



A writer in a recent number of the Country 

 Gentleman, who calls himself an "Observer," seems 

 to be somewhat unpleasantly moved by a few re- 

 marks of ours on the subject of pruning, in the 

 Farmer of June 27, 1857. His pen certainly 

 "doth lack some gentleness," for he prunes us as 

 ■with a dull knife and a rusty saw ! The title of 

 "Observer," which he has chosen, is a misnomer ; 

 he cannot have been an observer of the orchards of 

 the country, or he would have seen the effects of 

 ill-timed pruning in most of them, of thirty or for- 

 ty years of age. He cannot have observed the com 

 parative effects of spring and June pruning, or he 

 would have learned by that observation and com- 

 parison, that there is a great difference in their ef- 

 fects upon the tree. Neither can he have carefully 

 observed the contents of the numerous journals 

 which treat of agricultural subjects, or he would 

 have learned from them that "injurious results" do 

 "originate" from spring pruning. We think, there- 

 fore, that our critic must withdraw the 'title he has 

 assumed until he becomes better acquainted with 

 the agricultural journals of the country, and the 

 effects of spring pruning on apple trees. He has 

 our thanks, however, for observing our article, and 

 for his remarks upon it, for rasping an editor a lit- 

 tle occasionally, is as good as soap-suds and scrub- 

 bing for a fruit tree. 



To retain the position which we occupy in the 

 article to which he objects, we refer him to the pa- 

 ges of the journal in which he writes, viz : — Al- 

 bany Cultivator for 1844, page 316; for 1852, p. 

 402, see opinions of the editor; for 1854, p. 217. 

 See Downing's Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, 

 p. 31, sufficient authority in itself. See also JV. E, 

 Farmer, giving the opinions of different persons, — 



for 1849, p. 112, 226; for 1850, p. 282; for 1851, 

 p. 389; for 1852, p. 459 ; 1853, p. 544 ; for 1854, 

 p. 38 ; for 1855, p. 278 ; for 1856, p. 84. See also 

 Loudon, Lindley, and nearly all the fruit cultivators 

 of this and other countries. 



We were about to repeat, once more, our reas- 

 ons for not pruning in spring, when, in looking over 

 our exchanges, we found the following in the Coun- 

 try Gentleman, which we give as a sufficient reply 

 to our critical "Observer." 



■ BEST TIME FOR PRUNING. 



Mr. Editor: — In your number of July 23, a 

 correspondent expresses surprise at observations of 

 the editor of the JV. E. Farmer, on the suVject of 

 pruning fruit trees. The article to which allusion 

 is made, I have not seen. Judging, however, from 

 his remarks, I conclude that the editor of the JV*. 

 E. Farmer has broached no new theory. The 

 pruning of fruit trees in the winter, and especiaily 

 in the spring, when the sap flows with rapidity, is 

 often attended with unfortunate results. Owing to 

 the escape of the sap in the latter case from the na- 

 ked wound, dark discolored streaks are often per- 

 ceptible on the bark beneath. In some cases I have 

 seen these streaks of discoloration extending from 

 two to three feet, causing the bark to die, and leav- 

 ing a naked strip of dead wood. In the case of 

 winter pruning, these effects are not so noiorious; 

 probably owing to the fact that the pores of the 

 wood at the amputation have time to contract and 

 shut in the sap, similar to the grape-vine, which 

 must be pruned before spring, or left until the leaf 

 is somewhat expanded, when it may be done again 

 with safety. Although the winter season of prun- 

 ing may not be so objectionable, yet the long peri- 

 od between the season of pruning and the time 

 when the tree is in a state to cover the naked part 

 with new wood and bark, often leaves the amputa- 

 ted part protruding an inch or two beyond the re- 

 tiring bark, which has dried up about the circum- 

 ference of the wound. 



Now these effects are avoided by pruning in time, 

 when the tree is prepared to commence at once the 

 process of healing, which it certainly performs, if 

 in a healthy state. The philosophy of the opera- 

 tion I suppose to be this, viz ; That before the tree 

 can produce bark, wood or fruit, the sap must be 

 elaborated in the leaf. Consequently, if the prun- 

 ing be performed at any time after the fall of the 

 leaf, there can be no healing process take place un- 

 til the season of leafing comes round again. 



R. M. CONKLIN. 



Cold Spring Harbor, JV*. Y. 



HEALTHFUL BIET. 



I am one of the lovers of the Homestead ; as I 

 am "roaming," I have but just now had an oppor- 

 tunity of reading sister Flora's article upon good 

 living and cheap at that. I can hardly agree with 

 her, that men, and women too, are no better than 

 animals ; bit I do, that to keep them in a happy 

 sta*e, we must attend to their stomachs ; and it is 

 most effectually promoted by supplying them with 

 nutritious, healthy food; such as will render them 

 hardy and enduring, rather than sickly and effemi- 

 nate ; not give us dyspepsia or the gout. It is tru- 

 ly wonderful, that there is so little crime commit- 



