198 Apple Orchards.— Milk. — Horses.— Editorial Notices. Vol. XII' 



tines — augmenting the secretions and quick- 

 ening the energies of each. It is the stimu- 

 lus which nature herself points out, for, in 

 moderate quantities and mingled with the 

 food, men and beasts are fond of it. The 

 sheep, having a little recovered from the 

 disease, sliould still continue on the best and 

 dryest pasture on the farm, and should al- 

 ways have salt within their reach. It should 

 be rock salt. — MorrelV s American Shepherd. 



Young Apple Orchards. 



It is an indispensable requisite, in all 

 young orchards, to keep the ground mellow 

 and loose by cultivation; at least for the first 

 few years, until the trees are well establish- 

 ed. Indeed, of two adjoining orchards, one 

 planted and kept in grass, and the other 

 ploughed for the first five years, there will 

 be &n incredible difference in favour of the 

 latter. Not only will these trees show rich 

 dark luxuriant foliage, and clean smooth 

 stems, while those neglected will have a 

 starved and sickly look, but the size of the 

 trees in the cultivated orchard will be treble 

 that of the others at the end of this time, 

 and a tree in one will be ready to bear an 

 abundant crop, before the other has com- 

 menced yielding a peck of good fruit. Fal- 

 low crops are the best for orchards, — pota- 

 toes, vines, buckwheat, roots, Indian corn, 

 and the like. An occasional crop of grass 

 or grain may be taken; but clover is rather 

 too coarse-rooted and exhausting for a young 

 orchard. When this, or grass, is necessarily 

 grown among young trees for a year or two, 

 a circle of three feet diameter should be 

 kept loose by digging every season about 

 the stem of each tree. 



When the least symptom of failure or de- 

 cay in a bearing orchard is perceived, the 

 ground should have a good top-dressing of 

 manure, and of marl, or mild lime, in alter- 

 nate years. It is folly to suppose that so 

 strong growing a tree as the apple, when 

 planted thickly in an orchard, will not, after 

 a few heavy crops of fruit, exhaust the soil 

 of much of its proper food. If we desire 

 our trees to continue in a healthy bearing 

 state, we should, therefore, manure them as 

 regularly as any other crop, and they will 

 amply repay the expense. There is scarcely 

 a farm where the waste of barn-yard ma- 

 nure, — the urine, etc., if properly econo- 

 mized by mixing this animal excrement with 

 the muck-heap — would not be amply suffici- 

 ent to keep the orchards in the highest con- 

 dition. And how many moss-covered, bar- 

 ren orchards, formerly very productive, do 

 we not every day see, which only require a 



plentiful new supply of food in a substantial 

 top-dressing, thorough scraping of the stems, 

 and washing with diluted soft soap, to bring 

 them again into the finest state of vigor and 

 productiv^eness'! — Downing'' s Fruit Trees. 



Milk in Boston. — A statement of the 

 quantity of milk brought to Boston over the 

 Fitchburg rail-road, will perhaps interest 

 some. A gentleman, who has the means of 

 knowing, states the quantity to be, on a 

 careful average, at least 900 cans per day. 

 Each can holds four gallons, and weighs 

 about 25 pounds. By quantity, this would 

 give one million twenty-three thousand and 

 two hundred gallons per year, and by weight, 

 three thousand five hundred and ten tons. 

 Heretofore, upon this road, the milk cans 

 have been attached to the passenger trains, 

 but after the 1st of April next, in conse- 

 quence of the great increase of the business, 

 a special milk train is to be run in the night. 

 The milk is sold chiefly in Boston and 

 Charlestown, at five cents per quart. We 

 believe the only rail-roads that convey milk 

 to any extent are the Fitchburg and Wor- 

 cester. — Pa. Inquirer. 



Death of Horses.— ^Within a ^e'w weeks 

 past, Mr. Thomas Craige, whose stable is 

 located in an alley running south of Race 

 street near Broad, has lost six valuable 

 horses, in a very singular manner. Adjoin- 

 ing the stable of Mr. C. is another, occupied 

 by Mr. Ramage, which latter it appears, has 

 been long infested with rats. In order to 

 destroy these troublesome customers, poison 

 has been used in various parts of the build- 

 ing; it was only when the seventh horse of 

 Mr. C. sickened and died, that the cause of 

 their death divulged itself — the infusion of 

 the poison, by the rats, into the feed of the 

 poor animals. — Pa. Inquirer. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



Philadelphia, First Month, 1848. 



A YODNG man without a family would like a situa- 

 tion as Gariiener. He is well acquainted with the 

 business, and can give unexceptionable reference.'. 



Letters post paid, addressed to 



Rev. JOHN C. LYONS, 

 Phcenix St. below Front, Kensington. Philadelphia Co., 

 Pa., will be attended to. 



January Idth, 1848. 



