No. 1. 



Fruit Trees — Wheat Crop. 



35 



For the Farmers' Cabinet, 



Fruit Trees. 



Tlie fruits of care and industry arc liold in gratefUl re- 

 nicnibrance. 



Both pleasure and profit attends the cultiva- 

 tion of fru it trees, as any person will discover by 

 trying the experiment. J]very farmer should 

 allot a few square yards of ground, near to his 

 house, for a nursery, vvhicli should be dug up 

 and kept as clean and free from weeds as his 

 garden. The boys and girls during the season 

 of fruit", should consider it a duty to collect 

 and preserve in readiness for planting, seeds of 

 apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, &c. 

 which at tiie proper season should be deposit- 

 ed in drills in the nursery, to furnish stocks 

 on which to engraft or bud the most valuable 

 and luscious kinds of fruits that may from 

 time tc time fall in the way of any member 

 of the family. Young people soon become 

 very knowing and ingenious at this kind of 

 business, if their parents will only give them 

 a little encouragement in the outstart. When 

 the trees acquire sufficient size, they should 

 be set out in suitable places not too far from 

 the dwelling house, and properly protected 

 from cattle for a few years, when their value 

 and importance will soon begin to be discov- 

 ered ; and the nursery should annually be re- 

 plenished with new recruits to keep up a suc- 

 cession of the most valuable fruits and vines 

 to be found in the country. By this course of 

 proceeding a farm may have added to its val- 

 ue a large sum in a few years ; for a purchaser 

 is always found willing to pay well for good 

 fruit trees, that are in bearing order or ap- 

 proaching towards it. Young girls have in 

 some cases proved extraordinary hands at bud- 

 ding young trees and rearing grape vines; and 

 I have a case in my eye where a worthy farm- 

 er's daughter attracted the attention and pro- 

 cured herself a most excellenthusband, mainly 

 by her skill and knowledge in rearing fruit 

 trees and vines, which, if it would not fill 

 too much of your valuable Cabinet, I would 

 tell you more about. There would be no pro- 

 priety in a farmer's engaging in this kind of 

 business on a large scale; begin small, and 

 be sure to do it well ; and never permit your 

 children to do either this, or any other kind 

 of business, " well enough,''^ as the phrase is, 

 for that always means, " had enough.'''' The 

 object to be attained would he to have a suffi- 

 cient number of the various kinds of stocks 

 in your nursery to avail yourself of every su- 

 perior kind of fruit you might meet with, and 

 60 gradually to supply the family and your 

 friends with the best of its kind ; and if you 

 are not too remote from market, it will be 

 found, that tlae best kind of fruits sell for high 

 prices, and no market was ever yet to my 

 knowledge overstocked with the most valua- 



ble kinds of fruits. Independent of all pecu- 

 niary advantages, attention to fruit trees and 

 vines is always pleasing to young people who 

 have been brought up in innocency, and they 

 become fond of home and home-pleasures, 

 when they discover that their parents are dis- 

 posed to surround their domicil with objects 

 calculated to promote and excite pleasurable 

 feelings. 



Dining lately with a most worthy widow, 

 who was surrounded by an interesting and in- 

 telligent family, a fine green apple pye was 

 dissected and handed round the table ; it being 

 early in the season for such a treat, and the 

 pye, both in its ingredients and its preparation 

 being much to be commended, called forth 

 some remarks of approbation: when my wor- 

 thy hostess took occasion to inform me that 

 the tree on which the apples grew that com- 

 posed the pye we were partaking of, was 

 planted more than forty years ago by her ex- 

 cellent mother, who was a practical woman 

 of tiie goiieby school ; and that it had fiimished 

 them with early apples tor the third of a cen- 

 tury, which had been an annual source of 

 great enjoyment and profit to them. It bad 

 given birth to some thousands of delicious 

 pies, besides otherwise furnishing a refresh- 

 ing treat to hundreds of people. Now how- 

 many of the girls and boys that are at 

 present on the stage ot action, will plant and 

 nurture each a valuable fruit tree, to hand 

 down to the next generation as a memento of 

 their care, industry, intelligence and fore- 

 sight ] Will you, my good boyl Will you, 

 my good girl ^ Say, will you plant a fruit 

 tree to make pies for the boys and girls that 

 will be, when you are old folks? W. 



Wlieat Crop. 



In the application of manure to the wheat 

 crop this autumn, it would be an interesting- 

 and useful experiment, to reserve a few 

 perches on which to apply the manure as a 

 top-dressing after the grain has been sowed. 

 There have been cases where top-dressing^ 

 of wheat has succeeded admirably, and it 

 would be desirable to ascertain whether it 

 was owing to some local or accidental cause, 

 or whether there may not be some important 

 principle involved in it. A solution of this 

 problem would be very desirable, and it could 

 be tested on a small scale with very little 

 trouble or expense ; and if the trial was made 

 by several farmers, in different parts of the 

 country, and on different soils, and the results 

 communicated for publication in the Farmers' 

 Cabinet, it might settle the question to the 

 satisfaction of all. T. 



Avoid having any thing to do with a spec- 

 ulation, in which many have already eo- 



