330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



;>i-e of the 8T«atest consequence to us young larmtis- 

 I feel convinced 'tis a duty we all owe to answer en- 

 quiries—and although my limited knowledge, and Ut- 

 ile experience will prevent my giving an answer to one 

 in ten of the enquiries, yet am willing to contribute 

 that little, wishing if wrong to be corrected. 

 Respectfully, your ob't serv't. 



BENJAMIN POOn. 



Five years since tins spring, I ploughed li 

 acres low moist land, manured it m the com- 

 mon way with a mixture of manures, the prin- 

 cipal part of which was leached ashes, which I 

 had been led to purchase in consequence of see- 

 ing it shipped to New-York, by which I was 

 informed the shipper in all cases made it proh- 

 table, OS there was always a ready sale. The en- 

 suing fall I had a large crop of Indian corn.— 

 The°year following I manured it in a similar 

 way and had a good crop. The next year, af- 

 ter ploughing, and one harrowing, gave a light 

 dressing of leached ashes and sowed barley and 

 a quantity of herdsgrass and clover seed— then 

 after twice harrowing the ground it was left. 

 I think with Dr. Deane, that they are of but lit- 

 tle use when ploughed in. Crops of grass have 

 since beep taken from that spot, which have far 

 exceeded any in the vicinity for quantity on the 

 same quality of land, as have some on two acres 

 adjoining, which were broken u|>, one year Inter, 

 but managed and laid down in the same way ; 

 and at the same time, with the exception (hat 

 the last were laid in beds about one rod in width. 

 I have purchased leached ashes since, although 

 the increased demand has enhanced the price 

 one fourth part. Still, 1 think where grass or 

 grain is wanted leached ashes are cheaper at 

 four cents the bushel, the present price, or say 

 Si, 60 for one cart load containing forty busbels, 

 than stable mnnurp at half that price ; although 

 scauie manure is selling here this season at 

 ^1, 50 for one cart load containing forty bush- 

 els. In the spring of 1822, I had a field of five 

 acres sowed with grain and grass seed; the 

 ashes when hauled on the field, were laid in 

 small heaps, and carefully spread. I consider, 

 liowevcr, that it would have been much better to 

 have spread them from the carf, as we could 

 distinguish where each lay when tlie grain ivas 

 cut also the last year when the grass was cut. 



The last spring, 1823, we gave a light dress- 

 ing to a steep side Of a hill, which when mow- 

 ed the year preceding was scarcely worth the 

 trouble. The reason was, it had been former- 

 ly much ploughed, and being steep, every rain 

 had washed it more or less — and as it was hard 

 to plough it had been in grass a number of years. 

 In applying the dressing early in the spring, we 

 spread it carefully from the cart and as it was 

 ■not perfectly fine, took rakes, and rakcJ it light- 

 ly. The crop of hay amply rewarded for the 

 labor and expense. 1 was this spring often ask 

 ed by people residing at a distance, what I had 

 done to the steep as it was green and totally dif- 

 ferent from what it had formerly. I think 

 the present appearance justifies me in sayin 

 it will be greater this year than last. That may 

 be owing to tiie favorable Sfiring, but some say 

 it is generally better the second year than the 

 first. — I have heard many remarks such as your 

 correspondent mentions, as that they left the 

 land cold, iic. ; but, no one made that assertion 

 from experience. Such an one told him, that 

 another heard, &.C. was the nearest 1 could get 

 to a reafon, 



ow land, I had not the faith 1 now have. But I 

 ought to observe that the ashes I have purchas- 

 ed were leached for the purpose of making soap, 

 consequently a quantity of lime was used which, 

 in small quantities is said to be a great prevent- 

 ative to moss, S:c. on lands. 



MclJtrli). 



Touches on Agriculture ; including a Treatise on 

 the preservation of the Apple Tree^ together with 

 Family Recipes, Experiments on Insects, fyc. 

 <S-c. By the Author of a Description of Krtins- 

 xnick, and other Towns in Maine. Portland, A. 

 W. Thayer, Printer, 1824. 



[Continued from page 314.] 

 At the close of our former remarks on this Tract (see 

 vol. ii. page 314.) we promised some notice of the Au- 

 thor's Treatise on the Apple Tree ; and will proceed 

 to redeem our pledge. The author gii-es the following 

 directions relative to the management of 

 THE NimSEBV. 



1. "Select ground, for a nursery similar if 

 you can, to that on which you intend to set your 

 orchard. Never make your nursery richer 

 than you intend to keep your orchard ; if you 

 do, a vigorous start is given, that is not main- 

 tained in the orchard for want of its natural pro- 

 portion of aliment.* 



' Put your trees in the nursery at least twen- 

 ty inches apart. Most fail by crowding them ; 

 render them crooked and deformed. They are 

 driven up like the tender growth in the dark 

 forest, almost too slender to support themselves 



NOTES BY THE EDITOR. It may not be amiss to ob- 

 serve that a dispute exists relative to the quality of th 

 soil for a Nursery. Dr. Thacher says, (Am. Orchard- 

 ist, pa^e 30,) "it has been a received opinion, that 

 the soil for a nursery should not be made rich, as the 

 plants, when removed to a more fertile soil, will flour- 

 ish more luxuriantly ; but later observation has decided 

 that the reverse to this will be found correct. There is 

 a close analogy between vegetable and animal life ; and 

 it is a dictate of nature that both require a full supply 

 of nutriment from their earliest existence. It would 

 be absurd to suppose that the tender roots of young 

 seedlings arc capable of drawing sufficient nutriment 

 from a rank, barren, and uncultivated soil, and those 

 that are barely supported or nearly starved at first will 

 never afterwards become vigorous, stalely, and hand- 

 some, though surrounded by the richest mould. Re- 

 peated experiments have jjroved that a strong and 

 vigorous plant, that has grown up quickly, and arriv- 

 ed at a considerable magnitude in a short time, never 

 fails to grow better after transplanting, than another of 

 the same size that is older and stinted in its growth. — 

 Where the soil is poor and lean, trees in every stage of 

 growth are observed to be languiil, weak, and slitrtcd ; 

 while those reared in a good mellow soil always as- 

 sume a fine growth, and advance with strength and 

 vigor." 



On the other hand Judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, 

 asserts that young apple-trees taken from a clay soil, 

 and transplanted into one more suitable, thrive better 

 ll;an other apple trees, apparently of better quality, 

 taken from a nursery, where the soil was congenial to 

 their growth. 



The " Farmer's'Gnide," a valuable work lately pub- 

 li-hed by William Drown, of Providence, says, '■ we 

 agree with a late writer in opinion, that the soil for a 

 nursery ought to be naturally good, for at lea.'.tone full 

 spade deep, or if more the better ; that a loamy soil, of 

 a moderately light temperament is best, and that it 

 cannot naturally be too good. It is very wrong to en- 

 rich nurseries with duni; particularly until it is very 

 old, and almost turned into earth, ft !■< not absolutely 

 necessary that the soil should be exceedingly rich, nor 

 over carefully manui-cd ; a medium between the two 

 extremes is best ; such as any good substantial garden 

 When 1 fJi'st applied ashes to the ground ; or good mellow pasture land." 



An apple tree wants body and (he first branch 

 ing limbs more (han height. 1 have found j 

 almost universally the case, that the best bea; 



trees show you their extended bearing limbr' 

 near llie ground. This may depend on the di( 

 taQce in which you set your trees in the nurse 

 ry, and the manner in which you use that ill 

 fated instrument the pruning knife, that maa 

 intelligent farmers, while they are striving li 

 save are ignorantly using to the ruin of tbi 

 tree.* Keep the ground in the nursery level 

 by piling rocks, or turfs about trees of any age 

 you make an habitation for mice, rot the free 

 and make a lodgment for the worm. — Spare thi 

 prominent projecting limbs of the young tree 

 prune off from the bearing tree till seven o 

 eight years old, what sprouts you think will b< 

 useless, but never cut any so large, but that n» 

 ture rvill heal the wound ; risk to follow ih/t' 

 the process I will give, and wed the dead^ 

 pruning knife to the next generation. 



" We will take it, [the young tree] from thtt 

 nursery and with some labor and care, savir^ 

 the horizontal roots as long as possible ; cut (# 

 the tap or parsnip root. Make the hole largt 

 if the land be deep, springy and cold, put ii 

 a wlieel-barrow load of small stones, if you an 

 at a li!lle expense to get them. This, if 1 maj 

 properly use the e.^ipression, will be everlaslinj 

 nianure in all soils. Coat these with an inch o 

 two of dirt, throw a handful of potatoes int( 

 each liole under the tree, put a large potatoe oi 

 the end of every large root, the Juice of thi 

 pdatoe will nourish the tree at least for oni 

 s^isun, if set out when it is ever so dry, and yai 

 miy be sure of the life of the tree. Do no 

 cufl any of the roots inward, for most say, bi 

 doing it the limbs will be curled inward lilu 

 wise, and then you will think it necessary I 

 use the ill boding pruning knife. A few kernel 

 of oats sown around the tree will keep thi 

 ground light. 1 have heard potatoes hav- 

 grown five years in succession, put under thi 

 tree, and this may save the ground from bind 

 ing, and prevent another fatal process of savinj 



* No doubt a pruning knife may be used in such ; 

 way as to become an instrument of destruction, atil 

 it has important duties in the culture of trees. Mr 

 Coxe says, as we think very judiciously, " \\ hen tret 

 are much pruned they are apt to throw out numerou 

 suckers from the boughs in the following summer ;- 

 these should be rubbed off, when they first appear, oi 

 they may easily be broken off, when young and brittlt 

 — cutting is apt to increase their number. Trees dif 

 fer much in their form, and require very different treat 

 menf in pruning ; it may not be necessary in our warn 

 climate to trim quite so close as in England, but greilt 

 care should be observed to take off every limb, whict 

 crosses another, or is likely so to do at a future time; 

 those who can conveniently do it, will find a btneit 

 from /urnim? Iheir heads in the nursery the year bifon 

 they hmore' lheni—\rhen transplanted, they will thrive 

 more rapidly from not having been pruned at the time 

 of their removal, which in some measure exhausts ani 

 weakens the tree ; I have been latterly in the habitol 

 giving the principal pruning to my orchards alter they 

 have been planted out about five or six years ; tbeit 

 growth, with proper cultivation, is then so vigorous, 

 as to permit any natural defects in their forms to be 

 corrected with safety, by free pruning, and forming 

 their branches ; the peculiarity of growth which char- 

 acterizes each kind is then visible, and uniformity of 

 shape may be more easily obtained. 



" Apple trees should be ao formed, as to allow mim 

 and horse to pass tinder them in ploughing ; this eleva- 

 tion of the branches, while it protects them from cat- 

 tle, opens the ground to the salutary influence of tlie 

 sun, and the crops of grain and grass." 



