1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



23 



chard, and find the circumference of the smallest 

 six inches ; of the largest, ten inches ; average of 

 the whole fourteen, about one foot from the ground, 

 seven and one-half inches. The shortest trunk, 

 seventeen inches ; the tallest, three feet ; average 

 of the fourteen trunks, two feet three inches. I 

 measured one limb that had grown eight feet in 

 the four seasons, but in most cases I could not 

 decide where the first year's growth commenced. 

 But, take the trees together, the small ones have 

 made about as many feet as the tall one has inches. 



The esact circumference of either the small trees 

 , or the tall one when plainted, is not known ; but, 

 while the first have changed from mere bushes to 

 respectable trees, the latter has remained in statu 

 quo. 



The tall tree has been full of blossoms every 

 spring, but has borne no fruit. Of the small ones, 

 seven bloomed last year, (the third year from 

 planting) , and matured seven apples ; this year 

 twenty-one bloomed, but only one apple ripened. 



Injustice to the tall tree, I ought to add that 

 it has sent out shoots every season from both roots 

 and trunk, apparently for the purpose of remedy- 

 ing iis unnatural position ; but these have been 

 regularly Jack-knifed, to give the tree a "fair 

 chance," and the full benefit of "cultivation." 



Winchester, Nov. Sth, 1853. 



GREAT CROPS. 



The Annual Meeting of the Rocfdngham, N. H., 

 Fair, was holden at Exeter, on the 9th inst. We 

 find in the News-Letter the report of flie commit- 

 tee on crops, awarding the following premiums : 



The Committee on crops awarded the following pre- 

 miums : 



To .Joseph Winslow, of Epping, for 111 bushels and 14 

 quarts, of Indian corn on one acre of ground, $5. 



To .Joseph C.lley, of Nottingham, for 121 bushels and 14 

 quarts of Indian corn on on«acre and 23 rods of ground, $3. 



To .''tfphen Dow, (JT Brentwood, for 175i bushels of Rye 

 on 4 acres 41 rods of ground, $4. 



To D iiiiel C. Long, of Kingston, for 301 bushels of wheal 

 on one acre and 24 rods of ground, $4. 



To A. C. Taylor, of Hampton, for .50i bushels of Barley on 

 one acre and 10 rods of ground, $4. 



To .James II. Dow of Rye, for 68 bushels Oats oa one and 

 a half acres of ground, $4 



To Rufiis C. Sanborn, of Haraptonfalls, for 151i bushels 

 of carrots on one quarter of an acre of ground, $3. 



The Committee on Bog Meadows awarded to G. C. Brown, 

 of Stralham, a premium of $5. 



The above are certainly large corn crops. We 

 were wondering what appearance that field would 

 present, which gave to its fortunate owner, one 

 hundred and eleven bushels and fourteen quarts of 

 corn on one acre ! We have recently harvested 

 a field wliere we obtained about sixty bushels, only, 

 to the acre. On passing through it repeatedly 

 before it was cut, we could find scarcely a dozen 

 hills to the acre that contained o/i/y three ears; on 

 most of the hills there were four ears, and on 

 many of them were five, six and seven, making 

 an average, as we thought, of five ears of good 

 sound otjrn to each hill. Wo planted three feet 

 and six inches apart, each way, giving .3,555 hills 

 to the acre, which multiplied by 5, the number of 

 ears to the hill, gives 17,775 cars on an acre. The 



common eight-rowed, yellow corn,will require 270 

 ears for a bushel of shelled corn. Now dividing 

 the number of ears on an acre by the number of 

 ears (270) required to make a bushel, and it gives 

 65 bushels and about 27 quarts, to the acre. Now 

 if 46 bushels of corn were added to an acre sue 

 as has been described, it will not seem strange 

 that we wondered what kind of an appearance it 

 would present. It certainly would be a sight such 

 as we have never yet been permitted to see. 



HOW TO HAVE PLENTY OF WATER. 



Pure, clear water, forming, as it does, at the 

 same moment, both the emblem and embodiment 

 of refreshment and comfort, is looked upon as a 

 vital element of satisfactory existence, by all who 

 hate dirt, parched lips, dusty lungs, stratified de- 

 posits (m the skin, and parti-colored linen. It also 

 forms a most agreeable class of pictures for the 

 eye, in the form of placid sheets, bubbling 

 brooks, sprinkling jets and flashing fountains; and 

 through the ear, it gives us the music of cascades, 

 the thunder of cataracts, and the grave roar of 

 ocean surges. 



It is no wonder that all are ready to labor for 

 and welcome so agreeable a companion. The large 

 cicies have brought it many miles in hewn mason- 

 ry, at a cost of millions, that they may syringe 

 their streets, feed their baths, and keep a ready 

 antidote for the incipient conflagration. The coun- 

 try resident longs for the termination of the parch- 

 ing drouth, when drenching rains shall fill his cis- 

 terns, replenish his failing well, and set the brooks 

 in motion. Many are looking with envy at some 

 rare and "lucky" neighbor, who happens to have 

 an unfailing spring; and others, as we have often 

 witnessed, placing the water hogshead on the ox- 

 sled, proceed to drag their needed supply from a 

 distance of one to three miles, as the case may be, 

 and as they can get it from the pond, creek, or 

 some better supplied risident. We have positively 

 seen a wealthy farmer drawing rain water a mile, 

 after having allowed five times the amount he ever 

 would have needed to run to waste immediately 

 before his eyes ; qnd we venture to assert that 

 not one farmer in a hundred who has suffered from'' 

 a want of water during the present year's severe 

 drouth, has not committed a similar waste, though 

 perhaps sometimes less in degree. 



The great mass of country residents seem to 

 have no more conception of the enormous floods 

 of clear, pure rain water, that annually pour oflf 

 of the roofs of their dwellings, wood-houses, barns, 

 sheds, and other out-buildings, than if they had 

 never heard of such a huge watering-pot as the 

 clouds in the sky. If all the rain which falls in 

 the Northern States within a year, should remain 

 upon the surface of the earth without sinking into 

 it or running off, it would form an average depth 

 of water of about three feet. In the Southern 

 States, it would be more ; within the American 

 tropics, it would amount to about ten feet ;" and 

 near Bombay, in Asia, to twenty-five feet. 



Every inch of rain that falls on a roof, yields 

 two barrels for each space ten feet square ; and 

 seventy-two barrels are yielded by the annual rain 

 in this climate, on a similar surfiice. A barn 

 thirty by forty feet, yields annually 804 barrels 



