AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultubai. Waiiehoc8e.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



vot..xxi.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 17, 1842. 



[NO. T. 



N. E. FARMER. 



For the N. E. Karmer. 



PILFERING FRUIT. 



The following is e.xtiacted from a paper in the 

 Transactions of the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, by David Thomas, Esq. Let us tell the 

 truth to our shame, and hereafter maintain a con- 

 science void of offence : — 



"Unfortunately for the moral character of our 

 population, fruit is too generally considered lawful 

 plunder. The cnlturist is allowed lo have a full 

 and exclusive right to his corn and potatoes: it 

 would be infamy to steal tkem; but no exxlusive 

 right to his fruit, if they can get it. Thousands of 

 honorable exxeptions to this charge indeed may be 

 found, but it is not the less true that a great part 

 of our population is tainted, and deserves to be 

 branded with reproach. 



" The native fruit of a thinly populated country, 

 growing without culture, and free to all, has doubt- 

 less had its share in producing this laxity of mor- 

 als. 'I would sooner have a hundred Irishmen 

 around me than one Yankee,' was the deolaration 

 of a sufferer, whose fruit had been plundered near 

 the line of tlio Erie canal, when that great work 

 was in progress. Europeans are generally more 

 exemplary on this point than Americans — shame 

 on us ! When Professor Stowe was in Prussia, 

 where the roads are lined with fruit trees, by order 

 of the government, he observed a wisp of straw, 

 attached to particular trees to protect the fruit — a 

 sufficient guard ; but he suggested to the coach- 

 man that in America it might only prove an invi- 

 tation to plunder. 'Have you no schools ?' was 

 the significant reply. 



"Yes, we have schools ; but how many where 

 the child is taught to respect his neighbor's pro- 

 perty ? Too often he acquires literature and vice 

 at the same time. The State of New York is fa- 

 mous for her schools and her prisons — the latter 

 to supply the defects of the former system, which 

 they do, however, very imperfectly. Better let the 

 mandate go forth that the morality of the Bible 

 shall be one of the chief objects of instruction. 

 Teach her children to be honest." 



How very just are the sentiments of the above ; 

 how applicable they are to the population in and 

 round our boasted moral city of Boston. In this 

 case we are worse than the Irish, and we have not 

 the respect for our neighbors fruits, that a Bedouin 

 Arab has for the property of one of his tribe. 

 In Stephens' Incidents of Travel, vol. 1. p. 203, 

 will be found an account of their honesty. "Not 

 far from the tract we saw, hanging on a thorn bush, 

 the black cloth of a Bedouin's tent, with the pole, 

 ropes, pegs, and every thing necessary to convert 

 it into a habitation for a family. It had been there 

 SIX months ; the owner had gone to a new pasture 

 ground, and there it had hung, sacred and untouch- 

 ed, until he returned to claim it. 'It belongs to 

 one of our tribe, and cursed be the hands that touch 



't,' is the feelings of every Bedouin. Uncounted 

 gold might be exposed in the same way ; and the 

 poorest Bedouin, though a robber by birth and pro- 

 fession, would pass by and touch it not." 



Now what nation, by us Christians, is held in 

 greater contempt than the Irish or Bedouin Arabs, 

 as to their just sense of right and wrong — and 

 here we have their character from competent wit- 

 nesses, and it should cause us to reflect, and set 

 our faces against this wicked practice of converting 

 to our use what is not our own. Our children 

 should be instructed on this evil practice; our sab- 

 bath and common schools should be made instru- 

 mental in this moral reform, and it should no longer 

 be to our shame that orchards of fine fruits cannot 

 be cultivated, and kept sacred for the use of the 

 cultivator and his family. A Farmer. 



The evil here noticed by " A Farmer," is vexa- 

 tious and grievous. We hope it will be comment- 

 ed upon by others, until an impression shall be 

 made upon the public mind, so wide and deep that 

 this petty thieving shall be scorned by all classes 

 and characters in the community. The subject is 

 a fruit-M one, and we invite our correspondents 

 to give it their attention. — Ed. N. E. F. 



From the Farmers' Journal. 



SOD FENCES. 

 In many sections of Maine and Massachusetts, 

 this species of fence is rapidly coming into use. I 

 perceive also, that many of our agricultural papers 

 speak favorably of it, particularly the Now Eng- 

 land Farmer, by the way an excellent and powerful 

 coadjutor in the good work, and which is seldom 

 guilty of recommending any thing not of actual 

 and veritable utility to the cause which it supports. 

 The Eastern Farmer also joins in recommending it, 

 besides which we have the testimony of many who 

 have tested its merits, and found it to subserve all 

 the uses, and to be characterized by all the impor- 

 tant characteristics which their previous concep- 

 tions of its utility had led them to expect. Yet 

 there are some who blindly ridicule the idea, be- 

 cause it is an innovation. The system is a new 

 one, relatively speaking, and they cannot consent 

 to favor, openly, a practice in husbandry which has 

 not received the sanction of, or been adopted pre- 

 viously by, their sapient sires. The innovation in 

 question, for we readily admit that it is one, savors 

 forsooth, a little loo much of ^'foreignisin," or, it 

 may be, of that species of farming, which, having 

 originated in transatlantic climes, is consequently 

 known to us only through the medium of books. 

 This prejudice should be overcome. An i.Tiprovo- 

 ment in science or the arts is no less valuable for 

 having been effected by an Englishman; nor 

 should we hesitate to adopt any practice that is 

 calculated lo effect a saving of time and money, 

 be its origin what and whence it may. The oppo- 

 nent of Galileo refused to look through his tele- 

 scope because he felt assured in his own mind that 

 he should see the moons of Jupiter, and thereby be 

 forced to admit that he was wrong, and Galileo 

 right. 



There are many sections of New England where 

 this species of fence must evidently one d.iy be of 

 use. As other materials become scarce, necessity 

 will compel us to use sods as our only resource. 

 We shall then find that those who have listened to 

 the promplings of their own evil prejudices, and 

 neglected lo practice a system sanctioned both by 

 reason and experience, have done wrong. The ex- 

 pense is trifling, and on most farms it will be found 

 as cheap as wall, and stand as many years. 



ffindham, Me. H. D. White. 



TIME FOR BUDDING FRUIT TREES. 



No exact time can be set for budding, as much 

 depends on the season, yet some general rules may 

 be of advantage to the inexperienced. \Vhen the 

 season is early, and very favorable in the first of 

 the summer to the growth of trees, they will be in 

 season for budding at an earlier period than in late 

 seasons. Dry wxather tends to lipen the wood 

 and check the growth, so that the season for bud- 

 ding will not continue so long as it will when the 

 weather is warm and rains are abundant, which 

 causes a late growth of trees. 



In this climate, August is the time for budding 

 cherry, plum, pear, and apple trees. The cherry 

 generally from the 1st to the 10th or I5th, the plum 

 a little later, from the 5th to the 15th or 20th, Ihe 

 pear and apple from the lOlh to the 20th or 25th, 

 and sometimes to the last of the months. In some 

 seasons the apple continues to grow so 1-ite that it 

 may he budded the first of September. Tho pear 

 should be budded a little earlier than the apple, 

 though nearly at the same time. 



The peach of two years growth may be budded 

 from the middle of August to the middle of Sep- 

 tember ; of one year's growth, from the 1st to the 

 10th or 15th of September. Much depends on the 

 season. Eight or ten warm days are necessary 

 after setting the buds to cause them to take well. 

 Sometimes they succeed when set the 20th, but 

 when set so late we are liable to have cold nighis, 

 which will destroy the buds, or prevent their unit- 

 ing with the stock. As the peach grows rapidly 

 and is generally a short-lived tree, it is best to bud 

 it the first year, as with a good growth it will be 

 large enough. 



As peaches grow late and are budded late, it is 

 more diflScult to fix on the best time. It cannot 

 be done, but is a matter of risk, as we cannot fore- 

 see the weather. If set early and the warm weath- 

 er continues long, the buds are likely to start the 

 first season, and in this case they will be so tender 

 that they will be destroyed by the cold, and if set 

 late, cold weather may succeed and prevent their 

 taking, as it is termed. So the safest way is lo 

 take a medium between the extremes of early and 

 late. 



Buds of all kinds when set too early will grow 

 the first season and thus be liable to destruction by 

 the cold. Some persons bud in June, in order 

 that the buds may start early and get a good 

 growth, and the wood become hardened before cold 

 weather, but this method is not much practiced — 

 Farmers' Joxtr. 



