100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



care, up to this time; and completely silenced all 

 opposition to his course of action, in regard to this 

 orchard. 



As to prices, Mr. Morgan is receiving 4 times as 

 much per bushel as he would if his orchard had 

 not been grafted; for natural fruit has sold from 

 12 1-2 cents to 25 cents per bushel, and dull at 

 those prices; while Mr. Morgan's apples have been 

 sold at from 50 to 75 cents per bushel. On the 

 farm where I reside, 6 years ago, the fruit of all 

 kinds was mostly natural, and 1.5 years ago, such 

 apples, pears and peaches as we then raised, would 

 sell at good prices; apples, &c., that for the last 5 

 years could hardly be sold at any price, would 

 then bring from 2 to 3 shillings, and even more, 

 per bushel, with a ready sale. Within the past 

 6 years I have had about 150 field trees of apples 

 and pears grafted; quite a number of which begin 

 to bear already. My improved fruit this last season 

 amounted to about 20 barrels, and should my trees 

 do loell, I hope in a few yeais to have as many as 

 150 to 200 barrels from those trees I have grafted 

 about the farm. 



In addition to this, in 1849 I set out an orchard 

 of 3 acres, with choice apple trees, which appear 

 to be doing well. In my experience, I have had 

 abundant proofs of the natural stock or ^/-ce affecting 

 the ingrafted scion in the quality of the fruit; as for 

 instance, when scions of a large kind of apples are 

 ingrafted into large stocks, of small, knurly apples, 

 of different taste, color, shape, and quality, from the 

 fruit of the scions for a number of years, hardly any 

 one would know the fruit raised on such a tree, it 

 would be so different from the fruit from whence 

 the scion came. My opinion from close observation 

 is this; when the ingrafted scion becomes large 

 enough to draw the whole sap of the natural stock, 

 and the amount of top is equal to the roots, or 

 more, then the fruit wiWimprove in quality, and be- 

 come more and more perfect. 



Preston, Ct., Feb. 10, 1851. C. B. Ayer. 



For the yew England Farmer. 

 SOME OF THE CUSTOMS AMONG PAR- 

 MBRS IN THE LAST CENTURY. 



Mk. Editor : — I can write something, perhaps 

 for the amusement, if not for the edification of the 

 young farmers of the present day, how farmers in 

 the back towns from Boston conducted their busi- 

 ness in the latter part of the 18th century. The 

 economy of that time among farmers and market- 

 men was truly wonderful. We did not go to mar- 

 ket then as we do now, to fetch produce into the 

 country, but were so vulgar as to carry the good 

 things of the land to the good people of the cities 

 who consumed them. The land in the country 

 towns in the vicinity of Boston at that time appears 

 to have been more productive than at present; I 

 suppose from the circumstance of the soil being in 

 better condition, and new fields constantly coming 

 into cultivation after stripping the land of the for- 

 ests. 



The process of farming then was on what is now 

 called the "skinning principle," very little manure 

 being applied to the different grain crops; the 

 dung-heaps were converted into compost and ap- 

 plied to grass fields, potato fields, or hop-yards. I 

 have noticed several farms of late where eight or 

 ten cows, four oxen, two horses, some young cat- 

 tle and sheep were kept at that time, now dispens- 



ing with oxen, sheep, young cattle, and half the 

 number of cows, retaining a horse which has to 

 supply the place of oxen and horses on the farm, 

 and supply the place of a span for the purposes of 

 pleasure and business on the road ; this seems rath, 

 er a hard case for the poor beast, but he must sub- 

 mit to the burdens of his task-master, not having a 

 faculty, like the Israelites, to complain of cruel ser- 

 vitude and hopeless bondage. 



To illustrate the manner of farming soon after 

 the close of the revolutionary war, I will relate my 

 own experience, with observations made at the time 

 on the respectable farmers of my neighborhood. 

 My father owned a large farm, for a Bay State 

 man, well supplied with wood and timber, free 

 from stones and easy of cultivation ; he raised corn, 

 rye, beans, potatoes and hops, with beef, pork and 

 poultry for the market. His corn and rye were 

 raised in rotation on the same fields without manure 

 till they "cried enough," and then newer and bet- 

 ter soil was selected for a field and treated in the 

 same way, and the old field left in Indian hills or 

 in the state it might happen to be in when the last 

 crop was taken off. 



These old fields were left to the mercy of "at- 

 mospheric influences" for restoration, even with- 

 out the indulgence of a little grass-seed for past fa- 

 vors. But I believe ingratitude always receives 

 its due reward, like all other violations committed 

 against the laws of God, whether the offence is 

 committed against land or animals ; land will not 

 be cheated nor cannot be deceived like credulous 

 human beings, as many a man has found who made 

 the attempt. These worn-out fields were thrown 

 into common pasture for cattle and sheep to graze 

 upon till they were in some measure restored to a 

 degree of fertility, and then go through the skin- 

 ning operation again, and so on till all vegetation 

 ceased to grow, except some worthless weeds and 

 moss, and the land consigned to sterility. 



But an overruling Providence, without the in- 

 terference of man, by an active principle of nature 

 soon clothed those sterile fields with a dense forest 

 of pines, which are now the most valuable part of 

 the farm. Then, as now, every farmer wanted 

 money to pay taxes, and for various other purposes, 

 and the only way for him to obtain it was to sell 

 his produce at the nighest market for what it would 

 fetch ; the nigliest wood-market at that time was 

 Medford, then called Mystic, about fourteen miles, 

 where wood was wanted for the purpose of burning 

 bricks as well as for fuel. I have been there my- 

 self with good hard wood when it w'ould fetch but 

 about two dollars a cord, and received a part or all 

 my pay in groceries ; now that sum would not pay 

 the expenses of teaming. 



The economy of marketing the lesser articles at 

 that time was truly wonderful. When a lad, I 

 have been about nineteen miles to Boston market 

 with a variety of ar-ticles, the productions of the 

 farm, with a bag of hay strapped on top to decorate 

 my loaded animal and restore his exhausted vigor 

 while I was selling off my load. When I arrived 

 at Charles bridge, I put tny horse into a free sta- 

 ble and empted my ornamental bag to him, which 

 he received with unfeigned satisfaction ; then I took 

 my turn, bearing the "heat and burden of the day," 

 by shouldering my "commodities" and marching to 

 Faneuil Hall Market without being escorted by mu- 

 sic, about one mile, with as much consequence and 

 self-complaisance as a valiant knight would on a 



