116 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



lock is another prostrate evero^reen, distinguished 

 for its deep green foliage, and the rich scarlet color 

 of its fruit, which resembles an acorn. Mr. Emer- 

 son says it occurs in the western counties of Mas- 

 sachusetts, and for the sake of the very rich green 

 of the yew, it might be cultivated beneath the oth- 

 er trees, its natural habit, to take off the barren- 

 ness of the surface of the ground, especially under 

 evergreens planted near a dwelling house. 



We can hardly conceive of a more beautiful ob- 

 ject around a house, than a belt of evergreen trees, 

 say the white pine, with the surface of the ground 

 around their roots covered with the rich green of 

 the American Yew. The European Yew, some- 

 times called the Church Yard Yew, has long been 

 used in England, to embellish places for the burial 

 of the dead, and had many poetical associations con- 

 nected with it. Its leaves are of a dark green, and 

 its branches are close and compact. We have it 

 under cultivation, and find it of an exceedin"- slow 

 growth, and tender for our climate. Inconsequence 

 of the slowness of its growth, and the injury it re- 

 ceives in winter, it has attained only to the size of 

 a shrub. S. P. Fowler. 



Danvers, Feb. 25th, 1851. 



[to be continued.] 



For the New England Farmer. 

 RENOVATING OLD ORCHARDS. 



Mr. Cole: — The fruit-growing business is un- 

 doubtedly, under careful attention, to be henceforth 

 a prominent employment of the New England 

 farmer. We infer this from the fact that the 

 healthfulness and luxury of the choice varieties are 

 much better understood now than they were a few 

 years since, when our apple-orchards, for the most 

 part, bore natural and very ordinary specimens: 

 when not one garden in half a dozen furnished a 

 single pear tree, and these in the main produced 

 worthless, insipid affairs; — when a cherry tree, un- 

 less it were some of the old varieties, of moderate 

 and scrubby growth, producing when they produced 

 at all, a small inferior fruit. 



Then, in many places, the flvi-mer who could sell 

 his seek-no-furthers and greenings for 12 1-2 cents 

 and 17 cents a bushel in autumn, thought he was 

 doing a pretty fair business. Now he can sell the 

 same varieties at the same season for fifty cents a 

 bushel. 



It is no wonder, then, that fruit culture is becom- 

 ing more popular than it once was, and that many old 

 orchards are undergoing a remodelling by grafting, 

 and that many young trees are being set. Nor is 

 it strange at all that in this grafting of old trees and 

 setting out new, tiiat many are in the end disappoint- 

 ed in their realizations. There are doubtless ap- 

 proximate causes for these failures in success which 

 are so often realized. 



First, we will take the old orchard, which 

 very likely from mismanagement has fallen into a 

 premature old age. There are many such in all 

 parts of the country, and many of these are now-a- 

 days having their rough trunks cleaned and their 

 moss grown branches taken off to be newly grafted, 

 with tlie expectation that when this is done, there 

 is no more to do. Perfect success is the boon which 

 the owners of such orchards claim, and chill disap- 

 pointment is often the realization of their hopes. 

 The young scion set in these old rough-barked, 

 moss-grown trees, that have probably had their fo- 



liage harvested by the canker-worm for a quarter 

 of a century, — we say scions set in these may live 

 and have a sluggish growth for a year or perhaps 

 for several years, but they will be sure to inherit 

 the disease of the tree and m the end perish by them. 

 If old trees are to be grafted, they should be subject- 

 ed to the washing and scrubbing operation for a 

 year or two before it is performed. That is, the 

 old rough bark and moss should all be scraped off, 

 and two or three washings of strong lye be given 

 each season to impart healthfulness and destroy in- 

 sects. Then another thing may need attention. 

 The trees may stand in grass land and the old turf 

 may have become so thoroughly sodded that the air 

 and the dews, the sunshine and the storm, those 

 great elixirs of vegetable health, have but little in- 

 fluence upon the roots. Tillage may be necessary 

 to insure healthful vitality to the tree. We once 

 took half a dozen trees, which had nearly given 

 over bearing, and after a thorough ploughing, plant- 

 ed the land to potatoes two successive years. In 

 1842, this ground was thoroughly stocked, and that 

 year and each successive one those trees have borne 

 liberally, and yet there was no manure applied on 

 this ground. The change was all effected by a ju- 

 dicious pruning and cleansing of the trees and thor- 

 ough working of the soil Every particle of turf 

 there, and every bunch of moss which had driven 

 the turf away from home, became manure, and told 

 in connexion with the deep tillage its efficiency. 



We have resusciated a few old trees by another 

 method, which to some may appear more favorable, 

 and where only one or two are going to decay, may 

 perhaps be more convenient. It is simply this. 

 After relieving the tree of the rough old bark and 

 useless branches, take a load of any productive soil 

 and spread it evenly under the tree. If lime ashes 

 or chip manure are mixed with it, so much the bet- 

 ter; but if nothing else can (conveniently be had, take 

 the soil alone. It will kill the grass, nearly or 

 quite, for a year or two, but the branches of the tree 

 will start in new growth, the leaves will be broad- 

 er and healthier, and the fruit be increased both in 

 quantity and quality. An easy experiment; who 

 will try it? 



Again, farmers are disappointed after grafting 

 their old trees by not getting tlie varieties they ex- 

 pected. We have suffered none at all in this way 

 ourselves, but we have heard, from more than one in- 

 dividual, great complaints in this matter, especially 

 where travelling grafters have been employed, even 

 where the desired varieties were obtained for them, 

 and they were paid at the same rate as when they 

 furnished scions. Yet we suppose that if apple 

 trees would speak with men's tongues and teach in 

 men's language, there are many in Massachusetts 

 that would tell that their ancient heads were 

 taken ofi' simply to be restored by scions from their 

 own sprouts. That such occurrences do take place; 

 we must believe on the principle that "in the mouth 

 of two or three witnesses every word shall be es- 

 tablished," for we have certainly heard more than 

 three say that they had been duped in just such 

 ways. How vexatious it must be, after paying a 

 liberal compensation for grafting, and waiting in 

 ht)pe and patient expectation until the first blossom 

 appeared, and then watched the swelling fruit un- 

 til the joyful harvest time, and then find that the 

 graft produces the like in every respect as the pa- 

 rent tree! We presum.e that all tiavelling orchard 

 renovators do not practise such degrading frauds; 



