DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. III. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1851. 



NO. 22. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, 

 Proprietors. 



OFFICE, QUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



S. W. COLE, Editor. 



APPLES. 



The question is often asked, whether the unu- 

 sual attention which is now given to the cultiva- 

 tion of the apple will not, in the course of a few 

 years, glut the market, and reduce the price so 

 low, as to make it a crop no longer profitable to 

 the farmer. We do not believe there is any cause 

 for fear on this ground, and will state a few of the 

 reasons upon which we found our belief. 



In travelling, recently, some three hundred 

 miles in various sections of this State, and in New 

 Hampshire, ia an open carriage, where we had 

 opportunity to see the country as we passed along, 

 our attention was particularly turned to the or- 

 chards on oar route, and to the manner of planting 

 and managing them. In some cases the orchard 

 had been started by digging small holes in the old, 

 tough sward, and crowding in crooked trees appa- 

 rently one or two years from the bud, and tliere 

 they were left to come up as best they might, in 

 the mean time affording the cattle an annual re- 

 past in autumn by way of browse. How many of 

 these lean and lonely trees will survive this treat- 

 ment and come to maturity, is hardly problemati- 

 cal. It would be next to a miracle, indeed, if 

 they did any thing but droop and die. 



In other orchards tlie proprietors had adopted a 

 different mode. With visions of golden fruits in 

 the dim distance, they began with a commendable 

 zeal in the use of the plow; set their trees in some- 

 what of a strait jacket, in holes two or three feet 

 in diameter, planted potatoes and Imed them, and 

 bid god-speed to their future orchards. This course 

 is pursued for two or three years when the ground 

 is laid down for mowing or turned to pasture; 

 weeds and grass then choke their roots, mice gnaw 

 their bark, while mosses gather upon their trunks, 

 and disease and death are apparent in every fea- 

 ture; the verdict of any honest man upon them 

 would be — death, by imprisonment and starvation. 



By a fair calculation as we passed along, we 

 came to the conclusion that this is the fate of about 



one-half oi ^\\ the apple trees that are set through- 

 out the country. But there are many other ways 

 in which the trees are lost. In many localities 

 the Borer is exceedingly destructive, not sus- 

 pending its ravages when the tree has come to 

 maturity. Thousands are annually ruined hy 

 trimming improperly and at wrong seasons of the 

 year. Cattle and horses always improve the op- 

 portunity to help themselves to fiuit and break 

 down the branches in browsing upon their extrem- 

 ities. Then there are numeious other casualties 

 constantly befalling them, so that of the whole 

 number annually set in New England, we believe 

 it may safely be estimated that three-fourths of the 

 whole amount never produce an apple ! 



With this thriftless practice all about us, no ap- 

 prehensions need be entertained that the demand 

 for apples will be any less than at present, for the 

 next quarter century, at least. In another paper 

 we shall speak further on the subject. 



CHARCOAL, AND THE POTATO ROT. 



The experiment has often been made of apply- 

 ing charcoal to potato hills, as a preventive of the 

 disease which has come well nigh to an extermina- 

 tion of the crop, — but we believe without any sat- 

 isfactory results. Until recently, we have never 

 known charcoal applied other than in small quan- 

 tities, scarcely sufiicient to give a fair expression 

 of its effects. On returning from the New Hamp- 

 shire State Fair last week, we passed the resi- 

 dence of Mr. David Lane, of Chester, in that 

 Stale, and improved the opportunity to inquire 

 what the result had been of planting potatoes upon 

 the ground where he had been burning wood for 

 charcoal. He informed us that he had burned six 

 pits, and that after spreading the fine coal and 

 cleaning up the pits, had plowed and planted the 

 ground with potatoes without manure. He was 

 then digging them, and they had rotted considera- 

 bly; more, where the coal was in al)un<lance, and 

 less, as he approached the edges of the piece 



