396 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



and bear any necessary amount of motion ; and one 

 barrel of them in a foreign market will bring more 

 than two barrels packed in a careless manner. 



SUFFOLK PIGS. 



We have recently examined a pair of Suffolk 

 Pigs, purchased by one of our publishers, Mr. J. 

 Raynolds, from the stock of Mr. J. L. Lovering, 

 of Hartford, Vt., which we think as well formed 

 and perfect as any we have overseen. They were 

 engaged nearly a year since, being the first, since 

 that time, which he has been able to obtain. The 

 beautiful portrait which we gave in April last, is 

 a perfect likeness of one of the same stock, and 

 was taken expressly for the columns of the Far- 

 mer. From our experience with this breed of 

 swine, we are satisfied that they will produce more 

 pork in proportion to the food they consume, than 

 any other breed which we have known, and they 

 are constant and hearty feeders. If the same re- 

 mark in relation to pork, holds good, that is made of 

 beef, viz: that beef which is fatted rapidly is the 

 sweetest and most tender, then this pork ought to 

 be better than any other, for the Suffolks grow and 

 lay on fat very rapidly. This may be accounted 

 for in some measure by their quiet and contented 

 disposition — eating and sleeping being their prin- 

 cipal business of life. From these specimens, and 

 others of his stock, which he has sent to this mar- 

 ket, we do not hesitate to refer purchasers to Mr. 

 Lovering, if they desire the pure Suffolk breed of 

 swine. 



The reader will find a more particular account 

 of this breed under the engraving in the April num- 

 ber of the Farmer. That portrait was taken from 

 a pig raised by Mr. Lovering and sold to Mr. Alon- 

 zo Andrews, 38 School Street, who still has him 

 in his possession, and pronounces him one of the 

 most perfect of his kind. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PRICE OF GUANO, &0. 



Gentlejiiln : — Will you inform me what the 

 price is per cwt. of Guano, unadulterated; of sul- 

 phate of soda (Glauber's Salts); of Bone Dust; of 

 Nitrate of Potash, and of ground or calcined Plas- 

 ter of Paris, as I desire to obtain a quantity of 

 each for some experiments, in your vicinity. 



Truly yours, h. h. s. 



Washington, D. C, Nov. 10, 1851. 



Remarks. — We reply to our correspondent's 

 queries through the columns of the Farmer, that it 

 may be an answer to other letters of inquiry, as 

 well as his, on the same subject. Peruvian guano 

 is scarce and high, the price ranging from $40 to 

 $60 per ton, and constantly fluctuating, as there is 

 more or less in the market. The Chilian and 

 Ichaboe may be purchased for much less; but at a 

 low price would probably be more costly than the 

 pure Peruvian. Sulphate of soda, or, better 



known as Glauber's salts, is selling at 75 cents per 

 100 pounds, bone dust, at $1,50 a hundred, nitrate 

 of potash, commonly known as nitre, or saltpetre, 

 at $700 for the crude, and $800 for the refined, 

 per 100 pounds. Ground Plaster of Paris may be 

 purchased for about $5 a ton, or something less 

 than that in large quantities. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



A FEW MORE REMARKS ABOUT APPLE 

 TREES. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



A novelist, in one of his stories, portrays an old 

 gentleman who set up for a wit, upon one joke 

 only, which he was careful to show off as entirely 

 new, whenever he met a stranger, with the re- 

 mark aside, *' Well, I don't think I ever said that 

 to him before." Perhaps they who have heard and 

 read what I have said and written about apples and 

 apple-trees, may find nothing particularly new in 

 what may now be suggested, and may be inclined 

 to liken me to that same old gentleman, but I can 

 at least say, that however much of a hobby I have 

 made of the subject, I have never published any 

 thing upon it in the New England Farmer. 



And as my name is in print at the head of the 

 columns, it may as well be understood, first as last, 

 that I consider it my special mission among my 

 agricultural friends, to induce them to plant trees ; 

 shade trees of all kinds for ornament, and fruit-trees 

 for profit. 



Although there are a few men in most New 

 England towns, who know perhaps, all that can be 

 learned, by reading, on these subjects, yet the 

 greater part of those who plant fruit-trees, as was 

 remarked in a recent number of the Farmer, 

 plant and manage them so badly, that not one of 

 three ever produces a crop of fruit. 



This is partly because the best mode of culture 

 is not understood, but oftener, perhaps, the result 

 of a sort of reluctance, apparently natural to most 

 men, to doing as well as they know how to do. — 

 Any man of common sense knows that a hill of 

 corn planted in the turf of a grass field, vi'ould 

 never grow, and it would seem manifest that a 

 tenderly reared tree from a nursery, deprived of 

 half its roots in transplanting, could bear adversity 

 no better, yet nearly one-half of all the apple-trees 

 in New England have been heretofore planted in 

 grass land, and the ten thousand little mouths of 

 the grass roots have drunk up the moisture and 

 fertility of the soil, and left the trees to shrivel and 

 die of thirst and starvation. 



It is not absolutely necessary to keep the whole 

 surface of a young orchard under cultivation. 



For the first five years after an apple-tree from a 

 nursery is set, the roots will find sufficient space, 

 if a strip eight feet wide, four on each side of the 

 tree, be kept thoroughly worked and manured, 

 leaving the remainder in grass. 



Perhaps it may be better to cultivate the whole, 

 but it is almost impracticable, upon ordinary farms, 

 to keep any considerable extent of orchards con- 

 stantly under the plow. I have, this autumn, 

 prepared about three acres of land for planting with 

 apple-trees next spring, in a mode which seems 

 new to those who have observed it, and which it 

 may be useful to owners of new land to know. A 

 heavy growth, chiefly of white pine, was taken 



