330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May II, 1827. 



THE SEASON. I 



Mr Fessenden — I certainly sliould not select 

 'ho present uncommon season, as a fit one, to sua- j 

 pend my annual account of tlio progress of vegct- j 

 ation. It is now fourteen years, since I first pub- 

 lished such a register, and I Iiave found t!iat it has 

 excited as much notice as a thermometrical jour- 1 

 nal. I will not say that any important results, any j 

 great aid to cultivation may be afforded by it, — | 

 neither have I over yet seen any practical benefit, i 

 any essential aid to science from ihcrmomtlrkiil\ 

 recristers ; but they are both of them entertaining. [ 

 When the thermometrical register sliall enable us 

 to calculate what weather we shall have in any 

 triven space of time in fi\\.ure,t.he Journal of Flora, 

 (as Linneeus called it) may enable us to know when 

 •.0 sow our seed with security, and how to time 

 our horticultural labours. For myself, I have fee- 

 ble hopes of any beneficial result, other than a 

 very agreeable amusement. 



The present season is one of the very few which 

 transcend or surpass the ordinary limits, on the 

 average of any ten years taken together. It has 

 been said that it is earlier than any year since 

 1792. This is not strictly true, but it is true, that 

 it has been and is very forward, and its forward- 

 ness may be traced clearly to the early and long 

 continued covering of snow. It is a fact within 

 my own knowledge, that plants left in a growing 

 state, when the first snow fell, were found in an 

 equally flourishing state, when the dissolution of 

 the snow, some months afterwards, left them bare. 

 Clover not six weeks old survived the winter, and 

 was ready to start as the snow was dissolved. 



REGISTER OF THE SEASO-NS. 



Cherries began to open their flowers, 



in 1813 - - May 10 



1815 - - "10 



1810 - - "0 



1817 - - " (J 



1818 - - "18 

 T81Q - " 



1820 - - ^'2 



1821 - - -^ 



1822 - - "1 



1823 - - "7 



1824 - . ■ » 1 



1825 - - April 2:i 

 1820 - - May 4 

 1837 - - April 21 



Thus it will be seen that the present season was, 

 :iS it respects the opening of ihe cherry blo,5snms, 

 two days earlier than in any year during the last 

 fourteen, — and earlier than the average of the 

 fourteen years, about fourteen days. 



THE OPENING OF THE rEACH. 



I shall take a smaller number of e.vamplos of the 

 other plants, because one plant in effect shows 

 i-orrectly the true state of vegetation : 



Peaches in 1815 began to open May 10 



1810 •■ ' .'5 



1823 - April 25 



" 1827 '• ' 10 



Apples opened their flowers, 



in 1813 - . May 23 



in 1815 . . < 18 



in 1825 {the earliest year be/ore the 



present, for fourteen years 



Siberian crab apple began to flower May 



Pitto, in 1827 . '4 



Other early apples opened 



in 182.1 - - May 8 



in 1827 - - May 4 



These are the general facts as lo large plants 

 not easily affected by •asual causes. The present 

 is the most early season known, as to such plants 

 within tlie last fourteen. The same remark may 

 be made as to herbaceous plants. Asparagus was 

 cut in the same bed this year ten days earlier than 

 in any year (except 1825) since the register was 

 kept. It is equally true as to grass. It is from 

 ton days to a fortnight more forward than usual. 

 VVc have however had six days together so cold 

 that asparagus did not grow one inch during the 

 whole period. As yet, we have escaped frosts ex- 

 cept one severe one. This does not appear to have 

 affected any of the fruits. Peaches never promised 

 bettor. Ptor5 do not ffeiieraWy promise well. The 

 Apple blow will be of course less than that of last 

 year in those sorts of trees which flower biennally. 

 Those which had full crops of Rhode Island green- 

 ings and Baldwins last year, will not have a single 

 blossom this ; for this reason we prefer the Spitz- 

 enburg, and other apples, which bear moderately 

 every year. 



These remarks apply only to my own garden. — 

 No man can be accurate, as to the condition of 

 his neighbours' fruits. Generally speaking, how 

 ever, it may be presumed that the state of one 

 garden will give a fair average of the whole. 



A FARMER. 



N. B. I have said, that apple trees which bear 

 moderately every year, are preferable to those 

 which bear one year very full, and the ne.\t year 

 not one apple. Too little attention is p:iid to thi? 

 difference by the farmer. The apples which bear 

 I constantly are the Newtown pippin. Prince's pippin 

 I Esopus Spitzenburg, the Russeting, the Bell flower, 

 ' &c. 

 1 Roxhimj, May 9,, 1837. 



i 



gitlk 



ulleiiu" 

 Bie.tl» 



teiin" 

 llief' 

 Ik ■ 



iiletii 



•4 



I PEACHES. 



j Mr Editor, — I much regret to bo obliged to dil'- 

 i for in opinion from some of my friends and neigli- 

 I hours as to the crop of peaches, apricots, &c. this 

 season, — who think the bloom looks well, and that 

 the prospect of a plentiful crop is as yet fair. 

 i Those acquainted with the first rudiments of 

 botany, if they have examined the blossoms, must 

 I have been convinced that those fruits were much 

 [injured, if not totally destroyed, by the frosts last 

 I month. The injury was very apparent on my peach 

 I trees in a few hours after the frosts (of the 14th 

 and 15th of April, if I mistake not). On examina- 

 tion of the blossoms, the anthers had lost Ihoir 

 j vivid appearance, and many of the stigmas or heads 

 I of the pi.^tils had assumed a livid and sickly coun- 

 tenance, since which many of the pistils have ex- 

 tended themselves double their iisu.il length from 

 ; the germ, become feeble, and the stigmas wither- 

 j ed and shrunk, so as to be incapable of imbibing 

 (the fertilizing principle from the farina or pollen, 

 if it were ever so abundant, but it was also obvious 

 I that at least ninety-nine hundredths of anthers, 

 j from which this farina is derived, none of which 

 I had arrived at maturity, had perished and dried up, 

 hence it is evident, the far greater part of the 

 I germs must be abortive ; while hero and there a 

 I solitary blossom which had not advanced so far as 

 jthat the corolla had uncovered its important con- 

 tents, previous to those cold nights, appears health- 

 1 ful and promises fair. 



Noticing the effect of those frosty nights brii. 

 to my recollection the highly rational and ' 

 cable plan, mentioned in the Now England 

 page 275, of keeping back the vegetation b' 

 ing ice to form and remain around the tri 

 later in the season ; which perhaps might 

 easily be effected by erecting a close fenceifa 

 feet long on the southerly side of the tree, jj] 

 refuse boards and stakes, against which the 

 and ice would drift, and by covering it withi 

 thing to keep off the rays of the sun, it woul 

 main a number of weeks longer around thelnj 

 than otherwise, and the fence could be renunt) 

 easily when no longer needful. This plan woil(' 

 keep tho buds of ths tree in a torpid state as rfl"' . 

 fcctually, as burying the vine in the cold gromi|l'!j,< 

 keeps that so ; and it appears to me a much pre^'jj 

 erable plan to planting the tree on tho nor 

 side of a permanent fence, as recomraendai kii 

 many horticulturists. I will not pretend toat 

 that sudden changes and severity of weather h 

 some winters does not destroy the germs of 6ii|| 

 while locked in embryo in the torpid bud, yet,i&iil 

 fifty years' observation, I think I can confidjfal] 

 assert, that nine times in ten, wlien the frift 

 destroyed by frosts and severe weather, it is iith 

 spring, after the buds begin to open. ■'? 



May 3. A Roxbuky SuBscRfi^ 



ON THE CULTURE OP SILK. 

 Continued from page 323. 



I shall here take an opportunity of mcntioifflji 

 that during the two first ages of the wormsmv 

 practice always was, agreeable to Mons. MartelJ 

 loy's system, to keep the windows of the room 

 shut ; but when once the second age was overl 

 inured t.Som by degrees lo the fresh air, by open 

 ing the windows at first for a couple of hourek 

 the middle of the day, and increasing the timeo; 

 the open windows from day to day, till at last! 

 kept them always open day and niglit particulatlj 

 from tlie lirno of the'^r getting over their fourlii 

 inaludy, till they completed their cocoons, unless 

 the weather happened to prove remarkably coli 

 and wet. But though this practice succeeded 

 perfectly well in the sooth of France, I do notb; 

 any means take it upon me to say tliat it is advise- 

 able to pursue the same method in Britain, as the 

 difference of climate is great. On the contrary. 

 I should incline to think, that in England thi 

 windoivs should always be kept shut during the 

 night ; but when once the second age is over 

 that it would be proper to habituate the worm;. 

 gradually to the fresh air during the day, more 

 particularly after their getting over their fourth 

 malady, when it is of the greatest consequence K 

 them : but even then, in case of cold wet weath- 

 er, I should think it advisable to shut the window.' 

 occasionally during the day. In short, in this ar- 

 ticle, a man's conduct must be regulated by pru- 

 dence and good sense, in whicli his e.xperieoce 

 will greatly assist him. 



Upon the article of hatching the worms, it has 

 been recommended to save the production of the 

 first four days, as I observed this to be the gen- 

 eral practice in France : but I must mention, ths' 

 having mot with a French gentleman at Montau- 

 ban, who I understood had dedicated much of his 

 attention to tiio culture of silk, and in which I 

 was assured he had been particularly successfuh 

 I took the liberty, with a tiew to gain informa- 

 tion, to request of him to favour me with an «c 



