386 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 29, 182;. 



..trees. I have applied it to upwards of fifteen 

 hundred apple and pear trees, besides the peach-^ 

 es, all of which evince its good effects : a load of 

 forty bushels, after being exposed to the weather 

 from October till June, served for about eighteen 

 hundred trees. 



I have now given the result of my experiments, 

 and will relate to you what has come under my 

 observation. An ingenious farmer. Air. Ashton, 

 in my neighborhood, a few years past, planted 

 three hundred peach trees on about three acres 

 of ground ; I saw them last summer, they were 

 very thriving, and he lately informed me he had 

 fathered about five hundred bushels of good fruit, 

 and sold them readily on the ground at a dollar 

 and fifty cents per bushel. He adopted no other 

 mode to bring them to perfection than ploughing : 

 he informed me that he had raised a crop of In- 

 dian corn on the ground every year since he 

 planted the trees, and that without manuring; but 

 the o-round was in good order when he planted 

 them. Thus, by the trifling labour of plant- 

 ing the trees vvhicli he raised from the stone, even 

 without being inoculated, he obtained more mo- : 

 ney from those three acres than his whole farm 

 would have rented for, and that too without lo- 

 sing one year's crop from the ground, the faith- 

 ful cultivation of which in procuring other crops, 

 insured him success in his crop of fruit. Thus 

 you see the peach, when constantly cultivated, 

 will succeed without lime or any manure ; though 

 in grass grounds I am confident they would not. 



With respect to plumbs and nectarines, I have 

 tried various experiments without success, and 

 though I have about fifty trees which are healthy, 

 blossom well and bring their fruit to a considera- 

 ble gize, yet they all drop before they come to 

 perfection : and I have never got one nectarine 

 e.'icept from a young tree planted m the fall, 

 which yielded me fourteen fine nectarines the en- 

 suing summer ; since when I hav«( not had ano- 

 ther, and I find the older my trees are, the more 

 they are infested with insects, from wliich I con- 

 clude that were they attacked on their first ap- 

 pearance, by destroying the eggs in the fallen 

 fruit, or otherwise, it might prevent their in- 

 crease, and eventually destroy them. For several 

 years my family have been supplied with the fin- 

 est plumbs by a neighbour, who is the only person 

 I know of who has had uniform success with 

 them : last year while his trees were in full bear- 

 ing, I carefully examined them, particularly as re- 

 spected their culture and local situation, and I 

 found that no uncommon pains had been taken 

 with them; on the contrary, they appeared ne- 

 glected, as was evident from the numerous dead 

 and broken limbs that hung about them, and that 

 the very great success he had, could only bo at- 

 tributed to their situation, which was at the place 

 where his hogs laid and were fed ; he told me 

 that the hogs never let a plumb that had fallen, 

 remain many minutes undevoured, and thereby 

 destroyed the insects that hung about, and the 

 eggs that were deposited in them, though of late 

 there had appeared but few insects about the 

 trees. 



How easy would it be to inclose a piece of 

 ground for the purpose of feeding hogs in, which, 

 if planted with the best plumb trees, might be 

 made to yield more profit than twenty times the 

 same ground would in grain or grass, when it is 

 considered the enormous price that fruit com- 

 mands, no doubt owing to the difficulty of raising. 



which I am confident might be surmounted by the 

 above mode. j 



I should now apologise for trespassing on your i 

 patience, were I not certain that your real zed ! 

 in similar pursuits would render it unnecessary, 

 and remain 



Yours sincerely, 



WILLIAM PHILLIPS, 

 Dr. J-AMEB Mease. 



FOR TUE NEW ENGLAND PARMER. 



WANTON DESTRUCTION OF BIP.DS. 



Mr. Fessenden — At the 370th page of thfi 

 current volume of the N. E. Farmer, I find th^ 

 following statement, and question : — "We ha'e 

 observed several orchards in this vicinity, withn 

 a few days, which are almost entirely stripped jf 

 their green leaves, by the caterpiller or canler 

 worm. Is there no bird to help man to get ridof ; 

 these creatures ?" | 



The question as stated seems to elicit inquirj, ' 

 and I rejoice in the opportunity to bring a suH 

 ject before the public of so much importance t> 

 the interest and happiness of man. 



The /ac< being so apparent, that the birds (not 

 one particular species only, but every specL's 

 of the smaller Wrds) will greatly assist man in tie 

 destruction of insects, that I shall consider tie 

 question as answered in the affirmative, withcut 

 argument; and shall principally confine my fe- I 

 marks at this time to the treatment which these 

 little friends of man have heretofore, and stilldo I 

 receive, in return for the valuable services whish | 

 they render us. 



The present is a period that affords strong m- I 

 dication of general inquiry, and a more refiaed 

 taste for acquiring moral and intellectual improve- j 

 ment, and the consequent enjoyments that are tlic 

 result of a well cultivated mind : and as o..,- j,.|je 

 happiness ia inseparably connected with our true 

 interest, it becomes proper for us to duly consider 

 those subjects which are calculated to promote 

 and secure so desirable a boon. 



It has been truly painful, to a humane and re- 

 flecting person, to witneso the wanton and indis- 

 criminate destruction that has been made of the 

 birds in many parts of this country, for more than 

 fifty years past ; ,and I am sorry to state that the 

 practice still prevails, of setting apart one day in 

 each year, (usually the latter part of May,) for the 

 express purpose of slaughtering as many birds as 

 possible. This deliberate and exterminating war- 

 fare is conducted as systematically as the nature 

 of the service will admit. 



Some time previous to the day appointed, the 

 young men and boys (and generally with the 

 sanction of their parents, 'masters, or guardians.) 

 meet in groups at different place.s, (all having the 

 same object i'l view,) and appoint their leaders ; 

 the different leaders (or captains as they are some- 

 times called) then proceed to select from those 

 who are willing to engage in the work of des- 

 truction an equal number on each side ; an agree- 

 ment is then made to meet at a certain time and 

 place, (usually at some tipling shop,) and to bring 

 ivith them the trophies of their exploits, then and 

 there to be counted off — and the leaders, and 

 those under them, stand pledged, each to the 

 other, under a penalty of one or more gallons of 

 j ardent spirits, that the party producing the least 

 I Qumber of these innocent and unresisting victims, 

 I shall be holden to pay the forfeiture. These pre- 



liminaries being definitively settled, and the 

 appointed having arrived, the dawn of whicl 

 announced by an almost incessant discharge 

 musketry, so the carnage commences, aud gen 

 ally continues with unabating fury for a numi 

 of hours; and thus the birds (not being conscio 

 of any offence to man, but on the contrary wot, 

 instinctively fly to him for protection,) are ann 

 ally destroyed by thousands, through the folly all 

 indiscretion of mankind. 



There are two reasons which I have heard gr 

 en by the advocates for the foregoing practic 

 and which may bo urged in justification of v 

 longer continuance, viz. the belief that the bin 

 scratch up their corn, and that young person 

 ought to have some days allotted to them for 

 musement ; for they say that "all work and 

 play will make Jack a dull boy." To both posi 

 tions, if circumstances permit, I will remark i:i i 

 future communication, relying on the candour o 

 an enlightened community to shield me from tht 





IlES 



loestluli 

 kiici)ili«' 



charge o( misantl'.ropy. A mind not perverted I W" 

 and sunk in sensuality, cannot be insensible to thei 

 vocal music of the feathered songsters of the or- 

 chard and the grove, but will insensibly be led tff in( 

 join with them in a ^ong of praise to Hui, whose 

 tender mercies are over all his works, and whose: 

 watchful care extends itself even to the sparrow, 

 so "that not one of them falls without his notice." 

 The goodness of the Creator is not manifested 

 solely in the creation and preservation of the crea- 

 ture man, but is abundantly displayed throughout 

 all animal existence, from man down to the minu- 

 test insect that crawls, as can be fully shewn 

 from the adaptation of food, and other enjoyments, 

 well suited to the varied tastes and capacities of 

 all the distinct specie^. 



Philosophy teaches us that all parts of creation 

 with which we have the least acquaintance, are 

 nicely anJ. ..uijuurrun)- biitaiicea ; nor is this ba- 

 huice discernible only in the planetary system ; 

 it may be equally traced throughout the animal 

 part of creation. 



Some further remarks upon the beauty aud util- 

 ity of this balance, together with some of the evils 

 which inevitably result to man from having this 

 balance impaired, or destroyed, may be the sub 

 ject of a subsequent communication. 



R. HOWARD. 



Easton, June 20/7i, 1827. 



iJ. AW 

 lasltit^ 



wlei 



WHEAT AND RYE STALKS. 



Mbssrs. a. & C. Miner. — I Send you a stalk 

 of wheat from the field of Esquire Henderson, at 

 the Gap Tavern, the length (i feet 2 inches — it 

 stnck ine as being rather uncommon ; the whole 

 fiell is nearly of the same height 



Yours, respectfully, S. B 



Jme 11, 1837. 



Note by the Editors. — Our wheat crop is put- 

 tingon the most promising appearance. The field 

 of \r John .Marshall, East-Goshen, is one of the 

 mosi luxuriant ever presented to thee.'e. That of 

 Mr VVollerton, in this Borough, is as heavy as it 

 canripen. The grass is generally excellent. — 

 Weliave no lofty mountains sterile and sublime — 

 no faming cataracts, to give grandeur to our land- 

 scap;, but in all that is lovely and beautiful, the 

 viewfrom the Cupola of our Court House, is not 

 excejded in the wide world — even in the vales of 

 ltal\ or the green fields of Old England. 



[Southern paper.] 



