244 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



August 5, 1831. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



I have tried to raise apples from cuttings. I 

 took a baker's dozen, and inserted the but of each 

 in half a potatoe, and buried the whole under the 

 earth except the two upper buds. They all grew 

 — i. e. the potatoes, but not one of the scions ! 

 Loudon says the Codlins and Bucknots will grow 

 from cuttings. I have no doubt they will, occa- 

 sionally, under favorable circumstances ; yet I 

 doubt the economy of the method, though success- 

 ful, when we can raise plants so readily from 

 seed, and bud or engraft them to suit our liking. 



Cam Cabbage. — I obtained seeds in 1829, with 

 a view of keeping my caws upon the herbage. It 

 did not arrive at the desired maturity the first sea- 

 eon. I left it standing in the garden, and the win- 

 ter destroyed it. My friend Dr. Mease sent me 

 some seed in 1830, and I determined to obtain at 

 least early sprouts for greens. The plants grew 

 from 4 to 6 feet. In the autumn I carefully buried 

 a dozen or more, and this spring planted them out 

 early in the ground. Instead of being perennial, 

 or abiding four years, as has been said, they shot 

 up directly to seed, having ripened which, they 

 are now falling into decay. I have found that I 

 paid too much for the whistle, and that a good sa- 

 voy or broccoli is worth a dozen cow-cabbage. 



I tried pulverized charcoal to keep the bugs from 

 my melons, and found that it did 'not a particle of 

 good. 



I tried Prince's sulphur water to destroy the 

 vine fretter, without effect. 



I use boxes to protect my melons from bugs 

 and from the cold. A part are so large as to re- 

 ceive a sash of four panes of glass. They are G 

 or 7 inches high in rear with a tlare of two inches 

 to the front. The sash is kept closed except 

 there is danger of the sun scalding the plants, 

 when they are partially or wholly drawn. The 

 other kind is of the same height and flare, and is 

 covered with millinet. They answer the pur- 

 pose intended. I have used them several years, 

 and house them, when the melons are out of dan- 

 ger, or the season sufficiently warm to dispense 

 with them. EXPERIMENTER. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



In the spring of 1829, a kind friend in the city 

 of New- York, sent me some seeds of Caw or tree 

 Cabbage for experiment. These were sowed in a 

 hot-bed after its heat was exhausted; and at the 

 commencement of severe weather in autumn, the 

 young plants were about a foot high. Under the 

 glass they continued in good condition till the next 

 spring, when they were transplanted in the open 



td. In the summer of 1830, they attained the 



height of six feet, with many branches ; but ev- 

 ery trace of vitality was destroyed by the frost of 

 last whiter. 



There may be particular soils and climates 

 where it would be profitable to cultivate this cab- 

 bage; but I think it not suited to our middle or 

 eastern states. The ground on which it grows 

 should be cultivated, and stakes to keep its large 

 bushy top.; erect, are required, as well as a great 

 quantity of straw to protrct it from the frost, and 

 much labor to apply it. Mine were infested by 

 the aphis or cabbage lice. L>- T. 



Greatneld, Cayuga co. N. Y. 7 mo. 12, 1831. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 

 CONVERSATIONS ON HORTICULTURE— No. I. 



A. What a magnificent prospect! How do 

 you dispose of so much fine fruit at such a dis- 

 tance from a market t 



B. The family has free access to it; a part we 

 dry or preserve ; a part we give to the sick when 

 opportunities occur ; sometimes we send presents 

 of fruit to our friends ; and the hogs take the rest. 



A. The hogs ! would you give fruit fit for the 

 table of a prince to your hogs ? 



B. Why not 1 it saves us many a bushel of 

 corn. 



A. But your neighbours who are destitute of 

 fruit, do you never call them in when you have 

 such abundance ? 



B. Never, but I would call them out if they ap- 

 peared in my fruit garden. If I give them as much 

 fruit as they give me, they have no reason to com- 

 plain. If they apply their labor to growing corn 

 and potatoes for their hogs, and neglect to pro- 

 vide fruit for themselves, it is their own choice. — 

 They have no more right to my fruit, the product 

 of my labor, than I have to their corn and pota- 

 toes. 



A. Well that is true ; but you know the preju- 

 dices of our countrymen who think that fruit is 

 free for all. 



B. I know that many who have none themselves, 

 have chosen to consider it free. When there was 

 no fruit to be had but wild strawberries in the fields 

 and raspberries along the fenees^ur farmers were 

 disposed to be indulgent, because these sprung up 

 spontaneously. But here is a total change of cir- 

 cumstancs. Many of these trees cost a dollar a 

 piece at a nursery 300 miles off. We have bro't 

 them hither, cultivated and manured the ground ; 

 we have pruned, we have destroyed the insects 

 from their branches ; and wc now claim the sole 

 and exclusive privilege of enjoying the fruit in 

 any manner that will please us best. 



A. Your right cannot be disputed, but would it 

 not please you best to give a part of the surplus to 

 your near neighbors f 



B. That must depend on circumstances. It is 

 a great pleasure to give to a zealous cultivator of 

 good fruit, some of whose trees have failed, or 

 are too young to bear; and that I could do with- 

 out being made to suffer hereafter for my liberali- 

 ty, because he would respect his own exertions 

 and his own property, and could not disregard 

 mine. But. that is not the case with the man who 

 plants not, or grafts not. He cannot respect the 

 fellings of an amateur, and ought not to enter a 

 garden. He who is satisfied with what fruit he 

 has, cannot need mine. He who is not satisfied 

 but makes no exertions to procure better, cannot 

 deserve mine. 



A. Your reasoning applies in full force against 

 landed proprietors, but would you exclude those 

 who have not tin; means to procure good fruit ! 



B. No more thin I would exclude them from 

 turtle soup or madeira wine. If they are worthy 

 people, they could bear kind treatment without 

 becoming troublesome, and might receive presents 

 of fruit. Those whose characters are unsetded, 

 it would be very injudicious to admit. What they 

 at first received as a gift, they would soon consid- 

 er as a right. My trees would be watclied us 

 property in which they had a share; and if the 

 fruit were not offered, or yielded when asked for, 

 they might rctltc it by stealth. 1 therefore claim 



the whole as much and as rigidly as I claim the 

 com in my crib or the wheat in my granary, 



A. But few people have taken the trouble to 

 consider this subject, and will not some of your 

 neighbors therefore, think you stingy ? 



B. Every man is allowed the indulgence of 

 some singularities. I wish therespectof my neigh- 

 bours but I could not consent to buy it by a sac- 

 rifice of my own legal and equitable rights. In 

 regard to fruit, great laxity in the morals of our 

 countrymen, has long prevailed. An excursion 

 to steal peaches or melons has been considered al 

 most as honorable as deer-stealing was formerly 

 in England ; and I am not sure but some parents 

 even yet who would hate to be called thieves, con- 

 nive at the plunder of their neighbor's gardens. — 

 But it is time that this stain on the character of a 

 moral and civilized people should be wiped off. — 

 This current of popular prejudice must be check- 

 ed, or the fond hopes of our horticlturists will be 

 blighted. They who first withstand it, will 

 sometimes find their situations unpleasant, but it 

 is the duty of every patriot to make the attempt. 



A. I cannot conceive how any young man who 

 ever hopes to be respectable could engage in such 

 disgraceful practices ; but there are always enough 

 amongst us who have no such hopes, do they 

 never plunder your fruit or injure your trees t 



B. If they do, they do it at the risk of one hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars fine and six months impris- 

 onment. Our legislature had become satisfied 

 that the advancing improvements of the country- 

 required' more ample protection than such had for 

 merly receivd; and he who now feloniously 

 scales a garden fence, is no longer viewed with the 

 same lenity as the owner of an unruly ox whe- 

 lms the damage assessed ; but he stands before 

 our courts as a criminal (a thief if you please) in 

 full anticipation of fine, punishment, and dis- 

 grace. X. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



BARLEY. 



Never, perhaps, was there a more pitiful di 5 

 play of ignorance, than in the harvesting of this 

 article last season. Thousands of bushels were 

 ruined for the lack of a little knowledge, easily and 

 cheaply obtained. No wonder our farmers are 

 discouraged in their attempts to raise barley. — 

 Generally they do not grow more than half a crop, 

 and nine chances in ten but they will suffer this 

 to take serious injury in harvesting. I do not 

 mention this as a reproach, but as a misfortune 

 To many of our farmers, barley is a new article, 

 and its culture not at all understood. I have given 

 to the readers of the Genesee Farmer, a few prac 

 tical directions upon the preparation of seed bar- 

 ley, time of sowing, &c. I stand pledged to give 

 them good and sufficient reasons for the treatment 

 recommended, But my object in this treatise is 

 not to redeem that pledge, but as it is the season 

 for harvesting barley, to make a few briefremarks 

 upon that head. 



It is true, that last year was an uncommonly 

 critical season for producing barley, and with u 

 few exceptions the whole crop of the country was 

 more or less injured. To this the lengthened vis 

 ages of our brewers will sufficiently testify. The 

 damage consisted chiefly in blighted barley or 

 what is commoidy called "black ends;" thesr. 

 arc produced either by the grain being badly lodg 

 ed, so mitfh so, as not to allow flic wet to estapf. 



