&lK farmer's iltontljlij Visitor. 



189 



From Ihe Maine Farmer. 

 Renovation of Apple Trees. 

 There are hundreds and thousands of apple 



trees in the State, that have ceased hearing, not 

 because they are too old and their vital powers 

 exhausted by age, but because they have worked 

 up all the material within their reach, and deliv- 

 ered it over to their owners in the shape of ap- 

 ples, long ago. They have no more capital to do 

 business upon, and as they cannot travel in search 

 of any, and their owners do not supply them, 

 what else can they do but put out leaves every 

 spring, and a few blossoms which fall abortively 

 from the branches. They have not power to do 

 any thing else. The owners go for the fruits, but 

 not finding any, give them up as being too old, 

 and oftentimes cut them down or suffer them to 

 be still more neglected, until they go down by 

 sheer starvation. 



A more rational mode would be to use them as 

 you would any other manufactory, and that is, 

 give them more raw material to work up when 

 the first supply is used up. A good supply of 

 animal manure would do this the soonest of any 

 thing, but if this cannot be obtained, ashes, plas- 

 ter, lime, muck, leaves, and the trimmings fioni 

 the branches, cut up fine and deposited around 

 the roots of the trees, will bring them up again. 

 Since writing the above, we have met with 

 some advice on this subject from an "old digger," 

 communicated to the Horticulturist, a valuable 

 monthly work, published, as many know, and 

 some perhaps do not know, (until now,) in Alba- 

 ny, by Luther Tucker. We advise you to take 

 it, for it is full of just such practical advice as the 

 following. Speaking of some good old fruit trees 

 which have ceased bearing, but which are sound 

 and healthy, and the owner threatens to cut down, 

 he says: Don't do it. Let us have a little talk 

 over these trees. Did they ever bear good fruit 

 in this soil ? " Bless you, yes! Such fair gold- 

 en skins and luscious mellow flesh as I seldom 

 see now-a-days." How long ago is it since they 

 have stopped bearing such fruit ? "Say a dozen 

 or fifteen years." What have you done for them? 

 "Not much — scraped the bark, washed it with 

 soap suds, spread a little compost over such as 

 Eland in the grass. Those that stand in the gar- 

 den, you know, are in rich, good soil, so, of 

 course, they could not want for manure. This 

 is what my friend says, but 1 don't believe a word 

 of it — I mean of the last part, that they don't 

 want for manure." If 1 were a " Hoosier or a 

 Buckeye," 1 would say they " don't want any- 

 thing else." Have they not the same atmos- 

 phere to breathe, the same rain to drink, the 

 same climate to enjoy, as when they bore the 

 fine crops of fruit which you lament? What 

 has changed ? Nothing, absolutely nothing but 

 the soil. 



Need I go any further to establish this? I 

 hope not. But the soil is probably pitiably run 

 out — run out, past the power of stable manure* 

 alone to bring it up again. It is run out, as the 

 chemists say, in the "lime and phosphates." But 

 it can be renovated, just as surely as there is ma- 

 nure and lime and the phosphates to be had ; and 

 you may set about it now, if you please. Now, 

 to do this thoroughly and well, will cost from 

 two to three dollars a tree, labor and all included. 

 An old officer of this sort, that has been off duty 

 and on half pay for ten or fifteen years, can't be 

 brought into active service again without squar- 

 ing up old accounts somewhat; and you must 

 make up your mind to this, or else have no fur- 

 ther fruits from the old veterans. 



Supposing we commence with a middle aged 

 pear or apple tree, with a sound constitution, 

 which has been sulking for sometime past on 

 half pay. Now, it is all very well to say that 

 this tree don't want animal manure. Its roots 

 have been in the same place for twenty-five or 

 thirty years, with only a little sprinkling of some- 

 thing stimulating over the lop of the soil, which 

 the grass has indeed pretty much taken to itself, 

 or a slight yearly dressing of compost, (if it has 

 stood in the garden,) which the vegetables have 

 devoured. 



Look at its little short jointed shoots and un- 

 thrifty growth, and you will see that, first of all, 

 it wants manure. 



Very well. Now clear away every thing in 

 the shape of trees, shrubs, bushes, or vegetables 

 of any kind, that stand within fifteen feet of the 

 trunk of this tree. Next, bring a good two 

 horse wagon load of fresh stable manure, and 

 trench it under as deeply as the roots will let you, 

 and particulatly beyond where the roots extend. 

 It is as foolish to put manure within five or six 

 feet of the trunk of a tree, as it would be to pout- 

 drink over the back of a thirsty man. At the 

 very outside of the roots, trench the soil two feet 

 deep, and mix the manure with it, leaving it 

 rough and loose for winter; for it is there — at 

 this outside limit-that the roots will get a good 

 living again. 



But this is not the whole which is to he done. 

 Remember that lime and the phosphates must 

 be supplied ; for it is above all in these that old 

 soils grow poor in. 



It would not do to put them in with the fresh 

 manure, since they would not agree well togeth- 

 er, but would go to decomposing one another, 

 instead of making a succession of good dinners 

 for the "feeders"— that is to say, the little fibres 

 of the roots. 



But the next spring, as soon ns the soil is dry. 

 yon must apply to each large tree manured in the 

 fall, two bushels of ashes and a peck of plaster 

 or gypsum, and if it be a pear tree, a half a bush- 

 el of bone dust. If it is an apple tree, you may 

 substitute a peck of air-slaked lime for the plas- 

 ter. Spread this evenly over the soil that was 

 dug and manured last autumn, and mix it through 

 the whole with a stout three-pronged hoe or fork. 

 This will bring the soil to a good condition again ; 

 and the old tree will speedily commence making 

 new roots, setting new fruit buds, and next sea- 

 son begin to bear fine fruit again. And this I do 

 not give you from theory, but from actual trial, 

 under the most unfavorable circumstances." 



We have made a pretty long quotation, but it 

 is all of practical value, and if any of our read- 

 ers shall follow out the hints and directions here 

 given, and renovate some of their exhausted or- 

 chards, it will be of no small service to them 

 and tho community. 



The Shakers near Pittsfield. — The com- 

 mittee of arrangements for providing accommo- 

 dations for the American Board, at Pittsfield, ap- 

 plied to the Shakers at their settlement near that 

 place, to know if they wotdd entertain some of 

 the strangers in attendance. The Shakers re- 

 plied that they would cheerfully entertain eigh- 

 teen ; but if men and women were sent to their 

 houses, they must lodge as the Israelites wen- 

 required to mourn at Hadad Rimmon ! The 

 scripture reader will remember that the hus- 

 bands were to mourn apart, and the wives apart ! 

 — Observer. 



Printer's Boy. 



Mr. Buckingham, in his 22d number of the 

 " Croaker," published in the Boston Courier, 

 briefly notices the hands in the printing otlice in 

 which he was first employed in Boston, and 

 speaks of the youngest apprentice as follows: — 

 The third and youngest apprentice has always 

 floated on the flood-tide of prosperity, a lido 

 which yet knows no retiring ebb. His duly was 

 then (like all youngest apprentices,) to make the 

 fires, sweep ihe office, pick up the types that 

 were dropped on the floor, distribute pi and 

 tread the pelts. Having passed through tlnsj 

 state of tribulation, and finished his time of ser- 

 vice, he began business as a printer in State 

 street, at the corner of Flag Alley — a locality 

 which is now dignified with the name of Ex- 

 change Avenue, where he and his partner pub- 

 lished a weekly literary journal entitled The 

 Emerald. 



He removed to Charlestown, when he pub- 

 lished a well-known monthly religious magazine, 

 called the Panoplist. Returning alter some years 

 to Boston, he pursued the business of printing 

 and publishing on a more extended scale, and to 

 that business added tho very natural one of a 

 bookseller. His industry was untiring, his 

 friends wealthy and willing to aid — his publica- 

 tion popular with a large and zealous religious 

 party, and his profits sure and rapidly increasing. 

 He could not be otherwise than rich ; he retired 

 from active business many years ago, to enjoy 

 the fruits of his enterprise and perseverance. 

 But the public required his services. He repre- 

 sented Boston several limes in the General 

 Court, has been Mayor of the city, Lieut. Gov- 

 ernor, and for the greater part of one year, act- 

 ing Governor of the Commonwealth. 



lie has twice visited Europe, and spent some 

 years in London, Paris and Rome. His mansion 

 is one of the most delightful situations in the 

 city, anrl here he lives in an enviable state of 

 ease, affluence and independence. What a con- 

 trast is exhibited in the early and the present 

 condition of this gentleman ! And what a con- 

 trast between his condition and that of most of 

 those who have been bis contemporaries from 

 boyhood to greyheaded old age ! Well, his 

 wealth and honors have been honestly and lion 

 orably aoquiiud. May he too live long, unmo- 

 lested by the " moth and rust" which corrupt 

 earthly treasures, and at the close, find all the 

 pages of his life approvingly registered." 



It is hardly necessary to say thai the person 

 referred to is Lieut. Gov. Armstrong. — Tran- 

 script. 



The Button Wood Trees. — We have fre- 

 quently spoken of and mourned over what 

 seemed to be the inevitable fate of those button 

 wood trees, in front of the residence of Hon. 

 Daniel Abbot. When the disease which has 

 been so fatal to that beautiful tree, first attacked 

 these, Mr. Abbot commenced , doctoring them, 

 by digging about the roots, and supplying nutri- 

 tious substances, and has followed it up year af- 

 ter year, and now those trees are in full Ibliage, 

 and are growing rapidly. In the same row, are 

 three other trees, originally of the same size, 

 which have not been so treated. The foliage 

 upon them is quite as good as it has been for 

 years past, but the difference between them and 

 the others is very striking. They are now not 

 near as large, and present a great many leafless 

 I i in hs. — ,\ ashua Telegraph. 



The idle man is the devil's hireling, whose 

 livery is rags, whose diet and wages are famine 

 and disgrace. 



shadow attend only 



A false friend and a 

 while ihe sun shines. 



Plough deep while sluggards sleep, 



And you shall have corn to sell and keep. 



If a man could have half his wishes, he would 

 double his troubles. 



Old boys have their playthings ns well as 

 young ones, Ihe difference is only in the price. 



Mankind are very o Id creatures. One half 

 censure what they practice, the other half prac- 

 tice what thev censure. 



