THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



67 



would not produce, as Blr. Hancock informed 119, 

 five bushels of corii to the acre unless very heav- 

 ily manured. The ground was not planted at all 

 when we saw it, but it had been tilled with the 

 cultivator, to keep the surface free fro'ii the 

 growth of weeds, &c. The trees do not make a 

 vigorous growth, aud consequently do not need 

 but little pruning. 



The great error in cultivating peach trees, in 

 New England, has been in planting them iu too 

 rich soil, and encouraging them to make a rapid 

 and vigorous growth ; the trees, iu consequence, 

 are overtaken by the cold weather, and the severe 

 frosts, of the early part of winter, before the 

 wood is fully ripe, destroy the young fruit buds, 

 oftentimes the young and tender shoots, and oc- 

 casionally the trees are killed completely down 

 to the roots. The very opposite course should 

 be pursued : the trees should be set out on a 

 light soil, and not encouraged to make a vigorous 

 growth ; the young wood will then get fully ripe, 

 and hardened before cold weather; the frost will 

 have less effect upon the buds, and, unless the 

 situation is very unfavorable, and subject to late 

 frosts in the spring, the chances are that the 

 trees will not be injured, and will [iroduce good 

 crops. 



The cultivation of the peach has attracted more 

 attention, within a year or two, in the vicinity of 

 Boston, than lor some time previous ; to those 

 who are planting trees, we would reconmiend a 

 perusal of Mr. Hancock's conununication, con- 

 vinced, from the success which lias attended his 

 cultivation of the trees, that the information which 

 he has given will be found the result of experience 

 upon the subject. — Ed. 



From the Magazine of Horticulture. 



On the Propagation and Cultivation of the 

 Quince Tree. 



The quince is a very beautiful tree when iu 

 flower, and when the fruit is ripe in autumn, high- 

 ly ornamental. It derives its name trom Cydon, 

 a town of Crete, fiunous lor this fruit ; whence its 

 generic name Oydonia. 



The trees are easily raised by layers, or by 



cuttings, taken from tha tioo in AprU. Select ji 



shady place in order to platit them in rows, at 

 about a foot apart from each other, and about 

 four inches from plant to plant iu the wjws ; spread 

 over the surface of the ground rotten leaves, or 

 manure when the planting is finished, which will 

 keep the ground from sudden drought ; also wa- 

 ter occasionally, if there should be a continuance 

 of dry weather. 



The year following, those tliat are well rooted 

 may be planted out in May, and those that are 

 not should remain another year. They may 

 also be propagated by budding or grafting ; and 

 these trees will bear fruit sooner, and are gener- 

 ally thought to be more prolific, than those rais- 

 ed by any other method. 



The best sort of planting is the Portugal, be- 

 ing highly prized for baking or stewing. It is of 

 a fine purple color when dressed, and is much 

 better for marmalade than any of the other V£(rie- 

 ties. The oblong or pear quince, and apple 

 quince, are also cultivated for family use ; but 

 the, Portugal sort is iu the greatest repute, either 

 for cooking or preserving. 



The quince tree may be pruned much in the 

 same way as you would prune an apple tree, tak- 

 ing care to cut out all the diseased and dead 

 wood, and the cross branches in the middle of 

 the tree which injure each other by friction. Old 

 trees are very apt to have rough bark ; when this 

 is the case, it should be shaved off with a draw- 

 knife, and the stems washed over with soap suds 

 and tobacco water. The trees will thrive in al- 

 most any kind of soil, but grow the best in a deep 

 loamy soil, with rather a irioist bottom. 



The quince tree also makes excellent stocks, 

 on which to graft pears, iu order to obtain 

 dwarf trees : for this purpose they may be 

 propagated by cuttings i)Ut in as before men- 

 tioned. The trees may be budded the second or 

 third year, according to the growth they have 

 made. 



This fruit is but little cultivated, and, in con- 

 sequence, always commands a high price in our 

 market ; it is as easily grown as any other fruit, 

 and does well in situations where other kind of 

 fruit trees will not thrive. A little more atten- 

 tion to their cultivation, and a very handsome 



profit could be realized from a limited piece of 

 ground. 



Yours, J. W. Russell. 



Mount Auhum, Cambridge, July, 1839. 



Bone Manure. — In the Farmer's Register is 

 a record of a series of experiments by T. A. C. 

 Jones, to test the value of Bone maniu-e in coin- 

 parisonwith stable manure, and he arrives at the 

 following conclusions : 



1. That when applied at the rate of from 

 fifty to eighty bushels per acre on the exhausted 

 lands of Virginia, one bushel of crushed bones is 

 more than equal to one cart load (25 bushels,) 

 good farm yard manure, in its effect on the 

 crop. 



2. That the efiect of bone manure is more 

 durable than that of any putrescent manure usu- 

 ally procured on a farm. 



3. That when applied to land which is in good 

 heart, the effect is much more powerful than 

 it is on very poor land. 



4. That when combined with manure and apf 

 plied in the form of compost, {eight per cento- 

 bone dust with the produce of the farm-yard,) the 

 effect both instant and remote, fVir exceeds that 

 of any other application with which I am ac- 

 quainted. 



And lastly, if stable manure has to be purchas- 

 ed, or even hauled more than half a mile from 

 your own stables, bone manure at 50 cents per 

 bushel, the price it cost me, delivered on my farm, 

 is the cheaper manure of the two. 



Exportation of Bones. — We learn that Mr. 

 S. Titcomb, of Waterlbrd, Saratoga county, in 

 1839, sold to an Englishman for exportation twen- 

 ty tons of hones at eight dollars per ton — and that 

 the same person has fately written to Mr. Titcomb, 

 asking whether he r.ould obtain a further supply, 

 and offering at the rate of ten dollars per ton. — 

 That a profit is realized by the exportation, we 

 have no doubt — but we would ask whether it 

 would not be better to grind and use these bones 

 at home, than to send this invaluable article 

 abroad, and import wheat and jiotatoes in re- 

 turn? 



Great Yield of Ca phots — Mr Edgorton, 

 of Mount Moriali,K. Y. says : 



''In 1839, I planted eight rods of groimd with 

 carrots, in drills twenty inches apart ; (they should 

 be two feet when the ground is suitably prepared :) 

 the produce was 88 bushels, or at the rate of 

 1,900 bushels to the acre. I measured one that 

 was 18 inches in diameter, and the same in length. 

 I also raised a considerable quantity of Swedish 

 Turnips, and Mangel Wurtzel. From the latter, 

 I could have selected 100 roots that would have 

 weighed half a ton. 1 am convinced there is no 

 crop that better repays a little extra labor than 

 carrots, or that is niore deserving of general cul- 

 tivation by fanners." 



First settlement, a time of better thrift in Jfew- 

 lingland: Amusements and Holiday Pas- 

 times. Change of Habits and Temperance 

 Keform. Haid Cider supplanted : Apple Or- 

 chards turned to a more agreeable and better 

 use. G rafted fruit may be made a source of 

 great profit. Planting and budding young 

 nurseries the ready way to forward an or- 

 chard. Treatment of apple orchards. 

 The rolling hill country, rather than the plains 

 and valleys of New England, at the time of its 

 first settlement, was considered the best land and 

 was first cleared. The settlements thirty and 

 forty miles beyond the seaboard off of the rivers, 

 were scarcely begun at the commencement of the 

 war of the revolution. During the twenty years 

 subsequent to the treaty of peace of 1783, we be- 

 lieve nearly half of the present farms in New 

 England were cleared from the forest. Thou- 

 sands of young men, who had been more or less 

 employed in fighting the battles of the revolution, 

 now engaged in the honorable and noble busi- 

 ness of making new farms. Never was the capi- 

 tal of this section of the country faster increased 

 than it was duiiiig this operation. It was a 

 healthy increase — the striking contrast to that in- 

 crease which has so often since appeared in the 

 sudden growth of buildings and villages on cre- 

 dit and borrowed capital. It was a time of ex- 

 treme hard work to industrious young men ; but 

 it was a time of better health, of more salutary 

 recreation and of more real enjoyment than has 

 been presented in all subsequent time. The 

 habits of people were not then as refined as they 



have become in later years. The men of those 

 da) s, although they worked hard, made more of 

 public pastimes than they now make of them: 

 their election days and their training days were 

 holidays. They had their shootihg matches— 

 their choosing of rival sides in hunting beasts of 

 prey, squirrels, birds, &c.— their parties for pitch- 

 ing quoits and playing ball and cricket— their 

 singing schools on the Billings platform— their 

 lively and innocent dances with no scientific 

 teacher to learn thein by rule the " music and the 

 step," tolerated and in some instances patronized 

 and encouraged by the Congregational Clergyman 

 of the ])arish. There were pastimes at the regu- 

 lar appointed seasons. Election day in the bud- 

 ding season of May was the time for the annual 

 ball at which the " fairest of the fair'' who were 

 approaching the marriageable state, were collect- 

 ed, adorned in all the beauty of simple attire, 

 generally a plain white dress as much more neat 

 as it was less expensive than the fashionable 

 dresses of the present day. Thanksgiving and 

 New Year were sometimes chosen for a repeti- 

 tion of the election day pastime ; but more gen- 

 erally those times were selected for uniting in 

 matriiTiony the hearts that had been made one by 

 months and years of previous tender acquaint- 

 ance. Then there was the annual return of the 

 husking moon, bringing lots of fun and frolic to 

 the sexes: the young men hastening the work 

 abroad to be treated within by the lasses with the 

 roasted and baked meats, or the huge pumpkin 

 pies and cakes, closed up with the game of for- 

 feits, the pleasing redemption of pledges, or the 

 irregular jig or reel after the music of voices 

 when there was not some one present expert at 

 the fiddle, the flageolet or the hautboy. 



The honest rough manners of the men of 

 those days, when they failed to be controlled and 

 directed by the blessed influences of more deli- 

 cate women, sometimes led the young into ruin- 

 ous dissipation. The hilarity of the flowing 

 bowl, the " toddy, flip and punch," which have 

 undone thousands, were then but too common : 

 in some towns and neighborhoods it became a 

 besetting and oreaded vice. There are scores of 

 the first acquaintance of our early youth whose 

 [iroperty has been dissipated, whose life was made 

 miserable, and who have gone down to early 

 graves from the sin of intemperance which too 

 easily besets the careless and the inconsiderate. 



The evil has been partially lessened by the ef- 

 forts of prudent and considerate men. Personal 

 example has done far more in the Temperance 

 reform, than all the societies of the country. The 

 country has somewhat improved, and it will im- 

 prove more, because the tyrant Fashion has been 

 conquered — because it is no longer required as a 

 matter of course when a friend or acquaintance, 

 or even a stranger makes us a visit, that we should 

 set before him the best of rum, brandy or other 

 strong spirit, or if he have not strength of appe- 

 tite for this, that he should have wine or some- 

 thing else diluted down to palateable smoothness 

 accordant to that appetite. 



There are many ridiculous things in those who 

 have ainde the Temperance reform a hobby, that 

 have injured more than they have promoted the 

 cause. How can a man disgrace the temperance 

 zeal more, for instance, than to sign the pledge of 

 total abstinence when it is well known that he 

 now and then slily takes a glass where he thinks 

 he will not be discovered .' How little is that 

 man's example worth who abstains from strong 

 drink while it is known he has a su-ong taste for 

 it, and that his abstinence is not voluntary but 

 forced ? 



In the first settlement of New England, the de- 

 signated spot for an apple orchard was consider- 

 ed as indispensable for a farm as lots /or arable, 

 pasture, grass and wood land. The orchard was 

 set out and grown then principally and almost 

 exclusively with the view to make cider. The 

 family coiild not get on without the daily use of 

 cider : not more necessary was meat, vegetables 

 and bread upon the dinner table than the accus- 

 tomed mug or !>itcher of cider. The farmer laid 

 uj) his tNventy, thirty, fifty, and more barrels for 

 his own use. The article was sometimes, we 

 need not sav of^en, used to excess— like inveter- 

 ate smoking and tobacco chewing the immoder- 

 ate use of cider in many cases led to killiug, re- 

 volting intemperance and dissipation. We are 

 glad to find that the tyrant Fashion has been re- 

 formed in this respect, so that at this time there 



