68 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISIJOR. 



who daily makes 



is not perhaps one farmer in 



use of apple cider as a drink- ^ ■ o^ 



We are not of those wlio approve of that 1 em- 

 perance zeal which « >ew years ago demolished 

 some of the finest apple orchards m tte mterior. 

 It is our opinion that the zeal which destroyed 

 the apple orchards is not a zeal according to 

 knowledge. And we much regret the little at- 

 tention that has been paid to the cultivation ot 

 apple orchards throughout the whole interior ol 

 New England. 



Apple orchards, in some parts of the country, 

 are brought to a far better use than the business 

 of cider making. There are hundreds of orchards 

 within ten miles of Boston, some of tliem from 

 the seed within the last twenty years, whose pro- 

 duce in apples alone pays to their owners the an- 

 nual income frequently of six i)er cent, on the 

 value of five hundred dollars tlie acre. In the 

 suitable ground it is found there is no cultivation 

 more profitable than that of apple orchards. 



The utmost degree of useliilness ot the apple 

 is not to be compressed for the sake of the juice. 

 The pomace that is thrown away as worthless, is 

 a part of the apple more valuable intrinsically 

 than the juice itself. The apple as a fruit is eve- 

 ry where admired : the inhabitants of the tropi- 

 cal climates will throw away their most delicious 

 oranges and pine apples to taste the common ap- 

 ple. In our cities where all kinds of foreign 

 fruits are plenty, our native apples are preferred 

 to almost all other fruits as a dessert upon the 

 best and most expensively furnished tables. 



In the cookery of pastry there is not an article 

 that more contributes to gratify the taste than the 

 apple: how delicious is the smoking dumpling to 

 an appetite procured from labor and exercise ; the 

 tart applesauce will frequently restore an appetite 

 to the valetudinarian ; and the pie from the dried 

 apple is among the first to be chosen by those 

 who best appreciate good living. Innumerable 

 are the uses to which ingenious cookery applies 

 the apple. Even those who repudiate cider 

 drinking find that the article may be coineited 

 into alinost as many innocent uses as the apple 

 itself. Vinegar not made from cider is but indif 

 ferent stuff. A pint of lively cider diluted witli 

 water and molasses with toasted brown bread u 

 the best substitute when a family of half a dozen 

 children are deprived of their accustomed bowl 

 of bread and milk. Not even the winter pot of 

 good " bean porridge best when it is nine days 

 old," stands better iu place of the bread and milk 

 when all the cows are dry, than the diluted cider 

 and toasted bread. Cider in this country, when 

 duly prepared and bottled, is better than Cham- 

 pagne wine, and may be made a substitute for 

 all the useful purposes to which wine has been 

 applied. , , , 



But the principal use that we would make at 

 present of apple orchards in the country, would 

 be for every day fruit to be used in families. Ap- 

 ples are healthy to be eaten by children and all 

 young people— they are more palateable than al- 

 most any condiment. It would indeed he better 

 to convert the sour apjiles into food for cattle and 

 swine than to manufacture them into cider to be 

 used as a common drink. Until grafting shall 

 change the old trees,both sour and sweet apples as 

 food for hogs, cattle and horses, may be well 

 used to almost any extent: they are much inore 

 valuable to be thus used than to be made into 

 cider while the price is a dollar and perhaps 

 even a dollar and a half a barrel. 



How much more gratifying than any other 

 method is the use of the apple for fruit. The 

 Russet apple, which at this season is just fit to 

 use, now sells in Concord for one dollar the bush- 

 el. This apple and the Baldwin is retailed at a 

 cent a piece, making the price probably equal to 

 two dollars the bushel. Capt. Connor of Heniii- 

 ier, whose orchard has been before noticed in 

 th<e Monthly Visitor, supplies many of the fami- 

 lies of this town with apples : he also supplies 

 several of the fruiterers, and comes here regular- 

 ly we believe once a fortnight or once a month. 

 The grafted fruit of his orcliard, we are informed, 

 gives him in cash not much short of five hun- 

 dred dollars a year. Mr. Paine of Chester, whose 

 orchard and improved land we noticed in the 

 December number of the Visitor, came here a 

 few days since towards the interior, instead 

 of the seaboaid, and thought he did well to sell 

 a two horse loaii of his grafted apples at two dol 

 lars the barrel. 



We are surprised to be informed that iu many 

 of our best countiy farming towns there are no 

 grafted apple orchards. There can be no danger 

 of making good apples too plenty : if a general 

 movement should be made at setting out orchards 

 and grafting those already set out, the demand for 

 the next ten years would be greater Ihan the sup- 

 ply. Should rail roads be extended through the 

 whole length of New Hampshire from north to 

 south, there is no article more readily ])ortablein 

 any direction than barrels of apples. There are 

 large countries to be supplied with apples that 

 cannot produce them. The apple tree will floiir- 

 with good fruit only where there is a steady 

 freezing up of winter. Apples can never he 

 raised to any extent all along the seaboaid south 

 of Pennsylvania. They cannot be raised in 

 Great Britain or France. They may hereafter 

 lecome an object of extensive trade with the ports 

 of Europe by means of steamboat navigation : 

 they may be. sent at little expense from the inte- 

 rior to the seacoast by steam land carriage. 



Some time ago, in the fall of 1840, the editor 

 of the Visitor had a call from Mr. Joseph Pin- 

 NEO, jun., of Hanover, who left a specimen of his 

 grafted apples. Mr. P. has for some years been 

 engaged in the business of grafting fruit trees and 

 introducing new varieties. "He has found thirty 

 kinds of choice native apples in the towns near 

 Hanover; and during the last fall he visited the 

 nurseries and fruit establishments in the vicinity of 

 Boston, where he selected twenty of the most es- 

 teemed and valuable kinds. His whole acquaint- 

 ance extends to 400 kinds ; and of these 

 made use during the present year of about 150 

 diiferent sorts. His business has extended so far 

 as to set from fifteen to twenty-five thousand sci- 

 ons in a season. 



In the Monthly Visitor of August last, we pre- 

 sented some account of a visit at the orchard of 

 the Third Shaker Family at Canterbury, and of 

 the praiseworthy efforts of an individual of that 

 community, (Peter Foster,) in forwarding a 

 grafted orchard of seven hundred apple trees. 

 The product of his grafted trees the last year, 

 although few of the scions had been set but six 

 years, and the most of them two, three, four and 



five icaii^, NVM nooily ono hlindrpfl lnishels_ of 



apples. 3Ir. Foster, this season, has set a few 

 trees in the little orchard upon our own premi- 

 ses ; and in his mode of setting the grafts we 

 mark the improvement on those set by Mr. Pot- 

 ter two years ago. He makes use of a similar 

 wax to cover the part of the limb cut ofl^ This 

 wax is put on by a process much more siinple 

 than the old method of binding up the limb in a 

 comjiositiou of clay tempered with soil : but he 

 takes the limb of the tree where the scion is to be 

 inserted at a point where it is only about half the 

 size of those before set : and from the progress 

 which the old living scions have made and the 

 numerous failures, we think the smaller point of 

 the limb much more likely not only to live, but 

 to grow to a more perfect branch than the larg- 

 er size. 



The process of budding is said to he very ea- 

 sy—it is done with a trifle of labor to the experi- 

 enced nurseryman. What more useful experi- 

 ment could a farmer perform, having a tact for 

 the business and leisure to attend to it, than to 

 select some suitable ground for a nursery— plant 

 his seeds at the proper season, and when tli 

 tain to the suitable growth bud them with the 

 kind of fruit wanted, noting each row so that the 

 kind of apple shall not be mistaken when the 

 trees are taken up to be transplanted ? Every 

 such tree, when fit to set out, would be worth and 

 bring a price that would pay the cost of cultiva- 

 tion many times over. A few nurseries like this 

 scattered in different directions would soon sup- 

 ply the country around them the materials for 

 more extensive" orchards ; and time in the giowth 

 of the tree, perhaps three or four years, would be 

 gained 



lime water will also promote the health of a ' 

 grown apple tree. 



Young orchards may be kept in vigoi 

 growth, the limbs of the trees of a smooth as- 

 pect, and the foliage of deep green, by washing 

 the limbs in potash water, and by keeping the 

 ground in cultivation with the plough without 

 striking upon the main roots of the trees. Fresh 

 soil taken from the woods and from richer spots 

 may be laid under the trees to advantage. Where 

 the ground is not ploughed, mow the grass and 

 let it lie under the Uecs. 



Apple trees, whose growth has been retarded 

 by the want of proper attention, may be started 



into 

 putting 



growth by breaking up the ground and 

 better soil or manure about their roots. 

 It is said the ashes of anthracite coal are good to 

 be applied about the roots of all fruit trees, dri- 

 ving away worms, borers and insects. Scraping 

 the moss and rough bark from the body and limbs 

 of trees with a dull edged hoe or other instru 



(U*" We are much pleased to see the editors of 

 Political, Religious and Literary Periodicals turn 

 a portion of their columns to the subject of Ag- 

 riculture. Many country newspapers, within the 

 last two years, have especially allotted a space 

 in their columns which had been devoted to 

 other subjects, to the matter of information to the 

 farmer. Let all unite in cheering on and encour- 

 aging the Fai-mer : let his profession take its sta- 

 tion at the head. Let it be made more honorable 

 to labor in the field in the frock and apron, than 

 to draw writs in an attorney's office, or "gild a 

 pill, or bleed, or blister," or live under some mis- 

 sionary agency where a man has not the heart or 

 the talent to live honestly by preaching or pray- 

 ing — and the general thrift and prosperity of the 

 counti7 will soon be apparent. 



With great pleasure we copy into the Monthly 

 Visitor the following from the editorial columns 

 of one of the oldest political newspapers of New 

 Hampshire.— -Erf. Visitor. 



From the Portsmouth Journal. 



THE PURSUIT OF AGRICULTURE. 



" Fair queen of arts ! from heaven itself who came, 



•' When Eden flourished in unspotted fame : 



" .\ud still with her sweet innocence we find, 



" And tender peace, and joy without a name, 



" That while they ravish, tranquilize the mind : 



" Nature and Art at once — delight and use combined." 



While the population of the United States has 

 been rapidly increasing, the number who aim to 

 accumulate riches without hard labor, has in- 

 creased at a greater ratio — and too many have 

 neglected the culture of the soil to enter on bii- 

 iness of questionable utility. 



Agriculture attords more certain profits than 

 any other business. While half who enter on 

 mercantile pursuits fail at the out- set, and a quar- 

 ter part fail w+en advanced in life, — the failure of 

 a temperate farmer is almost unheard of. 



Increased attention to agriculture and those 

 manufactures which are immediately dependant 

 upon it, would retain in our country much of that 

 wealth which is now sent out of it. The public 

 documents show that in the year 1836, (when the 

 scarcity of money paralyzed domestic industry) 

 no less' than 25 millions of dollars were sent to 

 foreign lands to pay for silk goods! — a species of 

 merchandize which can as well be produced at 

 home as cotton fabrics — although one which 

 scarcely receives a thought from the Atnerican 

 agriculturalist. 



The dignity of agricultural pursuits is not suffi- 

 ciently acknowledged. What is commerce — what 

 are the ar<s— but dependants upon Agriculture ? 

 To what purpose is it that our canals— our rail- 

 roads, and the developementsof the great system 

 of internal improvements are going forward iii_ 

 our country ? Is it not that the grand system of 

 commercial intercourse, founded on agriculture, 

 may be carried on with the greater facility .= 



Let every farmer, but for one year, suspend 

 his toil to enjoy that ease in the sunbeams of 

 which he sees" many basking, and what would 

 become of every mercantile and mechanic inter- 

 est r 



There is another reason why the ilignity of 

 this pursuit should be acknowledged as essential 

 to the stability of our National Wealth. We can- 

 not belter express it than in the language of one 

 who.se name stands high iu tlic unnals of our 

 country. " God has niado the breast of those 

 who la"bor in the earth his peculiar deposit for 

 substantial virtues. Corruption in morals, in the 

 mass of cultivators, is a phenomenon of which 

 no age or nation has furnished an example." 

 " The proportion which the aggregate of other ' 

 classes of citizens hoar in any state to that of 

 its husbandmen, is as the unsound to its healthy 

 parts." 



The community appear to he awakening to a 



good operation. Whitewashing with I sense of their negligence to this department of 



