THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



85 



jIiaftB ; and these will probably in that condition 

 grow more the first season than they would gain 

 in fotn- seasons while the roots and body of the 

 tree are afli)rding noniishnient to natural liniljs 

 and fiiliage upon the same tree often times the 

 amount. 



f5on)e of the scions this year set had blows up- 

 on them, which may hardly be expe("ted to bear 

 apples the present season ; but it would not more 

 surprise us to have those scions bear next year 

 than it has to witness the progress which they 

 have already made. The little orchard stands in 

 a most excellent soil, in a place sheltered Ironi 

 the severity of the seasons — it is jitst above the 

 high tide freshets upon the banks of the Merri- 

 mack, vvijh a rocky foundation. An inroad was 

 made upon it a few years ago by cutting out a 

 new street; and some of the trees were uprooted 

 by digging out the ledge of rocks upon the sur- 

 face where they were growing. Still a part of 

 them wei-e left ; but we now jierceive the stakes 

 nutnbered one thousand and odd of the railroad 

 surveyor are fixed upon it, cutting directly through 

 several of the trees which are put under so good 

 way by friend Foster, so that we will very likely 

 be disappointed in realizing from them that ex- 

 uberant growth of fine Woburn, Baldwin and 

 Russet apples that we do not doubt, with proper 

 care, may be made to grow upon them in less 

 than halfa dozen years. 



The orchard, which has been grafted and nur- 

 tin-ed under the care of Mr. Foster at Canterbury, 

 although the first grafts were set only six years 

 ago, produced last season something like a hun- 

 dred bushels of the grafted apples. The product 

 will soon be increased ten fold. In halfa dozen 

 years more, no orchard in the State will probably 

 compare with it: it has now seven hundred trees, 

 embracing most kinds of choice apples ["reduced 

 in New England. 



While going through this orchard a few days 

 nince Mr. Foster called our attention to the man- 

 ner lii which the numerous hordes ol caterpillars 

 are propagated. In the orchard were a few nests 

 of these pestiferous vermin collected under the 

 cover of a web nest upon a crotch between the 

 branches of the tree. These it was his practice 

 to wind upon a stick and destroy them by tread- 

 ing them into the ground. With a little search 

 the embryo of their nativity was easily descover- 

 ed. A caterpillar or butterfly undoubtedly makes 

 the preparation for thousands that are sufficient 

 to eat up every thing green upon the tree the suc- 

 ceeding spring. The eggs are deposited upon 

 the side of the limb and are left the previous sea- 

 son encaseil in a furzy covering. The sun and 

 warmth of the succeeding .season hatches the 

 eggs, producing the worms in almost countless 

 numbers: after the animals pass avvay, the shells 

 of the eggs are left with the furze adhering to the 

 limb. The whole concern is so small as scarcely 

 to attract the attention of any body who was not 

 minutely searching for it. Mr. -Foster thinks he 

 shall be able to ascertain, by preserving .some of 

 the worms, which of the numerous butterfly 

 tribes is the parent of the eatei-pillar. 



Leisure Days. 



By these we mean days in which the care of 

 the crops do not reqin-e attention — days when 

 the farmer can look about him and turn his hand 

 to some old job. Usually there are several such 

 days in June, and July, and the manner in which 

 they are spent is of no small moment. 



Of course it is not in our power to tell you 

 what is to be done in your particular ])lace — tor 

 on one farm a few rods of stone fence is to be 

 built ; on another an under-drain is to be complet- 

 ed : on a third the ditches require attention, &c. 

 But at these times keep a shaq) lookout for manure 

 making. The swine must have frequent supplies 

 of the raw material, and leaves, soil, muck, &c. 

 must be deposited near the hog-yaril now, so that 

 in the busy days of haying something may be 

 thrown in, and your nogs not left without means 

 of doing their proper work. These days for 

 whitewashing, for cleaning up and around the 

 house and barn, for seasonable repairs, and the 

 like, are among the most profitable of the season. 

 We class them under the head oi' leisure days, but 

 they should be far from days of idleness : more of 

 the profits of husbandry is obtained from the good 

 judgment and perseverance with which improve- 

 ments are planned and executed ; (we mean the 

 gradual improvements, which the good farmer 



will have an eye to, and will carry forward at times 

 when the cost will be but little) more of the real 

 profits of farming mrns upon these than upon 

 the ordinary crops of the farm. Where soil and 

 manure are aliko, one man can obtain as good a 

 crop as another, or nearly so; the skill required 

 is not so much that of planting and lioeing, 

 as of increasing the manure heap ; increasing 

 the depths of the soil; protecting the dry lands 

 from the drought, and draining those that are 

 too wet ; the mixing of soils and suiting the 

 manures to the soils^and crops to which they 

 are applied. These are the important matters ; 

 and many of them deserve attention at this season 

 of the year. — JVew England Farmer. 



Boston, June 3, 1841. 



Hon. Isaac Hill : Dear Sir — In my last num- 

 ber of the Visitor 1 notice your comment upon T. 

 Hancock's communication concerning peach or- 

 chards, and think that your remark that '"the 

 great error in cultivating peach trees, in New 

 England, has been in planting them in too rich 

 soil," is erroneous. In my opinion you cannot 

 well have too rich' a soil tor any tree, provided 

 you c;m tiu'n the entire nutrition extracted from 

 such a soil, to the ripenir.g of wood in due sea- 

 son, and the protection of fruit buds. You can 

 easily satisfy yourself that this may be done in the 

 latter part of suminer. You will go to any peach 

 tree growing in rich ground, and making green 

 succulent wood, first, and with your thumb and 

 fore-finger rip ofT the end of every green and 

 growing branch ; in a few days the branches that 

 were green will begin to redden and ripen, and 

 shoidd the tree not begin a new growth, will soon 

 mature. Should the tree begin to grow anew, re- 

 peat the process until you stop it: five minutes will 

 suffice to go over a tree in this way, and when 

 winter comes, it will find your tree prepared for 

 the issue, and better able to with.-^tand Sir .Tack 

 Frost, than though it had been sustained on poor 

 ground, and forced to ripen a little wood, not 

 having been able to procin-e food for more. But 

 negligent cidtivators had better stick to poor 

 ground. 



I agree with your correspondent that an elevat- 

 ed situation is best for the peach, but should dis- 

 agree with him in refusing all protection, but 

 shoidd, could I choose such a situation, plant up- 

 on the south side of a hill half way up. The rea- 

 son is obvious — raspberry bushes and other ten- 

 der plants will frequently be cut down in a valley 

 while the hillside has no frost. The frost ap- 

 pears to roll down the hill side and settle in the 

 valley, but I certainly would not, to get my peach 

 tree out of this light frost, place it in a heavier 

 one on the north side of the hill. Yours trntv. 

 C. H. E. 



Hay Makinsr- 



By the Editor of the New England Farmer. 



ScvTHES. — Procure a good scythe for every 

 man and boy on the farm who is to do any thing 

 at mowing. This work of cutting the grass is 

 hard enough, with the best implement that can 

 be made. And where the tool is poor, the work 

 must he done either poorly or slowly — and in ei- 

 ther case the farmer is losing more than the cost 

 of fiirnishing a better instrument. Jt'e know not 

 — (by the way, this term ice, I am tired of, and 

 shall when it so pleases me, use the more proper 

 representative of my single self, /) — I know not 

 that any one of the manufacturers of this article 

 excels all others: some scythes from each factory 

 are good, and others are not so ; —if you are un- 

 fortunate enough to get a poor one, there is no 

 economy in trying to worry through the season 

 with it; gnawing off your grass; whetting every 

 five minutes ; fretting your own body or that of 

 your hired mail ; going to the grindstone every 

 two hours ; these attendants upon a poor scythe 

 are such consumers of time that it is better to 

 throw the soft or the brittle thing aside at once, 

 and jnn-chase another. As a general rule the 

 scythe that crooks towards the point works bet- 

 ter than the straight one — at least it is so in my 

 hands. The cast-oft" scythe shoidd not be put 

 into the hands of the boy who is learning to mow 

 — he wants, in liis feebler and unpracticed hand, 

 a sharper edge than is required by the man. Give 

 him a good and a light tool ; or else excuse him 

 from this work. 



Horse Rakk.— The value of this implement 

 for use on a liirm of common inetpialities of sur- 



face, and of common size, is often over-stated in 

 the advertisements and puffs. But the actual 

 icorth of if justifies its purchase. We have used 

 the revolving horse rake for four or five seasons, 

 on a farm where two acres is perhaps the amount 

 mowed per day; the raking up of the thick 

 green morning's mowing in the latter part of the 

 afternoon, is a fatiguing appendage to the previ- 

 ous hard work of the day. The old horse who 

 has been in the pasture all day, and has nothing 

 to do at present but kick flies, can greatly lighten 

 and considerably shorten this labor ; we generally 

 save in time probably from 45 to t>0 minutes, and 

 in strength more than half. Tfiis saving toward 

 the close of the day, comes in very opportunely, 

 and we wotdd not part with the rake for twice 

 its cost. 



To manage this instrument skilfully, requires 

 some practice — but as soon as one gets a little 

 accustomed to it, he can lay the winrow very 

 well. On large farms its use must be more valu- 

 able than on small ones. Where grain is mowed 

 and raked up, this rake is very convenient and 

 comfortable ; it takes all clean, and saves from 

 hard hand raking. 



This instrument deserves more extensive use 

 than it has found hitherto. 



Time of Cutting.— Where grasses are not 

 lodged, it is well to cut when they are fairly and 

 fully in blossom ; but to avoid having some of 

 them get far past this state before time can be 

 found for securing, it is prudent to begin upon 

 the more luxuriant fields before they reach full 

 blossom. 



Curing. — In the early part of the haying sea- 

 son, while the grass is quite green, and much 

 time is required for cming, it is well to he busy 

 in turning it up to wind and sun ; hel)) it along 

 as fast as you can — but later in the season, if the 

 weather be good, it will be siifticiently cured the 

 day after mowing without much assistance. 



Some little matters aujount to considerable in 

 the course of the season ; in turning up hay, take 

 the help of the wind ; do this too in raking ;— in 

 raking after the cart, regard the course of the 

 wind and the direction in which the team will 

 next move, and so arrange as not to be obliged 

 to rake the ground over twice. In this simple 

 labor of raking after the cart, 1 have found "head 

 work" as profitable as in any of the operations 

 upon the fiirm. 



Salt. — Hay that would be liable to heat and 

 sour because not quite cured, may often be mow- 

 ed away with safety, if six to ten quarts of salt 

 to the ton are applied. The use of salt upon 

 nearly all the hay as it goes into the barn may be 

 wise. I am inclined to the belief that a farm in 

 my neighborhood on which salt has been very 

 freely used in that way, had been greatly imi)roved 

 by it ; that is, 1 think the manure has been much 

 more efficacious in consequence of the salt ap- 

 plied to the hay. At home we find no liay so 

 palatable to the stock as that which is cut young, 

 three-fourths dried, and well salted. 



Clover. — This should be cured without much 

 exposure to the sun. I can tell a story that goes 

 to show that clover need not be so thoroughly 

 dried as many su|)pose. Last year, about the 

 I7iiddle of June, we mowed some very coarse 

 clover, scarcely beginning to blossom, and as full 

 of sap as clover ever was. The weather was 

 cloudy and foggy for several days, so that but lit- 

 tle progress was made in curing it : it continued 

 heavy and green ; after four or five days, and 

 while the cocks were damp with fog, we loaded 

 it because the indications of rain were strong 

 It was taken to the barn, stowed away, and very 

 thoroughly salted. In four or five days it was 

 dripping wet and burning hot: in fifteen days it 

 was mouldy ; in December it was the hay pre- 

 ferred above all others in the barn, by "old Bug 

 Horn," a dainty row that was destined to the 

 shambles ; every animal in the barn would de- 

 vour it greedily — and this, too, when most of the 

 hay, and all the corn stalks in the bam had been 

 salted ;— the salt taste was no rarity. 



Drinks.— The hay maker must have a full sup- 

 ply of drink; perspiration will he free, and he 

 muet have something to support it. There is no 

 danger from freqtient drinking in the hottest wea- 

 ther. Take cold ivaler as often and as freely as 

 you please : there is no danger from it, if you 

 have not been too long without drink. Cold wa- 

 ter is the best of all drinks for slaking thirst — 

 it may l)u sweetened with molasses or sugar ; and 



