222 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



view of examining its birds. lie set out, he says, 

 in one of hig letters to Mr. Bartram, under date 

 of Sept. 21st, 1808-, fur the East-ern States, in 

 search of birds and subscribers, but how many 

 birds he found the hist of September, in New Eng- 

 land, he does not inform us. The whole time 

 spent by Mr. Wilson at the north, in the autumn 

 of 1808, was less than two mimtlis In his letters, 

 sent home to his friends during this tour, he ex- 

 presses the greatest contempt of the climate and 

 habits of the people of New En-gland v he says^ 

 "Lawyers swarm in every town, like locusts ; 

 almost every door has the word Office painted over 

 it, which, like the web of a spider, points out the 

 place, where the spoiler lurks for his prey. There 

 is little or no improvement in agriculture ; in fifty 

 miles I did not observe a single grain or stubble 

 field, though the country has been cleared and 

 settled these one hundred and fifty years. In I 

 short, the steady habits of a great portian of thej 

 inhabitants of those parts of New England through | 

 which I passed, seem to be laziness and law bick-; 

 erings. My journey through almost the whole of j 

 New England, has lowered the Yankees in my es-{ 

 teem. Except a few iieat academies, I found | 

 their school-houses equally ruinous and deserted 

 with ours ; fields covered with stones ; stone fenc- , 

 es ; scrubby oaks, and pine trees; wretched or-' 

 charda ; scarcely one grain field in twenty miles ; 

 the taverns along, the road dirty, and fii'le^l with! 

 loungers-, brawling about law suits and politicks ; j 

 the people snappish and cxtortionei-s, hizy, andj 

 two hundred years behind the Pennsylvanians, in 

 Agriculturar iai prove men ts. Mr. \Yilson found 

 Boston so filtliy, that he would not disgust his 

 friend with a descrfption of It. The draymen in 

 shouting to their horses, made such a hideous 

 howling in the- streets of Boston, at every corner, 

 that he was reuiinded of some miserable wretch, 

 expiring on the wlieel." Upon reading this ac- 

 count, Ave were led to think that if Mr. V/ilson 

 was not better acquainted with the habits of New 

 England birds than he was of the character of the 

 people, not mucli reliance should be placed on his 

 opinion, in regard to the torpidity of svrallows. 

 For they are chiefly, if not wholly, to be found at 

 the North. It would seem Mr. Audubon's mind 

 was not settled, in regard to tliis subject. For 

 we find in his 1st vol. of the "Birds of America," 

 page 17'J, when speaking of the ClifFS wallow, where 

 he says, "I embraced every opportunity of e.\am- 

 ining their habits, carefully noted tlieir arrival 

 arid disappearance, and recorded every fact con- 

 nected witli their history, being extremely desir- 

 ous of settling the long-agitated question, respect- 

 ing the migvatii n or supposed torpidity of swal- 

 lows." 



In the spring of 183G, the writer of this article 

 Vr'itnessed wiiat he has suppo.sed to be an instance 

 of the t >rpidity of tlie swallow. By referring to 

 a diary kept that year, I find t'le date of this oc- 

 curence the lOth of April. It was upon a fine 

 spring m ortiiiig, succeeding a plj.isant day, I dis- 

 covered about sunrise two Whito Bellied Swallows 

 [the Hiruu'lo viridis of Wilson] fluttering on the 

 ground, and un ;ble to fly. fhey were easily 

 caught, and examined, as it was my impression at 

 the time, they had been injured by a cat. Upon 

 examination 1 was satistiod this was not the case. 

 T|jey were wet with mud and water, and after 

 being wiped dry, they were taken into the house, 



j and placed on a window in the sun. In a few 



hours they recovered their consciousness, and flew 

 out of the window into the open air. In the vi- 

 [cinity where these birds were found, was a pond 

 ; filled with mud and water. The mud found upon 

 these swallows was not the black dirt of the gar- 

 den, but was a slimy mud. We have since seen 

 Bank Swallows, under circumstances that have 

 led ua to suppose they were in a partial state of 

 torpidity. Such as sitting on willow twigs, by the 

 side of rivers and streams, a few inches from the 

 water ;. at one time as early in the spring as the 

 25th day of March. Upon the whole, I am in- 

 clined to the belief that the subject of the torpidi- 

 ty of the swallow is still an open one, and not by 

 any means so effectually closed, as Mr. Wilson 

 and some others had supposed. a. p. F. 



Danversport , Jan. 10th, 1853. 

 [to be continued.] 



REMARKS ON BUDDING AND GRAFT- 

 ING. 



Buds should always be set before the stosk or 

 bud has ceased to grow for the season. In setting 

 pears in pear stocks, it is important to commence 

 earlier than with apples, as the former do not grov? 

 so long as the latter. Plum and cherry stocks also 

 &top growing early ^ unless the development is 

 kept up by stimulating manure, and careful tillage. 

 Apple trees, if healthy and in a good growing con- 

 dition, may be budded late in August. Peach 

 trees continue to grow even longer than apple trees^ 

 and it is never advisable to bud them early. la 

 all trees, when budded, there should be sufficient 

 sap to cause the bark to peel freely. Of th.e pro- 

 per time for perforniing this operation in the sev- 

 eral kinds of trees above mentioned, the ready 

 peeling, of the bark is the only criterion to be re- 

 lied on. In grafting, it is frequently necessary 

 for those who are engaged extensively in the busi- 

 ness, to preserve scions for some months before 

 the time arrives for inserting them. For this pur- 

 pose, no material has yet been discovered superior 

 to damp sawdust. In regard to its efEciency the- 

 editor of the Albany Cultiealor says: 



"The mode first suggested to us by T. G. Yeo- 

 MANS, of Walworth, N. Y., of preserving the scions 

 of fruit trees in moist sawdust, has proved superior 

 to any other. It is better than damp moss, in the- 

 facility with which the scion may be perfectly 

 imbedded in it, leaving no interstices; and it excels 

 moist, sand it being lighter, more spungy, and 

 entirely free from a grit .which may injure a knife. 

 We have without difficulty preserved scions, which 

 were cut in the summer for budding, till the fol- 

 lowing spring, and inserted them as grafts with 

 entire success ; and we have kept winter cut gi-afts 

 till midsummer perfectly fresh, and emjJoyed them 

 successfully in budding. A bushel of sawdust 

 will retain its moisture for many weeks nearly un- 

 altered, but water must not be applied too copiously 

 or water soaking and decay will be therusult. The 

 north side of a building or a cool cellar is the best 

 place." 



In KenricVs Work on Orcharding, we have the 

 following remarks on Inxoculating ; 



