358 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



trees by much. And I sensibly perceive my young 

 trees to enlarge their fruit as they grow greater, 

 both for number and greatness. 



"It is good for some purposes to regard the age 

 of your fruit trees, which you may easily know, 

 till they come to accomplish twenty yeeres, by his 

 knots. Reckon from his root up an arme, and so 

 to his top twig, and every yeeres growth is distin 

 guished from others by a knot, except lopping or 

 removing doe hinder." 



We think the worthy writer somewhat enthu- 

 siastic ia his calculations — and fancy he would be- 

 lieve as implicitly in the seven cedars of Lebanon, 

 as Lamartinc himself. But there is such a love 

 for trees manifested throughout his little work, 

 that one easily forgives his enthusiasm, and as 

 we travel back two hundred years, we fancy the 

 honest, kind-hearted Yorkshire man living himself 

 almost to the age of Parr, and sitting under his 

 own vines and apple trees. One of his conclud- 

 ing sentences is as follows : 



"What shall I say ? A thousand pleasant de- 

 lightes are attendant in an orchard ; and sooner 

 shall I be weary, than [ can reckon the least part 

 of that pleasure, which one that hath and loves an 

 orchard may find therein." 



best way is by having one to pull the tops over, 

 while another cuts them up ; but if they are very 

 large cut them down snug to the ground, and when 

 sufficiently dry, pile and burn them on the ground. 

 It is of no use to cut them only in the summer 

 thinking to kill them ; such is my experience. In 

 the future I may ask a few questions. 



w. N. 8. 



Kensington, N. H., 1853. 



Remarks. — The above pleasant article is from 

 a lady. It has remained longer in "our pigeon- 

 hole" than it ought, and longer, we promise, thanl'R^ell. 

 the next one shall, after we get it. There is a 

 beautiful earnestness in her remarks, as well as 

 in the text she speaks from ; and we really be- 

 lieve they would excite us a little even if they 

 were not from the hand of a lady ! We wish we 

 could hand our correspondent an old volume en- 

 titled "Markham's Farewell to Husbandry," some 

 idea of the quaintne&s and beauty of which she 

 may get by referring to the volume of the Farmer 

 for 1852, page 243. But it was a borrowed gem, 

 long ago returned to its owner in Connecticut, so 

 that we cannot please her or gratify ourselves by 

 so doing. 



For the New England Farmer 

 FRONT- YARD FENCES— ALDERS. 



Mr. Editor: — Your correspondent "S. G. B." 

 inquires the best way to build a front-yard fence. 

 I would advise him to set stone posts in holes two 

 and one-half feet in depth, and the same in diam- 

 eter, and to fill the space around them with small 

 stones well packed down with a crow-bar and noth- 

 ing else ; and then drill two holes in the face of 

 the stone about 4 inches deep, but not very large, 

 with a space of 3 feet between the holes for the 

 purpose of securing the joist on which the pickets 

 are to be nailed. Take some large bolts, (square) 

 and put them through the joist and drive them se- 

 curely into the stone holes. The joist sliould be 

 about 3^ by 5 inches, or thereabouts. Pickets 4 

 feet long and 3 inches wide, with the same space 

 between, and then draw a line on the t(}p of them 

 and saw them true, and then you want a rave on 

 the top with a groove in its under side, in width 

 the thickness of the pickets ; and that laid on the 

 top, nailed occasionally, makes the whole firm and 

 strong. 



The best time to cut alders is in June, and the 



For the New England Farmer. 



PLEASANT WORDS FROM "DOWN 

 EAST." 



Mr. Editor : — I imjiorted six bushels of seed 

 oats and two bushels of barley last fall from Scot- 

 land, which I sowed this spring, and fur tlie infor- 

 mation of those who may have an idea of import- 

 ing seed from the old country or elsewhere, I pur- 

 pose giving you some statements connected there- 

 with. There is a prevalent idea that oats or oth- 

 er grain fi-om the mother country never do well 

 here the first season, but judging from the pres- 

 ent appearance of mine, I am inclined to believe 

 that if the seed be good, and is properly taken care 

 of, and gets a fair chance, it will do as well the 

 first year as it will the second. They have novf 

 fliirly commenced to grow, both the oats and bar- 

 ley, and I have no doubt but they will turn out 

 The oats are the early kind. They were 

 raised near Forfar by one of the best farmers 

 in that county. They are as clean and pure as 

 any oats I ever remember having seen ; the barley 

 also is very pure and clean. They were sent out 

 last fall and lay all winter at St. Johns. When 

 they came to hand this spring, I found they had 

 been vei-y carefully done up in two barrels, which 

 had been well smoked or fumigated, and made per- 

 fectly tight, so that the grain siiielt as fresh as 

 when it had been put in. They were shipped at 

 Dundee, and the freight to St. Johns was 3a., the 

 duty Is. 6d., entries 9d., cartage Is. 3d., (I was 

 charged nothing for storage,) so that the freight 

 and charges, exclusive of inland cartage amounted 

 to Gs. 6d. 



The soil and climate of this province is well 

 adapted for oats, and I think it would be welLibr 

 the country if their cultivation received morlPn;- 

 tention. Oats in a general way are raised for 

 horse feed, and little pains is taken to improve 

 them in quality ; the seed is seldom changed, and 

 is often of inferior description, being light and 

 mixed with foul seed and other grain. If the far- 

 mer is asked why he does not sow better and clean- 

 er oats, he will say, "0 its no use being very par- 

 ticular with them, I can get just as good a price 

 for poor oats as I can for the best." Oats ought 

 tiever to be sowed more than twice or three times 

 without being clianged. The seed should always 

 he the best — well cleansed, and free from other 

 gr;tin so that it might be fit for being made into 

 oat-meal for family use. Good oat-meal wiien 

 properly cooked, is quite palatable, and ought to 

 be used in every family; as an article of diet, it is 

 one of the most wholesome aliments that can be 

 set on the table. I shall venture to assert that if 

 the people in this country, generally, were to use 

 more oat-meal and less superfine flour, that sick- 

 ness and consumption would be much less preva- 

 lent in it. 



I should like to inquire of you, or any of your 



