1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



379 



m:ide no discoveries, that fully determined every 

 difficulty of these points ;— but that I am right, as 

 to the prime cause of the "Black Knots in Plum 

 Trees,'' I have no doubt. 



In respect to a prevention, I can only say, that 

 in case of the "Uurculio" that works upon tiie 

 young fruit, upon the same trees, vre must make 

 our effjrts in the direction of the insect itself. \Ve 

 cannot prevent the injury to the tree, when the 

 sting is made, the poison inserted. We must find 

 out the fly and destroy him, or apply something to 

 the bark of the trees that will prevent its ravages. 

 — Maine Farmer. z. t. 



HAY CAPS. 



With the almost uniformly dry months of July 

 and August, as we have had for three years past in 

 this region, the haymaker may say, perhaps, that 

 coverings for the protection of his hay-cocks are 

 unnecessary. But there are sections of country 

 every summer, where the "weather is catching," 

 and large quantities of hay are ruined or much 

 injured. After the grass has been made nearly 

 ready for the barn, the loss is not that of the 

 grass alone, hut of the labor also that has been 

 bestowed upon it, and which has now become a 

 part of the value of the crop. 



Besides, if there is a way to protect the partial- 

 ly made crop out of doors, it prevents many tons 

 from being injured after being taken in. When 

 the rain comes, the length of its duration is un- 

 certain, and the farmer will often hurry in hay 

 that is not sufficiently cured, and that will heat 

 and become musty in the barn. And tlien there 

 springs, both from the wetting and the moulding, 

 a disappointment and uneasiness of feeling, that 

 should be avoided, if it can be done without too 

 expensive an outlay. 



Again, in curing clover hay, it is absolutely 

 necessary that it should remain out two or three 

 nights, and there is too much risk without some 

 protection to the cocks. 



A simple, cheap, and thoroughly effectual rem- 

 edy ag linst losses by wetting hay, may be found by 

 using sheeting a yard wide, and sewing two pieces 

 two yards long, each, together; hem the edges; 

 turn down the corner an inch, and then that turn 

 another inch, and sew it d(iwn strong. This will 

 form a loop, into which a strong twine must be 

 placed. When the cap is thrown over the cock, 

 thrust a pine pin about a foot long through the 

 string at each corner, and up into the hay, which 

 will keep the cap in place, unless the whole cock 

 is overturned. 



Your cap, made as above, v^ill be two yards 

 square, which will be sufficiently large to cover 

 half or two-thirds the way down of a common 

 cock ; beyond this the rain will do no harm, as the 

 water will not penetrate the hay. 



Good firm sheeting, worth eight to nine cents a 

 yard, will slied the rain from the hay through 

 a storm of three or four days' continuance ; and 



the caps will last a lifetime by taking good care 

 of them when not in use. 



Take a light nail cask and make a bail to it from 

 part of a hoop, to keep and carry the pins in, 

 and you are then provided with a remedy which 

 will pay its cost in a single season of "catching 

 weather." 



For the New Em^land Farmer. 



EFFECT OF HIGH CULTURE ON FRUIT 

 TREES, 



Mr. Editor : — Your Topsfield correspondent, M., 

 in the Farmer for June, has started a very interest- 

 ing and important question to the Horticulturist, 

 and one which I should be glad to have fully dis- 

 cussed in your columns, — The effect of high culture 

 upon the longevity as well as the froduitivtness of 

 fruit trees. Cultivators very generally agree that 

 {jrevious to planting an orchard the soil should be 

 enriched and deepened by manuring and thorough 

 cultivation. Subsoiling or trench-phnving tlie soil, 

 when practicable, and that for the first tew years 

 at least after planting, the ground should be kept 

 mellow by constant cultivation. The late Mr. 

 Downing says, in his "Fruit and Fruit Trees," 

 "That, before planting, the ground should be well 

 prepared for the trees," and, that "it is an indis- 

 pensable requisite in all young orchards to keep 

 the ground mallow and loose by cultivation ; in- 

 deed, of two adjoining orchardsjone planted and kept 

 in grass, and the other plowed for the first five 

 years, there will be an incredible difference in favor 

 of the later ; not only will these trees show rich, 

 dark, luxuriant foliage, and clean smooth stems, 

 while those neglected will have a starved and sick- 

 ly look, but the size of the trees in the cultivated 

 orchard will be treble those of the others at the 

 end of this time, and a tree in one will be ready to 

 bear an abundant crop, before the other has com- 

 menced yielding a peck of good fruit. 

 Mr. J. J. Thomas, in his "Fruit Culturist, " strono-- 

 ly recommends "very thorough preparation of the 

 soil by manuring and deep plowing previous to 

 planting, and that when trench plowing cannot be 

 accomplished, tlie holes should be 7 or 8 feet in 

 diameter and from one and a half to two feet deep. 

 The earth should be mixed with a liberal allow- 

 ance of well-rotted manure, or still better with a 

 compost made and woiked over some weeks pre- 

 viously, consisting of 2 or 3 parts of muck or peat, 

 one of barn manure, and a filth part of leached 

 ishes. After planting, thorough, constant cultiva- 

 tion with low hoed crops, and the more frequently 

 the plow or cultivator passes among tliem the 

 greater will be the benefit to the soil." Again, he 

 says, "The truth should be unalterably fixed on 

 every farmer's mind, that the orchard should have 

 the best piece of land on the (arm, so long as clean, 

 thrifty trees, loaded with fair, large and highly fla- 

 vored fruit, are to be preferred to light cmps of 

 half grown and distorted fruit, deficient in flavor; 

 with the additi(mal difference, that the former may 

 be brought into full bearing in one-third of tin; time 

 required for the later." "If two specimens could 

 be exhibited side by side, the one showing the 

 stunted, lingering, mice eaten and moss covered 

 trees, caused by neglect: and the other, the vig- 

 orous and thrifiy growth, and the fair and abund- 

 ant crops, resulting from fine and clean culture ; 



