380 



JSEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



none could fiiil to be satisfied of the superiority of 

 the one and the impolicy of the other." 



Mr. Barry, in his "Fruit Garden," says, "No 

 soil, whatever may be its original fertility, can 

 sustain a heavy and continued vegetation for many 

 years without becoming, to some extent exhausted. 

 Indeed there are few people so fortunate, except 

 those who settle upon new, uncultivated lands, as 

 to procure a soil that does not need manuring to 

 fit it for the first planting with trees." The very 

 common practice in regard to the use of manure, 

 is to apply none for several years, until the trees 

 have begun to show signs of feebleness and ex- 

 haustion when large quantities are applied, thus 

 inducing a rank and plethoric growth, that can 

 scarcely fail to be seized with diseases. The proper 

 way is lo apply a small dressing of well decomposed 

 material, like some of the composts recommended, 

 every autumn." Instances have come under my 

 own observation where trees have been planted by 

 neighbors at the same time with like preparation 

 and procured from the same source ; by difference 

 in after cultivation those of one have in the course 

 of five years doubled in size those of the other 

 which were planted in ground seeded down the 

 second year from planting. 



My own conviction, Mr. Editor, is, that to obtain 

 the highest possible results from orcharding, the 

 ground should be well prepared — enriched and 

 constantly cultivated. In all published examples 

 of the unusual yield of trees where the attendant 

 circumstances are narrated — we find high culture' 

 proved to be an important and inducing cause. 

 The following statement which I cut from a news- 

 paper a short time since will illustrate : — "Mr. Mo- 

 ses Jones, of Brookline, near Boston, a most skil- 

 ful cultivator, set 112 apple trees, two rods apart, 

 and peach trees between both ways. The eighth 

 year he had 228 barrels of apples, and in a few 

 years from setting the trees $400 worth of peaches 

 in a single year ; and the best part of the story is, 

 that large crops of vegetables were raised upon 

 the same land, nearly paying for the manure and 

 labor. The tenth year from setting, many of the 

 apple trees produced four or five barrels each."| 

 What effect this forcing, (if furnishing trees every} 

 element required to annually perfect large crops of 

 fruit may be thus termed,) will have upon their 

 longevity, I cannot speak from experience. I hope 

 those of your correspondents in possession of fiicts 

 on this subject will communicate them for the ben- 

 efit of those less experienced. Will it not be bet- 

 ter for the orchardist who seeks the largest profit 

 from his investment, to pursue that course of cul- 

 ture which shall secure to him quick returns with 

 annual dividends, even though it may be proved 

 that trees thus highly cultivated may not endure 

 80 long as when the orchard is seeded down and 

 the trees pretty much left to themselves. If by 

 care and culture an orchard may be made to av- 

 erage one barrel of apples per tree, per annum 

 for fifty years, and by a different course the same 

 orchard shall endure for an hundred years and av- 

 erage but half a barrel, which think you, sir, 

 would be the most useful and profitable mode'? 



A. G. Hanford. 



Waukesha, Wis., June 28, 1853. 



by surgeons, but I am not aware that it has ever 

 been used to prevent the loss of milk by leakage 

 from the udder of the cow. The mode of apply- 

 ing is as follows : After milking, take a thin piece 

 of muslin, the size of a three cent piece, wet it in 

 the collodion and apply it quickly to the end of 

 the teat. It dries immediately, and adhering 

 firmly, prevents the escape of milk from the orifice. 

 It can readily be removed at the next milking. 



On first making use of this means I did not an- 

 ticipate anything more than temporarily to pre- 

 vent the evil. After making a few applications it 

 was discontinued, and I was somewhat surprised 

 to find that it had permanently lessened the fault. 

 Upon reflection, the modus operandi appeared as 

 follows : First, the collodion contracts the orifice 

 and thus prevents the escape of milk ; and second, 

 the bag becoming distended, its capacity is per- 

 manently enlarged. Try it. 



Another useful purpose of this article may be 

 mentioned. Cows' teats often become tender from 

 chaps and deep fissures in them. They may readi- 

 ly be cured by moistening a piece of muslin in this 

 liquid and applying it smoothly to the parts af- 

 fected. It adheres so firmly that it will not be 

 loosened even if the calf is allowed to draw the 

 milk. — Neiu York As:ricuItor. 



To Prevent Cows from Shedding Milk. — Col- 

 lodion [Liquid cuticle] is a somewhat recent dis- 

 covery, and has been applied to useful purposes 



CIRCULATION OP SAP. 



A clergyman of some distinction not long since 

 commenced his Sabbath discourse as follows : 

 "There are some things that I know I know, some 

 things that I think I know, and some things that 

 I know I do not know." We have often thought 

 of this comprehensive sentence when we have read 

 the philosophical explanation of some of our con- 

 temporaries, in regard to subjects which we are 

 very much inclined to think might better be classed 

 in the last division of subjects above given, while 

 they speak as if with authority. One of our most ju- 

 dicious writers, who seldom mistakes the imagina- 

 tion for the actual perception, (the learned editor 

 of the New England Farmer,) in a recent number 

 says, "The sap is elevated (in the tree) in the same 

 manner as oil rises in the wick of the lamp." We 

 "do not know" that this is not true, but it seems 

 to us safer and therefore wiser to give only as hy- 

 pothesis what must be acknowledged so very far 

 from absolute demonstration. Perhaps the elabo- 

 rated sap descends "in the same manner," and 

 perhaps too it does not. There are very serious 

 difficulties attending any theory which has under- 

 taken to provide for the circulation of fluids in veg- 

 etables. We have little doubt that it is the same 

 system of influences which causes the entire cir- 

 culation of vegetable juices, which first sets it in 

 motion at the root. But we should be unwilling 

 to assert any thing on this subject, as a matter of 

 absolute truth, beyond the mere fact that their cir- 

 culation is actually carried on. 



Some recent investigations in Europe have been 

 published, which are of considerable importance, 

 fhey refer to the formation and propagation of 

 cells, &c., and to the circulation of the sap. The 

 former are too purely scientific, without much 

 practical importance, to receive very general at- 

 tention. The theory on the latter branch of the 

 subject approaches the point of actual demonstra- 

 tion. The results arrived at are, that the nitro- 

 genized elements, which are used by the plant, are 



