185S, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



461 



are now in this vicinity promising specimens of 

 many varieties. Thus far, the dwarfs promise 

 well. 



The Catawba and Isabella grapes do well, and 

 some few vineyards are in cultivation. 



The apple, every thing considered — its ease of 

 cultivation, its various uses, its prolonged season 

 in use, may be considered tlie staple fruit every- 

 where in the apple region. With these we are as 

 as well supplied in Burlington, and at as cheap a 

 rate, as you in Boston ; and our oldest orchards, 

 as yet, have hardly approached manhood — young 

 ones yearly coming into bearing, and an increas- 

 ing attention paid to the planting of more orchards. 



The past spring the nurseries of this county, 

 alone, sold from forty to fifty thousand fruit trees. 

 There is every facility of obtaining fruit trees. 

 The nurseries here afford nearly all the varieties 

 of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs cultiva- 

 ted in eastern nurseries, and these too at a price 

 nearly fifty per cent, below the price of eastern 

 nurseries. We can obtain apple trees here, suita- 

 ble for planting into orchards, at $10.00 per hun- 

 dred — $90.00 per thousand — grafts, ready for 

 planting out, at $20.00 per thousand. A little 

 trouble and a trifling expense give the farmer his 

 orchard. Thrifty one year old seedlings arc root 

 grafted, grown in the nursery two or three years, 

 planted into orchards, and these in a few years 

 fruiting. 



In the primitive days of New England these 

 orchards were made of seedlings — relying upon 

 chance to give them good apples enough for the 

 table — the mass to be converted into cider. Not 

 so here. Seldom any but grafted trees are put 

 into the orchard ; the windfalls and the refuse 

 make our cider, and, thougli not of Jersey quality 

 or reputation, it passes with the temperate while 

 sweet ; for in these days of go-aheadiveness — days 

 of railroads and reapers and mowers, no intem- 

 perate man can stop to get drunk on the one horse 

 I power of cider. To speak after the manner of 

 politicians, this root grafting and the multiplica- 

 tion of orchards in the West, has the odor of the 

 "Young America" about it. In spite of the 

 gophers at the roots of our trees, the borer at the 

 trunk, and the worms and caterpillars at the 

 foliage, it is the " Manifold Destiny " of the West 

 to be the greatest apple region in the world. 



This world will " go ahead," even on the " lat- 

 ter clause " of Davy Crockett's motto. If right, 

 the succeeding generation can begin where we left 

 off — (if we don't get through) — if wrong, they 

 have only to learn prudence from our rashness, 

 then go ahead on another track. 



We of Iowa, though west of the Mississippi, 

 just believe that we are in the very centre — the 

 real focus of the fertility of soil — the centre of civ- 

 ilization ; and all the neighboring States believe 

 the same of themselves. If there be an odor of 

 vanity in our belief, it's of a consoling nature, and 

 doeth good like a hot flannel in a chill. Now, to 

 rebut the bold presumption that we have vanity 

 or State pride, we introduce the evidence. 



We have aspiring churches and school-houses ; 

 tasty dwellings and log-cabins , big rivers and big 

 prairies ; land enough for a farm for each man in 

 the State ; isms and ites, political and religious ; 

 office-seekers enough to fill all offices ; men enough 

 to supply every woman with a husband ; insects 

 that annoy man and beast ; insects and reptiles to 



prey upon vegetation ; snakes that bite hard and 

 easy; weeds in all their varieties ; patent medi- 

 cines to cure all diseases ; Durham sliort-horns 

 and eclirubs ; Morgan horses and Indian ponies ; 

 swine of the Berkshire, China, Suffi)lk and Prairie 

 shark breeds ; Shanghae, Cochin China, Chitta- 

 gongs, Bolton Grays, Bantams, &c. of the fowl 

 kind ; and as for the railroad mania, yours of New 

 England could be merged incurs. In fine, just 

 now, we are only a few grades better than other 

 folks ; but we have a " smart chance " of being 

 transcendent in a generation or two, when we get 

 a good cross of all the varieties of people that 

 make our population. If we only had a " leetle 

 sprinkling" less of the ague, a plenty of money 

 and stone fences, this would be the place. 



Nemo- 

 BiirUngton, Iowa. 



Remarks. — We publish with pleasure the above 

 sprightly communication from Nemo, and hope to 

 hear^from him again, and learn his name. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POTATO AND ONION CROP. 



Mr. Editor: — "Line upon line, precept upon 

 precept," now, as in olden time, constitutes the 

 basis of knowledge. Of what use is it to speculate 

 upon the chemical operation of this or that phos- 

 phate, improved or not improved, if the fiicts ob- 

 served in the field do not sustain our speculations? 

 My attention was arrested by the inquiry from 

 Marblehead, what is best to be done with half a 

 dozen acres of potatoes, so decayed as not to be 

 worth digging? INIy first impression was, that 

 there might be some exaggeration about it. 

 Subsequent examination has satisfied me that it 

 is no fiction. Instead of half a dozen acres, there 

 is in that vicinity, ten times that quantity not 

 worth digging, on land from which the largest 

 and best crops have usually been obtained. The 

 story is general, that the Chenangoes have failed 

 almost entirely. One gentleman informed me,that 

 from ten acres planted in their field, they couldnot 

 obtain potatoes that they dared to use upon their 

 table. This must bo a serious disappointment, as 

 well as loss— probably not less than one thousand 

 dollars on one farm. I have noticed the field in 

 Salem, on which the experiment was made, of cov- 

 ering the potatoes, when dropped, with tan, and 

 saw that they were still upright and green where 

 the tan was put, while the other part of the field 

 was completely fallen and decayed — looking most 

 dreary and forbidding. How they will turn out in 

 the end remains to be seen ; if I do not mistake, 

 there will be at least, tivo blanks to a prize, 

 throughout the field. It requires something more 

 stringent than tan, in these days, to save tlie po- 

 tato. 



While looking after the potato crop, I have not 

 been unmindful of the onion. At one time, the 

 j alarm was sounded that this was likely to fail al- 

 so. That the cut-worm and the maggot, wore ta- 

 [king more than their share, and that the remain- 

 der would be shrivelled and small by reason of 

 'the drought. On Saturday, I met a cultivator from 

 Danvers with a load of empty barrels, and in- 

 *quiredt)f him, how his onions were doing this sea- 

 'son? "Pretty well," said he. "I have gathered 

 'already one hundred and fifty barrels, and have 



