1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



229 



inquiries anb ^nsiuers. 



Messrs. Editors : — Yonr subscribers in this place would be 

 very greatly obliged if yon would state in the next number 

 of tile Farmer, the best method of supplying our apple, pear, 

 peach, plum, and cherry trees, with the sufiienanec necessary 

 to their healthy growth and early fruiting. We suppose the 

 analyses of Prof. Mmmons, found in Fart V, Agricultural Re- 

 ports, N. Y., indicate correctly the kind of food our trees 

 require. But how shall we apply the phosphates, the mag- 

 nesia, potasii, soda, and the acids? is the question we want 

 you should answer. Our town is new, the most of our fruit 

 trees set last spring, our soil much of it a tenacious gravelly 

 clay, with a few inches of vegtable mold on the surface. — 

 On the hanks of the Grand River, which meanders our town, 

 the soil is a very rich alluvial, yielding large crops, of every 

 vegetable or grain committed to its trust. A. G. — Lansing, 

 Aug, 1851. 



Your alluvial bottoms are doubtless rich enough in' their 

 virgin state, without any additional matter to supply all the 

 wants of growing fruit trees ; but uplands, and especially 

 such as have been tilled, will contain less potash, plvosphate 

 of lime, and other earthy salts, than is desirable. Forest 

 trees extract these minerals from the soil where they grow, 

 and their ashes and leaves yield the best natural food for 

 young apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, and quince trees. 

 Except on old and impoverished fields, rotten leaves or mold 

 from some other source may be omitted, but ashes never 

 come amiss on ordinary soils. They should be evenly spread 

 at least six feet beyond the extent of the tree top all round 

 from the trunk. In all soils that lack lime, this substance 

 should be mixed with the ashes half and half. Do not be 

 Gvcr-anxious to bring your trees into early bearing : this can 

 be done by checking their growth. A tree that makes wood 

 rapidly cannot at the same time organize a large crop of fruit. 

 The science of root and top-pruning has for its object the wise 

 adjustment of the wood-making and fruit-i>earing functions of 

 a tree. It is rare indeed that we find a fruit-grower who is 

 master of this science, which implies a thorough knowledge 

 of vegetable physiology and of the food of all trees and plants, 

 as well as of the art of pruning. Those that know the pro- 

 prietor of this journal, will not believe that any personal 

 considerations could induce him to urge every one that has 

 a fruit tree, or intends to have one, to study Mr. Barry's 

 book on this subject, if it was not regarded as a truly valua- 

 ble work. Feeling a deep interest in the success of fruit 

 culture in the United States, we intend to review this per- 

 formance at our earliest leisure. The fiuidamental princi- 

 ples of sylva-culture and fruit-culture should be universally 

 known in this country ; and our cheap Farmer, with the 

 large experience and professional skill of Mr. Barry, is ad- 

 mirably adapted to the widest possible dissemination of 

 knowledge on this branch of rural industry. 



Messrs. Epitors : — Our wheat has been injured very much 

 in this section by what is here called the blight, or rot in the 

 head. The first appearance of it is when the berry is in the 

 milk.- A single berry in the head turns white and soon 

 spreads till from one-fourth to the whole of the head is dead. 

 The wheat turns white and mouldy when affected, while 

 the remaining part is good. Early winter and late spring 

 wheat are least affected. The disease is quite general in the 

 State, and the crops full half destroyed. Some varieties of 

 spring wheat arc injured more than others. On examining 

 my wheat, I find under the husk, and near the joint, an egg, 

 or maggot, in color like a flax seed, though less in size. In 

 some straws, I find a small worm nearly white, and in some 

 roots appear.in^es of the work of insects, while many of the 

 stalks with blighted heads appear good and free from disease. 

 Many attribute the disease to atmospheric causes. If you 

 can give us any information on the subject, it would be very 

 acceptable to one of your readers at least. Gkorge Sikes. 

 — Sharon, Wis.. Aug.. 1051. 



P. S. — Can you recommend any work that treats of insects 

 that are injurious to the farmer. G. S. 



Dr. Harris's work on the insects of Massachusetts is re- 

 commended to our correspondent. 



Eds. Gkn. Farmer : — As you give very good advice to your 

 readers, and tell them how they can raise twice as much as 

 they have been raising on the same quantity of land, 

 please tell them how to get a good price for it after they have 

 it raised. I would like to know whether one hundred bush- 

 els from five acres, at .$1.00 per bu., would not be better 

 than two hi'ndred bushels, at 50 cts., from the same number 

 of acres? Everything tiuit is written in the Genesee Far- 

 mer is good advice to the farmer ; but suppose every farmer 

 in the United States was to adopt the plan laid down by 

 yourself, the consequence would be double crops, and, in 

 many places, more than four limes as much wheat as there 

 now is — and there is more raised now than the farmer can 

 sell at a fiiir price. Please inform your readers how to in- 

 crease the consumption. Probably they might feed it to 

 slock; or, possilily, if there were more factories built tind 

 put into operation some would quit farming and go into more 

 profitable business. The majority of the people of this coun- 

 try arc farmers, and tliey certainly could do something if 

 they only knew how. At any rate they could make laws 

 that would operate more favorably on their interests than the 

 present ones do. H. 



Our correspondent asks one or two important questions. 

 To prevent an over stock of wheat and other staples, the 

 farmers must diversify their jiroducts — grow more wool, 

 horses, mules, and hogs. Consumption will increase with 

 production, provided the things produced meet the wants of 

 the home and foreign markets, ftlechanical and manufac- 

 turing industry ought to be increased and greatly extended 

 in this country, as we doubt not they soon will be. Farmers 

 pay loo little attention to legislation, but it is a way they 

 have, and it is not our province to find fault with them on 

 that score. Their greatest error consists in cultivating too 

 much land, not in growing too much wheat and corn, hay 

 and potatoes, per acre. They foster all the agencies that 

 tend to weaken the vital force in potato plants and deteriorate 

 other crops, and study not the laws of nature and of nature's 

 God, but the almighty dollar. Money, not wisdom, is what 

 we seek. Nothing has been worse abused in this republic 

 than the noble science of political economy. It is the foot- 

 ball of pettifogging politicians. 



Eds. Gen. Farmer :— Though neither an acquaintance or a 

 subscriber to your paper, I presume so far upon the interest 

 you are likely to feel in agricultural aflTairs, as to make the 

 following inquiries. Having observed in an extract from the 

 Genesee Farmer, that specimens of gypsum from Tennessee 

 and Alabama had been examined, I wish you, as the most 

 direct way of ascertaining the locality of the quarry, to in- 

 form me of the whereabouts, and all other particulars, of the 

 gypsum found in Tennessee. The article has not been used 

 in this section, so fiir as I know, and I am very desirous of 

 making some experiments with it. 



While writing. I may as well inquire whether it is the 

 custom, in your State, to rely on volunteer clover, or whether 

 the land is invariably re-seeded. Your attention to this mat- 

 ter, will confer a favor on a former. N. L. Thomas.— io?J^- 

 view, Teim., Aug., 1851. 



No one depends on " volunteer clover" at the north, ex- 

 cept so far as seed may fall from ripe plants and thereby re- 

 seed the ground. Clover seed is generally sown in the 

 spring on winter wheat, say from the last of February to the 

 first of May. It is sometimes put in with wheat in autumn. 

 The gypsum alluded to was from Chattanooga, on the Ten- 

 nessee river ; but, as we have since learned, it came from 

 western Virginia down the Tennessee river, and not from a 

 bed in Tennessee. The article is pure and valuable. 



Messrs. EdituKS :— Our cattle are dying with the bloody 

 and dry murrain, and as I have not seen anything in your 

 paper for its cure, or a preventive, I should like to know if 

 there is any. Solon Harris. — Lenox, Midi., Aug., 1851. 

 We have heard more than usual complaint, this season, of 

 mortality among cattle, and should be thankful if some ex- 

 perienced stock grower would write one or two articles on 

 the treatment of murrain. We shall discuss the subject in 

 future numbers, and desire all the information within our 

 reach for the benefit of our readers. 



