WHERE SHALL I PLANT MY ORCHARD ? 



75 



For table nse, the French is preferred by many. 

 Mr. Barry, of the Hortkultut-ist, says that it is 

 generally prcfon-ed by the Parisian cuisiniers, or 

 cooks. 



For stock feeding, the long orange, and Belgian, or 

 white carrot, c^n be grown. We noticed a patch of 

 white carrots iu the grounds of a neighbor last fall, 

 at the time they were being gathered, and learned 

 that from about two-fifths of an acre he had raised 

 32o bushels of the white variety ; very fine, large> 

 well-shaped roots. The white variety grows much 

 more above the ground than other kinds, and is hence 

 much easier to gather, but they should be gathered 

 ill time to avoid injury by frost 



Sugar beet, and mangel wurtzel seed should be 

 soaked several days in luke-warm water, changed 

 daily, nulil fitted for quick germination, and sown 

 to a greater depth than is proper for carrots. They 

 should be thinned so as to stand from six to nine 

 inches apart in the rows, and the rows should be for 



I the wurtzels from twenty to twenty-four inches apart. 

 Wurtzels are the hardier beet, and will do better on 

 strong clay soil than most any others, but whatever 



I may be the soil, it should be deeply broken up and 



j made loose and friable. 



1 WHEKE SHALL I PLANT MY ORCHAKD ? 



for that season. During the intense cold of a winter's 

 day after a severe frost, when the thermometer has 

 sunk in the neighborhood of zero or below it, it is 

 an essential point that the early rays of the morning 

 sun should not strike upon the frozen buds, but that 

 they should have time to thaw gradually. We are 

 satisfied that effects often times attributed to an east 

 wind, are due to the rupture of the tender cells of the 

 bud, consequent upon the action of the sun's rays 

 upon them, when their vessels are congested by in- 

 tense cold. The lowest grounds are not the most 

 free from the effects of a frost 



A few months since we saw an account of some 

 experiments on the temperature of different locahties, 

 made by Lieut Maury, of the National Observatory. 

 At the same time that^a thermometer placed on a 

 hill showed a temperature of 33 ° or 1 ° above the 

 freezing point, a thermometer which was in a valley 

 beneath, showed a temperature of 28 ° or 4 ° be- 

 low. Not satisfied with the observations, he changed 

 the positions of the thermometers and the result was 

 the same. There was a difference in the temperatures 

 of the hill and valley of 5 ° , a difference at the time 

 of the blossoming of fruit trees which would save or 

 destroy the germs of the crop. In the spring of 1852, 

 by a late spring frost, the buds and blossoms on many 

 fruit trees in low grounds were destroyed, while trees 

 on hill sides and hill tops almost wholly escaped. A 

 bud, while protected by its natural envelope can en- 

 dure a great degree of cold without its vitality be- 

 ing impaired; but when influenced by the genial 

 warmth of spring it has thrown off those protecting en- 

 velopes, and closely folded tissues, its power of endur- 

 ing cold is gone, and it remains for the intelligent 

 cultivator to aid in the protection of his budding 

 fruits. By the radiation of heat into the atmosphere, 

 the strata of air next the ground become colder than 

 the other portions. These cold air currenU following 

 the laws of gravitation, descend to the lower portions 

 of ground, and into the valleys, and then become in 

 a manner stationary, while by currents moving brisk- 

 ly over any surface, radiation is prevented, and sub- 

 stances will remain at the temperature of the moving 

 cuiTent. Arrest that current, and radiation will cause 

 a greater degree of cold than is due merely to exter- 

 nal temperature. So in these valleys and lower por- 

 tions of ground, the temperature soonest becomes re- 

 duced to the freezing point, and consequently plants 

 then growing must suffer. Every cultivator knows 

 that corn on his low grounds is soonest afl'ecttd liy 

 autumnal frosts, and the reason is obvious from the 

 explanation just given. 



