Scraping Af-plc Trees. 175 



dant flow of rich milk ; and they have this advantage over turnips, 

 that they communicate to the milk no vinpleasant flavor. Our climate 

 and_ soil are adapted to the cultivation of beets, as is manifest from the 

 large crops we raise here compared with those of France, where the 

 average yield is only a little over ten tons to the acre. This, however, 

 may be accounted for partly by the fact that the French raise them 

 mostly for sugar, and prefer a small beet, while we raise them mainly 

 for stock, and like the large kinds. Whoever will introduce into this 

 country the manufacture of sugar from beets, will confer a greater favor 

 upon the nation than he would by paying our national debt. The sugar 

 bill, in most families, ranks next to the meat bill, and the quantity con- 

 sumed is annually increasing. We remember hearing a farmer say, 

 many years since, that " by making maple sugar he saved paying out 

 twenty dollars for sweetening each year." The farmers whose " sweet- 

 ening " does ixot cost them nowadays over twenty dollars per annum 

 are few. We shall await the results of the experiments at Amherst in 

 bfeet-sugrar manufacture with no little interest. 



SCRAPING APPLE TREES. 



By j. S. Needham, West Peabody, Mass. 



We hardly take up a work on horticulture, or even an agricultural 

 paper, without seeing an articlfe advising scraping apple trees. 



My orchards are from ten to sixteen years planted, and until within 

 three years I have always scraped the bark in the spring or midsum- 

 mer. Now for the results. I often found small patches of bark, about 

 the size of a finger-nail, discolored, having the appearance of being sun- 

 burnt ; on applying a knife, cutting diy and hard, — dead to all appear- 

 ances. Now my trees look like a shagbark hickory, all the old bark 

 hanging by a small part in the middle so loosely that it can be taken 

 oft' by the thumb and fingers better than with a sci'aper. These little 

 pieces of bark, about the size of my hand, act as a perfect sun-shade foi* 

 the tender new bark underneath, which is smooth, thrifty, of a pale 

 brown color, with no more indications of diseased portions in it, than is 

 found in the bark of a maiden tree of the same variety. 



I have never allowed grass to grow under my trees, I feed them 

 well, keep the soil mellow, shoe deep, all through the growing season. 



