DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ALL ITS 



'~%£?Kii^ •^..e^^Jil^Sf^iW'^H' 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



[Concluded from p. 120.] 



At the agricultural meeting, March. 27, Hon. M. P. 

 Wilder in the chair, the discus.sion on the above 

 subject -was continued. 



Mr. Wilder observed, that farmers generally know 

 how to preserve winter apples, but the keeping of 

 pears is not so well understood. This is important, 

 owing to the high price of winter pears. Mr. 

 Paquott, of France, succeeds remarkably well, by 

 having a room within a room, and placing his fruit 

 in the inner room, packed in oaken boxes, with 

 dry sawdust and charcoal dust two thirds up the 

 fruit, which is placed stem upward. In this way 

 pears are kept perfectly sound till July. Apples 

 may be kept in a temperature nearly down to freez- 

 ing, without injury ; but pears should be kept at a 

 temperature of about forty-five degrees, till suffi- 

 ciently advanced for ripening, which should be 

 effected in a warm room. If they are kept in a 

 colder state, they become injured, and cannot be 

 recovered. 



Hon. Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, said, that farmers 

 should raise their own fruit trees, rather than buy 

 those that were forced to a rapid growth, by high 

 culture in the nurserj% as such trees would not do 

 well on poor lands. Fruit from land in moderate 

 condition is better than that produced by high cul- 

 ture. It requires about twenty years from the seed 

 to get apple-trees into a productive state. 



Mr. Dexter, of Plymouth, inquired for a remedy 

 for lice under the leaf that destroy the foliage and 

 fruit. Some of these, kept under glass, changed to 

 house flies. 



Mr. M. S. Bice, Esq., of Newton, recommended 

 soap-suds or whale-oil soap, as a remedy for insects. 

 He was reaping fruit fi'om trees set twenty years ago. 

 He considered the birds our best friends ; even the 

 crow is a useful bird. He once had a tame one that 

 followed him in the field, and picked up insects. 



Colonel Wilder said, that men had set trees at a late 

 period in life, and yet they lived to enjoy the fruits 

 of their labor. 



Mr. William Parker said, that he packed his 



apples in barrels, with oat chaff, and they kept 

 remarkably well. He let them remain out door in 

 the fall, till there was danger of freezing. 



Mr. Jones, of AVajdand, said, that he had grafted 

 old apple-trees with excellent success and profit. 

 For a few years past, he had picked from ten to 

 twelve barrels a year, from an old tree that his 

 neighbors said was not worth grafting. He thinks 

 that sweet apples are better for grafting on the stocks 

 of sweetings. He perceived a difference in the color 

 and flavor of Porter apples when grafted on stocks 

 of the Siberian crab. 



Colonel Hubbell, of Berkshire county, said, that he 

 had preserved apples, in excellent condition, in oat 

 chaff and air-slaked lime. In tliis way he kept fall 

 apples in good condition till March, and winter 

 apples to a late period, preserving their freshness 

 and flavor better than in any other way. 



Mr. H. C. Merriam, of Tewksbury, said, that he 

 soon got fruit by grafting old trees. He took off the 

 whole top at once. He would buy trees in the 

 nursery rather than wait for them to grow from 

 seed. 



Mr. A. G. Sheldon, of Wilmington, said, that 

 young farmers want encouragement in this business. 

 Trees well set will cost about one dollar each, and 

 for nine years they will gain in value one dollar a 

 year. Old men should set trees for posterity, as they 

 share in the fruits of the labor of those who have 

 preceded them. 



Mr. Cole, of the New England Farmer, said, that 

 in raising trees we should select seed from healthy 

 and vigorous trees. Seeds from natural fruit arc 

 better than those from grafted fruit. He would set 

 trees from the latter part of September to the last of 

 May. He preferred the last of September and first 

 of October, as trees set at that season would throw 

 out small fibrous roots in the fall, and attain a good 

 growth the next season. When set in the fall, a 

 mound of earth should be formed around the trees 

 to protect the roots. He did not think that the ex- 

 treme cold injured the peach buds so much as the 

 sudden changes in the weather. Sometimes the 

 buds are killed early in winter when the cold has 

 not been severe. 



