134 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ons do the best when set in clay. As an example, 

 our neighbor employed a man last spring to gi'aft a 

 young orchard, which he set out two years before ; 

 and the result was, some lived and some did not. We 

 set out a young orchard at the same time, trees of the 

 same age, and grafted them the same spring, and 

 there is not a single stock but what lived ; and I 

 might add, there is not a single scion that did not 

 grow nearly three feet the last year, and some grew 

 four feet. We used clay, and our neighbor used wax. 



D. W. JOHNSON. 

 AVoBURX, March, 18i9. 



Editorial Remarks. 



We present the views of our correspondent, but 

 we cannot endorse them all. We highly approve of 

 teaching boys to graft, and those who are tractable 

 will soon learn to perform this operation well. Yet 

 there should be no objection to men practising this 

 art ; and frequently great experience and mature 

 judgment are necessary in this business. There are 

 some, who profess to be adepts in this art, that manage 

 to make a good job, disregarding the interest of those 

 who employ them. But this is no objection against 

 worthy and skilful men who attend to this branch. 



As to the use of clay or composition in grafting, 

 there is far less trouble in the use of composition, and 

 we believe that it is as sure as clay. If the stock is 

 thrifty, and none other is fit for grafting, it will heal 

 over in a short time, and the composition will do but 

 little injury to stock or graft. Composition is now 

 almost universally used, and the change from clay to 

 composition has been the result of long experience 

 and observation by intelligent men, who have in this 

 thing studied theu- interest, and made very accurate 

 experiments. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE PEACH. 



Mr. Editor : At a meeting of the Legislative Agri- 

 cultural Society, held on the 20th of March, a gen- 

 tleman from Framingham alluded to the generally 

 conceded fact, that peach-trees did best on elevated 

 lands. He had formerly believed, with others, that it 

 was owing to the absence of frosts in these positions, 

 and their great prevalence and injurious effects on 

 the buds in the low lands. But this opinion he had 

 abandoned, as he lately had a fine crop of peaches 

 after an early spring and late severe frosts. He now 

 thought the high land culture the more successful, 

 from the circumstance, as he believed, that in these 

 positions the average cold of the winter was not so 

 great as in valleys or on plains. 



But is this a fact ? Is not the relative cold on 

 high lands greater than in low ? I grant that, in the 

 spring, when the land is naked, low and generally 

 damper soils throw off more moisture to the atmos- 

 phere than the high, and consequently at night 

 there is more moisture on the trees to be acted upon 

 by the frost ; or that they are less exposed to the 

 drying inflvience of the wind than those on hills ; 

 but during the greater part of the winter, when the 

 earth is frozen or covered with snow, these exhala- 

 tions not taking place in valleys more than in other 

 positions, we cannot perceive that the coldness of 

 the winter would have different effects, unless it is 

 in fact greater in valleys than in higher and exposed 

 positions, which is what I wish to ascertain. 



L. 



Editorial Remarks. 



Our correspondent must have misunderstood the 

 speaker, or consviltcd some report that was not 

 correct. Major Wheeler thought it was the ex- 

 tremely cold weather that killed the peach buds, and 

 not the sudden alternations from heat to cold ; and he 

 remarked that high lands were the most favorable to 

 raising peaches, as on such situations the extreme 

 cold is less than in valleys, and of course less liable 

 to kill the buds. He did not say that the average 

 temperature was less on high lands. 



We have often given our opinion on this subject, 

 and we could bring thousands of evidences to sup- 

 port it, by estimating in the manner of the good 

 lady who had six objections to marrying a gentle- 

 man, which were, her husband and five children; 

 for each tree would be a witness. We have often 

 urged the importance of setting peach-trees on 

 elevated lands, not merely because the extreme cold 

 is less there, but because the extreme heat in the 

 cool season is less in proportion than the extreme 

 cold. For the warm sun, and mild, wet weather 

 start the sap and the buds, and predispose them 

 to injury by sudden cold ; and this is not all ; the hot 

 sun on the frozen buds is doubtless still more injuri- 

 ous than the warm weather that i^recedes freezing, or 

 the severity of the frost. For Ave found, on examina- 

 tion, that the buds had been killed in December 

 from sudden changes in the weather, when the 

 thermometer had not, for the season, been lower than 

 fourteen degrees above zero. 



For the Neio England Farmer. 

 EFFECT OF THE STOCK ON THE SCION. 



Mr. Editor : A correspondent in the third num- 

 ber of the New England Farmer has put the query 

 — " Has the stock any influence on the qualit3r of 

 the fruit of the graft r " Not having suflicient ex- 

 perience myself to answer this question, and as he 

 thinks it has no such influence, I would suggest the 

 I^i-opricty of publishing the following from Fessen- 

 den's American Gardener. 



"The nature of the fruit is, to a certain extent, 

 affected by the nature of the stock. Miller says 

 decidedly, that crab-stocks cause apples to be firmer, 

 to keep longer, and to have a sharper flavor ; and he 

 IS equally confident that if the breaking pears be 

 grafted on quince stocks, the fruit is rendered gritty 

 or stony, while the melting pears are much improved 

 by rich stocks. This, according to Ncill, is scarcely 

 to be considered as inconsistent with Lord Bacon's 

 doctrine, that the scion overruleth the graft (stock ? ) 

 quite, the stock being passive only ; which as u 

 general proposition, remains true ; it being evident 

 that the scion, bud, or inarched shoot, is endowed 

 with the power of drawing or forming from the 

 stock that peculiar kind of nourishment which is 

 adapted to its nature, and that the specific characters 

 of the engrafted plant remain unchanged, although 

 its qualities may be partially affected." — Ed. Enctj. 

 art. Horiiculture. 



Remarks by the Editor New England Farmer 



This is a subject on which much may be said on 

 both sides ; but at present we will attend to one 

 point, and that is, the referring to Lord Bacon as 

 authority on a subject on which he probably had no 



