NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



rublislied every Sciturday, by THOMAS W. SHErAUD, [{.diners' liiiildinjr, Congress t:'tre. t, i;,.tlnn ; ;,t J;'J,:,0 pii- ami. in n-liaiir ■. „r g.I.OII at tli.- < los. oj lh( yi ar. 



Vol. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1022. 



No. 16. 



To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ENOLAM» FARMER. 



Sir — Having seen in your fmpcfs some ob- 

 -rrvations on the grafting and raising of apple 

 (nos, in which I have had. much experience, 

 am free to communicate the result ot" my ob- 

 teivation''. 



I diller ill opinion from sucli European au- 

 thiiis as recommend the ground lor nurseries 

 lo be made extraordinarily rich, as I have ob- 

 -irved that young trees, transj>lanted from a 

 richer to a poorer soil, do not liourish or be- 

 come so productive as such as are transplanted 

 li iin a poorer to a richer soil. 



The seeds of apples will not ]>roduce the 

 ii.mo kind of fruit ; that 1 have fully proved^ 

 \'v one experiment. 1 raised in my garden, 

 '"; nil the seeds of one favorite apple, ten frees, 

 liiit after being transplanted in my orchard, 

 svt'w to bear fruit. Not one of them resem- 

 jkd their mother apple, and no two were like 

 jach other. Seven of them produced very 

 Muall sour apples, some white, some striped, 

 • ine yellow, some early, others late. Those 

 ■ven trees I marked for gral'ting. Of the oth- 

 M- three, the largest and most thrifty treepro- 

 luced an excellent, pleasant, long, striped ap- 

 ilc, of good size, very mellow and juicy in au- 

 umn, neither sweet nor sour. The next larg- 

 -l tree produced a red, sweet apple, about the 

 hape and size of the tlat pippin, and will keep 

 n the winter near as well. The other, the 

 iiiallest tree of the ten, which grew the long- 

 'St time before it produced, bore large, yellow, 

 lat, sweet apples, that weigh about one pound, 

 ind fall ofl" in due time for drying or making 

 ■.ider. 



1 have estimated such parts of my orch.trd 

 IS have been planted with trees, without grati- 

 ng, to average about three good and valuable 

 ;inds ol" apples, t'rom every ten trees. I disap- 

 uove of grafting the trees, when small in the 

 lursery, as we may cut ofl' better t'ruit than we 

 nscrt, and perhaps destroy some better and 

 arger kinds than are yet known. 



i believe in Danvin's ideas, that the different 

 iinds of apples have their certain age, after 

 .vhich they depreciate and expire, and that 

 !;rafting is but an elongation of the same de- 

 ;lining kind of tree — especially as the Vaiuh- 

 :eer that used to be so large and line since my 

 ■emembrance is now extinct, in the place of my 

 lativity, with a bitter rot, and the Jlat ■pippens. 

 Rhode Island greenmgs, and blue prarinaiiis^ are 

 ."cry much depreciated in size and llavor. 



At an early period of life, 1 was instructed in 

 .he practice of grafting, and thought 1 under- 

 itood it perfectly, but a circumstance took place 

 I'o convince me to the contrary, b}' some impor- 

 !ant facts in that art that should be generally 

 inown. 



Thirty-five years ago, last winter, 1 was trav- 

 ailing in the ujiper part of Maryland, near the 

 iianks of Potomac river, and was informed thai 

 they had a curious old German doctor, a man 

 iof great science, that had paid much attentioi. 

 Ito orcharding ; — that he liad made between ^''Jt 

 ind 300 acres of grat"ted orchard, and made vas. 

 quantities ot cider all winter to sup[)ly the cities 

 of Baltimore and Alexandria, besides (ieedmt;' 



I and fattening a large stock of creatures. I turn- 



j ed out of the road and went to see him, and 



was surprised, as I roile to the door, to hear 



him toll his negro, in German, lo give my horse 



half a bushel of sweet 



apples. His siiluation 

 was on lime stone land, of a S. W. descent — 

 some very rough — but his Irees appeared to 

 grow well amongst the rocks. In places where 

 the ground suited he irrigated it with lime 

 stone springs, for mowing land. ]li.s orchards 

 were too extensive lor my view. He had a 

 number of hlrgc frame buildings, in which he 

 had vast fjiiantitics of apples gathered lo /Veert-, 

 and said that apples after being frozen made the 

 most and best cider. It wasi a mild thawing 

 time, and he had abundance of peo|i!e making 

 cider. They ground their soft apples under 

 large wooden wheeis, turning in circular 

 trouirhs. On the bods of the presses they bad 

 frames of slats in which they put straw to re- 

 tain the soft pomace. Their presses were lung- 

 beams, say 60 feel, raised and draviu down with 

 levers. As the establishment stood on descend- 

 ing ground the cider ran from the presses in 

 troughs, and passed through several strainers 

 before it entered the casks. 



He informed me that he had been bred to 

 orcharding in Germany, that he had raised and 

 planted all his trees, and grafted the greater 

 part of them, after they began to bear, if he 

 disliked the fruit. 



I observed that I thought the season would 

 be too short for grafting so many trees. Me 

 told me that it might be performed any time in 

 the fore part of summer, if a wet growing time, 

 and I would observe the following directions : 



1st. Be careful not to loosen the bark of the 

 stock in splitting it ; and the safest way to guard 

 against that is to split the bark with a sharp 

 pointed knife, before the splitting of the stock. 



2d. As after the leaves are grown it is not 

 expected to u<e .scions from a distance, but to 

 cut them out of the orchard as wanted, be sure 

 in selecting the grafts to cut them in such man 

 ner as to always take the bulge, between the 

 year's growth, to shave and set in the stock, 

 as in that joint or bulge, between the years 

 growth, the wood is curled, open and porous, 

 to receive the sap readily from the stock, and 

 such scions will grow and flourish — when if 

 taken from any other part of the twig they 

 would not grow. 



3d. The clay should be very fine and tough, 

 and pressed and bound water tight round the 

 stock below the split to retain all the sap thai 

 oozes out to support the graft. 



By strictly adhering to this German science I 

 have grafted several apple trees as late in the 

 -reason as the latter part of June, that tlourisbed 

 and grew well, and are the best of bearing trees. 



From all the experiments that 1 have tried in 

 raising orchards, 1 would advise setting out the 

 trees, and seeing a sample of their fruit before 

 ,'rafting, as all the best kinds of apples were at 

 drst natural, and perhaps by such a general 

 :rial some better kinds may appear than yet 

 known. 



I would also advise in grafting such bearing 

 trees, to only take off half the top ia one sea- 



|son. J have olten taken olV the whole, and if 

 : the season is wet they have done well, but it 

 the season proves hot and dry, the frees gen- 

 erally die, or the sun kills the bark on the 

 ] south sides of them, and then they are ever 

 after defective; a rot lakes place, and such 

 trees generally blow down. 



1 have aL'O observed that apple trees grow 

 and bear the best ivhen phtnled beside a stone 

 wall, more especially these lale seasons of great 

 drought, that in purls of the country where the 

 fences arc generally of slone, abundance of ap- 

 ples might be raised without the trees incom- 

 moding the plough, and where there is only one 

 row of trees across a field they may be planted 

 within 15 or 20 feet of eacii other. In planting 

 trees by a wall 1 would reconuiiend as much a." 

 may be, to plant them on the north sides to 

 keep the blossoms back anil secure from the 

 late frosts. SAMUEL I'RESTON. 



Stockton, Pa. Oct. 19, 1822. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLA-ND FARMER. 



FROjyi .4 CORRESPOJ^DEAT m MAL\E. 



Mr. Kdllor, 



1 have been taking a tour of a few weeks, 

 from the tide waters of the wild and turbulent 

 Androscoggin, along its banks to the high lands 

 of Maine. It WaS A note! sight, when 1 obtain- 

 ed any view of the river, to contemplate its 

 banks, and the rocks in its bosom, covered and 

 heaped with mill logs; This I have witnessed 

 sixty or seventy miles from its mouth. The 

 mill men there depend entirely on a freshet to' 

 waft their lumber down. There has not been 

 any of • utficii nt height this se;\spn, and mills 

 that would cut two hundred thotisitnd feet of 

 boards a day have done nothing for the season. 



The banks of this river are high and forbid- 

 ding, excepting below stupendous falls, wherd 

 the water seems to rest t'rom its labor. It is 

 here that we find the intervale, made, or allu- 

 vial land, which bears a heavy and almost cer- 

 ium crop of almost every species of vegetable. 

 The intervale at Durham is extremely beauti- 

 ful ; so is the extensive one at Jay Point, sec- 

 ond to none I ever saiv, excepting the Ox-bo\v 

 at Newbury, Vt. One farmer owns 300 acres 

 of land, under improvement, and can easily cut 

 200 tons of hay in a season. He tells me the 

 made soil is from six to thirty feet deep. As 

 you recede from the sea-bonrd, clay almost en- 

 tirely disappears. The soil of the high lands 

 is generally of yellow loam, with a gravelly 

 bottom, and is excellent for grazing. Barley, 

 an almost certain crop on our sea-board, was 

 line this year. Rye, through the country, a 

 middling crop. Wheat, miserable, that lurking 

 enemy at the root destroyed many fields entire- 

 ly ; it is a great desideratum with the fanner 

 to find a remedy. Oats, a great crop. Pota- 

 toes, on Ihe sea-board, good ; on the high-lands, 

 very much stricken with rust, though nearly a 

 common crop. Buck Wheat produces well, and 

 I was pleased that provident farmers had sowed 

 it in sight of their bee-hives. Notwithstanding 

 the despair of the first week in July, I am told 

 there has not been so great a crop of hay for 



