NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



31" 



,NEVV ENGLAND FARMER. 



SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1823. 



The Farmers and Gardeners Remembrancer. 



MAY. 

 Pastdres. — Be so good as not to turn your 

 aftle into your p.istures till they cnn gel ivli;it 

 is called a '■'■good bite.'''' If yon let thom in too 



lion 



IN, 



;if( 



!*'' early they will tread your land into hotch potch, 

 ''* !>r salmagundi, destroy the sward, and "• do more 



ischiel'than a little." Dr. Deane said that the 

 iZOth of May is early enough for our climate, 

 [and we believe it is quite as well, where the 

 'armer can atford it, to keep his working oxen 

 land horses to hay or other stall feed at least till 

 the first of June. It is not right to turn all sorts 

 lof cattle into pastures promiscuously. "Milch 

 |kine, working oxen, and fatting beasts, should 

 have the first feeding of an enclosure. After- 

 wards sheep and horses. When the first lot is 

 thus fed ofl', it should be shut up, and the dung 

 that has been dropped should be beat to pieces 

 and well scattered. Afterwards the second pas- 

 ture should be treated in the same manner, and 

 the rest in course, feeding the wettest pasture 

 after the driest, that the soil may be less potchcd. 



" Something considerable is saved by letting 

 all sorts of grazing animals take their turns in a 

 pasture. By means of this nearly all the her- 

 bage produced will be eaten ; much of which 

 would otherwise be lost. Horses will eat the 

 leavings of horned cattle ; and sheep will eat 

 some things that both the one and the other 

 leave. 



" Let the stock of a farmer be greater or 

 less, he should have at least four enclosures of 

 pasture land. One enclosure may be fed two 

 weeks, and then shut up to grow. Each one 

 will recruit well in six weeks ; and each will 

 have this time to recruit. But in the latter 

 part of October, the cattle may range through 

 all the lots, unless some one may become toe 

 wet and soft. Feeding pastures in rotation, is 

 of greater advantage than some are apt to im 

 agine. One acre managed according to the 

 above directions will turn to better account, 

 some say, who have practised it, than three 

 acres in the common way."* 



Irrigating or Watering Lands. — Those of our 

 readers who have conveniences for irrigating 

 their lands may as well attend to this business 

 as soon as possible. If you have a spring or 

 brook on a high part of your farm you may 

 take all or a part of its waters from their natu- 

 ral channels, and lead them over the driest part 

 of your soil, keeping them as nearly on a level 

 as possible without having them stagnats and 

 form quiigmires in their course. You must have 

 your water completely at command, for water 

 like fire, although a good servant is a bad mas- 

 ter. It is no matter how soon you prepare your 

 channel, trenches. &c. and let a little water 

 into them by way of experiment, but you should 

 not apply it in any considerable quantity till the 

 ground becomes somewhat dry. After the grass 

 has got a fair start let the quantity of water be 

 diminished, and you will of course stop it from 

 your fields in wet weather, and let it run in its 

 natural channel. After the grass is pretty well 

 grown, water must be used only in dry weather, 

 but in very clear and hot days it should not be 

 applied. Nights and cloudy days are the prop- 



* Deane's N. E. Farmer, p. 314, 315. 



er times for irrigation. But we shall not give 

 minute and circumstantial directions, for vou 

 must make use of your own good sense in "this 

 as well as most other processes for improving 

 your land. A tcmpaniry stream will not pay you 

 for conliiiing and directing its waters, unless, as 

 is sometimes the case, it contains a good quan- 

 tity of mud or sediment, which you may iuduce 

 it to deposit for the funjiose of manuring your 

 soil. But muddy water turned on grass, which 

 is growing, is apt to make it gritty and unwhole- 

 some. 



" In regard to waters much impregnated with 

 iron they were formerly supposed totally unlit 

 for the purposes of irrigation ; but it is now fol- 

 ly proved by the accurate experiments of an 

 able chymist, and by the extraordinary growth 

 of grasses in Prisley meadow, in Bedfordshire, 

 that ferruginous ivaters (waters impregnated 

 with iron) are friendly to vegetation, when 

 properly applied. 



" Waters that are impregnated with the juic- 

 es that flow from peat-mosses, arc considered by 

 many not worth applying to the soil. It is ob- 

 jected to them that they are commonly loaded 

 with such antiseptic substances (matters which 

 prevent putrefaction) as will retard, instead of 

 promote vegetation, and that they convey no 

 material nutriment. But others are of opinion 

 that a want of sufficient slope in the meadow, 

 or of proper management with regard to the 

 water, has occasioned the disappointments which 

 have been experienced when bog-waters have 

 been applied."* We have no doubt but 

 a top dressing of lime after irrigation, would 

 correct any evils to be apprehended from the 

 acid or antiseptic qualities of the water used in 

 that process. 



Secure your Fruit and Forest Trees against 

 Cattle. — We have our eye on some farmers and 

 others, who have planted trees, on the borders 

 of high ways and other places, who have not 

 more than half secured them against cattle. 

 This is not much wiser than it would be to build 

 fi house on a high snow bank in March or April. 

 The trees should be substantially fenced, as high 

 as the largest cattle can reach. But it will be 

 advisable not to exclude too much of the sun and 

 air. Four stout stakes, well driven into the 

 ground at a suitable distance from the tree, and 

 narrow but strong slips of board, nailed from 

 one to the other, so as to form a square enclo- 

 sure, with the tree for its centre, will answer, 

 provided the fence is carried high enough. 



Engrafting Fruit Trees. — Dr. Thacher says 

 (American Orchardist, p. 3b) " The most prop- 

 er season for grafting in our climate, is from 

 about the 20th of Ma'rch to the 20th of May," 

 Mr. Cobbett states that " the way in which 

 grafting and budding is done, cannot, upon any 

 principle consistent with common sense, become 

 matter of zeritten description. Each is a me- 

 chanical operation, embracing numerous move- 

 ments of the arms, hands, and fingers, and is no 

 more to be taught by written directions than to 

 make a chest of drawers is. To read a full and 

 minute account of the acts of budding and graft- 

 ing would require ten times the space of time 

 that it requires to go to a neighbor and learn 

 from a sight of the operation, that which, after 

 all, no written directions would ever teach. "t 



Notwithstanding, however, this energetic de- 



* Code of Agriculture. 



"t American Gardener, par. 281. 



nunciation against undertaking to describe the 

 process of grafting in writing, we shall here 

 repeat some rules given by .Mr. Preston, of 

 Stockport, Pa. It is true, w'e have published 

 jthem once [No. 16, page i21,] but as we have 

 subscribers who have commenced taking the 

 paper since they were published, wc will'^give 

 them once more, viz: 



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

 stock in splitting it; and Ihe 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 use 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 a 

 manner as to always take the bulge, between 

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

 as in that joint or bulge, between the year's 

 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 tha 

 stock below the split to retain all the sap that 

 oozes out to support the graft." 



It is not good management to graft young 

 trees, until you know what kind of fruit they 

 will produce without grafting, otherwise you 

 may introduce by art less valuable fruit than na- 

 ture would have given you. Neither is it prop- 

 er to take off too many limbs for the purpose of 

 grafting in one season, lest you ruin the tree by 

 stopping the circulation of its sap. You may 

 see farther directions on this subject in No. 19, 

 p. 145, of the N. E. Farmer. 



Look to vour Peach Trees. — These trees are 

 annoyed, and sometimes killed by small grubs, 

 said to be about an inch in length, which are 

 found in the roots. They are said to be pro- 

 duced by a blue fly, which attacks the trees from 

 about the middle of August to the middle of 

 September, and generally deposits its eggs in 

 the bark at or near the surface of the ground. 

 To take out this worm the roots must be uncov- 

 ered, as soon as the tree begins to bud in the 

 spring, and the spot looked for where the gum 

 oozes out. Follow the cavity round with the 

 point of a knife or a chisel, until you come to 

 the solid wood, lay the whole open, and you will 

 find the worm, with a white body and black 

 heitd, which must be destroyed and the hole 

 filled with cow dung, rendered adhesive by lime, 

 sand and ashes.* 



A writer in the New York Evening Post, in 

 prescribing against this disorder says, " As soon 

 as the buds begin to put forth, and the leaf to 

 appear in the spring, and before they are quite 

 out, remove from the bottom of the tree entire- 

 ly all the dirt or turf till you come to the bare 

 roots, from which scrape all the loose and old 

 rotten bark ; then take three quarts of fresh 

 slacked lime for a large and full grown tree, and 

 so in proportion for a smaller and younger one, 

 and lay it carefully on, and about the roots, 

 covering it from the weather, and it will destroy 

 these destructive insects entirely. It is about 

 the time the present season to begin your work ; 

 but some years it will be earlier, and some la- 

 ter." Wood ashes put round the roots in au- 



• Deane's N. E. Farmer, Art. Peach Tree ; Weill 

 ic Lilly's Edition. 



