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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 7, 1828. 



[Extracts from Loudon's Gardener's Magazine for Jan. 18-G.] 

 On the various uses of rhubarb stalks, by James 

 Luckcock, of Edgbaston, near Birmingham. 

 Mr. Luckcock refers lo the Monthly Magazine 

 for Sept. 1817, Aug;. 1818, and Nov. 1819, for what 

 he has said on the culture of rhubarb ; he com- 

 plains that the plant is now treated of in the third 

 edition of Nicol's Kalendar ; — but in Mr. Nicol's 

 time, tlie plant was little attended to. He states 

 that he has three sorts of which he knows the 

 name of only one, called the Turkey rhubirb, 

 rheum palmatum. The produce of this, according 

 to his account, is much less than that of the other 

 two sorts, which, from sketches he has sent us, 

 are obviously some of the hybrid entire leaved va- 

 rieties. Offering Mr. Luckcock our best thanks 

 for his conimunicaiou, we give the following ex- 

 tract from it, as the most likely to interest our 

 readers : — Since the publication of the documents 

 in the Monthly Magazine, the increase of produce 

 and demand in this tieighborhood has been twenty 

 fold, perhaps fifty ; anil I feel a proud gratifica- 

 tion, when I am sometimes told that this increase 

 hss probably been chiefly owing to my statements. 

 *rhis has induced me to continue my observations, 

 and to endeavor to point the public attention In its 

 various merits. I need not appeal to the exper- 

 ience of others for its delicious flavor, but I can, 

 from long attention, pronounce it to be equal to 

 the choicest of our fruits in its effiects on the hu- 

 man frame during the sultry months of the sum- 

 mer, being cooling, and slightly cathartic. I can- 

 not recommend a more palatable or wholesome 

 article, and more especially if taken cold in hot 

 weather, than the pies we use in our family. — 

 With a little yeast, put into the crust, we have it 

 light and porous, about an inch or an inch and a 

 half thick. Tiiis 1 believe to be the only kind of 

 pastry that is good for the stomach, and dpridedly | 

 so for that of an invalid ; and there are few con- i 

 stitutions so feeble or delicate, but what m«y free- 

 » ly partake of it without any fear of bilious conse- 

 quences, or of any flatulence or indigestion. It 

 continues its produce in the gardens from the be- 

 ginning of May to the end of August, and has 

 another great advantage, that it will make an e.K- 

 eellent preserve for the winter. It should not, 

 however, be suffered to grow too old before it is 

 cut ; like every other vegetable, there is a point 

 in its age when it is at its highest perfection. 

 We cut it into squares, put it on a pan in single 

 layers, and then place it in an oven so moderate 

 in its heat, as to require about twelve hours for 

 the process ; it should have a very small portion 

 of its moisture left ; and then we put it into wide- 

 moulhcd bottles, with about a fif h or a sixth part 

 of its weight of brown "iugrar. If, in the course of 

 a day or t"'0, the dissolving of the sugar produces 

 a small supply of liquid, the quantity of moisture 

 is right, and by frequently shaking the bottle for 

 a wi-ek or two, the article will be good for use, 

 till the gardens give their ne.xt supply. The bot- 

 tles should be covered with bladder. 



1 had supposed, from tlio great quantity of liquid 

 tont.'iined in rhubarb stalks, that it niijht supply a 

 new cider, but find, on trial, that, it contains so 

 tittle of any saccharine matter, that il will not 

 ferment. I, however, made some wine from the 

 Juice without any water, and have a few bottles 

 left of ten years' vintage, and it is really very 

 good ; hut like all the home-made wines, it is 

 neither more nor less than sugar wine, seasoned 

 with the ffavof wkich gives the name. 



An orchard in miniature ; or, the culture of apple 

 trees as dwarf standards, after the manner of 

 gooseberry bushes. 



Sir, — Observing in your Magazine for Septem- 

 ber Mr. Harrison's method of growing apples 

 against a wall, allow me to obtrude my simple 

 mode of growing them in open quarters, upon 

 dwarf trees, which I have followed about seven 

 years, the last three of which have successively 

 strengthened my conviction of its utility. 



By planting the proper sorts, apples may be 

 grown in as small a space of ground as gooseber- 

 ries ; and a small or large square, according to 

 the siie of families, appropriated to apples, will 

 grow every year enough to supply their wants. I 

 am not vain enough to think that I am alone in 

 growing them in this way, as I should tbiok hort- 

 icultural economy would prompt many besides 

 myself to gratify their eyes, their pockets, and 

 their appetites, in so easy a way 



Like most practicalists, I should, perhaps, find 

 it much e.asier to tell and show than to write what 

 I mean ; but " i will do my best," as the author of 

 Ivanhos makes Hubert say ; for my grandfather, 

 though he did not draw a bow, drew a knife. 



I tiave my ground, a strong clay, trenched two 

 feet deep in December ; as soon as it is settled, 

 say a fortnight after trenching, taking idvantage 

 of a frosty morning, the holes are opened and left 

 for the frost to mellow. February is the best 

 month for planting on heavy ground ; by that time 

 thf earth taken from the holes will bo in a fine 

 pulverized slate. The holes need not be very 

 large — two feet over, and one and a half feet 

 deep, will be enough. With some rich loose soils 

 there will be no occasion for trenching ; but then 

 the holes must be larger, say three feet over and 

 two feet deep. The plants must be six feet apart 

 everyway. 1 arrange mine in qi-incunx. See plate 



With a six foot mea- 

 suring stick this is done 

 with scarcely any trou 

 ble. I do not know any 

 sight more pleasing to a 

 domestic mind (for what 

 ! fruit contributes more to 

 our comfort than the ap- 

 ple ?) than this orchard 

 in minature, when cov- 

 ered with bloom, and again when laden with fruit, 

 as they seldom miss bearing in abundance. 

 I This plan will not extend to the strong grow- 

 i ing sorts, as they are not easily kept within 

 bounds; but the following six will amply repay 

 the trouble and trifling expense of planting. I 

 have placed them in the order of their ripening, 

 manks's codlin, hawthornden, kerry pippin, down- 

 ton pippin, Christie's pippin, and the old golden 

 pippin ; to which may be added coe's golden drop, 

 a most excellent late table apple. The trees must 

 be chosen with stems not exceeding one foot six 

 inches. In September 1 generally look over the 

 trees, take ofl" superfluous wood, and shorten the 

 long shoots ; this strengthens the bloom buds 

 which are formed abundantly upon the young 

 wood of all the sorts named ; of course, in doing 

 this, an eye must be had to the formation of the 

 trees, which ought to be gradually brought into a 

 handsome round bush. For the first years, a row 

 of strawberries may be grown between each row 

 of apples, or any other divarf light crop ; but 

 .strawberries are most in keeping, a word which,, 

 in every gardening operation, ought never to be 



lost sight of Let me add, they ouo-ht to be work- 

 ed on Paradise stocks, or the small wild crab, 

 (mine are on the last) not by any means on the 

 free stock raised from apple pips, the very worst 

 stock that can be used. 



Now this cacoethes scribendi is upon me (it is 

 a wet day), allow me a little more space, merely 

 to give vou one of the best receipts for keeping 

 hares and rabbits from apple trees. I write from 

 experience ; for, till I used it, I had annually a 

 great many trees destroyed in spile of every pre- 

 caution. Take the commonest train oil and hog's 

 lard (if stale it can be bought cheaperj, mix them 

 well, till they are of the consistence of thick 

 paste, which the mixture will much resemble, and 

 apply it rather sparingly vvith a painter's brush. — 

 This will effectually keep off those destructive 

 vermin, and not injure the trees, as the lard neu- 

 tralizes the pernicious effects of the oil. 



On the cultivation and management of Timber Trees. 

 Sir, — Allow me to impress on the minds of 

 land proprietors, and managers of woods and plan- 

 tations, the necessity of studying the cultivation 

 of timber as a science. We see very little atten- 

 tion paid to the arrangement of the different sorts 

 of forest trees in plantinir, whether 't regards the 

 difterent soils to be planted, the situation, or the 

 eflTect to be produced in regard to landscape scen- 

 ery ; and if knowledge be wanting in the above 

 cases, we see a still greater want of it displayed 

 in the management of plantations, in regard to 

 thinning, pruning, &c. It vvnuld he almost im- 

 possible to lay down a universal rule for the man- 

 agement of plantations, but there are certainly 

 fundamental principles to be acted upon in the 

 cultivation of forest trees. 



The thinning of plantations is a matter of great 

 importance, in resrard to shelter and appearance. 

 To make all the trees stand as much as possible 

 in the angles of equilateral triansrles, or, in other 

 words, in quincunx, is one rule that should never 

 be lost sight of for it is evident more shelter will 

 be afforded from trees standing in triangular pos- 

 itions than in squares or rows; besides, the above 

 method disposes the trees regularly over the 

 ground, in respect to their nourishment. How oi- 

 ten does the woodman, for the sake of leaving a 

 good tree, as he calls it. leave two trees within 

 a few feet of each other, at least so near, that the 

 one is crushing the other, and cuts away a third, 

 that should have remained as a permanent tree — 

 The reason he assigns for so doing is. he wishes 

 to leave the best trees, that is, the largest, not 

 considerinsr that the small tree, if it had a good 

 leading shoot, and was otherwise a well formed 

 tree, is as likely to make as ;.rood a tree at a future 

 period as the one he has left, or perhaps better. 

 I have seen many plantations disfigured by the 

 above method of thinnina. besides the loss to the 

 proprietor. In the course of practice in thinning 

 i plantations, especially vvhen under thirty years 

 I of age, I have never hesitated to rut down a lar- 

 Iger tree than the one next to it, if by so doing I 

 got my trees to stand in a more regular form, and 

 the smaller tree was equally healthful. By fol- 

 lowing such a method of thinning, there is more 

 to be made of thinnings, besides managing the 

 plantation in a way for its future welfare. 



Pruning of woods and plantations is another im- 

 portant part of their culture ; but that subject 

 would make my letter too long. I \*ill therefore 

 defer it at this time hoping the cultivation of tim- 

 ber will become more a professional pursuit. 



