NEW ENGIiANB FAKMEH. 



Published by Job.n li. Rossell, at JVo. T) ' .Yorth Market Street, (over the JJgiiculiiiral Warehouse). — Thomas G. Fessk.nuf.p), Editor. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JUINK l:^, 1828. 



No. 47. 



AGRICULTURE, 



Abs'.ratleil lor the N. E. Fan 



bits and weasels. We must not accuse nature of 

 - o.ir own ir;norance." 



The writer is of opinion, that tlic tlifFiculty in 



the transportation of fishes, is not so preat as has 



S\I,T WATER FISH IN FRESH WATER.] hcen inia^ined. " Let them bo treated with pen- 



Tlie London tinarterly Journal of Science for I tlencss when taken, as if they could feel; and 

 January 1828, contains a lon^r article on the na- '.,'ioy will not die in hcinp; removed into a cask of 

 turalization of fish, by J. M'Cullock, M.D. F.R.S. water." He advises lo adopt the Chinese method 

 &c. In this the writer, in allusion to former re- of transporting the spawn of fishes as afTordinw 

 marks on this subject, says, "since the comuiuni the prsatest facility to their propajjation. He 

 cations 1 formerly made, the pilchard has been fn- I states that in China, the spawn of fishes is a com 

 troduced. [into a sheet of fresli water.] It swam | mon article ot sale in the markets. "Tiiere also 

 away briskly, therefore it could not die of the j the cultivation of fish for sale, their transportation 

 fresh water ; but it has not been retaken. The j to market, and their replacement in the ponds if 

 ^irillehns also been introduced since my former ' unsold, is as much matter of ordinary farming', 

 li^t. It has been retaken ; and, within one year, | as the manaijement of a poultry yard ; while the 

 had grown to double the original size. , pond is often the most profitable part of the farm. 



"Tlie i«r6o<, fifty or si.xty were i'ltroduced, av- i 'p jg species of poultry yard, or fish-pond, is as 

 crnging aUout eiijht inches in length. Some were j -easily and resjularly stocked in this manner, and 

 retaken in a year for the purposes of examination \ uianaged, as any other portion of the futm ; since 

 merely, like the former and most others; they it is even destroyed, or suffered to become dry 

 also had grown to double the size. The wnjic i occasionally, and again renewed in the wet sea 

 has been retaken after a considerable period. The j son by purchased spawn or stock ; just as a sheep 

 basse has propagated ; and so has the brille. The farmer buys Iambs to stock his mountains." 



red vinllet has been introduced and is living. The j 



whiting was introduced, and taken in jood health | E-'"racis from Knight's Treatise on the Culture of the Apple 

 many weeks after, but not since. The gre;i to,tch "iid Pear, Irr the New England Farmer, 



is thought to have bred considerably. The nt/ic- The efiects of cultivation on tlie animal and ve- 

 rine continues to breed. ! gelable systems are e.xtremely siinilar. A change 



"I formerly mentioned that the flavor of the sc-' in form, in color, and in si/e or stature takes place 

 %'eral fishes was improved ; this is now more posi- ; iii each ; and in each those changes appear to 

 tivcly asserted, in addition, of the basse, the p/aicc arise froin similar causes — from a more abundant 

 ind the red lonrh. Others were mentioned in foivi aiVd regular supply of nourishment than is afford- 

 nier commonication=. 



"General e.xperience has shown t'lat in all fish- 

 es, as far as known, the access to fresh water, 

 or fresh water food, iMproved the flavor ; — in 

 many, in oysters, muscles, cockles, shrimps, it is 

 vuljjarly notorious ; as in mere sea water they 

 are worthless." 



The writer thinks it "an essential point to dis- 

 cover what kind of fishes would so live together, 

 that all species mii'ht find food ; might breed 

 each to its useful limits, so as to be serviceable to 

 ourselves, the keepers of the flocks, and without 

 hazard of the extermination of any kind." For in- 

 stance, '^pike and perch can live together, because 

 the natural defence of the perch prevents the pi!;e 

 from exterminating the race, voracious as the ene- 

 my is. If trout and pike were confined to narrow 

 water, the trout would be destroyed." He ob- 

 serves that " the basse appears to have been the 

 great enemy — to have eaten up the greater num 

 ber of many species, and to have given no return. 

 It has proved the pike of this pond. This could 

 not have been foreseen ; it is a caution to specu- 

 lators. Others will be discovered in the course of 

 trial. It appeas. also, that the common crab has 

 proved destructive, probably by eating the spawn 

 of larger fishes. From some enemy or other, the 

 eels, which at first abounded in a most incredible 

 degree, have most materially diminished, and bo 

 have the shrmps. The latter at least appear to 

 have been destroyed by the basse. Time and trial 

 will teach us what to do in this case ; in the in- 

 fancy of ignorance, man might have supposed that 

 lie could keep wolves and sheep in one field, and 

 .have constructed a pen for foxes and fowls, rab- 



ed iw'a state of nature, with a favorable climate, 

 ^oT protection from the bad effects of an unfavora- 

 ble one. 



From the open structure of the blossoms of ve- 

 getables, and from the numerous tribes of insects, 

 which feed on their honey, or farina, a sexual in 

 tercourse must of necessity take place between 

 neighboring plants of the same species ; and I am 

 much more disposed to attribute this intercourse 

 to the intention than to the negligence of nature. 



My wishes were of course, to correct the de- 

 fects, and to combine the different excellence of 

 the best fruits ; and I was not without hopes that 

 the offspring would possess a greater degree of 

 strength and vigor, as it is known to do in culti- 

 vated animals. A few days, therefore, before the 

 blossoms expanded of the kinds from which I 

 wished to propagate, I opened the petals and de 

 stioyed the males in all the blossoms which I 

 suffered to remain of one kind, taking great care 

 to leave the females uninjured ; and when these 

 blossoms were fully expanded, I impregnated half 

 of them with farina taken from another kind of 

 fruit, leaving the other half to the care of the 

 bees ; which were collected in great numbers, 

 (owing to the scarcity of flowers at that season) 

 and passed busily from one blossom to another. I 

 had soon the satisfaction to observe that every 

 fruit, which I had impregnated, grew rapidly, 

 whilst half of those on the other tree, which re- 

 mained in their natural state, failed ; with everv 

 one of those left to the care of the bees. Whence 

 I was disposed to conclude that these insects were 

 not so good carriers of the farina of plants as is, I 

 believe, generally supposed by naturalists ; but in 



subsequent experiments, where the blossoms on 

 the ncithboring trees have been more numerous, 

 1 have had reason to draw a different conclusmn. 



The plants I have obtaineil from the fruits on 

 which this expiriuient has been made are certain- 

 ly much the i!i"st prouiising 1 have yet seen. — 

 Some of these possess the character of the male 

 parent, others that of the female : in some that of 

 both appears blentlel, and in others 1 do not dis- 

 tiuiruish that of either. Many of them appear to 

 be perfectly tree from hereilitary disease and de- 

 bility, and the fruit of some of them is not in any 

 degree inferior to those from which I derived its 

 existence. Every seed, though several were tak- 

 en from the same apple, has affiuded a new and 

 distinct variety ; and some of these grow with 

 more luxuriance than others an I the frui's pro- 

 duced by the difi-rent plants possess veiv differ- 

 ent degrees of merit An estimate may in some 

 measure, he made of their good and bad qualities 

 at the conclusion l5f the first summer, by the re- 

 semblance the leaves bear to the highly cultivat- 

 ed, or wild kinds ; as has been remarked by the 

 writers, on this subject, of the I7th century. 



The leaf and jjeneral habit, of a seedling plant, 

 will, however, by no means convey any correct 

 idea of the merits of the future fruit. Where 

 these have the character of high culiiv itiun, the 

 qualities of the fruit will be far removed from 

 those of the native species"; but the apple may he 

 insipid or hi;:lily flavored green or deeply colorec, 

 and of course well or ill calculated to answer the 

 purposes of the planter. An early blossom in the 

 soring, nnu ai] srJrly chanire of color in the autum- 

 nal leaf would tiaturally be supposed to indicate 

 a fruit of early matuiily ; but I have never been 

 able to discover any criterion of this kind, on 

 whuh the smallest dependence can be placed. — 

 The leaves of some varieties will become yellow 

 and fatt TiffTleavina' the fruit green and immature ; 

 and the leaves in other kinds will retain their 

 verdure long after the fruit has perished. 



The plants where bads in the annual wood are 

 full and prominent, are usually more productive 

 ihan those whose buds are small and shrunk in 

 the bark, but their future produce will depend 

 much on the power the blossoms possess of bear- 

 ing the cold, and this power varies in the differ- 

 ent varieties, and can only be known from e.xperi- 

 ence. Those which produce their loaves and 

 blossoms rather early in the spring are generally 

 preferred, for though they are more exposed to 

 injury from frost, they less frequently suffer from 

 the attacks of insects, the more common cause of 

 failure. 



The disposition to vegetate early or late, in the 

 spring, is like almost every other quality of the 

 apple tree, transferred in different degrees to its 

 offspring ; and the planter must therefore seek 

 those qualities in the parent tree, which he wishes 

 to find in the future seedling plants. The most 

 effective method I have been able to discover of 

 obtaining such fruits, as vegetate very early in 

 the spring, has been by introducing the farina of 

 the Siberian crab into the blossom of a rich and 

 early apple, and by transferring in the same man- 

 ner the farina of the apple, to the blossom of the 

 Siberian crab. The leaf and habit of many of the 



