NEW ENOI.AND FAKMEK. 



Published by John B. Russell, at JVo. 52 JVorth Market Street, (over the Agrieultural Warehouse). — Thomas G. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JUIN K 27, 1828. 



No. 49. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Extracts from KnigkCs Treatise on the Cntture of 

 the Apple and Pear. 



At wliatcver season grafts are intendeit to be 

 inserted, the branches, which are to form tliern, 

 should be taken from the pareiJfttock during tlie 

 winter, and not later tlian the ewL of the preced- 

 ing year ; for if the buds have begun to vegetate, 

 in the smallest degree, and they begin with the 

 increasing influence of the sun, the vigoT" of the 

 shoots, during the first season, will be diminished ; 

 and the grafts will not succeed with equal cer- 

 tainty ; though a graft of the apple tree very 

 rarely fails, unless by accidental injiay, or great 

 want of skill in the operator. The amputated 

 branches must be kept ahve, till wanted, and liav- 

 ing the end of each planted in the ground, a lew 

 inches deep in a shady situation. 



The propriety of grafting near the ground, or 

 at the height of six or seven feet, will depend on 

 the kind of fruit to be propagated, whether it be 

 quite new and just beginning to bear, or a middle 

 aged variety. In new and luxuriant varieties, 

 and these only sJiould be propagated, it will be 

 advantageous to grafts when the stocks are three 

 years old; as the growth of such will be more ra- 

 pid, smooth, and straight, than that of the crab — 

 and there will be no danger of these being injur- 

 ed by begiiuiing to bear too early. Not however, 

 because they will bear less abundantly than oth- 

 ers, but because they will support a heavy crop of 

 fruit, and grow very considerably in the same 

 season. I, nevertheless, formerly conceived it ;>ro- 

 tjable that grafts fi'om middle aged varieties, hav- 

 ing attained a more perfect state of matiffity, 

 would be most productive of fruit. The close 

 analogy between vegetable and animal beings 

 might, however, have induced me to infer, what 

 subsequent experience has taught me, that the 

 power and disposition in plants, as in animals, to 

 produce the most numerous offspring, is greatest 

 during their youth. It may nevertheless be a ques- 

 tion whether the fruit of a newly raised variety 

 of the apple will possess all the merits of the same 

 fruit at its maturer age ; and this is a question of 

 no easy solution. The man who shall have mark- 

 ed the gradual change, during a sufficient number 

 of years, will fiiid himself no longer young, and 

 an old man, the " laudator temporis acti," though 

 his organs should remain unimpaired, will not 

 readily admit that the fruit, which he remembers 

 as a boy, has improved. In the decay of each 

 variety, its merits appear to decline ; for I feel too 

 much deference for the opinions of our ancestors 

 not to believe that the redstreak and golden pip- 

 pin were once better cider apples than they are 

 at present ; and it also appears extremely proba- 

 ble that the fruit should be affected by the diseas- 

 ed and debilitated state of the tree. Middle aged 

 kinds will be most successfully propagated by 

 planting stocks of six or seven feet high, and let- 

 ting them remain ungrafted till they become firm- 

 ly rooted in the places in which the trees are to 

 stand. One graft oVily should be inserted in each 

 stock ; for when more are used, they are apt to 

 divide when loaded with fruit, and to cleave the 

 stock, having no natuial bond or connexion with 



each other. When the stocks are too large for a 

 single scion, I would reconmiend that grafts be 

 inserted in the branches and not iji the principal 

 stem. 



Could the future produce of young seedHng 

 trees be ascertauied with accuracy at four or five 

 years old, much advantage would arise from in 

 sertmg buds in tlie annual shoots of stocks of the 

 same age, at the height of six or seven feet ; as 

 the planter might then be in possession of a num 

 ber of trees of any variety, just at the age when 

 it arrived at the bearing state ; and would be able 

 to command a large number of grafts, as early as 

 the merits of the fruit were knoivn. No means 

 by which the effects of time o:i the apple tree can 

 be anticipated have yet occurred to me, and I des- 

 pair of future success. In the common manner 

 of growth in trees, the lateral buds are formed in 



one season, and expand into shoots in the next 



But if the point of a seedling tree, when it is a 

 few weeks old, be pinched off, one or more of the 

 uppermost lateral buds almost immediately vege- 

 tates ; and if the point of the shoot this affords, 

 be in the same manner taken off, the lateral buds 

 again vegetate like the preceding ; and the same 

 process, with the aid of artificial heat, may be re- 

 peated seven or eight times m the first year. — 

 When two lateral buds had shown a disposition 

 to vegetate with nearly equal vigor, I in several 

 instances, took off, in the year 1801, the shoot 

 inmiediately above the second bud, and then in- 

 serted the amputated part, as a graft, within the 

 bark of the annual shoot of a stock of foiu- years 

 old. Several giafts, thus inserted in June and 

 July, succeeded perfectly well, and the leaf and 

 general character of the shoots these produced, 

 appeared sufBciently different from those of an- 

 nual plants to encourage very sanguine hopes of 

 success. But these hopes have been totally dis- 

 appointed, and I have therefore nothing better 

 than patience to recommend to the propagator of 

 new fruits. 



Though the quahty of the fruit of a seedling 

 tree cannot be ascertained whilst very young, I 

 always insert a few grafts from every tree, whose 

 appearance is very promismg, because by having 

 several trees of the variety, I can better ascertain 

 its vigor and hardiness, and at the same time am 

 enabled to gain a more correct idea of the form 

 and character the variety will take in its future 

 growth, than can ever be obtained from a single 

 plant. The trees thus grafted, wiD also attain 

 nearly the same height and size as those which 

 have been left in their natural state, and (should 

 their fruit not be found valuable) will be just as 

 proper as those to be grafted in the manner re- 

 commended with middle aged varieties. Care 

 must, however, be taken to use the scions of such 

 trees only, as are perfectly healthy. and vigorous. 

 An opinion was formerly entertained, and does 

 not at present appear to be quite obsolete, that 

 fi-uits might be improved by this process of double 

 grafting ; from the changes the sap was supposed 

 to undergo in its passage through a stem belong- 

 ing to different kinds of fruit. But 1 am inchned 

 to think that no such changes take place, and that 

 the leaf is the chief laboratory in which nature 

 prepares the juices of plants, and in which these 



acquire the power to generate and deposit the 

 new matter that constitutes the annual increase 

 of the tree. The width, and thickness of the 

 leaf, generally indicates the size of the future ap- 

 ple, and the color of the black cherry, and purple 

 grape, may be known by its autumnal tints, evei) 

 in plants which have sprung from seed in the pre- 

 cedhig spring. The tinging matter, in the leavefe 

 of these, is probably of the same kind as that to 

 which the fruits will in future owe their colors. 

 I have had some reason to believe that each va- 

 riety of fruit requii-es its own i)eculiar leaf ; for ) 

 have several times grafted the branches of young 

 apple and pear trees close above some buds con- 

 taining blossoms ; and these, in four instances, 

 produced fruit, which grew well, as long as I left 

 any of their own leaves on the tree ; but when I 

 took those away, and none remained but those of 

 the grafts, Avhich were of other kinds, they with- 

 ered and fell off. Whether their falling was oc- 

 casioned by the want of proper nourishment, or 

 by some oti:er cause, is a question on which I am 

 not prepared to decide. I am, however, disposed 

 to attribute their falUng to some other cause ; for 

 the vessels which carry nutriment to the fruit, do 

 not appear to me to have any intimate connexion 

 with those of the adjoining leaves, and I have 

 some reason to believe that a fluid, of the same 

 kmd, is conveyed by similar vessels, into the fruit 

 and leaf. 



FINING CIDER. 



When fining is wanted for good cider, isinglass 

 is tlie best ; it is composed of innumerable fil3res, 

 which being dispersed over the hquor, attach 

 themselves to, and carry down its impurities. It 

 should for this purpose, be reduced to small frag- 

 ments by pounding in a mortar, and afterwards 

 be steeped in a quantity of the cider to be fined, 

 sufficient to produce its greatest degree of expan- 

 sion — in this state it must be mixed with a few 

 gallons more of the hquor, or be stirred till it is 

 diffused and suspended in it ; — it is then to be 

 poured into the cask, and incorporated with the 

 whole by continued agitation, for the space of two 

 hours ; one and a half, or two ounces, calculated 

 at about five staples to the oimce, are sufficient 

 for a hogshead of 110 gallons. The operatien of 

 isinglass is somewhat ehyinical as well as mechan- 

 ical ; it combines with, and carries down the 

 tanning principle, hence, in the process of fining,, 

 the liquor loses a large portion of its astringency. 

 Isinglass is more easily tliffused through the liquor 

 by being boiled ; but by this it is dissolved, and 

 its organization, on which its powers of fining de- 

 pend, is totally destroyed. The excessive bright- 

 ness it produces, is agreeable to the eye, but the 

 liquor in ray opinion, from repeated experiment^ 

 more especially in the eider from the Hewes' crab, 

 always becomes more thin and acid by the ope- 

 ration. 



Wliere isinglass cannot be had, the whites of 

 eggs are an excellent substitute. Many nice man- 

 agers among the opulent agriculturists of this and-' 

 the neighboring States, use them for the table" 

 Uquors bottled at home ; by some accitfate and 

 scientific men they are preferred to isinglass, as 

 less apt to produce hardness in the liquor. The 



