406 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUKE 28, issr , 



2SrJ3W JSEf^lS.^SfiB' SS'^SiSSJSlEa 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1837. 



FAKMER'S WORK. 



Forests, Woodland, &c.— [Concluded from p. 3S2.] 

 TllO]na^ VV. Griffith, in an iirticle wiittpn for tlie Amer- 

 ican Fanner, and republished in ilie New England Far- 

 mer, vol. i. page 2, gives the following rules, relative 

 to the culture of trees, from what he learned and saw 

 in Europe : — 



1. That the felling of trees should be confined to the 

 winter season ; or rather to th^it time in which the sap 

 is under ground. 



2. That everj- tree, young and old, on a certain space, 

 should he cut in the same season, for old dead stumps 

 do not reproduce. 



3. That they should be cut as smooth and level with 

 the ground as possible ; and, 



4. That, while young, they be kept from the brows- 

 ing of cattle. 



In clearing land, it has been a common practice to 

 leave standing some trees, particularly maples, espec- 

 ially il the land is meant for pasture. This mode of 

 proceeding, however, has its inconveniences and even 

 danger. The heavy tops, long trunks, and great quan- 

 tities of leaves of such trees, e.\pose theiB very much to 

 the wind, and they are frequently blown over, turning 

 up with their roots a large quantity of the surface of the 

 soil. From this cause, it is often dangerous to permit 

 cattle to range among maple trees, which have obtain- 

 ed their growth in a forest, and are afterwards exposed 

 in open land to the gusts of wind, which so frequently 

 accompany showers in the summer months. It is bet- 

 ter, in clearing land, to leave small trees of the sorts 

 most valuable for timber or fuel, or to protect and rear 

 a second growth, than to attempt to preserve the an- 

 cient tenants of the forests. Trees, which have always 

 been accustomed to the open air, will put forth roots 

 adapted to their exposure. Twenty or thirty trees to 

 an acre of pasture, will do but little injury to the grass, 

 wiM afford a shade and shelter grateful and beneficial to 

 cattle, and six or eight acres thus stocked viith rock 

 maple trees, will afford a valuable sugar orchard. 



Oaks are very valuable, both for timber and for fuel. 

 Miller's Gardener's Dictionary asserts that " Oaks are 

 best produced from the acorns in the place where the 

 trees are to remain ; because those which are trans- 

 planted, will not grow to so large a size, nor remain 

 sound so long. He advises to transplant the acorns as 

 soon as they are ripe in October, which will come up in 

 the following April." But DrDeane preferred that the 

 acornsshould be gathered in autumn, and kept in a box 

 or boxes of sand, till the follo\Ying spring. Then open 

 them, and carefully plant those of them which have 

 sprouted, which, he says, will not fail to come up. But 

 no time should be allowed for the sprouts to dry. 



Evelyn, a famous English agriculturist, says that to 

 sow acorns, beech nuts, ash keys, &c in the autumn, 

 when these seeds will fall spontaneously from the trees, 

 appears by much the most natural method ; but liie de- 

 struction made hf the field-mouse upon these seeds, 

 both at the time of sowing and during the winter, has 

 induced many gentlemen to prefer spring sowin" to the 

 autumnal one, When spring sowing is determined "bn 

 acorns and other seeds must be preserved in sand dur- 

 ing the winter; and in forming the magazines, care 

 must be taken to keep the different sorts from each 

 other. 



To those ol our readers, who may suppose that we 



devote too much time and room to the subject of pre- 

 ,-erving, reproducing and propagating trees, we would 

 ofler the following brief notices of their advantages: 



Cattle thrive inuch better in fields even but moder- 

 ately sheltered with trees, than they do in an open and 

 exposed country. An Italian (Gaulieri) has enumera- 

 ted and illustrated the advantages in point of climate 

 which tracts of country derive from woods and forests. 

 ■' Those," he says, " are arresting the progress of impet- 

 uous and dangerous winds ; maintaining the tempera- 

 ture of the air ; regulating the seasons ; lessening in- 

 tense cold ; opposing the formation and increase of ice ; 

 moderating intense heats: producing abundance of wa- 

 ters in the rivers; discharging the electricity of the at- 

 mosphere ; opposing a barrier to washing away, or un- 

 dermining banks; preserving from inundations; pre- 

 serving the soil on hills and mountains, &c." 



The importance of trees to a country and its inhabi- 

 tants, is not generally, sufficiently appreciated. Should 

 any sudden and destructive convulsion of nature, or 

 any insect like the Scohjtus Destructor, which, some 

 years since, destroyed the elm tries in St. James' and 

 Hyde Park's near London ; or should the improvidence 

 aud waste of the Cultivators of any large portion of the 

 United States, deprive the soil of its trees, not only the 

 loss of property would be inconceivably great, but the 

 part of the country thus laid bare, would become a des- 

 ert. The wind and .sun by their joint and unimpeded 

 operations, would make the surface of the ground a 

 shifting sand, like the interior of Africa, and hill and 

 vale would present one wide spread, cheerless, uninhab- 

 itable region of desolation. 



Col. M. P. Wilder, of Hawthorn Grove, Dorchester, 

 Pansies in variety. 



Oncidium fiexuosum. — A parasite has been in blo'om 

 more than 4 weeks; stalk 27 inches in length, with at 

 one time 07 full expanded blossoms. 



PEBonia Albaflora Richardsoni, Salpiglossis picta, va- 

 riety, Rose Mabach — (new French) — Alslromeria psit- 

 tacina, Calceolaria, Grand Sultan. Many of the seed- 

 ling Pansies exhibited by Col. Wilder, were of great 

 size and beauty. 



Mr Jno. A. Kenrick of Newton,— Specimens of Rosa 

 Irene. 



By S. Walker, Roxbury, — A variety of cut flowers — 

 Seedling Pink, Pansies, &c. Seedling Pansies, var. 

 Village Maid, Othello, Clio, Hecate, &c. 

 For the Committee. 



S. WALKER, Chairman. 



[1j= The public are respectfully invited to visit the 

 rooms of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, on 

 Saturday of each week during the season of Flowers 

 and Fruit, from 10 to 12 o'clock, A. M. 



^PortheNew England Farmer.) 



Thistles — Mr Editor: — Having recently came into 

 possession of a tract of mowing land that contains the 

 Canada TUistlcs, will you or some of your correspon- 

 dents have the goodness to inform me, through the me- 

 dium of your valuable paper, whether I can fodder the 

 hay, without spreading the Thistle over ray whole 

 farm .•■ 



The land upon which the Canada Thistle is growing, 

 is very good, and will produce a good crop, but as il is 

 entirely separate from my farm, I should rather lose the 

 hay, than spread the thistle. 



is there any way whereby I can fodder the hay 

 without spreading the Canada thistle ? By informing 

 me you wiil oblige A Subscriber. 



By the Editor. — We should be happy to hear from 

 our friends and correspondents, wlio have any knowl- 

 edge of the above mentioned part of agriculture, rela- 

 tive to the subject of our correspondent's inquiry. In 

 the mean time, we would suggest the plan of cutting 

 the grass, thistles and all, before the thistle had pro- 

 duced its seeds. The grass may, perhaps, not have at- 

 tained its full growth, but will probably have come near 

 to maturity, while the thistles are still in flower. 



How TO CDRE HARD TIMES. — We are extremely grat- 

 ified to witness the facility with which our people ac- 

 commodate themselves to the times. 



We have 26 shoe shops in the village of our residence 

 in Bradford ; they were stowed full of men and boys, 

 and the sound of the hammer was incessant last winter, 

 from day light till ten at night. A few weeks since, 

 the whole system of shoe business was deranged ; in- 

 stead of a press for hands, there was little employment, 

 and less pay. Our people walked the streets, talked 

 politics, anil played ball a few days, to prepare their 

 limbs and bodies for other operations, and then took to 

 farming and gardening, with an industry truly amusing 

 and praise-worthy. Lots of land are procured by al- 

 most every mechanic who has a family, the door yards 

 and out-houses are searched for manure, and every 

 pleasant day, the fields are all alive with cheerful la- 

 borers. 



We ascertained a few days since, that one small farm 

 of 18 or 20 acres, which was let out this spring, had 13 

 occupants ! many other fields are let in pieces, and we 

 doubt not the next autumn will witness tlie owners out 

 of the reach ol speculators in grain and fJour. Our 

 other villages are pursuing a similar course. It is a haid 

 job to starve a yankee, unless you catch him unawares. 

 — Haverhill Gaz. 



MASSACHUSETTS HOUTICULTURAL, SOCIETY, 



EXHIBITION OF FLOWERS. 



Saiurday, June 24, 1837. 



Bv Mr William Kenrick, of Newton,. — A variety of 

 cut flowers, among which we noticed Pa^onies var., 

 Iris, Purple Beech, Delphinium sinenses, &c. 



John D. W. Williams, Esq. of Elm Wood, Roxbury, 

 — A very fine specimen of Erica Ventricosa superba ; 

 it would give us great pleasure to see other specimens 

 of this class of plants. 



Molasses for Preserving Fruit. — Receipt for pre- 

 paring molasses for preserving fruit, iScc., which ren- 

 ders it much better suited for that purpose, than a syrup 

 prepared from the best loaf sugar, as it is not so liable 

 to candy, nor (if well prepared) to ferment. Take 8 

 pounds molasses, bright New Orleans or Sugar House, 

 8 pounds pure water, 1 lb. coarsely powdered charcoal, 

 boil for 20 minutes, then strain through fine flannel, 

 double — put it again in a kettle with the white of an 

 egg, and boil gently till it forms a syrup of proper con- 

 sistence, and strain again. — Belvidere Apollo. 



Keep tour Hoes Sharp. — Very likely your grand- 

 father never heard of such a thing as grincing a hoe ; 

 but no matter, try it for yourself, and see if a sharp hoe 

 does not work as much easier as a sharp axe. You 

 would think yourself poorly provided for mowing, with- 

 out a rubstone or a rifle ; and a file for sharpening a 

 hoe, is as necessary in a field of corn, as the former im- 

 plements are in the meadow. — Gen. Far. 



