VOIi. XVIII. NO. 11. 



A IS D HU it 11 tJ U L< i U ix^vi^ I^, xj Kj L vj X ±^ 



Agriculture is an employment which not only 

 ,uchc3 tlie heart but gives pleasure to the eye, 

 hich is sure to receive its due portion of delight 

 very thing on a well conducted farm at every sea- 

 jn is beautiful — at some seasons indescribably so ; 

 ratifying to a proud spirit and soothing to a wound- 

 d one. It is the farmer's own creation ; it has 

 een called into life and activity and breathing 

 eauty by his own genius and industry, and when 

 e has tlianked God for the sun, and the shower, 

 nd the strength lent him for labor, he may be a 

 roud man, nor be asliamed of his pride, and a vain 

 lan, with his vanity proceeding from a good source 

 —his own merit and perseverance. 



Most happy should I be if what I have here writ- 

 en should be the means of transforming one city 

 dler into an industrious country farmer. As he is 

 eckoned a public benefactor who makes two spears 

 if grass grow where but one grew before, so may 

 le be estimated who converts a "weed rotting on 

 jethe's brink" into an useful vegetable. 



Mr Colman : My pen such as the above hastily 

 )enned paragraphs show it to be, is very much at 

 ^our service. !• A. J. 



Can you account for this freak of nature, and by 

 communication oblige 



Yours, ELIIIU BLAKE. 



Southboro\ ^iug. 28, 1839. 

 ro the Editor of the N. E. Farmer : 



Sir As my experience is small in the cultiva- 

 tion of the peach, and as I am unable to give Mr j 

 Blake any information on the subject, or " account 1 

 for this freak of nature,"! transmit his letter to you, 

 with the addition of a few lines. 



In the orchard of Peter Fay, of this town, there 

 is a case of as prominent a deviation as those in 

 Mr Blake's garden. A peach tree on his ground 

 having two branches three feet from the ground, 

 has always before, for some years, presented fruit 

 ripe about the 20th or 25th of September— a free 

 stone. This year the fruit on the southwest branch 

 of this tree began to ripen by the 15th of the pres- 

 ent month (August,) and are now all taken from this 

 branch, while those on the other part of tins tree 

 are not changed from their former character. I 

 send you the two kinds, (as they appear to be) from 

 this tree for your inspection. 



Respectfully Yours, 



JOEL BURNETT. 



N. B. Mr Blake has paid great attention to cul- 

 tivating the peach, and his garden has many vari- 

 eties. J- ^• 



I Remarks.— -It is not in our power to throw any 

 I light upon those " freaks of nature" which our car- 

 ! re'spondent and his friend Mr Blake, have made 

 j knowa. It does not, however, seem possible to us, 

 that a tree of any description should produce two 

 sorts of fruit so different its those sent by Dr. Bur- 

 nett, unless it was effected by budding- or grafting. 

 Is this not the case ? The two varieties of peaches 

 sent for our inspection, are as different as can be : 

 the laro-e ones were delicious and handsome, while 

 the others were small, green, and far from being 

 ripe. 



VVe had written thus far when our friend, J. L. 

 L. F. Warren, of Brighton, called upon us, and he 

 beino' an e.vperienced horticulturalist, we laid the 

 case before him, and to our surprise was informed, 

 that he had a peach tree which bore three distinct 

 varieties of fruit, which were e.'ihibited at our hor- 

 ticultural society's hall a few years since, and re- 

 ported in the N. E. Farmer. They were on three 

 distinct branches : one variety a clingstone, rose 

 and blush, one a rareripe, and one a rose cheek free- 

 stone—all first rate fruits. He supposes that they 

 proceeded from a stone with three kernels, as the 

 stem of the tree had the appearance of three trees 

 closely united and grown together. We know of 

 t no other way to account for this apparent singular 

 deviation from the common course of nature. We 

 know that a dozen seeds from a dahlia will frequent- 

 ly produce as many varieties, or the seeds from a 

 capsule of carnation sport in the same manner, and 

 on the same principle two or three kernels in a 

 peach stone may produce different sorts ; but that 

 a tree should bear more than one kind of fruit, un- 

 less grown together at the bottom, or by the pro- 

 cess of budding or grafting, our faith is hardly large 

 enough to believe without a very close investiga- 

 tion. J- B. 



p. S. One of our eminent nursery men informs 



us that he once saw an apple tree, a branch of 

 which produced two distinct varieties of apples ; 

 that he e.xamined it closely and could not perceive 

 any appearance of its having been budded or gral't- 

 ed : this of course is a stumbler to onr faith, but 

 still we cannot give up the idea that without arti- 

 ficial means the thing is impossible. 



This I think, Mr Editor, is profitable horticulture. 

 It is at the rate of more than $1120 per acre. 

 This cultivator reaped more from his little patcli of 

 ground than many of our farmers do from acres ; 

 and so it will be till they can loam to cultivate less 

 land, and that, from their bad management, gener- 

 ally half starved. A farm sliould be an extended 

 garden ; and then every inch of ground, grateful 

 for the care we have taken of it, will bountifully 

 repay our labour. Mother earth is better than her 

 children; she is grateful for favors and returns 

 them. 



These strawberries were sent from Dedham to 

 New York for a market. What a blessing these 

 Rail Roads are, especially to farmers! ensuring a 

 more ready sale for produce by multiplying markets, 

 and bringing distant ones near. If farmers are 

 faithful to their true interests they will be excited 

 by these increased facilities to make greater im- 

 provements in agriculture, with the assurance that 

 they will increase an hundred fold the produce of 

 their fields, and receive a liberal reward for the la- 

 bour of their hands. W. 

 Dedham, Mgust 22d, 1839. 



lVestboro\ 24//i Aug., 1839. 



Dr. Burnett — Knowing your taste, experience, 

 and success in horticultural pursuits, 1 am induced 

 to address you, stating some facts and offering que- 

 ries in relation to fruit growing. 



Some years since I obtained a lot of peach trees 

 from a nursery in Hartford, Ct., one of which had 

 shown fruit two years, which were White Rareripes, 

 in accordance with its label— ripe ^Sth of Septem- 

 ber. This year it presents an early Clingstone, 

 beautifully colored with red and yellow, and begin- 

 ning now to be ripe — 23d of August. 



I have also a seedling which was never trans- 

 planted, with two distinct branches, making a fork 

 about 18 inches above the surface : both branches 

 produced peaches of a moderate size and quality ; a 

 few of them had a little blush — ripe 24th of Sep- 

 tember. One of the branches is now, (23d of Au- 

 gust) ripening its fruit, with increased size, rareripe 



For the New Elngland Farmer. 

 STRAWBERRIES. 



WATER CAUSING FIRE. 

 Ashes made of hard wood, when first made, and 

 so long as they are kept dry, contain a metal called 

 potassfuin ; discovered by Davy, and which is the 

 basis of potash. This metal the moment water 

 touches it, decomposes the fluid by the absorption 

 of its oxygen, and the combination produces a bril- 

 liant combustion ; the result of which is potash, or 

 in other words potash is an oxyde of iron. Quick 

 lime and water produce heat sufficient to set fire to 

 wood, but there is no actual combustion of the sub- 

 stances themselves. 



In the case of the potassium the flame is brilliant, 

 the instant it is touched by the water. It is sup- 

 posed that this fact will account for many of those 

 fires which have originated from ashes taken up 

 and kept safe, until all fire, it was supposed, was 

 extinguished, and which was probably the case, 

 and which was then turned into some small box or 

 barrel, until they could be disposed of. Such per- 

 fectly dry ashes, free from fire, would, should tliey 

 come in contact with a wet stave, hoard, or even ex- 

 posed to a current of moist air, would produce suf- 

 ficient combustion to ignite wood, or coal, and 

 might thus be the means of causing an extensive 

 conflagration. That water produces flame, is here 

 evidenl, but this is only one of the many wonders 

 that the science of chemistry has in modern times 

 revealed. — Genesee Fanner. 



Mr EnrTOK— a neighbor of mine having very 

 successfully cultivated the strawberry this season, 

 I send you a sketch of the results, hopiiig''it may 

 induce some of your readers to " go and do like- 

 wise." 



The ground measured ten rods, has a southern 

 aspect, and is of ordinary quality. This plot was 

 planted with the Methven Castle four years since, 

 has been well taken care of, and is now well cov- 

 ered with vines. From June 18th to July I9th, 

 were sold strawberries to the amount of .S'''. The 

 quantity gathered during this period weighed 258 

 lbs. and measured eight bushels and three pecks. 

 The amount of expense for labor, manure and send- 

 ing to market was $6,44. These strawberries were 

 sold to the Astor House, N. Y- and none were sent 

 ,„oa=nrln<r Ipsa than two inches and a half in cir- 



Influence of Climate vpon Seed. We received, 

 last spring, twelve ears of Dutton corn from Mr 

 Osborn, from Oswego county, his residence differ- 

 ing from ours; in latitude and altitude, about two 

 degrees. We planted with this seed about eight 

 rows across our field, the residue being planted 

 with seed of our own raising. The Oswego corn 

 tasselled about two weeks earlier than that from seed 

 raised in Albany, thus showing six or seven day's 

 difference for a computed degree of latitude in the 

 earliness of the crop— the northern seed giving the 

 earliest crop in a ratio inverse to the forwardness of 

 the spring. This will serve as a hint to farmers in 

 districts where corn is liable to be cut off by early 

 autumnal frosts, to obtain their seed from a more 

 northern latitude, or from a district of higher lati- 



