irOL. .XXII. IV > 1. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



From the Albany Cutlivalor. 



PEACH TREES. 



My !rraiiJf;ilIicr. Ralpli Voorliees, of this town, 

 >s Iniijf been a iii.ist siiccessful cnltivator of llie 

 ^ac.li tree, and from infonnalion derived from him, 

 ieelBCl for publioalion a few liints, tngelher with 

 nmc particulars obtained from other sources. 



Peach stones sliould be buried in the fall, in 

 -y jfround ; over them slijhtly ; freezing is no 

 ijury. In the sprinp, diff them up, crack them, 

 jt leave the pits wilhin tiio shells, as tliis is most 

 ;cordin^f to nature, and so plant thcin. If the 

 oni^s are not cracked when planted, they may not 

 'gelate until the t^econd year; and indeed my in- 

 irinttit has known them in one instance, to lie 

 ilf a dozen years before coming up. 



July, thouorh a good time for inoculating plum 

 'CCS, is too early for the peach. If peach trees 

 re inoculated in this month, every rain causes the 



ound to send forth a quantity of gum, which be- 

 onies hard, and is liuitful to the buds. This evil 



ill be diminished, if Ihe operation is deferred un- 

 1 August, or, what is still better, the early part of 

 eptember. Set the buds on the north side of the 

 •ee ; t:ie sun will not be so likely to dry them up. 



Peach trees, in this region, are much infested 

 y ants. These insects gnaw the bark, producing 



flow of gum; they also gather upon the leaves, 

 ause them to curl up and turn yellow, thereby 

 urting the growth of the tree. I should like to 

 .ear whether the same plague e.sists elsowliore. 



Urine, thrown frequently around the bodies and 

 oots of the trees, is a powerful stimulant to their 

 jrowth, and preserves them in a great measure 

 "rom the worm. Mr Voorhees treated his trees in 

 .his manner last year ; and among the whole num- 

 3er, consisting of about fifty, but one worm was de- 

 ected during the season; nor were the ants so 

 roublcsome as formerly. Some persons cover the 

 jasi! of the tree with tar, and no doubt it is ser- 

 I'iceable against both wol-ms and ants. I believe 

 the rav^iges of the worm may be prevented in a va- 

 riety of ways, without resorting to the plan recom- 

 mended in recent papers, of setting vermifuge 

 plants, as tansy or wormwood, around the trees, 

 [t is worthy of inquiry, whether wormwood used 

 for this purpose, would not be highly prejudicial to 

 the growth of the tree, as this plant is noted for 

 its power of draining the soil of irs potash, an in- 

 gredient exceedingly useful to fertility. It is bet- 

 ter to keep the earth for some distance around the 

 trunk, clear of weeds, grass, and ail living plants; 

 and when young trees are set out, the gr(uind 

 should be kept under cultivation several years af- 

 terwards; for which purpose, one of the crops best 

 adapted is potatoes. A. R. McCORD. 



Z<.i;gra(!g'e, Ouchcss Co., jV. Y. 



A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator says 

 his horse was cured of inflammation in the eye by 

 the lollowing treatment : "Take sassafras twigs of 

 one year's growth ; take the inner bark, a handful 

 to a pint of cold water ; let it stand for a tew 

 hours ; it will become thick, like the white of an 

 egg : wa.sh the eye out well ; it will remove the 

 inflammation. For ii film on the eye, pulverize loaf 

 sugar as fine as possible; fill ii quill with il, and 

 blow it in the eye ; it will remove the film. My 

 hor.-ie was entirely blind, and the above cured him, 

 60 Ihut he can see as well as ever." 



STIRRING THE SOIL. 



The cultivator will derive mahy advantages 

 from a careful investigation of the sufipoit yielded 

 by the vapor of the atmosp^iore to his plants. He 

 will perceive that its unvaried presence affords an 

 additional reason why the air should be allowed to 

 circulate freely through the well pulverized and 

 loosened soil, to the roots of all growing crops ; 

 and let him, above all, avoid the very common er- 

 roneous opinion, that the atmosphere is ever ilry : 

 the fact is the very opposite. The chemist's labo- 

 rious investigations have clearly demonstrated, 

 that though the watery vapor varies in amount, yet 

 it is never absent from the atmosphere, but that it 

 happily always the more abounds where the culti- 

 vator's crops need its assistance most; it is then 

 the most able to furnish the roots of his grain crops 

 with all the moisture they require ; and if it is un- 

 able to penetrate to them, the fault is not in the 

 wise economy of nature, but in the carelessness of 

 the cultivator, who is either too inattentive to see 

 the advantages which he might thus freely derive, 

 or too indolent to loosen the ca.«e-hardened soil, 

 which prevents the entrance of the requisite sup- 

 ply of moisture. 



One of the causes of the unproductiveness of 

 cold, clayey, adhesive soils, as Davy well remark- 

 ed, is, that the seed is coaled with matter imper- 

 meable to air. The farmer can convince him.self 

 of these facts by the simplest of all experiments. 

 Let him merely use his rake or his hoe on a por- 

 tion of a bed of wheat or turnips, or any other 

 kind of crop, and let him, in (he driest weather, 

 merely keep this portion of soil loose by this gen- 

 tle stirring, and he will find that, instead of pre- 

 judicing his crop by letting out the moisture, as is 

 often ignorantly supposed, something is evidently 

 let into the soil ; for the portion thus tilled will be 

 soon visibly increased in luxuriance by the mere 

 manual labor thus bestowed ; and in this experi.- 

 meni, which I have ofion tried, I am supposing 

 that both portions of the ground are equally free 

 from weeds ; that in every other respect, the treat- 

 ment of both the tilled and undisturbed portions of 

 the experimental plot is exactly the same. To a 

 very great extent, some of the best of the Eng- 

 lish farmers have long found out these facts, and 

 have acted upon the discovery. The horso-hoe of 

 the east and south of England, in the driest days 

 of summer, may be seen at work in the large sandy 

 turni() fields of Norfolk and Suff'cilk, with unvaried 

 regularity ; not for the mere destruction of weeds, 

 but for the chief and highly beneficial purpose of 

 increasing the circulation of the gases and vapor 

 of the air. " The longer I keep stirring the soil 

 between my turnip diilfs," said Lord Leicester to 

 me, some years since, " in dry weather, the better 

 the turnips grow." 



The absolute necessity for all crops receiving a 

 regular supply of carbonic acid gas, will explain 

 to the farmer why his crops always yield an infe- 

 rior produce when they are surrounded by thick 

 plantations of timber trees ; and why the portion 

 of all kinds of plantations growing on the side of 

 the field the most exposed to the winds is almost 

 always of the most luxuriant growth; it will ex- 

 plain to him the reason why many skilful farmers 

 drill their corn so that the most prevalent winds 

 may, with the more facility, circulate iilong the 

 rows, instead of across them; and why all farmers 

 find that tlieir crops prosper better in moderately 

 windy weather than in calms ; since in all these 



instances, and in many other well known popular 

 observations of the same kind, the copious supply 

 of the carbonic acid and oxygen gases of the at- 

 mosphere is naturally impeded by thick plantations 

 of other vegetable substances, and promoted by 

 the winds. 



The consumption of oxygen gas by the roots of 

 plants, and their increaso of growth and vigor, 

 when their usually impeded supply is increased, is 

 equally fraught with instruction to the cultivator; 

 for it serves to explain the reason why stirring the 

 soil around the roots of trees, according to the 

 fashion of the early vine and olive cultivators of 

 Italy, or merely disturbing the rows of cabbages 

 and turnips, as practiced by the best English far- 

 mers, is attended with decided advantage, since it 

 suffers the air to have more free access to their 

 roots. It renders apparent, too, one of the chief 

 reasons why mere stibsoil plowing adds so mate- 

 rially to the luxuriant produce of even the poorest 

 cultivated lands, since, as the soil is deepened and 

 pulverized, the atmosphere more freely and more 

 copiously penetrates to the roots of the vegetation 

 it supports. The same facts explain the advan- 

 tages of deep plowing, of sub-turf plowing, and of 

 trenching ; why the indolent farmer in vain tries 

 to render productive his shallow-plowed lands; 

 and why, when the industrious cottager encloses 

 his garden from the barren waste, too poor to suffi- 

 ciently manure it, he yet renders it productive of 

 excellent crops, by merely trenching it to the 

 depth of 18 or 20 inches. — Farmers' Encyclop. 



MASS. HORTICQLTURAL SOCIETY. 



EXHIBITIO.V OF FRUITS. 



Saturday, June 17, 1843. 



Two boxes of Early Virginia Strawberries from 

 J. F. Trull, Dorchester — the first of the season. 



June 24. — Black Hamburg, White Chasselas, 

 and Miller's Burgundy Grapes — fine specimens — 

 from Dr. Howard, Brookline. 



Black Hamburg (superior,) White Chasselas, 

 and Black Grapes of St. fllichael — fine specimens. 

 Royal George Clingstone Peaches, found by a sure 

 test to be fine flavored — averaging over 6 oz. each. 

 Barrasaube Grapes and St. Michael Figs, and To- 

 matoes — from J. F. Allen, Salem. 



One box Keen's Seedling Strawberries — superb 

 —-from Mr Charles Rohbins, South Boston. 



Victoria or Black Hamburg Grapes — from Col. 

 T. H. Perkins, Brookline. 



Fine specimens of Ivirly Virginia Strawberries, 

 from J. F. Trull, Dorchester. 



Four boxes of Early Virginia and four of Royal 

 Scarlet Strawberries, from J. L. L. F. Warren, 

 Brighton. 



Box of Eirly Bigareau Cherries, from the Presi- 

 dent of the Society. 



Early Virginia Strawberries — fine specimens — 

 from Messrs. Hovey. Cambridgeport. 



Early Virginia Strawberries, from Mr A. H. 

 Hovey, Cambridgeport. 



For the Committee, 



B. V. FRENCH. 



The superficial area of Great Britain comprises 

 about 57 millions of acres, of which ii-l millions are 

 in cultivation, and JO millions of the remainder arc 

 susceptible of imnrovement. With the present 

 population, every 34 acres raise food for about 20 

 people, and the 10 millions of acres if improved, 

 would feed an additional population of C millions. 



