370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



two sizes ; a number of silver or silver plated 

 buckles ; a drinking cup, powder horn, two or 

 three coins, two Indian stone pipes, and quite a 

 number of beads. There were also bones wl.~cb 

 on handling, fulfilled the prediction, crumbling in- 

 to dust. 



Twentj'-five years ago, two guns were found 

 about half a mile south of where these were found, 

 leaning against a tree. Still farther south a few 

 miles, in Holland, Vt., a man found a gun, and 

 afterwards happening to dig a post hole on tlie 

 same spot, found seven or eight dollars worth of 

 Indian ornaments of gold, and three or four sun- 

 glasses, which he sold on Stanstead Plain. 



It seems as if this party had been pursued as 

 far as the spot where the relics were found, that a 

 battle took ])lace there in which some white men 

 fell, and the Indians were entirely destroyed, or so 

 badly defeated that they did not attempt to fol- 

 low any farther. They must have been destroyed, 

 for the pipes and beads tell of unburied Indians. 

 None of their friends ever found them, or they 

 would certainly have been buried. The guns found 

 in tM'o places farther south, tell of a retreating 

 company passing southward. No longer pursued, 

 and unable to bear them farther, they left them to 

 be found a hundred years after, and indicate their 

 bloody path. 



The place was a wet spot naar a small river. It 

 was a little piece of new ground being got in, and 

 fire running over it uncovered the remains which 

 had been covered with leaves ; the reason they 

 had not been discovered before, as the country is 

 well settled. No ramrod was found, though most 

 of the other parts of the gun were. 



Stanstead, C. E., June, 1860. J. G. Field. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PRUNING TREES. 



Mr. Brown : — What a beautiful season we are 

 enjoying. I go into the house each pleasant even- 

 ing, only when it is too dark to see anything more 

 abroad ! There is a great promise of apples. I 

 aever saw a fuller blossom ; and enough are stick- 

 ing on, and swelling up rapidly day by day. 



I am spending a good deal of time with a saw 

 and mallet and broad chisel, trimming. The sum- 

 mer is the time for this work. I see every year 

 that some don't believe it ; think it better to slap 

 into the trees at their leisure in March and April. 

 The practice is a wrong one, I have proved it. 

 Wounds of any size made in those months will 

 bleed, and not soon heal. 



Those who expect large, fine apples must take 

 a hint from Mr. Bull's method of raising such 

 magnificent bunches of grapes. His vines are 

 headed back, pruned, pinched, till the whole force 

 of Avell-supplied roots is driven into a few mouth- 

 watering clusters. Nature in trees provides 

 against casualties. There is an excess of limbs. 

 Some may be destroyed and the tree remain more 

 comely and productive. 



I have always been a strong advocate for trees. 

 They are to the landscape what the hair is to the 

 head — an ornament and a defence ; and if fruit 

 trees well tended, particularly, a source of profit 

 as well as pleasure. 



It is well to consider. On your farm there lies 

 buried, below the reach of the plowshare, much 



richness that can only be of service to you when 

 penetrated to by the absorbing rootlets of thrifty 

 trees. By the aid of the tree, this otherwise lost 

 matter is changed into food for your family, or 

 load for the market-wagon. 



But if trees work downward with benefit to their 

 owner, they work upward with no less. This mass 

 of leaves which has so rapidly spread over every 

 tree, is l)ut a great straining apparatus ; purifying 

 the air by breathing it over, but absorbing from it 

 floating atoms which they transform into wood 

 and fruit — silver and gold. w. D. B. 



Concord, Mass., June, 1860. 



USES AND VALUE OP MUCK--III. 



now MUCK MAY BE BEST OBTAINED. 



The circumstances under which muck beds are 

 placed are so various, that only a few general 

 rules can be suggested, which would prove useful. 

 Many of them cannot be approached with teams, 

 unless when the ground is frozen, and then the 

 springs and swamps being usually filled with wa- 

 ter, the excavation of the muck becomes an oper- 

 ation of extreme difficulty. Beds thus situated 

 often present so many obstacles to their remo- 

 val, that where the farmer is in possession of the 

 most ample supplies, he foregoes their advanta- 

 ges rather than encounter such diflieulties, and 

 consequently expenses, to procure it. The only 

 way in which we have been able to obtain it froui 

 such localities is, to take advantage of a severe 

 summer drouth, and throw up large quantities in 

 compact, high piles, and leave it to be hauled 

 away by sled or cart, when the surface is sufficient- 

 ly frozen to support a team. If near the high land, 

 and the muck is of good quality, it will justify tho 

 expense of wheeling it out upon planks laid for 

 the purpose. The valley muck, heretofore spoken 

 of, may usually be removed at once by teams, but 

 if thrown up and allowed a sufficient time to drain 

 and dry, the expense of carting will be considera- 

 bly reduced. 



SOME OF THE MODES IN WHICH MUCK MAY BE 

 PREPARED FOR USE. 



The most common way in which muck is used, 

 and the most practical and profitable, is to collect 

 and store it in a dry state in some place conve- 

 nient to the droppings of the stalls, and each 

 day spread upon them twice as much as the drop- 

 pings themselves. The late Elias Phinney, of 

 Lexington, Massachusetts, who introduced this 

 practice on a large scale, and whose ample depos- 

 its near his barns we have often seen, assured us 

 that he estimated three cords of manure compost- 

 ed in this manner at a higher value, than three 

 cords of the droppings alone. Perhaps no other 

 man in the county has given this subject so much 

 attention. He displaced acres together by cutting 

 deep ditches and taking their muck away, then 

 nearly filling them with .stones which obstructed, 



