174 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMEE. 



Afril 



his tracks. He made diligent search, found the 

 missing sheep dead and partly eaten. About the 

 carcass were tracks of a large bird. He set a 

 trap upon the carcass, and next morning had a 

 monster owl, weighing eight pounds. It seems 

 that he lit upon the sheep's back, and with his 

 talons clung to the wool, and with his beak sev- 

 ered the large vein on the side of the neck, thus 

 bleeding him to death. This occurrence would 

 not seem so strange had the sheep been small 

 and poor. Mr. North being a thorough man, and 

 a reader of the Ohio Z*arwe/', keeps but few sheep, 

 and keeps them well. Therefore the crows and 

 owls have no claims on his flock. — J. B. Lang, 

 Huntington, Ohio, in Ohio Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SWEET APPLES. 



The value of sweet apples is not known or ap- 

 preciated. Of all products of the farm, there is 

 nothing so useful, or so profitable, as the best va- 

 rieties of sweet apples. They are in eating early, 

 and continue to the last, say until June of next 

 year. Their use for food, for man and beast, is 

 more valuable than any other kind of fruit or veg- 

 etables. For men, women and children, the 

 use is so great, that it is impossible to estimate 

 it. In the first place many kinds are first-rate for 

 eating raw, and all are good baked. There is no 

 article of food that has so salutary an effect on 

 the digestive organs as baked sweet apples. They 

 keep the bowels in order, and the influence is good 

 on the lungs, liver and kidneys ; in fact, if sweet 

 apples were used freely, there would be but little 

 demand for doctors. Baked apples and milk are 

 among the best things for children. If more of 

 such kinds of food were used, such as mush and 

 milk, apples and milk, milk porridge, &c., in- 

 instead of animal food, cake, pastry, sugar plums 

 or candy, we should see but very few under- 

 sized persons, with rickets, hip disease, spi- 

 nal disease, short, dumpy and weakly, with nar- 

 row chests, round shoulders and shuffling gait. 

 When children are brought up on good vegeta- 

 ble and fruit diet, with loose clothing, out door 

 exercise, short school hours and plenty of inter- 

 esting plays and other acts of freedom, they will 

 in a short time renew our degenerating race. 



The best kinds of sweet apples are the Early 

 Bough, High Top Sweet, Orange Sweet, Harvey 

 Sweeting, Donmouth Sweet, Jones Sweet, Talman 

 Sweet, Lovett Sweet, (of Danvers,) Nectarine 

 Sweet, Ribstone Sweet, Mackay Sweet and Ladies' 

 Sweet ; also Walker's Sweet of North Brookfield, 

 and for a table apple the English Sweet, ri])e or 

 in eating from August to February. It is a large 

 red apple, shape much like the Porter, of a most 

 delicious flavor, and keeps well. Many other kinds 

 could be mentioned, but every one has a few fa- 

 vorites to add, 80 I leave it to individuals to fill 

 up the list. I gave my cow and a colt as many 

 wind fall apples as they wanted from August to 

 October, and they grew fat on them. My cow 

 gave excellent milk and a large quantity, and if 

 she did not get her apples we saw quite a diminu- 

 tion in her milk. I have no doubt but apples 

 will make more milk than any other kind of veg- 

 etable, or fruit. Sweet and sour apples are 

 equally good for cattle, as the flavor of the fruit is 



not in the juice but in the pulp, and as the nu- 

 tritious quality is in the juice, so the pulp or fla- 

 vor is of no consequence. 



Sweet apples are more saleable in the market 

 than any other kinds of fruit. My Early Bough sell 

 for $1,50 per bushel. Orange Sweets $2 to $3 per 

 barrel, and others equally well. The Jones Sweet 

 is a large white apple, a great bearer, and of large 

 size. It came from New Hampshire, and I think 

 no one has them in this vicinity but myself. The 

 Walker Sweet is one of the sweetest apples in 

 existence, good size, and great bearer. The Harvey 

 Sweeting is an old Colony apple, good for baking. 

 The High Top Sweeting is supposed to have been 

 originated by Mr. Blackstone, of Rhode Island. 

 The English Sweet was given to me by Mrs. 

 Clark, a sister of Hon. John H. Wilkins, of Bos- 

 ton. The Donmouth Sweet is peculiar to Rhode 

 Island. The Nectarine Sweet I have — it is a 

 good bearer, and bears every year. 



I have seen several communications In your 

 excellent paper, on the use of sweet apples, and 1 

 am glad to see that the subject is exciting the at- 

 tention of the public. S. A. Shitrtleff. 



Spring Grove, Feb., 1861. 



P. S. — If any person should want scions of any 

 varieties that I have, it would give me pleasure 

 to give them as many as they want. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 EVERBEABING KASPBEKHIES. 



In a selected paragraph, credited to Dr. Ward- 

 er, in the Farmer of February 16. it is remarked : 

 "There is no reason why we may not one day 

 have perpetual raspberries as well as perpetual 

 roses ; there is nothing unreasonable or impossi- 

 ble in it, but yet we have not seen anything of 

 the kind." 



Some three or four years since I discovered a 

 wild raspberry plant, bearing blossoms and ripe 

 fruit in September; at the time I supposed it to 

 be merely an accidental circumstance, rather 

 than a permanent characteristic of the plant ; yet 

 I determined to watch the plant the next season, 

 for the recurrence of the freak. In May, the fol- 

 lowing season, it blossomed and began to mature 

 its fruits with the other wild plants ; but while 

 ripe fruit loaded some of the branches, new 

 shoots were successively appearing on other parts 

 of the plant, developing flowers and flower-buds; 

 and thus till late in autumn, or for more than 

 three months, this plant continually exhibited 

 blossoms, green fruit in all its stages to maturity 

 as well as ripe fruit. The same phenomenon 

 has been repeated every year since, and late in 

 September I have been able several times to col- 

 lect a handful of ripe, large and fine-looking 

 fruit from this anomalous plant. In the fall of 

 1859 it was transplanted to the garden, and last 

 year still persisted in sending out shoots that 

 would develop flowers and mature fruit j but the 

 fruit was smaller than usual, the plaiit evidently 

 suffering from having been transplanted. 



New canes sprang up from the few roots that 

 were left where the original plant stood, grew 

 luxuriantly, and towards the end of summer blos- 

 somed and produced fine large fruit in abundance, 

 and when the cold blasts and cold nights of Oc- 



