1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



259 



two hundred dollars a year, per acre, for eight 

 years in succession on twenty rods of land ! On 

 the same piece, the owner had a single rod of 

 the best he could find, selected and surveyed, and 

 the fruit gathered and measured in the presence 

 of several of his neighbors, and the product was 

 found to be a little over seven bushels of fine fruit 

 — being at the rate of eleven hundred and twenty 

 bushels per acre, which, at the same price that 

 our New Hampshire friend gets at his house, three 

 dollars, would be the handsome sum of $3,360 

 per acre ! A gentleman who saw this "yard" 

 last fall writes us that he thought the whole piece 

 would yield more than a barrel to the rod. 



For the New England Farmer. 



cdtjTure op pkuits on farms. 



The culture of orchards of good apples is one 

 of the best modes of making farming profitable. 

 Marked instances of this culture have come with- 

 in my observation, in the county of Essex, during 

 my acquaintance with the farming of the county. 

 I recollect a field of seven acres, situate on an el- 

 evated swell of land, facing to the south and east, 

 enclosed with a stone wall substantially made to 

 the height of six feet, mainly for the purpose of 

 getting rid of the stones that were in the way, 

 in converting the pasture to a field. Around this 

 field, about six feet from the wall, and about two 

 rods apart, were set Baldwin apple trees to the 

 number of fifty. A few years since, these trees 

 averaged six barrels of merchantable apples to a 

 tree. These apples yielded a net profit of five 

 dollars a barrel, over and above the expense of 

 conveying them to a market in England. Here 

 then was a net profit of two hundred and fifty 

 dollars from the fruit alone, on this field, leaving 

 the crop of grass in no manner diminished by the 

 growth of the fruit. I said these trees were set 

 near a high wall, and I doubt not their growth 

 was facilitated, and their products increased, by 

 being thus situated. 



Early in life, I was told by my father, that one 

 tree set in the vicinity of a stone wall, or by a 

 large boulder, was worth double a tree left ex- 

 posed in the open fields. Why it is so, 1 must 

 leave to those who understand the philosophy of 

 vegetable growth to explain. I suspect there may 

 be a disintegration of the rock, that is taken up 

 by the rootlets of the tree, that is favorable to the 

 growth of fruit. I have always noticed that the 

 soil near a wall, or large stones, is richer and 

 more easily cultivated than that which is in the 

 open field. I have spoken only of the culture of 

 apples, the fruit most common on our farms, and 

 when considered in all their relations, they will 

 be found the most valuable branch of fruit cul- 

 ture to farmers. Good fruit will ever find a ready 

 sale in the market, even though there should 

 be no occasion to make cider from it, but the 

 time has not yet arrived when cider, well refined, 

 ■will not find an abundance of customers, and prob- 

 ably never will, so long as the appetite of man 

 hankers after a pleasant and salutary beverage. 

 That too much cider taken into the stomach will 

 stupify the brain, will not be denied, and so too 



much water will overload the stomach. But shall 

 men forever be precluded the taste of good cider 

 and pure water, because occasionally the use of 

 it has been abused ? By the same process of rea- 

 soning may we deprive ourselves of all the luxu- 

 ries produced from the field or the garden. 

 South Danvers, 1861. j. w. P. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE WHEAT CULTURE. 



I am glad to notice of late, in the Farmer, and 

 other agricultural journals, an increased attention 

 to the culture of wheat. I have long been im- 

 pressed with the idea that the almost total aban- 

 donment of this crop in New England is a mis- 

 take — if not even "worse than a crime, a hlunder" 

 Up to about the year 1825, wheat was the great 

 article of export from Vermont, western Massa- 

 chusetts, and portions of other N. E. States ; but 

 with the advent of sheep raising, came a gradual 

 abandonment of that which makes the "staff of 

 life." New England does not now raise one- 

 eighth, or perhaps even one-tenth, of the wheat 

 necessary for its own consumption. I think this 

 need not be, and ought not to be. I know that 

 the wheat crop is, to a great extent, an uncertain 

 one. It probably fails three times where the corn 

 crop fails once. This is the case even on the 

 great wheat-growing prairies of the West. But 

 it is an indispensable article of food — more so 

 than any other crop — and should therefore receive 

 special attention and encouragement. 



I suppose that, if any one fact of chemistry, as 

 applied to agriculture, is settled and established, 

 it is, that the growth of wheat requires a large 

 proportion of the phosphates in the soil. This 

 is particularly true in regard to phosphate of 

 lime. We find, therefore, that even in western 

 New York, and other limestone regions, there 

 has been a gradual falling off in the yield of wheat. 

 The same must occur in all the great wheat-grow- 

 ing regions of the West, as fast as this, peculiar 

 property of the soil becomes exhausted. It fol- 

 lows, therefore, that wheat-growing must finally 

 fail everywhere, unless some means be devised 

 for restoring those properties of the soil which 

 frequent croppings of wheat may have destroyed. 

 And as the great element thus used up is clearly 

 phosphate of lime, the renewal of that element 

 in some form would seem to be indispensable. 

 The best form, undoubtedly, if within the reach 

 of the farmer, is ground or pulverized bone ; but 

 as that is not procurable to an extent sufficient to 

 restore "the lost art" of wheat-growing to the 

 whole of New England, I would recommend that 

 farmers should experiment on a small scale, per- 

 haps, at first, with the phosphates advertised at 

 the agricultural warehouses — say Coe's super- 

 phosphate. It is important to know, first, wheth- 

 er that article will enable our old lands to pro- 

 duce wheat, and secondly, how long one applica- 

 tion of it will last. 



It is well known that spring wheat will grow 

 and produce well, the season being favorable, on 

 land manured from the stable — say with about 

 half as much manure as is necessary, broad-cast, 

 to produce a good corn crop. But there are ob- 

 jections to spring wheat. It does not yield near- 

 ly so large an amount, per acre, as winter wheat, 



