558 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec 



ANOTHER BUG. 



I enclose you a small branch of what is here 

 called White-wood or Tulip tree, on which you 

 will find, as I suppose, 8omethin{» preparing for 

 mischief another year. What is it ? 



Meriden, Ct. JULIUS Pratt. 



Remarks.— ^Your letter came to us via the 

 "Dead Letter Office," and the insect or eggs, on 

 the branch you were kind enough to send, had 

 been pretty harshly handled. We do not recog- 

 nize in it anything we are familiar with. 



BRAHMA POOTRjV FOWLS. 



Early last spring I gave you an account of my 

 experiment with a small Hock of Brahma fowls 

 for the past winter. I have kept the same flock 

 through the summer, and they have continued 

 laying even through the moulting season. I have 

 disposed of upwards of 150 dozen eggs for sitting, 

 and raised 125 chickens, besides the eggs used 

 in the family. I am still of opinion that they 

 are the fowls for the farm-yard. J. S. Ives. 



Salem, Oct., 186L _ 



BUCKTHORN HEDGE, 



I wish to raise a long range of Buckthorn 

 Hedge. Can I do so from the seed ? c. H. c. 



Remarks. — You can — but it will be a long and 

 tedious process, and you would be quite likely to 

 find the hedge from them an uneven and unsatis- 

 factory affair. It would be cheaper to purchase 

 plants from those who make a business of pro- 

 ducing them, than it would to raise them your- 

 self, to say nothing of getting a hedge some years 

 sooner. _^ 



WHITE CHESTER HOGS. 



Will some of your readers who are well ac- 

 quainted with what is called up here the White 

 Chester breed of hogs, give us a true history of 

 them in full ? By so doing they will much oblige 

 many of your friends. T. Cross. 



Montpelier, Vt., Oct., 1861. 



For the New England Farmer. 



PERTII.IZING PROPERTIES OP 

 ■WHITING. 



Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent "J. C. S." 

 inquires respecting the properties of whiting, and 

 why it should affect favorably the growth of corn. 

 Whiting is chalk pulverized and washed in a 

 large quantity of water and precipitated. Chalk 

 is carbonate of lime, or lime with its alkaline 

 property completely neutralized by carbonic acid. 

 Hence whiting is a carbonate of lime minutely 

 pulverized by means of water. There is no doubt 

 that the minute subdivision of the particles of 

 lime renders it more efficacious, because it is 

 thus in a fit condition to be absorbed by the 

 rootlets of the plants with which it comes in con- 

 tact, and this affords another proof of the advan- 

 tage of the complete pulverization of manurial 

 substances. Any soil or crop that requires car- 

 bonate of lime will be benefited bv whiting. 



Concord, Oct. 28, 186L J. Reynolds. 



LOW HEADED FRUIT TREES. 



In trimming fruit trees, we shoald always be 

 careful to secure the trunk from the rays of the 

 summer sun. Solar heat, by being long permit- 

 ted to come in contact wth the bark, is said to 

 scald the circulating fluids, and thus cause many 

 of the diseases which affect fruit trees in this cli- 

 mate. The foliage only should be fully exposed 

 to the influences of heat, for that is capable of 

 bearing it unharmed, and even to profit by it, 

 when most intense. It has been asserted by dis- 

 tinguished terraculturists, that trees which are 

 permitted to branch out low— say three or four 

 feet from the ground — are rarely attacked by 

 "fire-blight," "frozen-sap blight," blacli spots, or 

 other diseases of the bark or limbs. 



There is also another advantage attending this 

 practice. The soil is kept lighter, looser, and 

 more free from weeds, and there is no necessity of 

 mulching. The high winds pass, also, almost 

 harmless over the trees, and have not power to 

 twist, rack and break the branches, or to detach 

 the fruit, as they do where the branches aspire, 

 and are exposed. A writer on this subject says : 

 "The trees will be much longer lived, more pro- 

 lific, beautiful and profitable. They are more 

 easily rid of destructive insects, the fruit is much 

 less damaged by falling, and the facilities for 

 gathering it are much greater ; there is less dan- 

 ger in climbing, and less danger of breaking the 

 limbs. The trees require less pruning, scraping 

 and washing — if the two latter are thought neces- 

 sary, and the roots are protected from the scourge 

 of the plow, which is too often allowed to tear 

 and mutilate them." 



The proper shape for fruit trees is that of an 

 umbrella reversed. When this shape is commu- 

 nicated by pruning, the foliage is more freely ex- 

 posed to the action of the solar rays, and to the 

 air, which ought always to have a free circulation 

 among the foliage and fruit. By communicating 

 a conical form to any tree, although it may be 

 rather more graceful and elegant in its effects 

 upon a landscape, we certainly injure it in many 

 ways, if looked upon as an object of profit. The 

 fruit of apple trees which grows on the interior 

 limbs, where the surrounding foliage and branches 

 prevent the sun's rays from penetrating, and 

 where the direct influences of heat are never felt, 

 is, to a certain extent, insipid ; it does not mature 

 thoroughly, and will not keep so long or so per- 

 fectly as that which grows on the outside branches, 

 exposed to the sun and wind. It also varies so 

 much in shape — and especially in color — that we 

 have known two plates of apples selected from 

 the same Baldwin tree, one of which was pro- 

 nounced by a skillful fruit-grower to be the 

 Baldwin, and the other plate another variety ! 



