1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



571 



For the Neto England Farmer, 

 LETTER FROM THE HOMESTEAD. 



Chester, N. K, Nov. 4, 1861. 



My Dear Brown : — This good old town, situ- 

 ated on the vei\v top of the ridge between the At- 

 lantic Ocean and the Merrimac River, is one of 

 the best of all places in which to appreciate a 

 north-east storm in November. 



On Saturday night the storm reached us here, 

 and I lay awake many hours thinking of our great 

 naval expedition, which I pray may have been 

 early enough to escape the destruction which such 

 a storm ^just bring upon it. 



"The wind blew as 'twad blaw its last, 

 The rattling showers rose on the blast — 

 That night a child might understand 

 The de'il had business on his hand." 



These long storms usually commence at sea or 

 down along the gulf, and woik up the coast, so 

 that we get them about twenty-four or thirty-six 

 hours after they reach Washington. The fleet 

 left Fort Monroe on Tuesday, and must have run 

 very near the storm, but possibly may have es- 

 caped it by a day or two. Before this is pub- 

 lished the fact will be known, and my specula- 

 tions would be of no value, except that they may 

 attract attention to the value of science, which 

 will, before many years, have so perfected its ob- 

 servations as to be able to foreknow the weather 

 for several days as accurately as the changes of 

 the moon. 



FRUIT. 



This is one of the best fruit towns in New 

 England, having a hilly surface and a self- 

 drained, stony soil. This year it shares the com- 

 mon lot of New England, and fails of its apple 

 crop. Our orchard, which last year produced 40 

 or 50 barrels, this year does not yield a bushel. 

 I hear that Mr. William Tenney, who has given 

 great attention to his orchards, has more than one 

 hundred barrels of winter apples, but this is the 

 only exception to the general barrenness that has 

 come to my knowledge. The peaches all failed, 

 too, except in two instances, which are worth no- 

 ticing, as telling us something about the causes 

 of failure. We have here close by the house, a 

 large spreading tree, which has usually borne full. 

 One branch overhangs a shed, and on the lower 

 limb of that branch, resting on the roof were a 

 few blossoms, which bore fruit, and one single 

 peach remained and ripened. Close by is a small 

 tree, a branch of which touches the ground. On 

 this branch, in August, there were twenty-two 

 peaches, most of which ripened, while there was 

 not a single blossom on any other branches of 

 either tree, though both were green and full of 

 leaves. 



The branches which bore fruit were covered 

 with snow most of the winter, so that it is evi- 



dent that it was "while knee-deep lay the winter 

 snow" that something killed the fruit buds. I 

 say "something," because it is not perhaps quite 

 certain whether it is the mere intensity of cold, 

 or the sudden v ariations of temperature, which 

 does the mischief. 



Professor Agassiz, in his address before the 

 Norfolk Agricultural Society, stated as the result 

 of his own observation, that the cherry blossoms 

 were destroyed by a single cold day or term, in 

 February last. He said that he examined them 

 before and after the time referred to, with a mi- 

 croscope, which readily discloses the condition of 

 the blossom ; that the buds for the next year's 

 crop are formed in August, and that he had al- 

 ready, (in October,) examined the blossom buds 

 and could then clearly discern the little cherries 

 in the bud ! I remember once, at your house, we 

 examined some cherry buds in the spring with a 

 microscope, and although we plainly saw what 

 seemed to be the little cherries in twos and threes 

 as they are seen when full grown, I could hardly 

 credit my own eyesight, or the assertion of your 

 good lady who showed me the wonder, that what 

 I saw was the fruit in embryo. 



GREY SQUIRRELS. 



While we are upon natural history, 1 have a 

 word to say, and an inquiry to make about grey 

 squirrels. The Patent Office Report of 1856 has 

 a treatise on "The Quadrupeds of Illinois," in 

 which the various squirrels figure extensively. 

 The author thinks the grey and black squirrels 

 are varieties of the same species. I cannot say 

 as to this. We have not, in this neighborhood, 

 where I have shot squirrels ever since I was ten 

 years old, any such animal as a black squirrel, 

 though the grey is very abundant. If the indi- 

 vidual which sat for the picture of this beautiful 

 little animal in the Patent Office Report, was a 

 veritable grey squirrel, he must have been just 

 singed or dipped into water. The tails of some I 

 have shot, since I came here, measure a foot in 

 length, and looked, when on the run from tree to 

 tree, as large as the whole body of the animal, 

 while this poor animal in the Patent Office Re- 

 port, sports a caudal appendage about like that 

 of a very old tabby cat. 



It is wonderful to see how much a gray squirrel 

 knows. Friday last was a fine day, and taking 

 my gun, I strolled away alone in the afternoon to 

 one of the old haunts of my boyhood, where 

 chestnuts and squirrels used to abound, and set 

 down "among the grand old woods" to see wheth- 

 er the squirrels were up to their old tricks. The 

 trees were half bare of their leaves, which lay 

 dry and crisp over all the ground. At first, all 

 was hushed by my intruding footstep, but as I 

 was soon still and noiseless, first came a blue-jay, 



