64 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEH. 



Jan. 



have only persuaded two to try the experiment, as 

 they call it. One of them has drawn from the 

 swamp between five and six hundred ox-cart loads 

 this fall, and the other has ti'ied it on a gravelly 

 piece of land and by it he has doubled the fertility 

 of the land. 



I have been digging up a piece of low swamp 

 land and carted on a coat of sand from the high 

 land that lays along the border, which I intend to 

 plant in the spring to different kinds of garden 

 vegetables on part, and slow grass on another part. 

 As the strawberry wants considerable moisture, 

 how would tliey do in such a locality ? The soil 

 is from four to twelve feet deep, and it is drained 

 eighteen inches below the surface. I intended it 

 for cranberries, but J find the cranberry culture has 

 taken a new turn ; that is, instead of setting the 

 vines in low swanips, people are taldng the top 

 soil off of their poorest high land, and setting them 

 in the subsoil. They say they bear as well as they 

 do in low land, are not quite so large, but firmer, 

 and not so liable to be damaged by frost. 



E. Leonard. 



Neiv Bedford, 12th Mo., 1861. 



Remarks. — Strawberries would probably flour- 

 ish well on the land you described. 



AGES OP THE STATES OF AMEBICA. 



The following chronological table may be inter- 

 esting to oujf readers at the present crisis : 



SETTLEMENTS, 

 1607 — Virginia, by the English. 

 1613— New York, by the Dutch. 

 1620 — Massachusetts, by the Puritans. 

 1624 — New Jersey, by the Dutch. 

 1628 — Delaware, by the Swedes and Fins. 

 1635 — Maryland, by the Irish Catholics. 

 1636 — Rhode Island, by Roger WilUams. 

 1639 — North Carolina, by the EngUsh. 

 1670 — South Caroliiia, by the English. 

 1682 — Pennsylvania, by William Penn. 

 1732 — Georgia, by Oglethorp. 



ADMITTED INTO 

 1792— Vermont. 

 1792 — Kentucky. 

 1 796 — Tennessee. 

 1802— Ohio. 

 1811 — Louisiana- 

 is 16 — Indiana. 

 181 6 — Mississippi. 

 1818— lUinois. 

 1819— Alabama. 

 1820— Maine. 

 1821— Missouri. 



THE UNION. 



1836 — Michigan. 

 1 836 — Arkansas. 

 1845— Florida. 

 1845 — Texas. 

 1846— Iowa. 

 1 848 — Wisconsin. 

 1 850 — California. 

 1858 — Minnesota. 

 1858— Oregon. 

 1861 — Kansas. 



Our New Dress. — The reader will, we hope, 

 notice the bright and beautiful dress in which the 

 Farmer appears, this month, — the older eyes will, 

 we are quite sure. We cannot .spread our di'ess 

 as some fair creatures do, but can present it to the 

 reader with a clean /ace and correct /or w, so that 

 it will be grateful to the eye and clear to the un- 

 derstanding. The publishers will spare no pains 

 to make the Farmer valuable in every respect. 



For the New England Fanner. 



SCKAPS FROM MY DIABY. 



The Weather — Application of Fertilizer? — Fruit Trees in New 

 England — Placed Here to Learn, as Well as to Earn — Borers 

 — Ashes Around Fruit Trees — Market Reports. 



As the winter thus far has been very open, 

 farm.ers have improved the time in various ways. 

 I see some drawing manure to their meadows, and 

 others into their young orchards, around the trees. 

 It is very amusing to me to see how the great 

 majority of farmers apply fertilizers to their fruit 

 trees. I should as soon appl)' an Indian meal 

 poultice to a pig's ears to fatten him. 



Most of the fruit trees in New England are on 

 grass land. Farmers Avant to get too many kinds 

 of crops from the same land to ever get any good 

 ones ; thei'efore the more surface is fertilized, the 

 less grass they Avill get ; so they dig in their fer- 

 tilizers from the body of their trees each Avay, en- 

 riching about one-fourth jjart of the surface under 

 the tree, and the smallest fourth. They may ap- 

 ply what the soil wants, to keep good what the 

 roots have taken from it to grow the wood and 

 fruit of the tree ; but it will be accidental, purely, 

 with most of them, if they do, for they have too 

 much to tliink of to investigate such small mat- 

 ters. If Ave tell them their land Avants Avhat it can 

 only get from lime, ashes, or some other special 

 manure, they tell us they have carried on this same 

 farm forty years, and don't Avant any of our ad- 

 vice. I should knoAV they had carried it on a good 

 Avhile, from appearances around the premises. 



After trees groAV to be eight or ten inches 

 through, the roots that do the most good, are 

 eight or ten feet from the body — the fine, fibrous 

 roots. NoAV if instead of caring for and supply- 

 ing these fine, fibrous roots Avith the various in- 

 gredients they Avant to groAV Avood and fruit from, 

 Ave cut them off or rob them of Avhat little they 

 Avould get from the air, &c., Avhat can we expect ? 

 Small profits from our land, and no profit from 

 our trees. It Avill be well to remember that Ave 

 Avere placed here to learn, as Avell as earn. 



I see the borers are destroying many young ap- 

 ple trees about Saxonville, and Avould advise per- 

 sons to look Avell to their trees. I take a sharp 

 knife, and small Avire, a foot long, and make Avar 

 with them, cutting out Avhat I can, ahvays cutting 

 up and doAvn the tree, with the bark, and not 

 across it, and j^unch to death Avhat I cannot cut 

 out. The eggs are laid very near the surface of 

 the ground, under some old, loose piece of bark ; 

 hence the necessity of keeping the tree scraped 

 clean ; and a pile of ashes around the bodies, 

 three or four inches high, has always kept them 

 aAvay from my trees, I put the ashes around in 

 the month of May, and first of August scatter 

 them under the trees and put around more, the 

 next May and August doing the same, and until 

 trees are eight inches through. As for quantity, 

 I ncA'er have used enough to injure a tree, and 

 have used from four to sixteen quarts, according 

 to the size of tree, in a year, for several years in 

 succession. 



A man some nineteen miles from Boston, told 

 me yesterday he had only had one number of the 

 Farmer, and Avas satisfied that only the reports of 

 the markets last Aveek had saved him his subscrip- 

 tion. He Avas a rich and intelligent man, and 

 Avants to improve his mind as Avell as land and 



