1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



239 



Counties. Compiled from the United States Cen- 

 sus of 1860, and other official sources, under the 

 direction of the State Board of Agriculture. By 

 George Wingate Chase. 



From this report it appears that the average 

 value of the forms in the State, including farm 

 implements, and machinery, and Live stock, is 

 $3,884,58. We intend to allude to these "Sta- 

 tistics" hereafter. 



The volume is beautifully printed, and is a cred- 

 it to the Board of Agriculture and Secretary un- 

 der whose care it has been produced, and to the 

 State itself. 



For tlie New England Fanner, 

 APPLE TREES— MICE. 



Some valuable suggestions were given in your 

 last issue in relation to the treatment of trees eat- 

 en by mice. Hoping to elicit something further 

 from the same source, I make the following state- 

 ment and inquiries. 



I have an orchard of between three and four 

 hundred apple trees, from twelve to fifteen years 

 growth. ^ly method has been to keep about one- 

 third of this orchard under cultivation at a time. 

 On the part laid down to grass, I have always 

 plowed strips by the trees, increasing them in 

 width as the trees increased in size. Until last 

 year I have planted those strips with beans ; ma- 

 nuring in the hill ; thus making it necessary to 

 stir the soil about the tree with a hoe. Under 

 this treatment the trees have made a steady growth, 

 and for the most part, maintained a healthy ap- 

 pearance. In 1860, this orchard produced one 

 hundred and fifty barrels of No. 1 Baldwins. 



My practice does not accord with the theory of 

 Mr. Varney, as given in the last number of the 

 Farmer. I am still so much of an old fogy as to 

 believe in plowing orchards. It should be done, 

 however, by a judicious plowman, with great care 

 not to plow too deep any^'here ; especially should 

 it be very shoal about the trees. So far as my 

 observation extends, those are the best orchards, 

 and bear the fairest and best fruit, that are kept 

 under cultivation, provided they are plowed with 

 care. Last spring I plowed strips by the trees as 

 usual, but took no crop from them, leaving the 

 furrows just as the plow left them. I state this 

 that others may guard against a similar course. 

 These furrows furnished a most excellent retreat 

 for the mice ; and they availed themselves of it 

 to my great annoyance. So soon as I ascertained 

 the mischief they were doing, I went to work with 

 axes and shovels and removed the ice and snow 

 from nearly every tree in the orchard. I found 

 about seventy more or less eaten ; many of them 

 not enough to injure them much ; others badly, 

 and quite a number large enough to bear from one 

 to two barrels of apples to a tree, entirely girdled 

 to the wood. 



When I had cleared away from the trees, I im- 

 mediately commenced plastering the wounds with 

 a thick coating of cow manure, put on with a trow- 

 el. I then carefully bound them up with woollen 

 cloths. The whole operation of excavating and 

 plastering occupied some days, during which time 

 several trees were seriously injured. Indeed, af- 



ter we had finished them all completely, so keen 

 was the appetite of these little creatures, that in 

 many instances they gnawed off" the strings, and 

 through the woolen cloths and cow manure, mak- 

 ing a fresh wound larger than the palm of my 

 hand in a single night ; and it was not until I fed 

 them with young sprouts and small limbs sawed 

 from the tree and placed around the trunks, that 

 they stopped their depredations on the tree itself. 

 I have marked those trees that are entirely gir- 

 dled, and I wish to inquire whether the scions 

 should be put in immediately, or whether I should 

 wait until the bark starts readily from the wood ? 

 Can I save, in the way you suggest, such as are 

 eaten quite into the roots ? Is a banking of earth 

 or mud placed around the body of the tree in the 

 fall, the easiest, cheapest and best preventive for 

 the future ? J. F. French. 



North Hampto7i, N. IL, April, 1862. 



Remarks. — This is a timely and excellent letter. 

 Let us improve by it. Two acres of our orchard- 

 ing, where the principal mischief has been done 

 by mice, had been in grass two years, and was 

 broken up last fall. After the plowing had been 

 done, every inch of turf left by the plow was re- 

 versed, and nothing left on the surface but the 

 clear soil. But the turning over of the soil formed 

 the most complete harbor for mice, as it is impos- 

 sible to lay every furrow perfectly flat. We shall 

 break up no more grass land in the orchard in 

 autumn. 



We think you have pursued precisely the right 

 course in covering the wounds, as if left uncov- 

 ered, the sap wood is likely to become dry and 

 crack, and the bark itself will lose some of its vi- 

 tality near the edges of the wound. When the 

 sap has moved so that the bark may be easily sep- 

 arated from the alburnum, then set the scions. 



There is no good reason why you cannot save a 

 tree that is gnawed down to the roots, if the con- 

 nection is properly made. 



A banking of earth or sand will, in ordinary 

 cases, prevent mice gnawing trees ; but we know 

 of no sure preventive when the earth is covered 

 with a coating of ice. Could not thousands of 

 these pests be destroyed by feeding to them wheat 

 steeped in strychnine? It might be sowed through 

 the orchard late in November, and occasionally 

 through the winter on the snow. 



Hint to Housekeepers. — Every housekeep- 

 er who uses kerosene or well oil, knows that it af- 

 fords the best and cheapest light of all illumina- 

 ting oils ; but she also knows that the constant 

 expense and annoyance from the breakage of lamp 

 chimneys almost, if not quite, counterbalances the 

 advantages of its use. One who has thoroughly 

 tried the experiment of preventing chimneys from 

 cracking with the heat of the flame, says : — Put 

 the glass chimney in lukewarm water, heat to the 

 boiling point, and boil one hour, after wliich leave 

 it in the M'ater till it cools. The suggestion is 

 worth a trial. — Scientific American. 



