534 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



from destruction, remember the fall work must be 

 done, and shall our women falter because the men 

 are away, because their loved ones are nobly doing 

 their duty ? No ! never ! but with true heart, let 

 every woman do her usual share of work, and 

 more, also, if need be, and leave the I'esult with 

 the Allwise Father, who ruleth over all things. 

 The pleasant month of September glided quietly 

 away, and soon October will be gone. With pre- 

 serving and pickling, sewing and cleaning, remak- 

 ing, removing and remodelling, the farmer's wife 

 has no spare time upon her hands. She is never 

 at a loss about disposing of the hours, but some- 

 times wonders how so much work can be done in 

 so little time. The sere leaf is rattling to the 

 ground, and each day she has new proof that win- 

 ter M'ill soon, with cold fingers, clutch all within 

 his icy grasp. Much is to be done, ere he succeeds. 

 Sometimes she gets almost discouraged, but as 

 one job after another is disposed of, she becomes 

 cheerful and happy, and with eager step performs 

 her round of duty. 



O, for one more sight of a fanner's kitchen fif- 

 ty years ago. The open fireplace, with its rousing 

 back log, sending bright flashes of ruddy light 

 over the white sanded floor. Its long strings of 

 golden pumpkins hung to dry, its rack of apples, 

 cut and cored and drying also by the rosy fire, its 

 bunches of "herbs" hung high above the reach of 

 mischievous boys and girls, its hooks drove strong- 

 ly into the plastering overhead and supporting slim 

 strips of wood, upon which things can be spread 

 to air or dry, while on the ends swing "the hats 

 of all, both great and small," when the owners do 

 not need them on their heads. It was a picture 

 bright with love and comfort, but 'tis gone, and I 

 see only a small, warm kitchen, with its polished 

 cooking-stove and well arranged appurtenances. 



I've sometimes thought I would discard all mod- 

 ern improvements, and go back half a century, 

 but ah, me ! we modern women could not stand 

 one-half the wear and tear our grandmothers did, 

 and it is well, perhaps, for us that we live in sui;h 

 an enlightened age, when everything goes by 

 steam ! Sarah. 



West Amesbury, Oct., 1862. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUBAL 

 SOCIETY. 



The annual meeting of this Society was held on 

 Saturday for the choice of officers. Joseph Breck, 

 after serving the society as President four years, 

 declined a re-election. The following officers were 

 chosen : 



President — Charles M. Hovey, Cambridge. 



Vice Presidents — J. F. C. Hyde, Newton ; C. 

 O. Whitmore, Boston ; W. E. Strong, Brighton ; 

 George W. Pratt, Boston. 



Treasurer — Wm. R. Austin, Dorchester. 



Corresponding Secretary — Eben Dwight, Ded- 

 ham. 



Eecording Secretary — F. Lyman Winship, 

 Brighton. 



Professor of Botany and Vegetable Physiology 

 — John L. Russell, Salem. 



Professor (>f Zoology — J. W. P. Jenks, Mid- 

 dleboro'. 



Professor of Horticultural Chemistry — A. A. 

 Hayes, Boston. 



HOW TO MANAGE FRUIT SEEDS. 



The seeds of most kinds of fruit trees should 

 be planted in the autumn. 



The seeds of stone fruit — peach, plum and 

 cherry — should be cleansed from the pulp as soon 

 as ripe, and either planted, or put into sand im- 

 mediately. If seeds are left in the pulp until 

 after fermentation has commenced, their vitality 

 will be injured, if not destroyed. So, too, if per- 

 mitted to remain out of the ground all winter and 

 become dry, they do not start so readily as if 

 planted in the autumn. 



Cherry pits are sometimes put into a box and 

 mixed with sand, and placed where the frost of 

 winter will act upon them, and then planted in 

 the spring. I do not like this plan, because the 

 seeds start very early, sometimes before it is 

 convenient to plant them. The little plants are 

 very tender, and so easily injured that many are 

 destroyed by the removal from the sand to the 

 seed bed. 



The safest way is to prepare the seed bed early 

 in the autumn, scatter the seeds in rows upon the 

 surface, covering lightly with earth, and leaving 

 spaces between the rows for the purpose of pass- 

 ing along to weed the bed. The rows may be six 

 inches, or a foot Avide. Some people sow broad- 

 cast, leaving no spaces, but in that case, if the 

 bed is a large one, the process of weeding will be 

 somewhat tedious, and many plants will be tram- 

 pled upon and destroyed. 



At one year old, many of the seedlings Avill be 

 of a suitable size to transplant to the nursery 

 rows for budding. 



Plum pits may be treated the same as the 

 cherry. 



Peach pits sre sometimes left in barrels over 

 winter, cracked in the spring and planted in the 

 nursery rows. This is not a good plan. 



Prepare a piece of ground in the autumn, 

 scatter the pits upon the surface, cover slightly 

 with earth and the frost of winter will crack them. 



By the middle of May the plants will be com- 

 ing up ; they must then be taken up carefully, 

 with a transplanting trowel and set in the nur- 

 sery rows. The rows four feet apart, and the 

 plants about nine inches apart in the row. 



By this method, the trouble and exposure of 

 cracking by hand is saved ; the rows are full, and 

 there are no gaps, where the seeds refuse to vege- 

 tate, as is often the case where the stones are 

 cracked by hand in the spring and the seeds 

 planted in the nursery rows. 



Peach stocks should be budded the first year. 

 — Prof. J. C. Holmes, in the Ohio Farmer. 



We would suggest an improvement in the 

 mode of planting the peach, founded on the nat- 

 ural planting, which occurs when the fruit dries 

 up and decays on the tree, and the pit afterwards 

 falls, planting itself in the soil. 



The pits, uncracked, should be put out in the 

 autumn, in rows two feet apart, and one foot or 

 more apart in the rows — each pit forced into the 

 ground, point downward, so that the wide or 

 spongy end shall be upward. During the winter, 

 this spongy end will receive moisture, and when 

 frozen will split the shell, permitting the kernel 

 to germinate in the spring in precisely the right 

 position. For if the pit should lie on its side, it 

 will be likely to produce a diseased tree with the 



