1S62. 



NEW ENGLAXD FARMER. 



547 



year as it became necessary to haul them off. 

 These of course are not equal to tile drains, but 

 they serve two purposes, and are very useful. 

 Probably half the stone fences on many farms had 

 better be sunk in this way. We know of scores 

 of acres of wet swamjjy land, always late because 

 wet, and of endless runs, where huge piles of stone 

 lay in unsiglitly confusion on the borders and all 

 about. If the ground were thoroughly ditched 

 and the stones buried out of sight, there would be 

 a fine mowing field, producing good crops every 

 year, and the laud Avould be transformed in its 

 nature. Where fences have to be made of wood, 

 the farmer is not so likely to chop his fields too 

 small ; but even in this case it is well for him to 

 consider if he cannot get along with less fencing. 

 Often a division is made from pure fancy, with no 

 necessity. When it comes to mending, consider 

 if you cannot use a part to ])atch the rest. The 

 two systems are exemplified in England and on the 

 continent. The fields in the former place are cut 

 into small lots by hedges and ditches ; in the lat- 

 ter vast expanses are without fences or other sep- 

 aration, it being chea])er to hire herdsmen or boys 

 to tend cattle or sheep than to build fences. The 

 subject is of some importance, especially when 

 thought of in connection with drainage. — N. H. 

 Journal of Agriculture. 



UPRIGHT TREES. 



When crooked, lop-sided, leaning trees are seen 

 in a wild forest, we call them picturesque, and let 

 it go. But when we see them in a neighbor's or- 

 chard, (or our own,) or by the roadside, or in a 

 lawn, we say somebody is to blame, for generally 

 it comes from sheer neglect. As to leaning trees, 

 the history is something like this ; when first trans- 

 planted from the nursery or tlie woods, they are 

 straight and tall. They are set out in exposed 

 places, and not being staked and tied up, they 

 soon get out of the perpendicular. This is not to 

 be wondered at, considering the smallness of the 

 roots, and the softness of the soil. It is a very 

 easy matter to prevent this. Let every newly- 

 planted ti'ee be staked and tied up, using broad 

 and soft bands to prevent chafing the bark. Or, 

 in the l?,ck of stakes and bands, use heaps of stones 

 laid over the roots on the windy side, which will 

 ballast them. In case a tree gets thrown over, it 

 can be righted up by loosening the earth about the 

 roots, and drawing it up, and fastening it to a 

 stout stake. If it has stood leaning for several 

 years, it may be necessary to use an axe on one 

 or two obstinate roots. But by all means, get 

 every tree up straight, and then keep it up. — Ag- 

 riculturist. 



Hay and Corn Shrinkage by Drying. — 

 The loss upon hay weighed July 20th, when cured 

 enough to put in the barn, and again Feb. 20th, 

 has been ascertained to be 27^ per cent. So that 

 hay at $15 a tun in the field is equal to $20 and 

 upwards when weighed from the mow in winter. 

 The weight of cobs in a bushel of corn in Novem- 

 ber ascertained to be 19 pounds, Avas only 7-i 

 pounds in May. The cost of grinding a bushel 

 of dry cobs, counting handling, hauling and mil- 

 ler's charge, is about one cent a pound. Is the 

 meal worth the money ? — Scientific American. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 RETROSPECTIVE NOTES. 



"Keeping Orchards Cultivated. — Farmer 

 for October, page 443. — There is, still, after cen- 

 turies of observation and experiment as to the 

 best mode of manuring orchards, quite a surpris- 

 ing unsettlodness and difi'erence of o])inion, as al- 

 so of practice, as to the point indicated in the 

 above heading, — some maintaining tliat it is best 

 to keep orchards under the plow, or cultivated for 

 other crops, and some that the plow should sel- 

 dom or never be used in an orchard, it being best, 

 and altogether most convenient, to keep it in grass, 

 with occasional topdressings of manure, while a 

 few Avould so far modify the last-named method 

 of management as to have a strip along each side 

 of the rows of trees stirred occasionally or annu- 

 ally with a one-horse plow, or the grass kept down 

 around the trees by a mulch of chip dirt, or other 

 suitable material, or by the use of the hoe. ' That 

 tliere should be so much unsettledness of opinion 

 as to this branch of soil culture, after millions of 

 men have been observing and experimenting for 

 centuries, is really an occasion for surprise. In 

 endeavoring to account for the difference in men's 

 opinions and practice as to keeping an orchard in 

 grass or under tillage, I have thought it highly 

 pi'obable that much of this apparent difference 

 would disappear if greater precision of language 

 were employed in the statement or the question 

 at issue. For example, if an advocate of keeping 

 an orchard in grass were asked if he thought that 

 mode of management best during the first five 

 years of the growth of an apjjle orchard, he would 

 very certainly acknowledge that such was not his 

 meaning, and that he would by all means keep an 

 orchard under hoed crops, or under tillage of some 

 kind, for the first five years of its growth, or even 

 longer. It would be found, if his precise idea 

 were precisely expressed, that the advocate of 

 grass in orchards, or the opponent of plowing, 

 intended only that he deemed it best to manage 

 orchards in his favorite way, after they had at- 

 tained their matm-ity or had begun to bear crops. 

 However fond of his favorite notion, no observ- 

 ing and truth-loving advocate of gras's rather than 

 tilled crops in an orchard could be found, who 

 woidd deny the obvious and oft-observed fact that 

 both apple and peach trees grow but a few inches 

 in a year when set in grass, unless the soil is very 

 rich ; while those set or growing where the ground 

 is cultivated will make an annual growth of two, 

 or sometimes nearly or quite three feet. 



Other points of difference might be taken, and 

 it might be shown that if those who apparently 

 differed very widely would only define exactly the 

 positions they maintained and the positions they 

 opposed, the difference between them would either 

 vanish altogether, or be much less than it ap- 

 peared before the point at issue was exactly de- 

 fined. iNIy object in the foregoing remarks has 

 been to show that the difference among farmers 

 and fruit culturists as to keej)ing orchards in grass 

 or under the plow, like a good many other diSer- 

 ences and confiicting opinions, would either dis- 

 appear entirely, or be greatly shorn of their ap- 

 parent magnitude, if the positions taken by the 

 opposing parties were but clearly defined and ex- 

 pressed in precise and unambiguous terms. Were 

 this done as to the points at issue, at present un- 



