1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMED. 



37 



in theii' bearing season, which, as it so happens, 

 are the even years of late, while on the odd years 

 these same orchards did not produce enough for 

 family use. 



Now the question is, in what manner can these 

 surplus apples be disposed of to best advantage to 

 indemnify the farmer ? All farmers know that cat- 

 tle, horses and swine are extremely fond of aj)ple9, 

 but will it pay the way to appropriate our best 

 soil to raise apples for them? As cider sells, 

 would it not pay better to make some of them 

 into cider for vinegar, if for no other purpose ; ci- 

 der is a much more wholesome beverage than the 

 factitious wines so much used, and as long as peo- 

 ple will have something stronger than cold water, 

 would it not be a good substitute for those allur- 

 ing counterfeit compounds, called wines. As a 

 medicine I am practically convinced that cider is 

 preferable to wine, so far as I have seen it used in 

 the latter stages of protracted fevers. 



Apples are of more value than all other fruits 

 combined. The pear, the peach, the smaller fruits, 

 and the foreign fruits, hastily decay, and the a])ple 

 is the only fruit, except the dried varieties, which 

 will keep the year around. The war against na- 

 ture, of attempting to change the producing sea- 

 son by destroying the blossom, is a task that few 

 farmers are able or willing to undertake ; fighting 

 against God is a poor and unprofitable warfare, 

 and is more hopeless than fighting against rebels. 



I have regretted, sometimes, on seeing farmers 

 select their best arable soils for an orchard, when 

 their neglected crevices between rocks and ledges 

 would have been much more appropriate to the 

 produciion of good apples. Apple trees grow and 

 bear best upon an elevated, rocky soil — such a 

 soil has not generally been worn out by constant 

 cultivation and fleecing — and are much less subject 

 to injury by frosts and insect depredators, than 

 apple trees which grow on level plain lands. I 

 have an impression that good arable land would 

 be more remunerative to the farmer to raise grass, 

 roots and grain crops upon, that jiroduce every 

 year, than the capricious apple and other fruit 

 trees that are under the control of the evil influ- 

 ences of frost, curculios and other fruit depreda- 

 tors, which make their producing season uncer- 

 tain sometimes and far between. 



As far as my observation extends, the level 

 plain lands are less productive than the high, 

 mountainous, rocky swells. This present season 

 I have observed, on travelling the road, that the 

 apple trees on low ground and sandy plains pro- 

 duced very sparingly, but advancing upon the ris- 

 ing, rocky highlands, the trees were burdened 

 with fruit. Now the question is fairly opened to 

 discussion, are apple orchards more j^rofitable on 

 good arable land than the same land used for 

 some other useful and necessary productions ? 



Silas Brown. 



North Wilmington, Nov. 25, 1862. 



Don't Eat too Mucn. — The celebrated Aber- 

 nethy once remarked to a friend : "I tell you hon- 

 estly what I think is the whole cause of the com- 

 plicated maladies of the human frame ; it is their 

 germandizing and stuffing and stimulating the 

 digestive organs to excess ; thereby creating irri- 

 tation. The state of our minds is another cause 

 — the fidgeting and discontenting ourselves 



about what cannot be helped — passions of all 

 kinds; malignant passions, and worldly cares 

 pressing upon the mind, disturb the central action, 

 and do a great deal of harm." 



FACTS ABOUT APPLES. 



We have an old apple tree which was revived 

 by trimming and grafting it with Baldwin scions 

 fourteen years ago. It had been greatly Tioglect- 

 ed, and was fast running to ruin when the work 

 of renovation was commenced. The trimming 

 and grafting procees was not done at once, but 

 judiciously continued through three years. Dur- 

 ing this time the sward was dug up and pulver- 

 ized, and the soil for a diameter of twenty feet 

 about the tree was manured and dressed two or 

 three times with wood ashes. The manure was 

 slightly dug in when applied. The new grafts 

 began to bear, moderately, the third year, and 

 gradually increased, until in 18G0 they gave us 

 seventeen barrels of apples. In 1861, they yielded 

 only a peck or two, and the present year, 1862, 

 twenty-one barrels, most of v/hich were medium- 

 sized, marketable apples! Another tree, which 

 had scarcely a sound limb upon it, was renovated 

 at the same time. This, however, produced the 

 Hunt jRus.tet apple, and did not need grafting. 

 The dead wood was cut away, the top thinned a 

 little, and a mound of good soil raised a foot in 

 height about the trunk. The ground under the 

 branches was dressed with ashes and old com- 

 posts, about every other year for six years. The 

 tree commenced bearing the summer succeeding 

 the care bestowed upon it, and has averaged about 

 two barrels per year since. These apples were 

 especially valuable, as it was the only tree on the 

 place that furnished any fit for family tise. By 

 considerable pleasant care, and a moderate ex- 

 pense, we have been enabled to gather this year 

 about one hundred and twenty-five barrels of very 

 fine apples. 



In connection with the above, the Farmington, 

 (Me.) Chronicle says : 



The most important of all fruits that can be 

 produced in temperate climates, if not the most 

 important fruit which the Creator has bestowed 

 upon man, is the apple. Were people generally 

 in j)ossessi()u of information which would enable 

 them to form conclusions in relation to the value 

 of a single apple tree, no one who has a spot of 

 terra firma large enough for a house lot, would 

 neglect to plant one. 



Hayward speaks of an apple tree in Duxbur>-, 

 Mass., which was upwards of 100 years old, was 

 16 feet in circumference eight inches above the 

 ground, and which produced in one year fruit 

 from which 10 barrels of cider were made, besides 

 30 bushels of apples for the cellar. 



An apple tree in Natick, Mass., was grafted to 

 the Porter ap]ile wher. 7.5 years old, and the 7th 

 year from grafting produced 15 barrels which sold 

 for 30 dollars. 



