52 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



CULTURE OF TOBACCO. 



On taking up the Monthly Farmer this morning, my 

 attention was arrested by the remarks of "Franklin," 

 on the "cultivation of tobacco." The inquiry arose, 

 whether it is worth while to grow it at all ? Is it not a 

 crime to waste our lands and strength in growing that 

 which benefits no one ? It is admitted by many that 

 the use of tobacco often does a ppsitive harm. I have 

 known many whose mind and person have been seri- 

 ously impaired by the excessive use of tobacco. I now 

 have in mind a near neighbor, a man of independent 

 fortune and estimable family, who is an inmate of an 

 insane asylum, solely from the exeessive use of tobac- 

 co, in the form of a cigar ! One such case should be 

 sufficient to deter others from the habit of smoking. 



Dec, 18G3. Essex. 



8ETTING AN ORCHARD. 



I am about setting an apple orchard, and wish to 

 inquire of you or some one through the Farmer, wno 

 has had experience in orcharding, whether the New 

 York trees will do as well as those grown near by ? 

 The piece I have selected is on a hill and bad to get ma- 

 nure on. It is, or was, a rich, deep soil, but when new 

 was plowed and cropped without manure, until near- 

 ly exhausted, and then turned into pasture, and has 

 remained so some fifteen years. I think of putting on 

 ashes and mulching with brush muck and leaves, as it 

 is near a wood lot. How will that do ? Is there any 

 thing better ? How thick should I set them ? 



Woodstock, Vt., Dec., 1865. C. F. Lincoln. 



Remarks. — We have never set apple trees brought 

 from Western New York, and cannot speak of them 

 from any actual experience. They have been set in 

 oar neighborhood, and when treated properly have 

 suueeeded well. We have set several hundred pear 

 trees from the New York nurseries, which have j^rown 

 finely. Apple trees should be set at least thirty feet 

 apart; some persons prefer a still greater distance. 

 The ground should be thoroughly plowed, and the 

 holes dug eighteen inches deep and live or six feet in 

 diameter, so that in setting the trees there may be am- 

 ple room to extend the roots in every direction, on a 

 fine, rich soil. If the field, if in sward, is planted and 

 cultivated one year before the trees are set, the work 

 of setting can be more easily, and will probably be 

 better, done. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LEARNING PROM EXPERIENCE. 

 This is a source of information especially valu- 

 able to the farmer. Nor yet need it conflict with 

 the knowledge derived from books, as some would 

 have us believe. For a book is often but a tran- 

 script of the author's own experience. Book- 

 farming, as it is termed, is only to be denounced 

 when a new novice in the business lays out and 

 attempts to execute his plans entirely "by the 

 book," without consulting his own or others' 

 judgment as to the adaptation of means to ends. 

 it is very much like investing in a farm that looks 

 rather better in the advertisement than on the 

 premises ; or as it used to be in> reference to city 

 lots, that the luckless speculator in the far West 

 found only to exist on paper. No writer on agri- 

 culture, as I take it, claims to be infallible, so as 

 to render superfluous the exercise of one's private 

 judgment. And no matter-of-fact correspondent 

 of the Farmer, even, can expect that any theory 

 he contributes, or any result of his particular ex- 

 perience will be accepted as law for all. It is only 

 claimed that every interested reader should be lib- 

 eral enough to "prove all things and hold fast 

 that which is good." Circumstances, too, alter 



cases, and what this and that man may confident- 

 ly recommend, after successful trial, may fail in 

 another man's case, simply because the circum- 

 stances are changed. 



I have often wondered that so many diverse 

 theories have been woven by philosophers in their 

 closets, to catch the fancy of that class of men 

 whose life is so much out-of-doors. No individ- 

 ual can have so little need of "such stuff as dreams 

 are made of" as the plain, blunt farmer. And 

 only let him suspect that an author has had n& 

 personal experience of what he writes about, and 

 he regards him as one that "darkeneth counsel by 

 words without knowledge." Moreover, the rea- 

 son is obvious why the amateur farmer is so liable 

 to ridicule and failure. His ideas on the subject 

 are very apt to be analagous with dreams of Ar- 

 cadia, and rural pictures that look so refreshing 

 on canvas, and so alluring to the summer tourist 

 amid green fields, and grand old woods. But when 

 he comes to the homely reality of handling the 

 subject without gloves, or cosmetics, the romance 

 of it is taken out with the starch, and he beats an 

 ignominious retreat. Let us not be understood 

 as disparaging that class of men who retire from 

 business in the metropolis to some estate in the 

 country, where their means enable them to enjoy 

 the sweets of rural life, without its drudgery. 

 Many such. have come to be model farmers, re- 

 claiming many a barren waste by their cultivated 

 taste and liberal expenditures, causing many an 

 old village to "look better than new," and dis- 

 tancing all competitors at the agricultural fair. 

 It is only the "snob," or degenerate "sprig of gen- 

 tility," that lays himself open to the contempt of 

 every honest tiller of the soil, when transplanted 

 thither, by talking flippantly on what he knows 

 nothing about, amd affecting to live in clover, while 

 feeling above sowing the seed. 



There must be a beginning to life on the farm, 

 and still everything does not depend, as it seems 

 to me, on the start. As time passes on tHP old 

 adage comes in play, "live and learn." One year 

 goes by, and leaves behind its lessons of experi- 

 ence, richer than all the garnered fruit and grain. 

 The man may not have realized from this first 

 trial the full fruition of his hopes. The seed- 

 time may not have been propitious as he had cal- 

 culated, or the mildew, worm and untimely frost 

 may have conspired to dampen his enthusiasm 

 and undermine his faith. But he is not alone in 

 these reverses — hundreds share them with him. 

 And yet they are not discouraged, for experience 

 has taught them to expect alternate good and evil 

 fortune. This same schoolmaster will instruct 

 him — and how "many men in this world have gone 

 through years of reverses and all been thankful 

 for the experience thereby gained ! But we are 

 not necessarily taught from this source to expect 

 failure — but rather how to avoid it in time to 

 come. We have gone the round of the twelve 

 months, aud now are about to traverse the same 

 cycle again. We have the "lamp of experience" 

 to light our path. It reveals, also, our mistakes 

 and blunders in the past, and indicates now a bet- 

 ter way. It shows in bold relief the rock, per- 

 haps, on which we have once been wrecked, and, 

 like a skilful navigator, we will heed the warning 

 light, and this time steer clear of the breakers. 

 Thus every year we may grow wiser to win success, 

 and escape failure, though, all the while, reminded 



