234 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Attg. 





■will fail. And on whom will this advance in wools 

 operate as a special hardship ? All the previous 

 circumstances above enumerated, united, have not 

 carried up wools in proportion with most of the 

 other great staples of consumption. Woolen 

 goods, including cloths, carpetings, &c, &c, are 

 about 100 per cent, higher than before the war. 

 Linens, on the average, have probably advanced 

 full 100 per cent., if not more. Cottons have ad- 

 vanced from 300 to 500 per cent. Hardware gen- 

 erally has advanced at least 100 per cent. Pig 

 iron has advanced at least 300 per cent. ; bar iron 

 150; carriage springs 250 •, tin 150; cast steel 

 100; nails over 140; screws and bolts, stoves, 

 axes and trace chains 100 ; lead, window glass and 

 paints 100 ; oil say 125, &c, &c. It probably 

 would not be unsafe to assume that articles of 

 consumption generally, except provisions, have 

 doubled in cost. 



Some of the articles above enumerated have 

 been rendered dear, like wool, by scarcity — oth- 

 ers not. Wool has been brought into immensely 

 increased demand for consumption as the only ex- 

 tensively available substitute for cotton in a mul- 

 titude of important uses. It is not excelled if 

 equaled in importance by any one single specific 

 article of consumption, and in none, probably, ex- 

 cept cotton, is the present supply less equal to the 

 demand. Yet wool, as already said, has not risen 

 since the opening of the war like other less im- 

 portant, and in various cases, less scarce commod- 

 ities. The rise in 1863, in the country generally, 

 in fine and medium wools, probably fell below 60 

 per cent. In coarse, it was higher. 



How is this to be explained ? Partly, unques- 

 tionably, by the fact that the manufacturers, who 

 are the ultimate purchasers of all wool, are but a 

 mere handful of men, who are wealthy and highly 

 intelligent in their occupation, and who, from the 

 smallness of their number and their business-like 

 habits and associations, are capable, in their pe- 

 cuniary operations, of acting almost with the uni- 

 ty and energy of a single individual. In this re- 

 spect, and consequently in the power of effecting 

 their objects in the market, they are to the disu- 

 nited producers acting without concert, what a 

 Macedonian phalanx is to an unorganized mob. 

 That they have struggled during the past year 

 with indomitable resolution, and with a very great 

 degree of success, to keep down the price of wool, 

 is not, we think, to be disputed. 



Are they to blame for those efforts ? Whether 

 so or not, we are disposed to believe that the pro- 

 ducers would have done precisely the same, with 

 the same opportunity for doing it. Human na- 

 ture is pretty much alike in all occupations ! We 

 take occasion to say this, because in nothing that 

 we have uttered would we be understood as 

 preaching up any crusade against the manufac- 

 turers. -We want the wool-grower to have all 

 that belongs to him, and the manufacturer to 

 have no less than belongs to him. A feeling of 

 hostility between them is only injurious to both. 

 If the contemplated tariff on woolens is enacted, 

 there is no occasion for the former to entertain 

 any jealousies of the latter. He will be placed in 

 a situation where even the circumstances above 

 named will give the manufacturer no advantages 

 over him. But let there be reason and modera- 

 tion on both sides. In the day of his success, let 

 the wool grower never forget one fact, viz., that in 



pursuing any line of action which will necessarily 

 prove destructive to the manufacturer, he only 

 performs the Sampsonian feat of tearing down the 

 edifice whose ruins must overwhelm himself. All 

 our present advances in wool growing will be 

 thrown away and lost unless American manufac- 

 turers continue to flourish. No American in our 

 day and generation, can raise wool for profitable 

 exportation, at least north of Texas and east of 

 the Rocky Mountains. — Rural New-Yorker. 



FRUTJTNQ FRUIT TREES. 

 The following sensible and practicable remarks 

 are copied from the Michigan Farmer : 



Pruning is a scientific operation, requiring 

 knowledge combined with good judgment. The 

 apple tree is an institution that should never be 

 touched with saw or knife unless you have a good 

 reason for it. That is, you should know how, 

 when and what to prune, or let the tree alone. 

 The rules of pruning are mostly negative, to avoid 

 doing mischief to the tree. The plum and cherry 

 rarely require any, the pear but little, the peach 

 more, and the apple more than all. The peach 

 should be cut back at setting so as to create a low 

 head, and then annually cut off from the head one- 

 half of the last year's growth of each shoot. This 

 is what is called "heading back," or "heading in," 

 and this heading in process should be practiced on 

 the pear. 



The apple needs pruning or not, according to 

 the form and habit of growth of the tree. Some 

 trees grow with heads erect, some diverging, some 

 spreading, and some drooping. Others are as- 

 cending, while others have an irregular or strag- 

 gling growth ; hence much judgment is required 

 as to what and what not to prune. Every limb 

 should be so cut at its "swell" as to make the 

 least wound. Always avoid cutting off very large 

 limbs, as it endangers the health, if not the life, 

 of the tree. The little fruit spurs on the bodies 

 of the larger limbs should be generally left on. 

 Some thick headed trees, like the Spy, need half 

 thinning out in the centre of the top, to let the 

 sun in to ripen the fruit. Those sorts with sparse 

 beads need thickening by heading back the limbs. 

 ■It should always be born in mind to keep the head 

 of the tree well balanced. The apple should be 

 pruned very lightly if done in the Spring, and a 

 little done every Spring. The month of August 

 is the best time for heavy pruning, for the reason 

 that if you prune heavily in the Spring, you have 

 taken away so many channels for sap that the tree 

 is obliged to throw out limbs — "sap-suckers" — to 

 carry it off; but if you prune in August, when the 

 flow of sap is weak, the wound heals over, and, at 

 the same time, new channels are formed for sap, 

 so that in the following spring the sap will take 

 to those channels without throwing out sap-suck- 

 ers. It is rare to see sap-suckers from August 

 pruning. 



The Currant Worm. — A correspondent of 

 the Rural New Yorker recommends the following 

 wash as death to the worms, but not injurious to 

 the leaves : 



Take one oz. carbonate of ammonia ; 1 oz. ni- 

 tre. Dissolve in one quart of soft soap ; mix the 

 whole thoroughly in nine gallons of rain water. 



