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NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



271 



so thickly as to crowd each other. It should 

 be laid out with avenues at convenient distan- 

 ces for teams to pass. It implies thorough 

 preparation of the soil before setting out the 

 trees. Too much time and care cannot be 

 given to the selection of trees, and it is best 

 tliey should have been grown in nurseries in 

 the vicinity, so that they be hardened both 

 root and branch to the climate. The best 

 specimens are cheapest in the end. Few farm- 

 ers can afford to buy poor trees. If one is not 

 fully competent to select trees, it will be money 

 well invested to hire some experienced per- 

 son to do it foE him. 



In training, the trees should be allowed to 

 branch as low and limbs to hang as near the 

 ground as they will. Low heads facilitate the 

 picking the fruit, pruning, killing insects, and 

 they shade the ground better during our hot 

 summers. By the time the trees are begin- 

 ning to bear, all plowing and cropping should 

 cease. Whatever grows may be cut and piled 

 under the trees or left to die and fall where it 

 grows. This, with the leaves will make a 

 mulch to prevent excessive evaporation during 

 summer and keep the ground warmer in win- 

 ter — thus giving a carpet such as nature spreads 

 for the protection of our groves and forests. 

 Plowing having ceased, the roots can take their 

 natural position near the surface. 



The growth of the trees should not be forced. 

 Light and frequent applications of fertilizers, 

 rather than heavy and occasional ones, are to 

 be preferred. Ashes rntl mineral composts 

 are preferable to animal and highly stimulating 

 manures. Where only fruit is taken from the 

 land, but little manure is required to maintain 

 a moderate, even and hardy growth, which 

 is all a tree can bear with safety, where it is 

 to be tried by the rigoi-s of New England win- 

 ters. 



Regarding the cultivation of trees in this 

 light, notwithstanding recent failures, the man- 

 agement is plain and easy. It is only when 

 we depart from the simple laws of nature, by 

 attempting too much, or by failing to come up 

 to her requirements, that labor and difficulties 

 increase, and disappointments multiply. The 

 apple is worthy of being considered an impor- 

 tant part of our diet, and should be the pride 

 of our Northern States ; and on our rough, 

 rocky lands, remote from market, should be 

 one of our most reliable and profitable crops. 

 And is it too much to hope that the same skill 

 and intelligence that has brought this fruit to 

 its present degree of perfection, can prevent 

 its deterioration P N. s. T. 



Lawrence, Mass., Feb., 1867. 



Caledonia Couxty, Vt. — The Fair of the 

 Agricultural Society of this fine farming coun- 

 ty, is to be held, as we are informed by its 

 Secretary, I. W. Sanborn, Esq., at St. Johns- 

 bury, Sept. 24, 25 and'26, 1867. 



AGKICDXTURAL ITEMS. 



— Tlie Chinese, it is said, use wooden, instead of 

 earthen flower pots. 



— Specimens of sponge prepared for beds and 

 pillows, said to be equal to the best feathers, were 

 lately exhibited to the New York Farmers' Club. 



—The average yield of wheat in England, ap- 

 pears by official returns to be 29 bushels per acre ; 

 barley, nearly 38 ; oats. 46^. 



— The great Illinois farmer, M. L. Sullivant, is 

 preparing to set 400 miles of Osage Hedge on his 

 new farm in Livingston county. 



— In English markets, wheat raised in America 

 and in vai-ious countries of Eiu'opc, commands a 

 higher price than home-grown, while English 

 grown barley bears the highest price of all. 



— A Fon du Lac correspondent of the Prairie 

 Farmer writes that men purchased sheep there, 

 three years ago, at ^4.50 to ^5.00 each, and now 

 arc anxious to sell at $2.50 per head, and no sale. 



—The bill appropriating $20,000 for the erection 

 of a building fur the accommodation of students 

 of the Michigan Agricultural College was defeated 

 in the lower house by a vote of 33 to 58. 



' — A correspondent of the Western Rural took a 

 pailful of soft maple sap, and a pailful of hard 

 maple, and boiled down the two carefully, and 

 could not see any difference in quantity, but the 

 soft maple sugar was the lightest colored. 



— A man in Ohio bought a nice colt, but after- 

 ward discovered she was covered with blue lice. 

 He applied coal oil, and the results were beyond 

 his expectations. In 24 hours not a louse was left ; 

 O'nor a filly, either. 



— Hon. M. P. Wilder has discovered that pencil 

 marks on strips of zinc for ti'ee labels, which can 

 be readily rul)bed off when first written, grow 

 more distinct and durable with age, and after a few 

 years can be erased only by scraping. 



— Instead of taking a chilled lamb to the house 

 to warm it, a St. Albans, Vt., correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman says, "put half a dozen hot 

 bricks in a bushel basket, cover over with fine 

 straw, and put the lamb on the straw, and he will 

 think it is summer in a few minutes." 



—The California Farmer congratulates the peo- 

 ple of that State upon the increase of flour and the 

 decrease of gold in late exportations. Formerly 

 nearly every steamer carried from one to two mil- 

 lions of bullion ; on Monday last only about two 

 thirds of a million, while the freight on flour is 

 about $30,000 each trip. 



— We are sorry to learn by a communication in 

 the Iowa Homestead that for five or six years the 

 canker worm has been extending its ravages in 

 Monroe Co., Iowa. Last summer the writer visited 

 Eddyville, in the Des Moines Valley, and says, 

 "As far as the eye could stretch forth, up and 

 down the river for miles, the trees were entirely 

 stripped, and the twigs and limbs contained only 



