1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEJklER. 



309 



condemn the practice and plant the largest. Some 

 say, cutting the potato injures the germ; others 

 say a Ijcttcr yield is had by having three to five 

 e3'cs in a cluster, planted in drills ten to twelve 

 inches apart. 



Judge Baxter, of Bellows Falls, Vermont, said 

 to me many years ago, that he took a peck of lady 

 finger potatoes, and patiently sat down and cut 

 out every eye separately, and planted them singly 

 in drills four to six inches apart. From the peck j 

 he dug twenty-six bushels. This fact upsets the ' 

 theory, that cutting injures the germ. 



Your correspondent, "E. B.," of Derry, New 

 Hampshire, having publicly answered my private 

 letter, I feel constrained to reiterate the statement 

 that three or four butts to the -hill was excessive 

 seeding, and I think will not meet the approbation 

 of good farmers. A handful of corn in a hill will 

 give small ears and small stover. All esculents 

 want room to grow. I was much interested in the 

 general statement. Your cutting otfthe tips is the 

 Long Island practice, as they work for mavketal)le 

 potatoes. Should it be economy, plant the tips 

 and make small potatoes for stock. Then all the 

 seed is saved. 



Does not hilling too much, cut off many little 

 rootlets, and in drought turn the water from the 

 hill into the ^^ollows, away from the roots that are 

 clrawing nourishment through every eye into the 

 tnlxn- ? Perhaps flat hills would be better adapted 

 to dry than moist lands. The flat fined fork is 

 better than round, for pitching out potatoes or other 

 vegetables, especially in drills. 



Corn, as we know by its strong diverging roots, 

 seeks its nourishment like a tree in all directions, 

 to make "the blade, the ear, then the full corn in 

 the ear." To meet the case, spread and plow in 

 your manure, and get rid of the tedious process of 

 dunging out in the hill. Raw manure in the hill 

 ferments, heats, and yellows the tender young 

 corn, and when its roots get away from it, it Ijcgins 

 to grow green and strong. Compost added in the 

 hill would of course much merease the crop. 

 Hill as little as possii)le, and cut oflF as few roots 

 as ]jossible in cultivating and hoeing. H. Poor. 



Brooklyn, Long Island, April 20, 1867. 



out knowing the particulars in the above case, we 

 should conclude that their sickness is occasioned 

 by dampness and cold. 



It is not impossible, that diseases in poultry are 

 hereditary. Why not as well as in cows, horses 

 and other animals ? 



Hens occasionally lay soft eggs — but wc have 

 never known one to do so habitually. Will some 

 of our careful poultry raisers come to the aid of 

 our correspondent and ourselves ? 



DISEASE IN CHICKENS. 



Is there any remedy for the disease which this 

 year attacks so many chickens, showing itself 

 chiefly in weakness of the legs, and usually prov- 

 ing fatal ? 



What can be done for a hen (Sebright Bantam) 

 which lays soft eggs, though having plenty of 

 lime, &c. ? 



Information on these subjects will very much 

 oblige F. M. R. 



BrooJdine, Mass., April, 1867. 



Remarks. — The trouble with the chickens is 

 not an Epidemic, we think, but is owing to some 

 local influence, such as exposure to dampness, or 

 cold, or placing too many chicks with one hen. 

 The latter is a mistake often made. The young 

 chickens need the animal warmth of the mother 

 quite often, and nature has supplied her with an 

 unusual amount for a considerable time after they 

 arc hatched as well as during incubation. 



An unvarying rule should be, to keep chickens 

 dry and trarm, and keep them in the sun as much 

 as possible at the same time. When this rule has 

 been strictly observed, we have rarely known 

 young chickens or turkeys to fail in growing rap- 

 idly and vigorously. It would be hardly expected, 

 however, that there would be no exceptions. With- 



RINOING FRUIT TREES. 



I take the liberty of writing you in relation to 

 an experiment made by my neighbor, Capt. Joseph 

 Davis, upon two apple trees that arc growing in 

 front of his house in this village. The trees in 

 question had alwaj^s been barren, with perhaps the 

 exception of bearing one j'car a few inferior apples, 

 yet they blossomed full each year. Having no- 

 ticed that a barren tree, from which a poition of 

 its bark was accidentally torn while in full blos- 

 som, bore a good crop the succeeding fall, he at 

 first girdled a large limb of one of his trees near 

 the trunk, clear to the wood, taking care not to 

 cut the wood, removing about one-half inch in 

 width of bark the entire circumference of the 

 limb. The result was, the limb was heavily laden 

 with fruit, in fact "hung full," while upon the re- 

 maining branches there were no apples. 



The following year he girdled the trunk of the 

 same tree, next to where the branches put out ; 

 and the result was the entire branches were so 

 heavily laden with fruit, that he was compelled to 

 prop them up to keep them from lireaking. Last 

 year he girdled the other tree in the same manner, 

 when it was fully in blossom, with the same re- 

 sult. In all these cases, the trees, to all appearance, 

 are not at all injured by this process of making 

 them productive. Mr. Davis has lieen frequently 

 urged to publish the result of his experiments, but 

 has thus far declined lest they might prove fatal 

 under other circumstances, but having demon- 

 strated the beneficial effects of the process, he has 

 consented to place it before the public. 



L. H. Chandler. 



Baldwinsville, Mass., April 15, 1867. 



Remarks. — This process for inducing fruitful- 

 ness, is well known to fruit growers, and is usually 

 termed ringing. Its object is to prevent the nat- 

 ural downward passage of the sap, and to force it 

 into the branches above the girdle, and thus 

 to secure fruit of greatly increased size and 

 amount. Premium specimens are sometimes pro- 

 duced in this way for the tables of our annual 

 fairs. But Mr. Downing says it is always more or 

 less injurious to the health of the branch or tree, 

 and he entirely disapproves of the mode, except 

 as a curious experiment. Baker says, it cannot be 

 recommended for general use, though allowable in 

 certain cases. Lindley says, if performed exten- 

 sively upon a tree, it is apt, if not to kill it, to ren- 

 der it incurably unhealthy. A cord tied snugly 

 around a limb or the whole trunk, is said to pro- 

 duce an effect similar to ringing, with less injury to 

 the tree. 



cranberry culture. 

 I notice in nearly all that 1 read on the cultiva- 

 tion of the cranberry that a considerable outlay is 

 recommended to prepare the ground for setting 

 the vines, which is discouraging to a young begin- 



