1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



331 



consequently short-lived. I then commenced a 

 new mode of culture by taking trees of two or 

 three years' growth and grafting at the root. Cut 

 off the trunk about an inch from the root and when 

 the scion becomes well started cover with loam 

 and composted manure just above the cleft. The 

 small roots will soon start from the scion and you 

 have a perfect tree of the kind grafted. If you 

 wish to train it as a dwarf, cut back so as to keep 

 the tree well balanced. In this way I have traiiied 

 some as handsome trees as I ever saw, which 

 prove good bearers with handsome tops, and trunks 

 from two to three feet high. G. L. Hibbard. 

 West Randolph, Vt., May, 1867. 



COCKS AND HENS — KEEPING EGGS. 



Will you or some of your correspondents inform 

 me whether one cock is sufficient for fifty hens ? 

 How long can eggs be kept safely before setting ? 



I have kept fifty hens (Brahraas) during the past 

 winter. They have averaged from twenty-four to 

 twenty-five eggs per day. As the wann weather 

 comes on the yield will be increased. It has cost 

 $4.00 per month to keep the tifty hens. During 

 the past two months I have sold 125 dozen eggs at 

 twenty-eight to thirty cts. per dozen. 



Although young, I have faith in Mother Earth, 

 and believe she will richly reward those who earn- 

 estly and sensibly seek her favor. 



Subscriber. 



North Thetford, Vt., 1867. 



Remarks. — It is generally supposed that there 

 should be one cock to twelve or fifteen hens. Eggs 

 will keep almost any length of time if they are set 

 on end, in an auger hole, and changed once in six 

 or seven days. We have known them to kept per- 

 fectly sound for an entire year in this way. 



MAPLE SUGAR AND GRIT. 



In reply to your correspondent, "G. M. B.," of 

 Worcester, Vt., whose remarks and inquiries in 

 reference to the grit in maple sugar, were pub- 

 lished in the Farmer of the 18th inst., I would 

 state, tliat several years ago, some of this gritty 

 matter, precipitated from concentrated maple syr- 

 up, was submitted to Dr. Chester Dewey, tlicn 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College, at 

 Woodf-tock, Vt., and was found to be, mainly, 

 phosphate of lime. 



Wliethcr the potash, sulphur, and other mineral 

 matter, as well as the phosphates, composing the 

 ash of mai)le wood, are also present in the saccha- 

 rine sap, in like proportions ; or wLy the phos- 

 phates alone are precipitated from the molasses or 

 concentrated syrup, are questions for the analyti- 

 cal chcmi,-t. "Evidently all the ash or mineral 

 matter of the wood, (excepting, of course, the 

 large proportion of carbon and the small quantity 

 of ammonia, absorbed from the atmosphere,) is 

 derived from the earth. Not the sugary fluid, but 

 only water, and such minerals as water holds in 

 solution, are absorbed by the roots of the maple ; 

 while the true sap, containing at first sugar, and 

 at length produc ing woody fibre, is elaborated by 

 the leaves and other organs of the tree during the 

 year previous to that in which it is drawn from the 

 all)urnum or sap-wood by the sugar maker. 



In regard to the circulation of the sap, we are 

 sometimes told that it is analogous to the circula- 

 tion of the blood in animals ; that it ascends in 

 the all)urnum and descends between the bark and 

 wood. This statement, in some sense true, is, as 

 an explanation, meagre and defective, and leads to 

 erroneous conclusions. There are no tubes or 

 channels in trees analogous to the arteries and 

 veins of animals, but the vegetable fluids pass 



from one cell to another which is in contact ver- 

 tically and horizontally ; the fluids of different 

 densities of any two cells in contact passing 

 through the poi-ous partitions simultaneously in 

 opposite directions, and commingling in obedience 

 to a law well understood by chemists and physiol- 

 ogists, and which they call osmose. According to 

 this theory it is easily understood why the true 

 and denser sap, as well as the weak mineral solu- 

 tion taken up by the roots, is found in the albur- 

 num, and not exclusively between the bark and 

 the wood. Only a slight mechanical circulation 

 takes place in tiic duramen or heart-wood, it hav- 

 ing ceased to perform vegetable functions. 



It may be proper to remark that while pure 

 sugar requires only water, or its two elements, and 

 carbon for its formation, the mineral matters found 

 in the sap and sugar, and destined to become 

 ashes in the maple wood, are invariably present, 

 with varying proportions, in the formation of all 

 wood, and are essential, even if they do not enter 

 into such formation as constituent elements, as 

 they do in the formation of other vegetable pro- 

 ductions. I. B. Hartwell. 



Wilksonville, Mass., May 20, 1867. 



RAISING POTATOES. — WEEDS. 



I am greatly obliged to brother "Ned" for in- 

 forming yourself and others that his method of 

 raising potatoes differs from mine. It is just as I 

 expected. Experience brings wisdom, and I am 

 very glad if he is wiser than his father was. It 

 would not be strange if there were still other 

 methods just as good as his or mine. In regard to 

 planting on stubble, I will say, I have never suf- 

 fered from wire worms, but came very near hav- 

 ing a crop of corn ruined by cut worms on what 

 he terms "sward." We may learn from this that 

 though we are both located in one county, we have 

 to contend with different enemies. But my object 

 in noticing his article is, to suggest that if I wanted 

 a few roots to feed so many cattle and horses, I 

 would, after my land was as nicely prepared as 

 his is for California potatoes, sow an acre or two 

 to carrots, with the expectation of harvesting 

 twenty-live or thirty hundred bushels, and sow the 

 rest with oats or wheat. 



One word about weeds, and I am done. He says, 

 the more manure the more weeds. This is not 

 necessarily the case. It is true, weeds or anything 

 else, will grow better on rich land than on poor. 

 It is also too often true that such well- rotted ma- 

 nure as he speaks of haiTOwing in, is filled with 

 seeds of weeds that grew on it while it was rotting 

 about the barn. Now I venture the assertion that 

 if he, or any one, will wage a war of extermina- 

 tion against every variety of weeds, in all places 

 on the farm, for ten years, he will find them scarce 

 at the end of that tinfe. W. I. Simonds. 



Roxhury, Vt., May 20, 1867. 



potato RAISING — AMOUNT OF SEED. 



I am pleased to note that opinion and practice 

 are nearly settled, that potatoes yield most when 

 planted from butt-ends, and no more than four 

 stalks in' a hill; the hills two feet one way, and 

 wide enough for a cultivator the other. My father 

 and myself have raised on this farm, in forty 

 j'ears, forty thousand bushels of potatoes, — a yield 

 of seven hundi-ed bushels per acre being not un- 

 common during the first ten years. We found out 

 that we were using too much seed in the following 

 way. My brother and mj'self, when we were boys, 

 were left one afternoon to finish planting. Find- 

 ing that we had not seed enough to finish, with- 

 out going to the house for more, we concluded 

 to "extend" what we had. So we cut up what we 

 had in the field twice as fine as usual, and finished 



