1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



395 



ful usuge now than when the country was com- 

 paratively new. They are more exposed to 

 the force of winds, and ravages of insects at 

 the present time than then. Few appear to 

 regard these changes as being necessary to be 

 taken into account when they plant out their 

 fruit trees. They dig a hole and put them 

 into it, and leave them to struggle for their 

 existence under an accumulation of difficulties 

 the most discouraging. They may manage to 

 live for a few years, if the cattle or swine are 

 not too severe, and then give up and die. 

 Others are cared for after a fashion, until they 

 have attained quite a good size, say a ten 

 years' growth, then left to shirk for themselves. 

 A week or two since I saw one of my neigh- 

 bors trimming trees with a common chopping 

 axe, — good thrifty trees, too, that with proper 

 care might not only be made an ornament to 

 his place but a source of profit. 



Fruit has become so much a necessity in every 

 family that prices are and will be remunerative. 

 Your articles on the care of trees, published 

 in the Farmer, are to me the most valuable of 

 any that appear in the paper. What will New 

 England homes be without orchards ? To the 

 boy that has been reared beneath their shel- 

 ter and shade, and partaken of their fruif, 

 how endeared is every tree. Some of them in 

 particular are indelibly engraved on his affec- 

 tions. He longs to re-visit them, even when 

 years of separation have intervened. If in 

 this respect he should be gratified, how joyful 

 the re-union ! How grateful the reminiscences \ 

 How luscious the fruit ! This is not all romance, 

 but with many an one, a simple history, a liv- 

 ing reality. 



I must plead for the orchards that are still left 

 us and urge the cultivation of new on'is. They 

 are a necessity for our well being. Our homes, 

 if in the country, require them. They cannot, 

 ought not, to be regarded as homes unless we 

 have or mean to have an orchard of good fruit. 

 Plant and wisely care lor an orcfiard, and 

 you are thrice blessed in the satisfaction you 

 will find in it, and your children's children 

 will arise to call you blessed. k. o. 



East Windsor, Ct., 1867. 



NEW JERSEY LANDS. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman 

 says that a gentleman of good business capaci- 

 ty and of large experience, recently visited 

 one of the new settlements with a view to pur- 

 chase, should he find the facilities for a home 

 there cfjual to the representations of conmiit- 

 tees and others, who have advertised those 

 lands. He reports a large and restless popu- 

 lation, without much visible means of living. 

 and the largest portion of them anxious to sell. 

 The lands cost some $25 an acre for field, and 

 several tiuies that sum in the village. Every 

 acre is covered with scrubs and bushes, sub- 

 jecting the proprietor to as much as the origi- 

 nal cost to clear and plow it. After this, the 



stumps must be grubbed or pulled, to furnish 

 clear cultivation. The soil appears to be 

 sandy loam, and, as there is no manure at 

 hand — nothing to feed an animal of any kind 

 — the cultivator first casts about him to ascer- 

 tain where he shall find fertilizing matter for 

 his crops. The principal reliance is on the 

 marl deposits of other counties. Every acre 

 costs the settler at least fifty dollars before he 

 realizes a crop, and he must wait for grass to 

 grow before he can keep a horse or cow. Un- 

 til he can keep stock and manufacture manure, 

 he must buy, so that for two years, at least, it 

 is all outlay and no income. 



LITTLE FALLS FARMERS' CLUB., 

 The farmers of this romantic valley have 

 kept up semi-monthly meetings for some ten 

 years past. Their discussions of topics relat- 

 ing to the farm and garden, particularly to 

 dairying, which is a leading pursuit of the far- 

 mers of Herkimer County, have been ably re- 

 ported by Mr. X. A. Willard and others, and 

 probably no farmers' club in the country has 

 sent out as much valuable, practical information 

 as has this association. We find the following 

 notice of the manner of conducting its discus- 

 sions, which it will be seen is very simple, from 

 an article in the Utica Herald, conducted by 

 Mr. Willard .— 



Near the close- of every meeting, a subject is 

 chosen for the next meeting, and some person 

 or persons appointed to open the discussion. 

 The opening speeches are made in the way 

 most agreeable to the speakers. Either by 

 written essays, or extemporaneously. After 

 the opening speeches, members carry on the 

 discussion in a conversational way — asking 

 questions or giving their experience without 

 any attempt at speech making. All that is 

 sought to be obtained are the facts. Generally, 

 members keep their seats, and talk in a famil- 

 iar way, precisely as they would if meeting 

 friends on the street or at their own homes. 

 Under this system, it has been found that much 

 more knowledge is obtained than would be ob- 

 tained if speakers were required to rise and de- 

 liver their experience, &c., in a set speech, 

 since many who are willing to talk and answer 

 questions could not be prevailed upon to rise 

 and make a speech. 



l^ At a factory in Breslau, p!ne-tree wool 

 is now spun and woven into a kind of flannel, 

 which is largely used as blankets in hospitals, 

 barracks and prisons, in that city and in 

 V'ienna with manifest advantage, for pine wood 

 drives away all disagreeable and noxious in- 

 sects from the localities in which it is used. It 

 can be used as stuffing for chairs, sofas and 

 mattresses in the same way as horse hair. 



