264 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



Sept. 



of very uncertain age, and got but one bid. "Only 

 fifty cents a barrel," said the crier, "why they are 

 worth more than that for manure." A city rural- 

 izer took up the idea. He had just bought a farm 

 in the country, and he sent out his ten barrels of 

 sausages, with direction to Peter to drop one in 

 with each hill of corn ; which was done accord- 

 ingly. 



The next week formed an awful week in that 

 county. The inhabitants thought all the plagues 

 of Egypt were to be repeated on them. Dogs by 

 the thousands were running here and running 

 there each with an an ancient and odorous sausage: 

 — and if the mysterious hints we sometimes have 

 of the unexplained scarcity of dogs about sausage 

 time, have any weight at all, certainly the dogs 

 now had a full revenge. But the city farmer — he 

 voted sausage manure a humbug of the purest wa- 

 ter ; and to this day nothing but the strongest 

 barn-yard fertilizer will go down with-4iim. 



The fact is, the best of j>rinciples are fraught 

 with danger in ignorant hands ; and we can point 

 to scores of instances where orchards are "ruined 

 by grass;" and we know many "good orchards un- 

 der cultivation," in good hands. Instead of prin- 

 ciples we had better give you an example for prac- 

 tice: 



If your land has a tenacious subsoil, under-drain 

 it ; then manure with whatever fertilizer you may 

 decide on as best adapted to your soil and circum- 

 stances. Plow deep, then set your trees 25 feet 

 apart, and sow at once with grass seed and white 

 clover. The object now should be to get a tough 

 sod. This is obtained by mowing often — say three 

 times during the season around the trees, and 

 twice at least over other parts of the ground — 

 leaving the grass to lie where it falls. In some 

 cases, perhaps, the grass may injure a particular 

 tree ; that tree may have weak roots, or the grass 

 roots may get extra strong, and run the tree too 

 severely for moisture. In such cases pull the grass 

 out. Common sense will do more for you than 

 the best rules. This is the art of gardening, to 

 apply knowledge to varied and varying circum- 

 stances. Perhaps in that case, mulching — usually 

 a questionable practice — may help it : just as a 

 mustard plaster, not a comfortable application usu- 

 ally, may at times be excellent for a pain in the 

 back. The second year you may cut your crop of 

 grass — never allowing it to get too old ; in fact, 

 make a rule to take two crops a year — immediate- 

 ly under the trees three times if you wish, and let 

 it rot where it falls. When your trees or grass 

 are likely to fail, top-dress : in many cases perhaps 

 annually. Should any one tree, at any time, not 

 seem to grow as well as you would wish under this 

 treatment, haul a load of old vegetable muck, and 

 spread, say two inches deep under the tree, and you 

 will find all as well aa you can wish. 



— In regard to sowing grass seed in a newly set 

 orchard, we object to it in toto. We will not say 

 that the practice is a bad one in Pennsylvania, 

 but on the prairie we know it to be so, by pretty 

 dear experience. During the first few years of 

 the orchard, we would plant it to beans, potatoes 

 or corn, or vines ; give it good culture, and if need 

 be manure. After this it may be seeded with clo- 

 ver and Herd's grass, in whole or in part. The 



system adopted by Mr. Clark Chatton of seeding a 

 strip^of the width of the tops of the trees is a good 

 one. This is mown once or twice, and used for a 

 mulch, while the entire strip is plowed and sown 

 to buckwheat which is allowed to fall on the 

 ground. Nothing is taken from the soil except 

 the fruit after the orchard comes into bearing. Dr. 

 Pennington sows buckwheat in his orchard, and 

 sometimes harvests a portion of it. Where a per- 

 son has an orchard of two or three acres and plen- 

 ty of manure, the entire strip could be cropped in 

 beans or vines to good advantage. 



In our soil the roots of trees run deep, generally 

 below the plow, and of course are not harmed in 

 the culture, even if somewhat deep. At the east 

 the tree roots generally run near the surface. In 

 the south part of the State, new land can be plow- 

 ed as easily as though the stumps had been so 

 many posts set in with the spade. Trees are nev- 

 er turned out by the roots in our groves, they 

 must be broken oflf if ruined m a storm. This fact 

 may account for the difference in the vailue of or- 

 chard plowing between the two sections. Our or- 

 chard at Leyden, planted seventeen years since, is 

 under culture and for several years has had a crop 

 taken from it, but it has been occasionally manur- 

 ed. Last year the tenant sowed part of it to bar- 

 ley and planted the remainder in corn and pota- 

 toes. This year the tenani sowed ten acres of it 

 to flax, and sold the crop on the ground for $140, 

 and the same orchard will turn off over six hun- 

 dred bushels of apples. The trees are set twenty- 

 eight feet apart each way, and last fall at least one 

 third of the original trees were dug eut, being dead 

 or worthless, and new ones set in. We therefore 

 agree with the Gardeners^ Monildy, that making a 

 summer fallow of the orchard is all bosh. At the 

 same time we protest against an exclusive grass 

 crop in the early state of its existence. Mulching 

 and manuring might do something for it, it ie very 

 true, but a* that time we prefer deep -culture, to 

 allow the roots to go down, instead of, by the use 

 of mulch to coax them to ihe surface. Beans or 

 vines are probably the best of all for ;& yonng or- 

 chard ; we do not like corn as it shades the trees 

 too much, and the first year the newly set trees 

 will make but a feeble growth with it, as-w^e have 

 found on several occasions. After the treee have 

 been set three or four years corn is lees objection- 

 able £lL 



—f~ 



Orchards from New York. . 



People complain that trees from New Tork do 

 not make good, orchards for the West. The rea- 

 son is obvious, as the varieties grown in New York 

 do not generally do well here. A Winesap, Wil- 



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