296 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEK. 



Oct 



atmospheric influences to become fully adapted to 

 the growth of vegetation. Another requisite to 

 success, where so much expense is incurred in pre- 

 paring the soil, is to select such a rotation and 

 make such an arrangement, that all the ground 

 will be constantly occupied through the entire 

 season with constantly changing crops. 



SUCCESSION OF CROPS. 



By way of illustration, Mr. Wyman said he had 

 prepared a lot in the autumn by plowing or spad- 

 ing, and manuring, and as soon as he could get 

 access to the surface soil in the spring, without 

 waiting for the frost to be entirely removed, or for 

 the ground to settle, he planted peas of an early 

 dwarf variety, in drills twelve to fifteen inches 

 apart, omitting one drill once in ten feet. The 

 peas thus planted, are not injured by late frosts or 

 cold rains, and are all ready to start into life on 

 the first warm days, and do come forward earlier, 

 and ripen earlier than those planted after the 

 ground has become settled and warm. The space 

 omitted once in ten feet, is, at the proper time, 

 which is usually about or a little after the time for 

 planting corn, planted with squashes, in hills eight 

 or ten feet apart in the rows; these, when they 

 come up, are protected from bugs by boxes six to 

 ten inches high intended for a cover of two lights 

 of glass, which slide up, one side of the box being 

 higher than the other ; the glass, however, is rarely 

 used for sauashes, the sides alone being sufficient 

 to keep oflF the bugs. The boxeg with glass are 

 very useful for tomatoes, and many other plants, 

 which, when started early, need protection during 

 high winds, cold nights and severe storms. The 

 peas ripen and are removed before the squashes 

 need the ground, which they soon after completely 

 cover. 



He has by this method, which is the one com- 

 monly adopted by him now, raised peas, which 

 sold at the markets in this place, at an average 

 rote of $320 per acre, and on the same land, 

 squashes at the rate of nearly ten tons per acre, 

 which sold at the rate of over $300 per acre. In 

 another instance he has planted cluster onions as 

 early as possible, they, like peas, being uninjured 

 by cold or wet, and harvested the crop early in 

 July, at the rate of 400 bushels per acre, which 

 have sold for $2 per bushel, then immediately put 

 out strawberry plants, which, having time to 

 become fully established the same season, produced 

 their best crop the next year. Ruta-bagas and 

 cabbages have profitably succeeded onions, and 

 various other late crops have succeeded peas. 



THI SELECTION OF S«ED. 



In preserving seed, Mr. Wyman deems the 

 utmost caution necessary, especially with those 

 varieties which mix readily, like the squash. His 

 own method is to plant but one or two varieties; 

 for several years only one, the Hubbard ; at present 

 two, the Hubbard and Boston Marrow, on opposite 

 extremes of his farm, and as far as possible from 

 those planted by his neighbors, to lessen the danger 

 of mixture by the agency of bees. Then when 

 fully ripe, he selects several, the most nearly per- 

 fect in size, form and color, and saves these for 

 his own family use, which, when used, he carefully 

 examined, testing the thickness, weight, fineness 

 of grain, color and flavor of the meat, and finally 



selects for his own planting, seeds from the one or 

 two, which, considering all these qualiti-s he 

 believes to be best. In this way he thinks squashes 

 may be brought to a high degree of pefection. 

 Even in seeds which do not mix readily, he thinks 

 selections should be made from the very ^est of 

 plants of any variety, every succeeding year. 



Low Branching Fruit Trees. 



BY WILLIAM BACON, KICHMOND, MASS. 



In years gone by, as the remaining trees in old 

 orchards show, there was almost a universal prac- 

 tice of throwing the tree-tops high into the air; 

 first, by allowing the trunks to arise some six or 

 seven feet before they throw out branches ; and 

 second by pruning the branches near the trunk, 

 leaving merelv a tuft of limbs at the extremeties 

 of these naked arms. These outside tree-heads, 

 formed on branches that had the appearance of 

 artificial trees thrown out from the trunk, of course 

 receded further from the main body of the tree 

 each year. 



The disadvantages of this way of growing trees 

 are, their greater liability to be shaken and broken 

 by high winds ; the longer the lever, the greater 

 the body in raising heavy bodies ; the further the 

 heavy tree-top is removed from the earth, the 

 more power the winds will exert to overturn a tree. 

 Then the branches are more liable to be broken by 

 the weight of the top b< ing far removed from the 

 trunk, or, if not directly broken, they are severely 

 twisted, and thus made unhealthy, which in due 

 time, insures their decay. 



The fruit on such trees is much more liable to 

 be prematurely blown off by high winds ; they are 

 gathered with much more difficulty when mature. 

 If the tree is shaken, as is still the custom with 

 many, it is sadly bruisi d by the fall from these 

 high tree-tops ; and if picked off, the danger to 

 life and limb in the operation is increased in great- 

 er ratio than the increasing distance from the 

 ground. 



But there is yet another objection to this meth- 

 od of tree-forming, fully equal to, if not greater 

 than, all others. Sap is the life of the tree, and 

 the excess of sap goes to perfect the fruit. The 

 longer the trunk and branches of the tree, the 

 more the small branches are thrown into tufts at 

 the extremeties of large limbs, the fewer will be 

 the leaves to elaborate sap for the nourishment of 

 the tree, and perfection of the fruit; consequently, 

 a feeble tree and small and inferior fruit will in 

 the end, be the result of the miserable system. 



By the above noted system of tree-growing, 

 they are more exposed to the ravages of insects. 

 The more bare wood, and greater exposure of it to 

 atmospheric changes, the feebler the tree, and 

 more subject to attacks, not only of the hosts of 

 animal depredators that feed most greedily on such 

 trees ; lichens gather on them more readily, and 

 feed on their very vitals. Any one must know 

 that these evils can not be so readily contended 

 with on a high, illshapen tree as when near the 

 surface ; so that, besides the increased amount of 

 danger from the evils alluded to, the difficulty of 

 obviating them is so much increased that, in a sort 

 of indolent discouragement, they are neglected, 

 and old, moss-covered, worm-webbed, insect-bored 



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