255 



planter from Baltimore county, Maryland, with j 

 whose conversation I was highly entertained. — 

 He is a practical agriculturist, and among the 

 many experiments which he has been making, 

 he mentioned one on Indian corn, which I think 

 worthy of note. He has for three consecutive 

 years planted seed corn taken from within an 

 inch of the butt end of the ear, and the result 

 has been he has obtained a mature crop of corn, 

 some two or three weeks earlier. I have never 

 tried the experiment myself, but I am confident 

 the corn crop can be forwarded in this way, from 

 the fact and for the same reason that beans taken i 

 for seed from the lower part of the vine which ma- 

 ture first, have been found on trial to ripen some 

 time sooner than those taken from the upper parts 



which mature later. Mr. Wilson informed me 

 that great improvements were making in the agri- 

 culture of his State, particularly by some enter- 

 prising individuals who had emigrated from the 

 eastern States, and he thought that those who 

 chose to settle there, with help brought from the 

 east, would find themselves able to invest money 

 very profitably in lands and agricultural opera- 

 tions ; that lands were now at their minimum 

 price, and would in a few years advance in va- 

 lue a hundred per cent. He said that he him- 

 self raised last year a crop of corn from a piece 

 of ' worn out land,' as the lands exhausted by 

 long cultivation are there called, which yielded 

 70 bushels to the acre; and that his crop now 

 growing, promised him an average of 100." 



TRANSPLANTING 



EES 



Nothing tends more to the elegance of a coun- 

 try residence than a proper disposition of the 

 trees about the homestead. The waiting for the 

 growth of switches is a slow and discouraging 

 business ; but although we have often endea- 

 vored to transfer the noble tenants of our forests 

 to the yard, the only plan with which we have 

 ever succeeded in removing trees of a respecta- 

 ble size, is the following, taken from Jessie's 

 Gleanings : 



"I have adopted a method of transplanting 

 trees, which I consider more generally to be de- 

 pended upon, and much cheaper, than that in- 

 vented by Sir H. Stewart. On an experiment 

 upon a large scale, and under many disadvan- 

 tages, I have not lost a single tree out of many 

 hundreds, some of which were of large size, and 

 showing their blossom at the time of their re- 

 moval. The plan I adopted was as follows : — 

 In the first place, the earth must be excavated 

 at some distance from the tree, leaving all the 

 principal fibres and the earth adhering to them, 

 in a compact ball, undermining it as much as 



possible, and taking care not to shake or injure 

 the ball by twisting the stem of the tree, or 

 using it as a lever to loosen the tap-roots ; when 

 this has been done, and a corresponding hole 

 made at the place to which the tree is intended 

 to be removed, the following method of taking 

 it up and conveying it, is to be used : 



" Two pieces of iron must be previously 

 formed, of the breadth and thickness of a com- 

 mon cart-wheel tire, three or four inches wide, 

 and rather more than half an inch in thickness, 

 and about six feet long, bent in the form shown 

 at A, which will reduce it to three feet across. 

 This size will do for trees requiring from two to 

 four men to lift them ; but a size, larger and 

 stronger in proportion, will be wanted for trees 

 which will require from eight to ten or more 

 men to carry them. Put these irons under the 

 ball of the earth as near the centre as possible, 

 leaving a space between them of about two feet, 

 and for larger trees a little more ; then run two 

 strong poles, about eight or ten feet long or 

 more, stout in proportion, and smaller at each 

 end, and apply them as shown at B, to each 

 side, passing them through the bends of the 



