110 
TREE DAHLIA.—FARM OF MR. FRANKLIN MORGAN. 
Iiorse he uses for drawing shingles, making axe- 
helves, &c., shave it down sufficiently. It ought 
never to be too much curried down, as the strength 
of the leather is between the flesh and the grain. 
All leather ought to be greased frequently to keep 
it pliant, and render it durable. White tanned 
leather was much in vogue here some years ago, 
that is, leather tanned with salt and alum. The 
process is easy and quick; but the leather is not 
durable. Leather receives little or no tan during 
freezing weather, and consequently it is not neces¬ 
sary to examine it so often. In hot weather it 
must be strictly attended to. Temperate weather 
is best for tanning. 
Philip Winfree. 
Louisiana , Jan. 2d , 1844. 
TREE DAHLIA. 
In December, 1839, we first saw a tree dahlia 
flourishing in the conservatory of the Jardin des 
Plantes of Paris. A tree dahlia is a novelty in 
horticulture, and we will state what little is yet 
known of its history. 
It is originally from Mexico, as well as its fam¬ 
ily, and was introduced into England three or four 
years a^o. From England it passed intoBelgium, 
where it was established in the conservatory "of M. 
Mawy, the celebrated horticultor of Liege. Thence 
it was brought to the Jardin des Plantes, in the 
spring of 1839. It was a small plant, and was 
set in the ground in the conservatory by M. Neu¬ 
mann. Eight months afterward it had grown 
eight or nine feet high, and showed -its first flow¬ 
ers. The root is large and tuberculous, and seem¬ 
ed to have no disposition to produce other bunches 
of roots like the other dahlias. This plant has 
one stem, branching a little at the top—it has be¬ 
come woody at the bottom, smaller at the base 
than in the middle of its height. The upper part 
of the tree remains green and hollow, furnished 
with large warts. The part of the stem nearest 
to the ground puts out many single roots, they are 
stiff, and some of them strike into the ground; 
such as do not reach the ground dry up. The 
leaves are much larger than those of the other 
dahlia, some of them being as much as three feet 
long. They are set opposite to each other, are 
pennated, and their petioles, leaf-stalks, are sheath¬ 
ed around the stem, forming, of this plant, a spe¬ 
cies altogether different from the herbaceous 
species. 
The flowers are axillaires; on the top of the 
plant, are largely pedunculate and diverging—are 
of a clear lilac color—about three inches broad— 
in the form of an anemony ; that is to say, the ex¬ 
terior petals are, in number, from five to eight, 
are long, flat, quite narrow and numerous in the 
centre of the flower, but shorter and irregular in 
form. 
They would have been considered very beauti¬ 
ful fifty years ago ; but in our day, the herbaceous 
dahlia is so wonderfully beautiful and varied, that 
this tree dahlia will probably find admission only 
into those great botanical establishments where all 
the beauties of the vegetable world are concentra¬ 
ted ; and this plant being only in part woody, 
while the rest is herbaceous, it must depend for 
its safety upon artificial protection. 
To the New York Farmers’ Club, 
Gentlemen— I have translated the above article 
on the dahlia from the Feme Horticole of Paris, 
and take pleasure in communicating it to you. 
H. Meigs, 
Sec. of the N. Y. Farmers ’ Club „ 
Feb. 17, 1844. 
FARM OF MR. FRANKLIN MORGAN. 
I wrote you a hasty sketch as I was making a 
flying tour through Massachusetts last autumn, 
upon the subject of wornout lands, which you 
published in your February No.; but fearing my 
observations in that article may be considered of 
too general a character, I hasten to “define my 
position” with more particularity. 
A farm of 270 acres, lying within half a mile of 
the railroad depot, in the town of Palmer, Ham¬ 
den county, Massachusetts, has remained in the 
same family down to the fifth generation, or until 
October, 1839, when it was sold. There had 
never been a barn upon the farm until within the 
last 14 years, as I was informed. The manure had 
been suffered to collect around the stack-yards, and 
alongside the fences where the cattle had shelter¬ 
ed themselves from year to year, and dropped it. 
The refuse of the hay, corn-stalks, and straw,, 
was also left upon the ground until it had accu¬ 
mulated to the depth of six feet, more or less, ac¬ 
cording to the situation of the ground, and its 
adaptation to retain the materials thus dropped, 
and to collect leaves as they were blown from the 
forest, which in a lapse of lime of nearly a century, 
amounted to considerable in certain positions. My 
informant did not speak much in favor of the build¬ 
ings or fences at the time of sale. The crop of 
hay was estimated at 25 tons, and this not of a 
very good quality. The stock pastured that year 
was six cows, six yearlings, one yoke of oxen, and 
two horses, and these not kept in a thriving con¬ 
dition. The road leading to the church, village, 
stores, mills, &c., &c., was circuitous, nearly two 
miles to get to a point that can now be reached 
in less than half a mile. We will now reverse 
the picture from “ no book-farming” to one of an 
opposite character. 
Mr. Franklin Morgan purchased this farm at 
the time above stated, October, 1839, and commen¬ 
ced improvements on “ book-farming” principles. 
In 1840 he mowed the brush upon the whole farm, 
(except such parts as he intended to grub,) in the 
months of June and September. This he did for 
three years in succession, whenever he could find 
a young sprout starting up. He has sowed plas¬ 
ter upon all the pasture ground in the month of 
May in each year, at the rate of 100 lbs. per acre, 
and he now thinks it will not be necessary to sow 
any more for some years, as the feed is very luxu¬ 
riant, and I found it as thick as a mat at the time 
I visited it, which was in November last. There 
were then 66 head of cattle grazing upon it, all in 
fine condition, although the weather was cold, and 
