1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
509 
Orchard a»a«l Nursery. 
The orchards have not given returns, in 
quantity or quality, equal to those of many 
other years. The apple crop has fallen far 
short of last year, though the shipments to 
foreign ports show that we can spare many 
thousand barrels. The trade abi-oad is now 
well established. TheAmerican orcliardist can 
supply England with finer fruits than can be 
produced in that climate, and at prices which 
will give the grower a profit. This will give 
a new impetus to orchard planting. Those 
varieties that are both in favor abroad and 
will bear the transportation should be planted 
more largely, such as the Newtown Pippin, 
Spitzenberg, Baldwin, etc. The subject of 
keeping fruit in the cellar is treated at length 
on page 525. As our fruit interests increase, 
the problem of storage will demand atten¬ 
tion. Houses devoted exclusively to the 
proper keeping of fruits, and provided with 
the requisite ventilation, temperature, etc., 
will be required. 
Cions should be cut before they have been 
exposed to hard freezing, and packed hi saw¬ 
dust, damp as it comes from the mill. If no 
sawdust is at hand use sand. The eggs of 
the Tent Caterpillar may be seen near the 
end of the twigs, glued closely together in a 
band. These should be removed on a mild 
day in winter, and the clusters burned. Each 
one thus treated means the destruption of 
three or four hundred “worms” that other¬ 
wise would do much damage in the spring. 
Winter is a trying time for newly set trees, 
as the storms bend them and mice and rab¬ 
bits feed upon their tender bark. All rubbish 
should be cleared away from the trees and 
a mound of earth a foot or more high, thrown 
up. This serves to support the young tree 
and keep away the mice. Snows should al¬ 
ways be tramped hard close around the trees. 
Rabbits have a distaste for flesh and blood, 
and by smearing the lower part of the 
trunks with blood the trees may be protected. 
The orchard to do "its best needs to be manur¬ 
ed. The manure may be put on during winter 
when it can be drawn on sleds, which pass 
more readily under the trees than a wagon. 
The manure drawn upon the orchard should 
be well rotted and free from weed seeds. 
TTBae Fruit harden. 
The mild days of this month will give an 
opportunity to finish up the work for the 
season, such as pruning the currants, grape 
vines, etc. Save any wood of these that may 
be needed for propagation. Many plants are 
protected too much. Strawberries require 
very little litter directly over them—most of 
it should be put on the ground between the 
rows. A little brush, or evergreen boughs, 
placed close to a shrub that is not quite har¬ 
dy, will ward off the severe winds and pre¬ 
serve an even temperature better than the 
“ bundling up ” with straw, as was thought 
necessary a few years ago. Tender raspberry 
canes must be bent down and covered with 
earth before the ground is frozen. Coarse 
manure may be put around currants, etc. 
'Flic Kitchen and Market Garden, 
A moderate freezing does celery no harm, 
but it should not be allowed to freeze hard. 
As soon as the winter sets in, the covering of 
hay—which until then had been slight— 
should be increased until it is one foot in 
thickness. When celery is stored in boxes in 
the cellar, it is more apt to suffer from heat 
than cold. A solid mass of celery must be 
■avoided, placing the boxes as far apart as 
their own width. The cellars where celery 
and roots are kept, must be cool—not far 
above the freezing point. Roots keep fresher 
if packed in sand. Cold frames will now 
need daily attention, that the plants may 
not be kept too warm, and start into growth 
or suffer from a rapid lowering of the tem¬ 
perature. The sashes must be closed during 
all cold spells, but need to be thrown open 
when warm days come. 
Parsnips and Salsify are not injured by 
freezing, and may remain in the ground and 
be dug as wanted, or during a midwinter 
thaw. The comparative leisure of the sea¬ 
son allows of much work being done that 
will help in the busy weeks of spring. The 
various seeds, may be cleaned and stored 
away from the mice. Labels may be made, 
and the plans of spring work laid out. 
Tke Flower Garden aisd S,awn. 
Heavy falls of snow may do much damage 
to evergreens. The snow should be shaken 
from the limbs soon after it falls, before it 
gets icy. The shovel should be used to re¬ 
remove the snow that has dragged down the 
lower branches. When there are long paths 
it is economy to have a snow plow and em¬ 
ploy a horse in clearing them. No “cross¬ 
cut ” paths should be tolerated in winter ; if 
necessary put up wires to prevent them. 
Well rotted manure, that is free from seeds, 
may be put on the lawn in winter. 
Greenluuise and Window Fiauts. 
The potted bulbs should be well rooted 
now, and brought out of the cellar for forcing 
into bloom. It prolongs the season to bring 
only a part out at a time. Hanging baskets 
often suffer from lack of water—plunge 
them into a tub of water, and let them soak 
for a time. Chrysanthemums that have 
flowered should be cut down, and the pots 
placed in the cellar. Cover the house plants 
with papers during sweeping, to keep the 
dust from them. Thick-leaved plants can be 
washed with a soft cloth or sponge, and it 
will add to their health and beauty. 
A Day’s Work in Pounds of Force. 
-O- 
Most farmers are already tolerably well 
convinced, in their own minds, as to what a 
day’s work means, but they will be none the 
less interested in considering some of the 
results of experiments which have been made 
by physicists and physiologists for the sake 
of determining, with as much precision as 
possible, how many pounds of force are really 
exerted, on the average, in a day, by labor¬ 
ing men. The French physicist, Coulomb, 
determined, long ago, that a man turning a 
winch performed each day an amount of 
labor equal to lifting 374 tons to the hight 
of one foot, and the English physicist, 
Haughton, found, in his turn, that a man 
habitually employed in ramming down pav¬ 
ing stones did an amount of work equal to 
lifting 352 tons one foot. Haughton com¬ 
putes that walking on a level surface at a 
rate of about 3 miles an hour is equivalent 
to raising one-twentieth of the weight of the 
body through the distance walked ; hence it 
appears that a man, of 150 lbs. weight, in 
walking one mile on level ground, will do an 
amount of work equal to lifting seventeen 
and a half tons one foot. Ten miles would 
amount to nearly 177 tons, and twenty miles 
to rather more than 353 tons. On going up 
hill the pedestrian of course raises his whole 
weight through the hight ascended. But 
even on level ground, a soldier carrying 60 
lbs. weight will lift nearly 25 tons one foot 
in marching a single mile. In ten miles he 
will lift 247 ‘/q tons, and in marching twenty 
miles, thus loaded, which would manifestly 
be a very hard day’s work, he would lift 495 
tons. Most persons will be ready to admit, 
with Professor Haughton, that, as a continu¬ 
ous laboring effort, walking twenty miles a 
day without a load, six days in the week, is 
fairly good work. But, as was just said, a 
twenty mile walk represents, under the very 
best conditions, 353 tons lifted one foot. Dr, 
Parkes, in England, found that an ordinary 
day’s work for a pedler was to carry 28 lbs. 
twenty miles, which would represent an 
amount of work equal to about 420 tons 
lifted one foot. In this case, the load was 
balanced over the shoulder, 14 lbs. in front 
and 14 lbs. behind. Dr. Parkes met with a 
laborer, in a rolling mill, whose ordinary 
duty was to raise a weight of 124 lbs. six¬ 
teen inches, 5,000 or 6,000 each day. Taking 
the larger number, his work would amount 
to nearly 443 tons lifted one foot, and this 
was considered very hard work by a power¬ 
ful man. This same laborer asserted that he 
occasionally raised a weight of 90 lbs. to a 
hight of 18 inches, 12,000 times a day, work¬ 
ing twelve hours, which would amount to 
725 tons raised a foot. But this is manifestly 
very excessive labor. From all the data ac¬ 
cessible to him, Dr. Parkes concludes that an 
amount of work equal to 300 tons lifted one 
foot is an average day’s work for a healthy, 
strong man; that 400 tons is a hard day’s 
work, and 500 tons so extremely hard, that 
perhaps few men could continue to do it. 
All this applies only to external visible work, 
using the word in its ordinary acceptation. 
But there is performed, of course, in addi¬ 
tion, a large amount of internal work, 
through the movement of the heart, and the 
muscles of respiration and digestion, which 
cannot be so readily measured. Estimates 
of the work done by the heart alone vary 
from 122 to 277 tons lifted a foot. Dr. 
Parkes argues that it is fair to assume that 
at least 250 tons worth of internal mechani¬ 
cal work is performed in the body of an adult 
man, while the external work ranges from 
300 to 500 tons. It appears, in general, that 
from ‘/ 7 to ‘/ 8 of all the force obtainable from 
the food eaten is expended as mechanical 
labor, while the remainder of the force leaves 
the body in the form of heat. S. 
'JTBie CeSIsji* lor Plants. —Many who 
have no greenhouse, and cannot afford the 
room in the dwelling for them, would gladly 
keep certain tender or half hardy plants 
through the winter. For such purpose a cel¬ 
lar answers admirably. Indeed, we know of 
florists who have constructed cellars ex¬ 
pressly for keeping plants through the win¬ 
ter. It is not expected, nor is it desirable, 
that plants in the cellar should grow. They 
are merely to be kept—put to sleep, as it were, 
until the return of spring makes it safe to 
place them out again. Plants in the cellar, 
while they should never be wet, ought not 
to get dust-dry, hence they must be looked 
to occasionally during the winter months. 
