178 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JuXK, 
“ Celery as a Field Crop.” 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
As the writer of the article under the above 
heading- in the March Agriculturist, I am induced 
to reply to the doubt you express, that under 
the treatment described the celery would not 
be tender. Permit me to assure you that the 
very reverse is the case. Celery earthed up in 
the usual way, when in full growth, tastes much 
stronger and is far less crisp than when blanched 
by the trench system. This we find to our cost, 
as our workmen, when preparing it for market, 
devour it in great quantities in the Winter, while 
they rarely touch it in the Pall when it has to be 
blanched while in the growing state. The prin¬ 
ciple in blanching celery by the trench system 
is nearly similar to that practiced in forcing 
Sea Kale and Rhubarb, and all who have prac¬ 
tised it know the high degree of crispness and 
tenderness attained by growth when excluded 
from light (and partially from air), as is the case 
iu this method of blanching celery, or forcing 
of Sea Kale and Rhubarb. I have grown up¬ 
wards of 15 acres—nearly half a million roots— 
of celery annually for the last ten years, and in 
that time have preserved it in various ways, but 
in no way so safely and cheaply as by the sys¬ 
tem described in the March Agriculturist. In fact 
nineteen-twentieths of all the celery sold in the 
New-York markets is thus blanched; all my 
neighbors for miles around, practice this method 
exclusively. A Jersey Market Gardener. 
The White Kidney Bean. 
“You don’t know beans,” is a term of re¬ 
proach much more generally deserved than the 
world supposes. We have gone through the 
whole catalogue of beans, pole and dwarf, Chi¬ 
na, Scipio, case-knife, asparagus, wild goose, 
marrowfat, cranberry, etc., and have never 
found any thing to compare with the white kid¬ 
ney for baking. The Lima is decidedly better as 
a table vegetable, and for making succotash. 
Rut the Lima is a pole bean, and is not a sure 
crop in all parts of the north, while the kidney is 
as easily raised as the common white field bean, 
and will mature where auy bean will. It should 
have a good soil, and we will say here, in pas¬ 
sing, that we have never known it to run to 
vines, planted in the richest soil, or at any time 
of the moon. It is not quite as early as the Chi¬ 
na, but bears far more abundantly. It is excel¬ 
lent as a snap bean, but baking alone brings 
out all its excellences. It is easily cooked, 
very delicate, and thin skinned, and entirely 
free from the strong taste which marks most 
pole beaus. It is not very widely known, but is 
so far appreciated that it always bears the high¬ 
est price in market. It is well known in the 
cities and among epicures, and ought to be bet¬ 
ter known among villagers and farmers. We 
suspect the majority of our readers are still 
strangers to a perfect dish of baked beans. 
Spontaneous Vegetation—Query. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
I have been pleased and profited by your re¬ 
marks on spontaneous vegetation, and believe 
them founded in scientific truth. But a few facts 
have come to my knowledge, lately, which are 
noteworthy: I send the nuts to your learned 
readers to crack. Some years ago, a low piece 
of ground in the suburbs of Albany was raised 
by dirt brought in by railway trucks from a dis¬ 
tant hill side—a hill which had not been dis¬ 
turbed perhaps for centuries. Yet, no sooner 
had this “ made land ” been leveled off and al¬ 
lowed to stand for a few weeks, than it produced 
a rank growth of weeds and grasses. Now, did 
this vegetation spring from an original principle 
in the soil, or from seeds, perhaps a thousand 
years old, buried in that hill ? 
After the great fire in London, in 1666, the 
entire surface of the destroyed city became 
green in Summer with multitudes of a crucife¬ 
rous plant—the Sisymbrium iris of Linnaeus. 
How came they there ? Did the fire beget them ? 
When a salt spring occurs far from the sea¬ 
shore, numerous plants peculiar to maritime re¬ 
gions, are often found in the neighborhood. 
Does salt air evoke these plants from the soil ? 
If a lake or pond happens to dry up, the bot¬ 
tom will exhibit a vegetation unlike that of the 
banks or adjoining fields. Whoever cracks the 
nuts, let him report. Scholasticus. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The Best Time to Prune. 
An old clergyman is quoted as defining this 
time to be “ when your knife is sharp.” He 
was certainly half right, for a smooth clean cut 
is very essential to the healing of the wound. 
But there is very great difference in the healing 
of wounds on account of the season in which 
they are made. Pruning done in March and 
April, especially if large limbs are removed, 
often injures an orchard for life. The sap oozes 
from all the pores and runs down upon the bark, 
discoloring and oftentimes destroying it—called 
scalding. Without other protection, decay be¬ 
gins, and in a few years you have a hollow limb. 
We like the month of June for pruning better 
than all others. If the work is done soon after 
the new wood begins to form, the wounds made 
by the removal of small limbs will be nearly 
covered over the same season they are made. 
The leaves make such a demand upon the wood 
for sap that none of it escapes from the wounded 
pores. It is also a favorable time for thumb 
pruning. By watching the growth of the shoots 
upon youug trees they maybe brought into sym¬ 
metrical shape without much use of the knife. 
Jonathan. 
Raising Peaches. 
To grow them from seed, bury the pits in shal¬ 
low boxes in alternate layers of sand or light 
earth, and expose them where they shall get a 
good freezing. This will crack the shell and 
favor their germination. Those which do not 
get cracked by the frost, must be broken with 
a hammer. The best soil for the peach is a rich 
warm, gravely loam. Plow and harrow into 
fine condition for working. Lay off the drills 
three feet apart, and plant the seeds ten inches 
asunder in the drill, and about an inch deep. 
This should be done as early in the Spring as 
the weather will permit. When the shoots ap¬ 
pear above ground, go through the rows, and 
with hand and hoe give them a good weeding, 
otherwise they will get smothered. When 
about six inches high, put a cultivator into the 
rows, using a very careful horse, and then follow 
with the hoe. This will expedite the growth 
of the seedlings: in ordinary cases, the planter 
will have no reason to complain of the slow 
progress of his little trees. In many cases, bud¬ 
ding is not resorted to; it is thought enough to 
grow new trees from good seed of good parent 
trees. But, by all means, avoid seed from trees 
which have the Yellows or any other disease. 
If pains is taken, one will get good fruit, though 
it will vary somewhat from the stock. But 
when it is desired to propagate any known va¬ 
rieties, budding must be resorted to. When this 
is done, the operation should be performed on 
the larger seedlings, in the latter part of the first 
season; say, from the first to the middle of Sep¬ 
tember. As the peach grows quite late iuto 
the Fall, this will give the bud time to unite well 
with the stock before Winter. Next Spring, be¬ 
fore growth begins, head back the stock; the 
bud will soon start, and grow several feet iu the 
season. It will be ready to transplant in the Fall. 
A word in reference to the situation of the 
peach orchard. To guard against late Spring- 
frosts, avoid low, rich ground, and choose rather 
high and rolling land. Here the trees may grow 
less luxuriantly, and the fruit ripen a little later, 
but frost and various diseases will make less 
trouble. It is a mistake, however, to suppose 
that the peach is partial to a poor and thin soil. 
It is often put into this, as in Delaware and New 
Jersey, because this land will yield no other crop 
so remunerative. It is chiefly because of the 
poverty of the land that the peach orchards 
there are so short-lived, often flourishing no 
longer than three or four years. Give the peach 
a good, substantial loamy soil, well drained and 
moderately enriched, and it will very often re¬ 
main productive fifteen or twenty year§. 
In setting out a young orchard, choose fresh 
land. Plant the trees 16 feet apart unless you 
know that they are likely to live more than 12 
years. Give the land a light annual dressing of 
manure, and keep it well stirred. After the 
trees have begun to bear plentifully, no other 
crop should be taken from the land. 
They may be pruned during the growing sea¬ 
son to advantage, by pinching in the shoots in 
sach a way as to give a compact and uniform 
top, and keep the fruit more within reach. The 
tendency of the sap, the most rapid growth, and 
much of the fruit, are always towards the ends of 
the limbs, and thus, each year, our pruned trees 
stretch away further and further from the ground. 
Pinching in gives larger and better developed 
leaves, better buds for next year, and greater 
perfection to the fruit, which is borne both on 
year old, and still older wood. The blooming is 
so profuse that little fruit is lost by pruning. 
When thus shortened in in Spring or Autumn, 
better the former, cut back, leaving only four or 
five good buds on wood of the past season’s 
growth, and remove at the same time all side 
shoots that fill up the tree too much.... The ex¬ 
perience of Mr. S. S. Gregory, Cuyahoga Co., 
0., is interesting on some of the points, and we 
give it as he writes to the American Agriculturist: 
“ Fourteen years since I purchased fifty peach- 
trees, at eight cents a piece. One of these trees 
was of “natural fruit,” and the remainder were 
of four sorts: the Melocoton, Morrisania, and 
the Red and Yellow Rare-ripes. The soil upon 
which they were set varied in character, part 
being a gravelly dry loam, tolerably well calcu¬ 
lated for peaches, and part just the reverse, low 
and wet. Since setting out, part of the trees 
have yielded fruit four times, while a part died 
without producing enough to pay for the cost 
and trouble of planting them. As near as I 
can estimate, besides a bountiful supply of 
peaches for my own use, the receipts for the 
fruit sold from the bearing trees have been amply 
sufficient to pay for all the trees originally pur¬ 
chased, and for the land upon which they stood. 
The chief, and perhaps the sole reason why the 
bearing trees failed to bear, ten of the fourteen 
