AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Dmprir to imjrrato tj|* farmer, t\}t pattter, attir % (Sar&mr, 
AGRICULTURE IS TEE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF AMiV.-Wamiungton. 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. ALLEN & CO., 189 Water-st., New-York 
VOL. xiv.—NO. 25.] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1855. 
Jbr ^Prospectus, (forms, $zc., 
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All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
Judd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
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both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
FARM AND GARDEN OF COL. M. P. WILDER. 
Col. Wilder’s residence is in the midst of 
his magnificent garden of about fourteen 
acres, which borders the old stage road 
leading from Boston through Dorchester. 
The grounds have been occupied by him for 
twenty-five years; and the most cursory ob¬ 
servation is sufficient to convince one, that 
these have been years of intelligent and act¬ 
ive supervision. 
There are over one thousand distinct va¬ 
rieties of pear trees. This, of course, is a 
number very far beyond what any horticul¬ 
turist would select or adopt for cultivation. 
But Col. W. has had another motive besides 
profit, in all his operations. He has had 
that commendable spirit of inquiry, which 
his intelligence and wealth have enabled him 
to carry out into successful results, that 
have proved, as he intended, far more bene¬ 
ficial to the public than to himself. With 
this view, he has imported every new variety 
of pear that had any reputation in Europe ; 
and, in addition, has produced a great variety 
from his own experiments in hybridizing. 
By a summary process of testing the new 
kinds—placing the grafts from a yearling 
seedling upon a mature and vigorous tree— 
he is enabled to adopt or discard the new 
fruit at once, without waiting for years to 
determine its quality. Numerous experi¬ 
mental scions now employ the limbs of well- 
grown, healthy trees. Several acres of the 
ground are planted with seedlings and nurse¬ 
ry trees, and larger ones in full bearing. All 
are compressed into the smallest appropriate 
space, being mostly on quince stocks, and at 
distances of 10 to 12 feet. Great attention 
is paid to trimming, most of them being of a 
beautiful pyramidal shape, and the older ones 
in full and magnificent fruit. Some of 
those on quince stocks, are over twenty-five 
years old, and full of vigor and health ; and 
with the careful management observed here, 
they have uniformly proved successful. 
The camelias, next to the pears, are the 
most engrossing subject of attention. These 
Col. W. has cultivated with great success, 
and to a very large extent Hundreds of 
these, of numerous varieties, of large size, 
and in the highest state of perfection, were 
arranged in the open grounds, including one 
choice fancy seedling, for which Col. W. 
paid $250. He has produced a great num¬ 
ber of varieties by hybridizing. This prac¬ 
tice is quite a hobby with him. We hope 
for some highly beneficial results from this 
system. 
A great variety of other fruits, embracing 
almost every approved sort; also flowering 
shrubs and plants, and all under the nicest 
cultivation, are to be found on the grounds. 
The farm, which is a mile or two distant, 
and only of moderate size, we did not have 
time to examine. It gives support to some 
fine cattle, and exhibits, as we might confi¬ 
dently expect from the appearance of the 
garden, a nice and well-considered cultiva¬ 
tion. 
Col. Wilder has long occupied a prominent 
position before the agricultural and horticul¬ 
tural world. While for thirty or forty years 
he has been an active mechrant, he was for 
eight years President of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, within which time a 
splendid Hall was erected in the heart of 
Boston, for its weekly and monthly exhibi¬ 
tions, and the funds had accumulated to the 
amount of $40,000. 
Of the Norfolk County Agricultural Socie¬ 
ty, he has been the only President, and that 
for six successive years, during which period 
a large Hall has been built for the use of the 
Society, and ample funds accumulated for 
its future wants. 
He is the only President yet elected to the 
National Agricultural Society, of which he 
has held the office some four years. Under 
his management the Society has been emi¬ 
nently successful, and has held several 
highly meritorious exhibitions. It proposes 
another, to be held adjoining Boston, in Oc¬ 
tober next, for which the patriotic citizens of 
Boston have already guaranteed $20,000, to 
be expended in premiums and arrangements 
of the grounds. We hazard nothing in pre¬ 
dicting for this a very successful exhibition. 
He also held the office of President of the 
American Pomological Convention since its 
first organization, some four or five years 
ago. In the formation and subsequent sup¬ 
port of all these Societies, he was one of the 
earliest and most efficient movers ; and has 
since contributed largely of his time, exer¬ 
tions, and means, to their success. In 
these and numerous other patriotic enter- 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 103. 
prizes, which our circumscribed limits do 
not allow us more fully to particularize, has 
Col. Wilder commended himself to the ap¬ 
probation of his countrymen as eminently 
the friend of the American farmer. 
HOW MUCH CORN SHALL WE PLANT? 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
In making our experiments public, we are 
apt to give only the successful ones, though 
the unsuccessful ones sometimes teach truth 
more clearly. 
In the season of 1852 I put the manure of 
one horse and three cows on five-eighths of 
an acre of land, and planted it with corn. 
The crop harvested from this piece in the 
fall was about one hundred bushels of ears. 
The next season (1853) I put the manure 
of the same stock, increased by some addi¬ 
tional muck, on an adjoining part of the 
same field, but of twice the size—being ten- 
eighths of an acre (li) in extent—and plant¬ 
ed this with corn. The crop harvested was 
only some 65 or 70 bushels of ears. 
These measurements may not be exact— 
as they were made by pacing the land, and 
by measuring the corn with a basket—yet 
the margin is wide enough to cover many 
times the chances of error in drawing cer¬ 
tain conclusions. The management of the 
two pieces was the same, and there was no 
apparent difference in the productiveness of 
the two seasons; so that I can only attribute 
the discrepancy in the two crops to spread¬ 
ing the manure of the second season over 
too much surface ; and I am strengthened in 
this opinion, by the fact that the natural soil 
of this field would ,not produce corn without 
manure, as was evident whenever the plant¬ 
ing extended beyond the barn-yard dressings. 
It appears that in this case the greatest 
amount of corn was raised from a given 
amount of manure, by having a crop heavy 
enough to yield at least fifty bushels of 
shelled corn to the acre. 
But the labor that was expended on the 
surplus half of the second piece was wasted, 
or worse than wasted, as it was none the 
better for being tilled. Or, to look at it in 
another light, the same labor would have 
raised a green crop on that surplus half and 
turned it under, so that it would have been 
in good condition for either fall or spring 
use. 
As it was, the five-eighths of 1852 was in 
good order the next spring for a crop of car¬ 
rots and turnips, while the ten-eighths of 
1853 was left by the corn in such condition 
that it was not considered advisable to ex- 
