162 
AMH BICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
kind, are more valuable when applied just before 
a rain, or at least just after, when the ground 
is still wet. Nitrate of soda can be crushed , 
and sown upon the land in a powdered state, or ! 
perhaps better—as it saves pulverizing—by dis¬ 
solving it in water, and applying it with a water¬ 
ing-pot in small experiments, or with a water- 
cart on larger plots. The former will answer 
very well where the entire plot does not exceed 
an eighth of an acre. Larger experiments are 
very desirable. It may also be dissolved readily, 
and mixed with well-rotted compost or muck, 
and thus be sown broadcast. However, in the 
experiments we are suggesting, it is desirable to 
have the nitrate used alone, so as to ascertain its 
own effects. 
We suggest the following experiments. Let 
there be, ,sav seven equal plots of ground on 
which wheat has been sown this fall. Call these 
plots A, B, C, D, E, F, G, II. They should be 
near together in the same field. The following 
table will indicate the date, and the number of 
pounds per acre we would recommend to be ap¬ 
plied to each plot at the different dates named. 
Much earlier applications would have been bet¬ 
ter, but the season is now too far advanced for 
these. 
Date ofAp- Pounds of Nitrate of Soda applied to tlie acre, 
plication. 
A 
B’ 
0 
D 
E 
F 
G 
11 
Nov. 
30 
80 
40 
March 1 
-10 
60 
(i 
15 
100 
April 
1 
40 
60 
100 
100 
15 
80 
100 | 
May 
i 
15 
40 
UO 
100 
50 
75 
100 
100 
160 
180 
200 
150 
250 
200 
The plot D is left without any thing applied, 
for comparison. The quantity per acre, above, 
is of course not the quantity sown on each plot; 
this would be regulated by the size of the 
plot. 
These are only suggestive experiments. They 
'nay be less or more in number; the quantity 
may be more or less, and the plots be made of 
any size. 
Those who cannot go into the details of ex¬ 
periments, can at least satisfy themselves whe¬ 
ther there is a probability that nitrate of soda 
would be beneficial upon their wheat crop, by 
simply applying a few pounds upon a small plot 
in the middle of some wheat field, and then com¬ 
pare the produce of grain and straw at harvest 
time. 
When the time of sowing grain comes round 
again in the spring and autumn, we shall re¬ 
commend experiments with nitrate of soda, 
plowed in alone and also mixed with bone earth, 
or phosphate-of-limo, ashes, &c. 
The nitrate now costs from four to five and 
a half c.ents a pound, but we aro" quite certain 
that it will be furnished in large quantities and 
at a low price, as soon as there is a sufficient 
demand created, to warrant sending out ships 
and appliances for procuring the crude article 
from Peru and Bolivia. 
We here give one experiment: 
Mr. H. SnuBART, of Bethel, Pa., states in the 
Farm Journal, that he has found more benefit 
from nitrate of soda than from guano, as a 
manure for Maize. Fifty pounds guano, mixed 
with three-fourths of a bushel of plaster, was 
applied per acre, when the corn was up, previous 
to being cultivated. Thirty pounds of nitrate, 
ground in a piaster-mill with three-fourths 
bushels of plaster were' used per acre, sown in 
the same manner as the guano. He thinks the 
increase of corn paid for the guano, but that the 
benefit derived from the nitrate would pay for it 
over and over again, 
We regret that the experiment is not strictly 
comparative. The guano was sown in 1851, and 
and the nitrate in 1853. 
...- 
PLANTING FRUIT SHADE TREES ALONG 
HIGHWAYS AND RAILROADS. 
As November is generally a very busy season 
in the country with those whose soil or location 
renders autumn preferable to the spring for 
planting out trees and shrubs, I would make 
suggestion to farmers and others who intend to 
plant trees by the roadside for the purpose 
of ornamenting their places, as well as for 
the benefit of the shade afforded thereby both 
to themselves and neighbors when journeying 
to and fro on a hot sultry summer’s day. I 
suggest instead of such nuisances as the de¬ 
servedly-abused ailanthus, the abele or silver- 
leafed poplar, (and many other so-called orna¬ 
mental, but in reality unprofitable and absolutely 
injurious trees, which throw up as they do in¬ 
numerable suckers to destroy all the sym¬ 
metrical beauty of the green turf, and form an 
unsightly thicket inside the fence,) that a good 
chestnut, walnut, or hickory can be procured 
just as easily from the neighboring wood, or a 
cherry, apple, or other fruit-bearing tree from 
theejnirseries, and at a rate as cheap, if not 
cheaper, than the others above-mentioned. By 
so doing, they at one and the same time com¬ 
bine the useful with the ornamental. The Ger¬ 
mans have set us a good example in this respect. 
I have myself seen miles of their most public 
thoroughfares lined with fruit trees of all des¬ 
criptions, from the apple and pear even to the 
nut. These trees afford an agreeable shade to 
the weary and foot-sore traveller, as also an oc¬ 
casional fruit to cool his parched lips, which 
custom permits him to take without the idea of 
stealing once entering the mind of either him¬ 
self or the proprietor. However, if the produce 
of any particular tree is either reserved or sold 
by the owner, it is merely marked with a wisp 
of straw, and the tree thus marked is sacred, 
and the fruit left undisturbed. 
Many farmers will no doubt urge, that such a 
practice, if common, would render fruit too 
cheap; but do we not every day see that the 
demand and consumption increases—especially 
in great cities—as rapidly as the fruit itself, and 
that “ like the daughter of the horse-leech,” New- 
York, for example, still cries “give, give.” Were 
it otherwise we should not hear of such ex- 
horbitant prices being paid by Taylor, and others 
I could mention, for pears and other really good 
fruit, at the present time. Here let me urge 
the farmer fo plant out only really good fruit, 
and take heed that his trees are adapted fo the 
soil and locality where he resides, for a miserable 
seedling crab-apple extracts quite as much nu¬ 
triment from the soil, and takes up as much 
space in his field, as the magnificent Newtown 
Pippin, or Swaar. At the first mentioned even 
his very pigs turn up their noses in disgust, 
whilst the other is now worth from four to six 
dollars a barrel in New-York. 1 would also ob¬ 
serve that in Fngland the sides of the railroads 
are cultivated wherever possible ; and that near 
the large towns, I have seen the banks (where 
arable) covered with a profusion of vegetables 
for use, or with dahlias and other showy flowers 
for ornament. How much better is this than 
our own sterile railroad sand and clay banks, 
with here and there a solitary blade of grass 
struggling for a brief existence, and only en¬ 
livened by immense overhanging half-buried 
boulders, threatening every passing train with 
immediate destruction. Now were these banks 
well graded, and merely sown with grass seed, 
it would not only add to their beauty, but also 
prevent the 'washing down of the mud or sand 
that every now and then stops up the track, the 
action of the frost in wiuter, and also prevent 
much of the dust in running. Fruit trees, (if 
not contrary to the regulations of the company,) 
might be planted on such vacant level spots, 
where they would not be liable to be overthrown 
upon the track. I should like some arithme¬ 
tician to make a calculation, what amount of 
fruit and hay could be raised on the otherwise 
unsightly and unprofitable banks of the Hudson 
River Railroad from New-York to Albany. I 
imagine that the amount in dollars and cents 
would astonish even the learned directors them¬ 
selves, and make it an object to them, or the 
proprietors of the adjacent soil, to plant out 
such trees as the Newtown Pippin, Rholc Island 
Greening, &c., on every available spot. The 
fruit might be put under the charge of the watch 
for every mile, without any extra expense ; and 
even were much of it stolen, yet the trees 
would add greatly to the beauty of the road, 
and the remainder of the crop would no doubt 
prove a source of great profit. 
While on the subject of stealing fruit, I must 
relate an incident in my own experience. A few 
weeks since, when at a “down-cast” horticultural 
exhibition, as I was busily engaged in examining 
some of the fruit, I observed a tall, lank speci¬ 
men of the genus homo with a very fine-look¬ 
ing apple in his hand. When he came to where 
I stood he stopped, and desired me to tell him 
if I knew what it was, and upon my declaring 
my inability, lie asked me to taste it. Accord¬ 
ingly I took a good mouthful; but, shade of 
Pomona! of all the sour apples I ever tasted, 
this capped the climax. I have tasted verjuice, 
I have tasted sour plums, and unripe persim¬ 
mons, and thereby had my mouth so drawn up 
| as only to be able to make an almost inaudible 
j whistling sound, when I endeavored to speak ; 
j but even unripe persimmons could not compare 
| with the unparalleled acerbity of this abomi- 
| nable apple. When after a few minutes, I had 
! regained a little composure, I ventured to in- 
| quire in a whisper, “ what might be the name 
! of such an invaluable fruit?” Whereupon my 
| down-east friend with an almost imperceptible 
l satirical and mischievous smile flitting over his 
i otherwise staid and deacon-like features, an- 
■ swered: “ Wal neow, that’s (he most useful 
| apple on my hull farm. T call it the Yankee 
j apple, for it can’t be beat; it looks so good, and 
yet is so ’tarnal sour, that I use it only to graft 
; on all the lower limbs of any apple trees I have 
; standing near the roadside fence. The upper 
;■ limbs I graft with Greenings, Swaars, and such 
I like good apples. Neow the boys seein' such 
■ good lookin’ apples handy, jump the fence, seize 
j the first fair-lookin’ apple they can reach, take 
j one* bite, but 1 swow, after one bite they never 
wait to take another, but run right off as fast 
as legs will carry them, to deacon Z-’s or- 
i chard, to get one of his good Baldwins, to take 
I the seoiu 1 taste out of their mouths. My or- 
j chard sartinly has a orful reputation with the 
i i-isin’ generation eny heow; but, I save my 
apples; and if that’s not a very useful apple, I 
! should like to know what is.” 
I Having been perfectly convinced from a pre- 
j vious disagreeable acquaintance with the abo- 
i mumble acidity of the fruit, 1 could only 
