THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
303 
addition, but when manufacturers will put up 
the usual constituents of their fertilizers with¬ 
out any adulteration, leaving the farmer to 
add at home either common soil or plaster as 
he can obtain either the cheaper, the saving 
in freight will be so great that for every ton 
now used, there will be hundreds. Then the 
great Northwest will buy fertilizers and ruin 
the Eastern farmers in ten years. 
There is no doubt that a good fertilizer up¬ 
on a prairie Boil, would from the quality of 
the land already, produce far more per acre 
than on the best Eastern lands, last longer and 
yield heavy returns. 
It is supposed by 6ome farmers that man¬ 
ure of any kind is not needed until land is ex¬ 
hausted ; but that is a false conclusion. It is 
cheaper to keep good land up to a paying state 
of fertility, than to raise poor soil up to that 
point. Land is very much like live stock, in 
that respect—it doesn’t pay to starve either. 
Now let the fertilizer manufacturers leave out 
their adulteration for mere bulk, induce rail¬ 
road companies to put freight on such goods 
down to cost or even leas, and they will have 
to transport ten times the grain to the seaboard. 
The railroads may give away dollars, but they 
will get back thousands in return. 
S. Rufus Mason. 
-- 
Three Horses Abreast.—A correspondent 
writing from Princeton, la., on this subject, 
says: “Put the odd horse in the middle, snap 
the inside line of each outside horse to the bit 
of the middle one. Now you have only to run 
a 6trap from the inside bit ring of each out¬ 
side horse through the hame ring and turret of 
the middle horse and buckle It to the opposite 
line, and after it has been properly adjusted as 
to length, you can control each of the three 
horses as readily as if you were using only 
two. Never drive three horses abreast unless 
they are attached to a load or implement, as 
they are apt to swing out to one side and get 
“mixed up.” 
fomolfljjkal. 
PEACH CULTURE. 
0. M. HOVEY. 
Not long since a discussion took place be¬ 
fore the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
upon peach culture, and though very interest¬ 
ing, because it is a subject on which all lovers 
of good fruit desire information, yet, singular 
enough, not an idea was advanced amoDg the 
many advocated, but what was quite as well, 
if not more distinctly, stated nearly a century 
ago. Indeed, so far as peach culture is con¬ 
cerned we have made but little advance, and 
even as regards the production of new kinds, 
as compared with other fruits, the improve¬ 
ment has been very slight. It is doubtful if we 
have many peaches superior or even equal to 
George the Fourth, Grosso Mignonne, Cool- 
edge’s Favoiite, Nohlessc, Old Mixon Free, 
Early York, Jacques and 6orue others. Almost 
the only exceptions are Crawford’s Early and 
Crawford's Late, and within a very few yiars 
some early sort6 of fair quality, though re¬ 
markable for nothing but their earliucss. 
In fact, as to peach culture, it can hardly be 
said it is so well known as It was years ago, if 
wc arc to judge by our markets ; for leas than 
25 years ago excellent peaches of home growth 
could not be sold fur much more than what the 
hard, half-ripe, or else soft, half-iotten ones, 
which come in immense quantities from the 
South, bring to-day. No doubt much of this 
must be attributed to the mistaken idea that 
our climate has changed and the peach can no 
longer be relied upon for a crop. Singular as 
it may appear, the same idea was prevalent one 
hundred years ago. Yet peaches are plentiful 
and always will be, if trees are planted, not¬ 
withstanding the apparent adversity of the 
seasons, Au authentic historian, Paul 
Dudley, F. R. S. and Chief Justice of Massa¬ 
chusetts, whose garden was in Roxbury (uow 
Boston), writesin 1720 as follows: “ I have had 
iu my own garden seven or eight hundred fine 
peaches of the Rareripes growing at a time on 
one tree,” and further, “Our peach trees 
are large aud fruitful, and bear comtnon- 
y it three Years from the Stone. I have one 
iu my Garden of twelve years' growth, that 
measures two Foot and au Inch In Girt a yard 
from the Grouud, which two years ago bore 
me near a bushel of fine peaches.” Canuot we 
do, in these days, what the stern old Puritans 
did, overwhelmed as they were with the cares 
and labors of an unsettled colony and in au 
uutried climate P If peach treeB were so vig¬ 
orous then why should they not be so now ? 
Judge Peters, one of the most intelligent ag¬ 
riculturists of Pennsylvania, was an extensive 
cultivator of peaches, and has given his exper¬ 
ience in the Proceedings^ the Massachusetts 
Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. But 
for the date—which is September 1807—we 
might have supposed it written in 18S0. The 
same ill success, the same insects to contend 
with—the same diseases aud similar other 
causes that were named at the discussion 
alluded to; and he tried all the same remedies 
and all the same appliances (and many more) 
which were tried by those who gave their ex¬ 
perience, in 1881. The result was then as it is 
to-day—if the season or a succession of sea¬ 
sons was favorable there was an abundance 
of peaches; if unfavorable, then the reverse. 
Tne peach is a native of a warmer climate 
than New England, and a much less variable 
one than any part of the Middle or Northern 
States; and when this is taken into considera- 
tiou, there can be very little doubt why our 
crops of this fruit are not as constant as the ap¬ 
ple or the pear. Acclimatization has never ac¬ 
complished anything in this direction. Only 
through hybridization of a tender with a hard¬ 
ier species or variety has anything been done 
to give hardiuess to a semi-tropical or half- 
hardy plant. All attempts through successive 
generations of seadliugs of the Iudiau Rhodo¬ 
dendron from the Himalayas or the Chinese 
Rose from Asia, failed, until our native R Ca- 
tawbiense was crossed with the former, and the 
hardy rose of Europe with the latter. 
Mr. Richard Cooper, of N. J.. au extensive 
cultivator of the peach and a close observer, 
who has put on record his experience with 
peaches in 1779. remarks, “lam confident that 
not more than one of my peach trees has been 
killed by worms for 20 that have died in conse 
quence of irregular Winters; and us I have 
obseived the fluctuating state of the weather 
in Winter constantly to increase for more than 
50 years, I conceive it must proceed from some 
certain cause," 
began nearly all at once to sicken and finally 
perished.” 
Precisely the same thing has been experienced 
over and over again since that early date. In 
our younger days peach trees (1830) were 20 
feet high and 20 years old, tall and lanky, to 
be sure, but still healthy and bearing plenty of 
fruit. Then came the same general catastrophe 
which befell Judge Peters. From 1845 to 1856 
we again had the same plentiful supply. But 
with the terrible cold of 1857 and 1861 the gen¬ 
eral catastrophe overtook them, and they are 
again recovering and producing as abundantly 
as ever. 
But we now come to the point, which waB 
the real object of my remarks, viz: to show 
that in 1800 the very same insects and diseases 
that we are combatting tc-lay were quite as 
common, and the panaceas for a remedy just 
the same as were detailed at the recent 
discussion, with no better results than will 
accrue from them, should the seasons be ad¬ 
verse. 
Judge Peters, whose patience must have been 
as great as his enthusiasm was remarkable, 
writes as follows: “I have failed in many 
things in which others are said to have suc¬ 
ceeded, Straw and basB, or paper surrounding 
the tree, from the root to all distances from 
six inches to three or four feet—White-wash¬ 
ing, Painting,Urinous applications, Brine.Soot, 
Lirnej Frames filled with Sand, Oil, Tar, Tur¬ 
pentine, Sulphuric acid, Oil of Vitriol, Nitrous 
mixtures and almost every kind of coating. I 
ruined several trees Uv cutting them dowu, and 
permitting the stump to throw up new shoots, 
and branch at pleasure. All teguments kept 
the exudation from evaporating with freedom. 
The pores being closed, or too open, were 
alike injurious. Teguments of straw or bass 
made the bark tender ; and it threw out under 
EARLY AMBER CANE.—FIG. 233. 
Judge Peters then describes his experiments 
in peach culture under date of September, 
1807; “ Having cultivated it from my earliest 
youth, it would seem that I could give some 
certain and profitable mode of remedying its 
tendency to decay and repelling the diseases 
Lo which it is invariably a victim. But I have 
found myself so frequently ballied in my en¬ 
deavors, aud have seen the fallacy of so many 
theories on the subject that I diffidently af¬ 
firm anything respecting its culture or care. 
* * * '* * * About 50 years ago (1760), 
on the farm on which I now reside, my father 
had a large peach orcbaid which yielded 
abundantly. Until a general catastrophe befell 
it, plentiful crops had been for many years 
produced with little attention. The trees 
CHINESE SORGO CANE.—FIG. 2S3. 
the covering sickly shoots. The more dense 
coating stopped the perspiration. The oil in¬ 
vited mice and other vermin, who ate the bark 
thus prepared for their repast, und killed the 
tree. I planted in hedgt-rows, and near woods, 
I paved, raised hillocks of stone—I have suf¬ 
fered them to grow from the stone only, 
grafted on various stocks and budded, hilled 
up the earth in the Spring, aud exposed the 
butt in the Fall, sometimes I have used the 
knife freely—frequently have left the tree to 
shoot in every direction. I have scrubbed the 
stocks or trunks with hard brushes, soap¬ 
suds and sand, scraped them with proper in¬ 
struments : I have, for a season or two under 
various experiments amused myself with the 
persuasion, that I had discovered an infallible 
FARMERS AND SMALL FRUITS. 
J. S. WOODWARD. 
In traveling about the country among the 
farmers I have often wondered why so few 
of them raised small fruits. Not one in five, 
on an average, tastes any kind of small fruit 
of his own growing from one year to another. 
Formerly a few currant bushes struggled with 
the grass and weeds in the fence corners and 
gave an abundance of small but wholesome 
fruit, but, with the worm as a foe, the 
bushes were unequal to the contest; the grass 
waves triumphantly over their dead remains, 
and the farmer is entirely without small fruit. 
Why this great scarcity ? Certainly not be¬ 
cause farmers do not love fine fruit. Ask any 
one of them into your plat, and you will 
be surprised to see what capacity he has for 
stowing a large quantity in a small space. Nor 
is it because he is too stingy for he will send 
the boys and girls, and even go himself, miles 
away to a few straggling wild bushes to pick a 
few poor berries that cost him two or three 
times as much as it would to grow those much 
better on his own farm. 
There are three reasons to which we can at¬ 
tribute this lack of small fruits on the farm 
First comes carelessness. The farmer sees the 
fruit in its prime and resolves to raise plenty 
for his family, but before planting time cornea 
he has partially forgotten his goed purpose and 
lets the proper season go by. Second, the mis¬ 
taken notion that prevails as to the great labor 
and expense of growing what would be needed 
to supply his family. The last and best reason 
is that the farmer does not appreciate the value 
of the small fruits to his family, both as food 
and as medicine. When he looks at the early 
strawberry blushing and nodding amid the 
dew-laden leaves, and his month waters for a 
taste, he does not realize that nature is yearn¬ 
ing within him for the acid contained In ihe 
fruit, to help relieve the system from the accu 
mulations of Wiuter and prepare it to endure 
Summer’s heat. He does not consider that 
each of the fruits in its season contains some 
principle that is just adapted to the wants of 
the body at that time, and that many times the 
free use of each would save large amounts in 
doctors' bills, as well as much suffering, and, 
many times, the life of a beloved one. The 
average American farmer is not yet educated 
up to the full enjoyment of his high calling and 
God-given privileges. Ho does not yet realize 
that he is near the fountain-head, and is enti¬ 
tled to partake first and of the be6t of every¬ 
thing that grows, and that when he neglects to 
provide himself and family with these health- 
giving necessaries he is culpably responsible 
for the bad results. 
To correct these false impressions, and to 
cause him to provide and enjoy these, his 
rights as the tiller of the soil, would be con¬ 
ferring on himself and family a great and 
lasting benefit. One acre of good land, prop¬ 
erly divided and cultivated, would furnish any 
ordinary farmer’s family all the fruits, fresh 
and canned, needed from the earliest ripening 
of the strawberry to its coming again. To what 
other use could an acre of land be put that 
