82 
THE CULT IV AT Oil. 
March. 
Planting Fruit Trees, Nurseries, &c. 
We have received a numerous list of inquiries from 
M. D. M. of Athens Co., Ohio, (the postoffice illegible,) 
in relation to the nursery business, with which he is at 
present entirely unacquainted, except by reading. As 
we receive numerous inquiries of this kind,, and cannot 
write a long letter in answer to each separately, we 
are compelled to reply in a general way through our 
columns. 
Currants are raised from seed , by washing the 
pulp and preserving the seed moderately moist till 
planted. The soil should be a very fine, rich mould ; 
the seed should be sown, and covered not more than 
half an inch deep, and the soil kept moist and shaded 
till the young plants get a good foot-hold. The treat¬ 
ment is quite similar to that of raising mountain-ash 
plants—or like apple and pear seedlings, except on a 
smaller scale, and with a finer and more shallow cov¬ 
ering of mould, according to the smallness of the seed. 
Quince seed are to be treated precisely as apple seed. 
A more moist soil is however preferred generally ; but 
if rich enough, this is not essential. 
Cheri~y stones should be planted or buried before 
even the exterior becomes dr} r —or else packed imme¬ 
diately in moist sand, and kept moist. Those that have 
been dry, in bags or boxes, till the present time, will 
probably be entirely worthless. Our correspondent may 
however try the experiment of pouring hot water on 
them, and then exposing them to freezing—this, if re¬ 
peated several times, may cause some to grow. Small 
quantities should be taken at a time, in order that the 
hot water may cool immediately. The great cause of 
such common failure in the vegetation of cherrystones, 
is the dryness of the shell—but the treatment we have 
just mentioned is most likely to overcome the difficulty 
after they have become dry. Planting in the common 
way is entirely useless. 
Peach pits, after cracking, will dry and spoil in a 
few hours. If they cannot be planted at once, they 
should be packed in moist sand, peat, or pulverized 
moss. Peach stones always grow best if previously 
mixed with earth, and in this condition allowed to win¬ 
ter in an exposed plaoe. We never found them to grow 
with any certainty, unless each separate stone had been 
in contact with earth through the winter before crack- 
ing. 
. Apple seeds , which have been allowed to remain in 
the pomace for many days, are usually spoiled by the 
heating and fermenting of the heap. The specimens 
forwarded by our correspondent have been nearly all 
ruined in this way. Good seed are packed full of the 
plump white kernel—injured ones have a more horny 
or waxy appearance, and partly shrivel after drying a 
few days, and the horny covering separates from the 
inner portion. 
In regard to the Nursery Business in general, we 
would discourage every one from engaging in it to any 
extent, until it is thoroughly understood. Every per¬ 
son who wishes to understand it, should hire to some 
good establishment, and labor with his own hands for 
two or three years, before undertaking for himself. He 
may learn, it is true, by constant experiments, but his 
knowledge will be slow and costly, and on many points, 
imperfect. There is no business more overrun with 
quacks, than that of the nurseryman ; and nothing has 
disgraced it more. It would be much better for a car¬ 
penter or a blacksmith to begin working at his trade 
without any practice or experience. Like every thing 
else, it must be well understood, to he attended with 
success or profit, no matter how favorable the opening 
may be. 
We are unable to answer the other queries of our 
correspondent, with satisfaction. 
--- 
English and Seotcli ©airy 31anagement. 
Messrs. Editors —About thirty pages of the lately 
issued Ag. Report from the Patent Office are occupied 
with details on various departments of dairy manage¬ 
ment in England and Scotland, such as the selection 
and feeding of cows ; the making of butter and cheese j 
the feeding of calves for veal or stock ; and, generally, 
the economic management of this important depart¬ 
ment of industry. 
Gloucestershire is extensively known as a cheese- 
producing county. About nine-tenths of the land, on 
all the dairy farms in this district, is under pasture. 
The usual practice is to keep about 25 cows for every 
100 acres, or one cow for every four acres, on the whole 
farm, besides the young stock needed to maintain the 
full complement of cows. Where less land is in grass 
and more in tillage, fewer cows are kept, of eourse, in 
proportion to the whole land. 
One acre and a half of pasture grass is the usual al¬ 
lowance to each eovv, during the summer and fall. Lur¬ 
ing the winter and spring months, hay is almost the 
only food given ; and as each cow will consume two and 
a half tons, it requires the same extent of land—one 
and a half acres—for the winter as for the summer 
keep. The expense of feeding a milch cow for twelve 
months is calculated at $20 for grass—one and a half 
acres—in summer; and for the grass of a like quan¬ 
tity of land, with expense of making it into hay, $25 
is the usual allowance, which amounts to $45 per an¬ 
num. In Cheshire, another county famous for cheese, 
the cost of keep for a cow is calculated at $17.50 dur¬ 
ing the season of pasturing, and at $27.50 during the 
winter. 
From 500 to 550 gallons of milk is considered to he 
about the average yearly produce per cow in Glouces¬ 
tershire. As a gallon of full milk will make a pound 
of cheese, the whole quantity of cheese that could be 
made from the milk of one such cow, would be up¬ 
wards of 500 lbs. As only from 300 to 350 pounds of 
cheese are actually made, on an average, from each 
cow, it appears that about a fifth of the milk i3 con¬ 
sumed in rearing calves, supplying the farmer’s fami¬ 
ly and servants, &c. In Leicestershire, where the cows 
are usually fed higher than in Gloucestershire, being 
allowed roots, bran, meal, linseed boiled, &c., the an¬ 
nual product of a cow in cheese amounts to 500 lbs. 
This extra quantity of cheese, with the additional rich¬ 
ness of the manure made, is considered a full compen¬ 
sation for the additional expense of the higher keep- 
ing. 
How do the foregoing figures eompare with those 
which some of our own cheese dairies could furnish 1 A- 
—-»-©-«>- 
Sheep for South America. —We learn that Geo. 
Campbell, of Westminster, ^'t, has just sold to 
Messrs. Coffin & Hayes, ten Spanish Merino rams 
from his flock in Vermont, and two Silesian and two 
French rams from the flock of Messrs. Chamberlain 
& Campbell of Red Hook, to be sent to Buenos Ayres, 
to improve the sheep of that country. 
