42 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Waste Places Made Profitable. 
In many places the planting of trees for timber 
and fuel is a matter of so much importance, that 
the farmer accepts it as a necessity. We do not 
refer to tree-planting of this kind. There are few 
farms, large or small, take the country through, 
in what are regarded as wooded districts, but 
have some lots too rocky for a good pasture, 
a hill-side too steep for culture, or a spot that 
is from some cause utterly unproductive. Such 
places were once covered with fine trees, and 
trees are what they are now waiting for, to cover 
their roughness and profit their owners. A dozen 
fine Black Walnut trees can be sold any day for 
ready money. A small grove of White Ash would 
be worth much more than the land upon which it 
stands. White Pine or the Red Pine, often im¬ 
properly called the “Norway Pine,” may possibly 
be the tree best^suited to the locality. There are 
valuable kinds in abundance. Unless this matter 
is taken up now , and the selection of the tree or 
trees for the locality made, while there is yet lei¬ 
sure, the matter will go over for another year. The 
great obstacle to the planting of forest-trees on a 
small scale, has been the supposed difficulty in rais¬ 
ing them from the seed. Tree seeds require no more 
care than white beans. But some care they must 
have. There is no need, however,of starting with the 
seeds; there are nurserymen who make a business 
of raising seedling forest-trees, and if one wants a 
few hundred trees only, it is much cheaper to buy 
one or two-year-old seedlings. If they are planted 
with the care a gardener gives his cabbages, they 
will grow, and increase in value from the day they 
are set out. Recollect that the value of timber of 
the best kinds will in the future be not less than 
at present. In the twenty-five years that must 
-pass before the trees reach a useful size, their 
value will enormously increase. 
Speculation in Grain and Provisions. 
According to circulars sent out by houses in 
Chicago, an easy way of making money is offered. 
We do not wonder that many readers send us these 
documents, and ask our advice about them. It is 
here plainly shown in black and white, that a sum, 
say $10, invested with the firm has returned over 
$80 in 17 months. The inference is that others 
may do the same, and our friends are invited to in¬ 
vest in any amount from $10 up to $1,000. We re¬ 
gard all speculations of this kind as outside of 
proper business operations ; indeed they differ lit¬ 
tle, if any, from gambling. The successes are pub¬ 
lished, but how was it with the great majority who 
invested, and that was the last they ever saw of 
their money? A farmer’s “investment” in com 
should be, to put it into the ground at the proper 
season ; the returns may not be so large, but they 
are very safe. 
A Neglected Fruit. 
BT W. W. MEECH. 
The Quince, Cydonia, has been disseminated 
from Southern Europe and Western Asia to all 
other places where it is cultivated. The Greeks 
esteemed it very highly, calling it Kudonion Melon , 
the Cydonian apple, and used it as a preserve. 
The Romans greatly appreciated its excellence, 
giving to it the botanical name, Cydonia , from 
Cydon, a city on the island of Crete, where special 
attention was first attracted to its merits, for both 
food and medicine. The French, to whom we are 
indebted for the Angers variety, so much used for 
dwarfing the pear, and some other varieties of less 
value, call it Coing, or Coignasier. The Germans, 
to whose soil it is indigenous, give it the name of 
Quilte , or Quitteribaum ; while the Dutch call it 
Kivepeer ; the Spanish, Membrillo, and the Italians, 
Cotogno , or Cotogna. According to Goropiecus, 
the golden apples of the Hesperides were quinces, 
and not oranges, as some commentators pretend. 
The early colonists of America brought with them, 
;5rom Europe, the quince, with other fruits, and 
while the cultivation of the apple, pear, and peach 
has been carried almost to perfection in beauty 
and excellence, the quince, with great possibilities, 
both for home use and the market, has been quite 
neglected. For half a century about all that has 
been done to improve our varieties of the quince, is 
the testing of a few foreign sorts, and a few seed¬ 
lings raised by casual cultivators. Horace Gree¬ 
ley’s advice to farmers to “give half a dozen quinces 
moist, rich locations by the 6ide of your fences,” 
was a fair description of the old-time method of 
setting a few trees in the fence corners, or where 
they would be most out of the way, and then leave 
them to take their chances. If enough fruit was 
grown on them to make a few jars of preserves, and 
a few glasses of jelly, the wants in that direction 
were supplied. Of course, few quinces were car¬ 
ried to the market, and those were often of inferior 
quality. 
Observing the scarcity of quinces in the markets 
of our large cities, and the consequent high prices, 
in comparison with other fruits, I was led to the 
study of this neglected fruit, and began experi¬ 
menting to see how it might be improved, and the 
demand for quinces be met. The results so far 
attained have exceeded my most sanguine expec¬ 
tations. My aim has not been to produce new or 
better varieties, but to learn so to cultivate those 
already well known, as to secure the best results. 
Wonderful Fruits Offered. 
A friend in Ohio writes us that parties claiming to 
represent a “Fruit-growers’ Association ” in Michi¬ 
gan, are selling fruit trees in his neighborhood, for 
which great claims are made. The apple trees are 
said to be grafted on the Russian stock, which in¬ 
sures a hardy, long-lived tree, and enormous prices 
are asked. There are Russian apples which are 
very hardy, but that grafting ordinary apples on 
Russian stocks will make them any hardier, is very 
doubtful. Our friends may be sure of one thing : 
No really valuable new fruit is first introduced by 
tree peddlers, and unless it has been tested, and 
properly reported upon, it should be let alone. 
Sometimes these adventurers make claims so absurd 
that no one should be deceived. It is not long ago 
that one had peach trees, warranted to be free from 
borers, because they were “ budded upon French 
willow.” The same caution is to be observed with 
new, or wonderful seeds. If a new kind of wheat, 
or oats, is warranted to yield 20 or more bushels to 
the acre than any other, that is a good kind not to 
to buy. 
New Books. 
A Work on American Cattle.— There are 
certain works in various departments of human 
knowledge, which, when they appear, are at once 
accepted as standards. That is, they bring up all 
that need to be said to the time they are written. 
Such works, complete in their departments, up to 
a certain date, as years go on, only need to have 
the improvements or additions of those years in¬ 
corporated with the original, to keep them abreast 
of the times, and make them more useful than an 
entirely new work would be. Each author can 
only add such matters as are within his own expe¬ 
rience, and he is obliged to accept from others 
what has gone before. 
We often have an illustration of this in works 
upon agriculture and rural matters generally. An 
author makes his work complete up to its date. 
During a decade, new subjects and new methods 
are introduced. Ambitious authors may think it 
necessary to make a work especially to include 
these. They can not ignore the past, and the 60 - 
called new work is only new in a very small part. 
Much better is it for the author of a well-estab¬ 
lished work to incorporate from time to time such 
new matters as may be needed, than to multiply 
works which, up to a certain date, if truthful, must 
be essentially alike. These thoughts occurred to us 
in looking over “ American Cattle, their History, 
Breeding, and Management,” by Lewis F. Allen. 
The first edition, a modest volume, as compared 
with the present revised edition, when it appeared 
several years ago at once took its place as the work 
on American Cattle, or to be more accurate, “ Cat¬ 
tle in America.” In the catch phrase of the day, 
“it filled the bill,” and there was nothing more 
required until, in the course of time, new breeds 
were introduced, or old breeds better understood. 
Hence the author had only to build on to his origi¬ 
nal structure, adding the “modern improvements,” 
or as the title states it: “Revised and brought 
Down to the Present Time by the Author,—a 
Thoroughly Exhaustive Treatise.” The present 
edition has an entirely new introduction, written 
in view of the results of the recent Census, and 
contains interesting statistics. It is rather appalling 
to these not used to large figures, to read that the 
cattle of all kinds in this country, are valued at 
over $730,000,000, and that the annual product of 
cheese in 1881-2 was worth $40,000,000, while 
that of butter was, at a low estimate, $240,000,000. 
In view of these figures, it is no wonder that works 
on cattle are needed, and we are glad that the 
venerable author is still able to bring up his stan¬ 
dard work to meet the needs of the present day. 
Orange Judd Company, New York. Price $2.50. 
Gardening for Young and Old.— By Jo¬ 
seph Harris. The farmers in England, when they 
complained of the disastrous effects of American 
competition in grains, were told by their best 
friends to stop growing wheat, and raise crops 
which cannot be transported. It is a common com¬ 
plaint in our older States, that it does not pay, in 
the face of Western competition, to grow corn and 
wheat. The true remedy then is, to raise other 
crops, which the Western States can not supply. 
Mr. Harris and other thoughtful farmers, have long 
felt that our high priced lands must be devoted to 
high priced crops. The old methods, which were 
well enough when the country was new, will no 
longer answer. We must adopt “high farming” 
in order to make farming pay, and that this much 
talked of high farming, means making the land pro¬ 
duce all that it can. In other words, we must raise 
what have been regarded as garden crops in our 
fields, and in introducing these crops, we must also 
adopt garden culture. To advocate his views, and 
point out how field-gardening is to be done, Mr. 
Harris has written this book, with the feeling that 
young people will soonest see the need of a change 
and will most readily adapt themselves to it. He 
addresses himself to the young, though he does 
not altogether cut off the old from his teachings. 
The object of the work is to show how garden 
crops may be grown in field culture, and his teach¬ 
ings are mainly from his own experience, presented 
in that familiar style so w'ell known to those who 
have read his other writings. We are sure that 
the work will be welcomed by a large class who are 
concerned over the problem “how to make the 
farm pay.” If his work is properly studied and it? 
teachings followed, it cannot fail to be of great 
service, especially to the coming generation of 
young farmers, and may have much to do in 
“keeping boys on the farm.” A small share of 
the work is devoted to the easily grown flowers, 
which will add to its value in the estimation of the 
mothers and sisters as well as of the boys. Orange 
Judd Company, New York. Price $1.25. 
Cattle Problems Explained.— Bj- J. W. 
Clarke. Those who are familiar with Gue¬ 
non's work on Milch Cows, are aware that he 
deals merely in assertions. He says in effect: 
“ Cows with such and such markings will yield a 
certain quantity of milk, the flow of which will 
continue for so many months.” Guenon nowhere 
undertakes to explain the cause of the marks, or to 
do Anything beyond pointing out a remarkable coin¬ 
cidence between them and the yield. Mr. Clarke, 
while he accepts, in a general way, Guenon’s obser¬ 
vations, attempts to show that the escutcheon, or 
“yield mark,” as he terms it, is due to natural causes 
and is determined by the weight of the milk within 
the udder. Many other topics are discussed in a 
manner that shows the author to be a close ob¬ 
server. Price $1.50. 
