164 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
from every farmer who has a proper regard for his own 
interests and the wants of the public, common ones also 
are quite sure to meet with a ready sale and at fair pri¬ 
ces. Larger quantities of these should be raised, for lar¬ 
ger quantities are needed. In this section of the State, it 
is not difficult to make contracts for the article, sometimes 
to be delivered when called for and even to be taken from 
the trees. Here then is inducement for the care of the 
farmer, and besides these apples are found as profitable 
as potatoes for feeding out to stock; and orchards proper¬ 
ly planted and well trimmed, will yield good crops of 
potatoes anti other products. I append to this article, 
(( Six reasons for planting an orchard,” presenting the 
subject in a different light, and commending it even to the 
moral feelings as well the judgment and common sense 
of every farmer. A. of the North. 
SIX REASONS FOR PLANTING AN ORCHARD. 
<l 1. Would you leave an inheritance to your children? 
plant an orchard. No other investment of money and la¬ 
bor will in the long run, pay so well. 
2. Would you make home pleasant—the abode of the 
social virtues—plant an orchard. Nothing better pro¬ 
motes among neighbors a feeling of kindness and good 
will, than a treat of good fruit often repeated. 
3. Would you remove from your children, the strong¬ 
est temptation to steal—plant an orchard. If children 
cannot obtain fruit at home, they are very apt to steal it; 
and when they have learned to steal fruit, they are in a 
fair way to learn to steal horses. 
4. Would you cultivate a constant feeling of thankful¬ 
ness towards the great giver of all good—plant an or¬ 
chard. By having constantly before you one of the 
greatest blessings given to man, you must be hardened 
indeed if you are not influenced by a spirit of humility 
and thankfulness. 
5. Would you have your children love their home— 
respect their parents while living, and venerate their me¬ 
mory when dead—in all their wanderings look back up¬ 
on the home of their youth as a sacred spot—-an oasis in 
the great wilderness of the world-—then plant an orchard. 
6 . In short, if you wish to avail yourselves of the 
Blessings of a bountiful Providence, which are within 
your reach, you must plant an orchard. And when you 
do it, see that you plant good fruit. Don't plant crab ap¬ 
ple trees, nor wild plums, nor Indian peaches. The best 
are the cheapest.” 
ON GRAFTING. 
Messrs. Editors —As the season for grafting ap¬ 
proaches, it may be useful to communicate to your nu¬ 
merous readers a very simple suggestion for ensuring the 
life and vigorous growth of the scion, and consequently 
the rapid renovation of trees and orchards. The rule is 
this. Always cut off the stock to be engrafted not more 
than one inch above a strong lateral shoot. 
This shoot should be left growing until the following 
spring, when the grafts will have acquired strength 
enough to dispense with its aid. The observation of sev¬ 
eral years has shown the success of this simple method, 
and a little reflection will show its conformity with the 
physiology of trees, and the mode of their growth. 
The sap, as is well known, rises in an imperfect state 
through the solid wood of the tree. In this state it con¬ 
tributes nothing to its growth. But when it has been 
elaborated in the leaves, it descends between the bark and 
the wood to form the new growth. The yearly increase 
is shown by the annual circle of new wood thus formed. 
Hence the importance of having a vigorous leafy branch 
rising from the head of the stock which will send down 
from its leaves a full supply of the thick elaborated sap, 
to nourish the young scions and to heal and cover the 
wound upon the stock. 
This principle is prettily illustrated in the ordinary pru¬ 
ning of trees. Where a stump is left the sap scantily ex¬ 
udes around the bark, and the efforts of nature barely suf¬ 
fice to heal the edges of the wound leaving the woody 
part bare. But if the limb is cut off close down to the 
bark from which it springs, the wound being then, as I 
may say, within the full current of the descending elabo¬ 
rated sap, is soon wholly covered and disappears. 
These facts respecting the nature of the circulation in 
trees and plants will also explain why the grape cannot 
be engrafted with success until the leaves are partially 
expanded. The first flow of the watery sap which rises 
through the wood is excessive, and prevents the union of 
the graft with the vine. But when the opening leaves 
expose a surface for the evaporation of the superfluous 
water, the sap is elaborated and fitted to form a union be¬ 
tween the old and new wood. 
The above suggestion may from its simplicity appear 
unworthy of illustration so particular. But the process 
of bleeding is also very simple, yet it is connected with 
all that is wonderful in the laws of the circulation of the 
blood. The value of an operation is rather enhanced by 
its simplicity; and it is always a pleasing as well as a 
useful exercise of the mind to trace the connection be¬ 
tween the beautiful truths of natural science, and many 
of the most easy and ordinary practical operations. The 
theory of one operation, well understood, will render 
many others intelligible and interesting. This rule may 
have been observed in an imperfect and accidental way, 
but I have no where seen it clearly stated, and the obser¬ 
vation of engrafted orchards will show that it is not defi¬ 
nitely understood. On the contrary, grafters generally se¬ 
lect a clear place to cut off the stock, either for convenience 
in working, or from the mistaken idea that the scions are 
nourished only by the rising sap, and that laterals would 
weaken their growth; while the actual result is, that they 
are prevented from dying under these circumstances, only 
by an effort of nature to heal the wound upon the stock, 
and an active growth takes place much more slowly than 
when the side branch is left. E. 
FLOWERS. 
We hope our fair friends will not, at this season, over¬ 
look the delightful employment of cultivating flowers. 
Every one may have a few, and the taste once acquired, 
it will not readily be relinquished. A woman destitute 
of a love for flowers, seems to us a mistake of nature. 
The delicate, the fragile, and the beautiful, should have 
sympathies with all in nature that possesses the same qual¬ 
ities. The time spent on their cultivation is in no sense 
of the word wasted. They contribute to our pleasures;, 
they add to our knowledge of nature; they unfold to us 
the mysteries of the beautiful, and tend to humanize and 
elevate the mind. To us a woman never appears 
more truly in her sphere, than when she divides 
her time between her domestic avocations, and 
the culture of flowers. If our fair friends wish to have 
the flush of health on their cheeks, and the rich rose-leaf 
tint on their lips, let them spend an hour or two each day 
in the open air, inhaling the fragrance, while employed 
in training and cultivating their flowers. 
OLD PEACH STONES. 
A writer in the Massachusetts Plowman relates a re 
markable ease of the retention of the vegetative principle 
in peach stones. Some forty or fifty years ago, there 
stood beside an old well, two or three peach trees. Two 
years since, the well, which had much fallen down and 
was covered with briars, was removed: when to the as¬ 
tonishment of the owner, ten or twelve peach trees came 
up where the well had stood. He thinks the stones (or 
seeds,) from which these trees came, were produced at 
least thirty years ago. 
SALT FOR ASPARAGUS. 
Our correspondent Ci Jonathan,” says —“ The applica 
tion of salt on Asparagus, must be made with caution, as 
he once much injured a fine bed by the experiment.” 
Best way to kill Caterpillars on Fruit Trees. 
—With a swab fastened on the end of a pole, and dipped 
into strong lie , swab out the nest. The lie will kill all 
that it wets. C. R. 
Extraordinary Sheep. —A shearling (yearling) Lei¬ 
cester weather has lately been killed in England which 
weighed 46 lbs. per quarter, and two others of the same 
breed and age that weighed 42 lbs. per quarter each' 
