THE CULTIVATOR. 
321 
TREES INJURED BY MICE, &c. 
Messrs. Editors —Seeing in your July number, a no¬ 
tice of fruit trees injured by mice, reminded me of a fact 
which may be worth communicating. A year ago last 
winter, I had five young apple trees girdled by rabbits, 
one of them having the whole bark gnawed off for a foot 
in length, and entirely around the tree. I wound around 
each tree a thick woolen cloth and tied it fast, thinking 
it might have some influence in preserving the life of the 
tree, though I had no expectations that the one injured 
most could be saved. All except one appeared in blos¬ 
som last year, but bore no fruit. This year they are all 
covered with fruit, and appear very thrifty. On remo¬ 
ving the cloths for examination a short time since, I 
found that the bark had grown considerably on each, 
though not sufficient to join the upper and lower parts. 
The tree most eaten, has no bark now on its body for the 
space of six inches, and yet has leaves and fruit. I sup¬ 
pose the cloths have afforded a medium of communica¬ 
tion between the upper and lower bark for the sap, so as 
to preserve the life and promote the growth of the tree. 
Is not this fact worth remembering ? 
Squashes —Having for some years had the most grat¬ 
ifying success in raising the Valparaiso squash, I take the 
liberty of recommending it to others, as on the whole, 
the most profitable winter squash with which I am ac¬ 
quainted. It grows very large, weighing frequently from 
60 to 100 lbs.; yields abundantly, is delicious food both 
for man and beast, and will keep perfectly sound for a 
year, if kept dry and away from frost. In June last, 
having a wish for some pumpkin pies, I used the last of 
my winter's stock, and found them as sound and fresh as 
when gathered last fall; and I have no doubt they would 
have kept perfectly good till October. 
Cabbages.— -If cabbages are set out near common field 
turneps or ruta bagas, the peculiarities of each are de¬ 
stroyed. The cabbages grow without heads and the tur¬ 
neps without bottoms. This I have learned by sad and 
repeated experience. 
[Does the writer mean that cabbages and turneps inter¬ 
mix so as to produce the results he speaks of, the first 
season of their growth, or before blossoms are produced? 
The effects of intermixture through the blossom, are 
what they are here represented.— Eds.] 
Poultry.— The affairs of the poultry yard have, as 
usual, had a share of my attention the present season,and 
I am more and more impressed with the importance of 
this branch of rural economy. Wishing to raise as many 
Poland and Dorking chickens this year as I could, I pur¬ 
chased two dozen common hens to do.the hatching, and 
let all of every breed set that would. Out of 21 that have 
set, there has been but one Poland hen; and this has been 
about the proportion that I have observed in former 
years. By selecting a few of the best of each kind to 
breed from, and keeping each lot by themselves, I think 
I can observe an improvement every year, both as to size 
and beauty of form; and if this plan were followed up 
for a series of years, it would result, I doubt not, in pro¬ 
ducing a finer stock of fowls than any we have atpresent 
in the country. 
I have at various times tried experiments in crossing 
the different breeds of fowls, and the following are some 
of the results. The most beautiful white top knots are 
produced by a cross between a Poland cock, and a com¬ 
mon white hen. The sub-variety known as the Golden 
Poland— having the body of a bright or reddish yellow, 
with a small black spot on each feather, and a crest of 
red or mixed colors—is the result of a cross between a 
Poland hen and a common red cock. Many of the chick¬ 
ens produced by these crosses will be parti-colored and 
of various plumage, but some will be of the character 
above described. I have a number of five toed or Dork¬ 
ing top knots, produced by a cross between a Dorking 
cock and a white top knot hen. Another variety descri¬ 
bed in some of the poultry books, viz: the perfectly 
white body with a black top knot, I have never seen, 
though I have made various unsuccessful experiments to 
produce it. 
To obtain a cross of any particular description, it is ne¬ 
cessary that the cock and hen should run together from 4 
to 5 weeks, before the eggs are saved to be hatched; for 
all the eggs the hen lays in four weeks after being 
changed to a new cock, will partake of the character of 
the former cock. 
The following treatment has resulted in keeping my 
fowls in a remarkably healthy state, and causing them to 
produce an abundance of eggs. Being under the neces¬ 
sity of keeping them shut up through the summer, I have 
each room supplied with a large box of dirt, sand and 
ashes, for them to roll in; a box of old lime mortar or 
plaster; a box of fine gravel from the lake shore, of 
which 20 fowls will eat a peck in four weeks; a feeding 
hopper containing always a supply of food, and fresh 
water supplied twice a day. For food, I prefer wheat 
when I can get it; and there being generally a supply 
here to be had for 20 to 25 cents per bushel—such as 
through various causes becomes wet in vessels and unfit 
to be ground—I use that through most of the year. "Wheat 
contains so much lime, that it assists materially in the 
formation of shells, and causes fow r ls to lay better both 
winter and summer, than any other food with which I am 
acquainted. 
Guinea hens, though very unprofitable, give variety to 
the music of the poultry yard, and I have kept them for 
some years. They make what Shakspeare calls a “ mu¬ 
sical discord,” which is not disagreeable to my ear. 
They do not begin to lay till about June, and finish in 
August or September, producing an egg generally every 
other day. Their flesh when well fatted is most delicious, 
and I am determined to have mine all served up for the 
table before another winter. H. A. Parsons. 
Buffalo, Aug., 1844. 
SEEDLESS APPLES. 
Hum buggery and marvel are afloat again, with the sto¬ 
ry about “ apples without seeds and cores,” “ half sour 
and half sweet,” Si c. These stories make a periodical 
advent about every five years. I well remember w r hen 
a boy, (but I don’t say how many scores of years ago 
that was,) a man came to our house to bottom chairs; 
and while he was busy with the split ash, he amused him¬ 
self and his young listeners with all sorts of stories. 
Among others, he told us of an apple tree that he knew 
of “ in York State, out west, in the Holland Purchase,” 
that bore apples, one side of which was sweet as a Tail- 
man Sweeting, the other as sour as a Rhode Island Green¬ 
ing; and that he could produce trees like it by a partic¬ 
ular kind of grafting. After a good deal of coaxing, he 
consented to tell me all about it. It was simply to take 
a slip from a Tallman Sweeting tree and graft it, top end 
downwards, upon a Greening stock;” “and,” says he, 
“ when it bears, the apples will be half sour and half 
sweet.” I was young then, (I did not say I am old now!) 
and therefore I lost no time in trying the experiment; 
not only did I try it once, but several times. None of the 
grafts grew, of course they did not bear fruit, and of 
course it was not “ half sweet and half sour.” I well 
remember the curious quizzical look my father gave me 
when he reminded me, that the chair-bottomer had said, 
“ ichen it bears, the apples will be,” &c. Now, I have 
only to say, in relation to the present story about bending 
down the top of a young tree and covering it with earth, 
and “ when it takes root, cut the tree asunder, and thus slop 
the connexion with the natural roots of the tree,” that 
when “ the young sprouts which spring from the top 
portion of the tree” “ form a regular top,” it w ill pro¬ 
duce ‘‘fine fruit of a beautiful red,” “good size,” and 
“ very pleasant apple,” “without core or seed.” It is 
of course unnecessary for us to ask those who believe 
such things, how the apple can be formed without the 
core! As well might we expect it to grow without the 
stem. A few years ago a man brought to our horticultu¬ 
ral room a branch of a grape vine in a pot, with fruit on 
it, that he said he had made to grow in a flower pot, by bu¬ 
rying the outer top end in the pot a few weeks, and then 
cut off the branch from the main vine. He wanted to sell 
them. Before the show was over, the vine withered, of 
course! S. 
Pay great attention to the seeds you use. 
