1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
173 
dressing of manure, which was plowed under. The 
trees were earthed up, to prevent the mice from 
girdling them beneath the snow. In the spring of 
1849, they were dug around for about 6 feet with a 
stout manure fork, the land plowed and sowed to 
onions, carrots, &c. The trees started vigorously, 
and grew till about the first of July, when the drouth 
was so severe that they ceased growing, the wood 
ripened well, scarcely making any second growth • 
the finest growth was about 15 inches on the ave¬ 
rage, some trees throwing out shoots 2 ft. in length. 
I intend to try some special manures upon them, 
and will give the results, if desired, at a future day, 
if life and health permit. 
In the spring of 1849, I set about 140 trees, and 
although the season was severe for newly planted 
trees in consequence of the drouth, I lost but one, 
and that was a cherry tree. They were set in a si¬ 
milar manner to those in 5 48, except that a compost 
of rich earth and well rotted manure was used in¬ 
stead of chip-dirt, and the trees were mulched with 
straw and coarse manure. The average growth was 
6 to 8 inches j the land was planted to potatoes and 
corn; where corn was planted, 3 or 4 rows of pota¬ 
toes were planted next the trees. 
A hard strong hail injured the trees in the early 
part of the season, bruising them severely. In the 
fall, those set in ’49, were manured with a compost 
of leached ashes, muck, and well-rotted manure, 
with a small quantity of night soil, well mixed. 
About a bushel of this mixture was placed around 
each tree, which I intend to dig in this spring, as 
soon as the ground will do to work. The trees were 
all earthed up last fall, and I have not discovered 
any depredations of mice. The trees set are apple, 
pear and cherry. I am at a loss about pruning—’but 
shall endeavor to form broad, spreading tops. If 
any one has had experience in the culture, pruning, 
&c. of young orchards, I should be glad to hear 
from such, through the columns of The Cultivator. 
J. Talcott. Rome , Oneida Co., N. Y., April 4. 
Manure for Fruit Trees. 
11 What is the best manure for fruit trees, to spade 
or work in near the roots, of general application?” 
G. C. 
The following has been found, after several years 
experience, to constitute one of the best manures 
for fruit trees generally. A mixture of peat or 
swamp muck, with one-half to one-quarter of its 
bulk of stable manure, and about one-twentieih of 
leached ashes. These ingredients should lie in a 
heap together for a few weeks, and then be worked 
over. If for peach trees, the soap-suds from the 
laundry thrown over the heap will improve it. If 
for cherry trees, which will not bear high manuring, 
the proportion of peat or muck should be larger, and 
with less of yard manure and ashes. 
There are some other ingredients which may oc¬ 
casionally be added to advantage, as ground or dis¬ 
solved bones, night soil, &c., where a strong manure 
is needed. 
Profits of Fruit Culture. 
S. B. Parsons, in his recent address before the 
New Haven Horticultural Society, states that with¬ 
in a few miles of his residence there is an orchard 
of about 20 acres, producing $2000 a year, the ve¬ 
getables between the trees paying the cost of culti¬ 
vation—that the vineyards of Dr. Underhill, on Cro¬ 
ton Point, are said to yield a net profit of some 
$4000 per annum—that two cherry trees of his own 
yielded often, $30—and that the net profits of the 
great Newtown Pippin orchard of R. L. Pell, at 
Esopus, are some $8000 per annum. 
Great Crop of Winter Squashes. 
A neighbor of mine raised last year (1849) a ve¬ 
ry remarkable crop of winter squashes. The seeds 
were mostly of the hybrid squash produced by a cross 
between the Seven Year Pumpkin and Green Flesh 
Melon, and originated in my garden in 1844, as de¬ 
scribed in your May number, 1848, page 150. The 
soil was a sandy loam highly fertilized with barn¬ 
yard manure, and the dressings of limestone, made 
by the preparation of building stone. The extent 
of ground occupied by this crop was 36 square rods, 
being a plat 9 by 4. This area includes the whole 
spread of the vines. The number of the fruit was 
about nine hundred. The weight of which was 
usually from about twenty to eighty-four pounds, 
of which last weight there were some three or four. 
The estimated average was forty pounds. This 
gives eighteen tons as the average of the whole 
crop, or one thousand pounds to the square rod, 
which would give twenty-five fruits of average size 
to each square rod, or about one squash to each 11 
square feet. The yield of this small plot will be 
seen to be equal to eighty tons to the acre. A crop 
of beets or carrots of the same weight would amount 
to sixteen hundred bushels, estimating the bushel to 
weigh fifty pounds. I saw the squashes after they 
were gathered, and have no reason to suppose the 
weight was over-estimated, as I am accustomed to 
sell large quantities of this vegetable, and always 
sell them by weight. This prodigious crop is to be 
credited, partly to the quality of the soil, and part¬ 
ly to a long hot and dry summer, the crop being sa¬ 
ved from the extreme effects of drouth by subsoil 
water, at the depth of three or four feet. C. E. G. 
Utica, March, 1850. 
Trees of California. 
In FIartweg’s recently published account of his 
botanical tour in California in 1846, we find many 
interesting descriptions of the vegetable productions 
of that region, some of which cannot fail to inter¬ 
est our readers. 
The Californian Horse Chestnut, (Pavia calif or- 
nica,) which must be in the highest degree orna¬ 
mental and showy, is thus described:— 
“ On the dry banks of the ravines, to the north¬ 
east of Monterey, the Californian horse chestnut is 
common. This extremely ornamental shrub or low 
tree rises to the height of twenty-five feet, is of a 
globular shape, and produces its fragrant whitish 
flowers of a delicate pink hue, in great abundance 
on spikes twelve inches long ; one of these spikes, 
which I had the curiosity to count, had more than 
400 open flowers and buds upon it.” 
On the mountains, about 4,000 feet above the le¬ 
vel of the sea, he found the cones of the Pinus ma- 
crocarpa, or large-coned pine, measuring 15 inches 
in length, and growing on trees thirty or forty feet 
high. On the west flank of the great mountain 
range, the Abies bracteata was discovered, a re¬ 
markable fir, “ which attains the height of fifty 
feet, with a stem from twelve to ftf tee feet in dia¬ 
meter, one-third of which is clear of branches, and 
the remainder forming an elongated tapering pyra¬ 
mid, of which the upper part, for three feet is pro¬ 
ductive of cones.” 
The enormous growth of the forest trees in this 
region of the world, is strikingly exhibited in the 
Taxodium sempervirens, (known by the English 
names of Redwood and Bastard Cedar,) and in some 
