72 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb, 
take a nobler revenge by placing our agricultural prac¬ 
tice at the head of all. 
I had intended last month to devote a small part of my 
letter to some remarks on the communication by Mr. 
Bartlett, in your November No.. I amaware that ashes, 
fresh and unleaclied, liberate ammonia from guano, and 
other highly nitrogenous manures. My intention, how¬ 
ever, in recommending such a mixture was, that it should 
be made immediately before sowing the escape of am¬ 
monia in that case would be trifling. I am obliged to Mr. 
Bartlett for calling my attention to this point, as the ab¬ 
sence of any direction on the subject might lead the far¬ 
mer to make the mixture a day or two before the time 
of sowing, if he happened to have leisure time. It would, 
therefore, have been better to insert a caution, or perhaps 
better still, to have said leached ashes , as these could 
produce no evil effect. 
As to the action of gypsum in absorbing ammonia, it 
is rather slow and gradual; when large quantities of am¬ 
monia are liberated at once, as in Mr. Bartlett’s experi¬ 
ence with the urine and fresh ashes, gypsum could not be 
expected to arrest more than a small part of what escap¬ 
ed. Far more powerful means of preserving ammonia, 
would have failed of entire success in such a case. The 
whole subject of the influence of gypsum in agriculture, 
needs a careful and extended examination; all such facts 
as those stated by Mr. Bartlett are valuable. Yours 
truly, John P. Norton. 
“ February is a hard Month for Stock.” 
This has almost passed into an adage. It is usually 
the coldest month of the year, and as cattle are frequent¬ 
ly fed in such a way that they grow poor from the time 
they come to the barn till they go out to grass again, 
their ability to stand the weather is less at this time than 
earlier in the season. Good farmers, however, under¬ 
stand this and see that their animals are supplied with 
food according to their needs. They must eat in pro¬ 
portion to the cold, or the fat and flesh will be wasted 
away in the production of the warmth necessary to sus¬ 
tain life. Hence they should be exposed as little as prac¬ 
ticable to severe weather. They can usually be fed to 
the best advantage in the barn, or in comfortable sheds 
attached to the yard. They should have plenty of wa¬ 
ter, (that which is several degrees above freezing is best,) 
without being obliged to encounter chilling blasts to get it. 
Cows which calve early, should receive better food as the 
time of parturition approaches. A mixture of meal and 
bran, in equal quantities, two to four quarts a day to each 
cow,will be found to more than pay all costs in the increas¬ 
ed return of butter and cheese,besides greatly strengthen¬ 
ing the cow, and improving the condition of her calf. 
Tl^e same may be said of ewes and lambs. If sheep fall 
off in condition, the wool is injured. Much loss is 
sustained from this cause. The wool produced' while the 
animal is growing poor, is weak, and gives an un.even 
staple. 
--—- 
Large Pear.— A. J. Downing says that a specimen of 
the Dutchess of Angouleme, weighing twenty-five ounces, 
and measuring 15 inches round the longest way, was rais¬ 
ed by S. Leeds of Boston, last year. 
Hardiness of Grafted Apple Trees. 
A correspondent, (W. M’C.) who has lately set out a 
large orchard of trees, and intends setting out more, 
wishes to know the correctness of the common objections, 
that apple-trees, grafted in or near the root, are liable to 
uneven growth, distorted trunks, unsoundness at the 
point of union,and liability to decay at the heart, and poor 
crops. 
We have never seen anything to warrant the above ob¬ 
jections to setting out grafted trees. There are some va¬ 
rieties of the apple, it is true, which usually grow more 
crooked than most natural seedlings,—such for example, 
as the Rhode-Island Greening, Boxbury Russet, and Fall 
Pippin. Handsomer trees of these sorts might be ob¬ 
tained by selecting very straight stocks, and grafting them 
at standard height. It might also prove advantageous to 
treat in the same way some of the slower-growing kinds, 
as Lowell, Red Canada, Early Joe, Dyer, Hawley, La¬ 
dies’ Sweet., &c. Beyond these, there are probably no 
advantages in grafting high. This conclusion is founded 
on continued observation of thousands of old and bear¬ 
ing apple trees, from twenty to fifty years of age, graft¬ 
ed at all heights from beneath the surface to seven feet 
above. We have never observed any bad result from the 
graft out-growing the stock, or vice versa, so far as this 
remark will apply to the apple or apple stocks; nor does 
the union of stocl^and graft ever appear to be imperfect 
or unsound, nor the tree to become liable to decay at that 
point more than elsewhere. We have no doubt that dis¬ 
ease and death, resulting from bad cultivation, or from 
an entire absence of all cultivation, good or bad, has been 
attributed to grafting, so prone are many to avoid self¬ 
blame. In ungenial climates, or on unfavorable soils, 
possibly different results might be developed, which 
would never become visible in regions best adapted to 
the growth of the apple. In Wisconsin and in the colder 
parts of the western country, where trees grow rapidly in 
summer, and are then subjected to frosts of some twenty 
degrees below zero, it has been found advantageous to 
bud or graft the more tender varieties of the apple at 
the height of a foot or more from the ground. 
Insects on Apple and Cherry Grafts. 
Eds. Cultivator —For the past two years I have been 
much troubled with an insect destroying my apple and 
cherry grafts, particularly the latter, by gnawing out the 
buds previous to their starting. If you can give any in¬ 
formation respecting the insect, its habits, and mode of 
prevention or destruction, in The Cultivator, you will 
confer a particular favor. John Waters. New Mil¬ 
ford, Dec. 18, 1851. 
We have never met with nor known the insect men 
tioned above, nor suffered a similar loss to the one des¬ 
cribed, from any cause. We are unable to say anything 
of its habits, nor of the mode of avoiding its depreda¬ 
tions ■ for our correspondent having given us no descrip¬ 
tion, we find ourselves in a dilemma quite similar to that 
of the Chaldean magicians, (although we have no thought 
of claiming the wisdom they professed,) who deemed it 
sadly puzzling to be required to give both dream and in¬ 
terpretation, The only insect we know, with similar 
