Volume 20 (1870) (454 pages)

ra SCI BNEIEIC) . PRESS. [January 1, 1870. Homing and Gardening. Coammnications for this department are solicited from all parts of the Pacific States and Territories. Growing Nut Trees. When it is desired to raise nut trees from the seed, the great seeret of success is iu never letting the kernel of the nut or acorn beeome wilted or driod; for as snre as it does, its vitality is lost, and no gormination can take place. Mauy of our peoplo, for the reason that nursery trees are searce aud high, ave planting the uuts or seeds of various trees, Care should be taken, in selecting the nuts, that tho above conditions have been fulfilled, or both money and labor will be lost, and, worst of all, discouragement will follow. To prepare nuts properly for keepiug or for transportation, they should he packed in boxes, or barrels, and carefully inter-. layed with moistened moss or some similar substance. The packiug material shonld be just sufficiently moistened to prevent the nuts from becoming dry. Wheat chaff is a very good substitute for moss. The nuts should be packed immediately after being pathered, To keep up the moisture until the time arrives for transnortution or planting, a good plan is to bury the box or barrel in whieh the nuts are packed in the pround, in some sheltered plaee, where excessive winter moisture can be avoided. In most loealities in this State, for homegathered nuts, they may be planted immediately after being gathered. Chestnuts, oaks, hickories, etc., are difiicult to transplant, They can be raised mueh cheaper and better from the seed, This is especially true of the black walnut, which has a loug tap-root, which should never be broken. A good tree of this character caunot be produeed by transplanting from the nursery without the utmost care. In fact, all nut-hearing trees aro better raised by planting the seeds just where you wish the trees to grow. ‘Two or more nuts should be putin a hill; and if all grow, prune out the weaker ones after the first year’s growth. Mueh attention is now being given, in all parts of the country, to the plauting of such forest trees as are valuable for timher or nuts. We referred in our last issue, at considerable length, to tho interest taken in the improvement of our native chestnut trees, An instanee of improvement in this direction has since eome to our notice, as recorded iu the American <Agriculiurist for Deeember, 1865, which figures aud describes an American variety that has been so much improved in size by simply manuring the land about their roots that forty of them weighed a pound! Such ehestnuts must come nearly or quite up to the famous Japanese chestnuts which were exhibited at the State Fair in Sacramento two years ago. It is also suid that the nuts were greatly improved in quality by such culture. The natural incliuatiou of all forest trees is to throw out side hrauches as the trunk advances in perpendicular height. This habit may be encouraged by opeu eultivation; and should be where fruit is the main object in view. By planting close, the sun and air are excluded from the lower branehes, so that they are smothered until they die out; thus encouraging 4 long butt, free from knots. The only access of the sun heing to the tops of the trees, their growth is encouraged in that direction. Vantety ix Cuestnuts.—In Europe, there are over thirty eatalogued varieties of the chestnut, all of which may be had of the nurserymen, Great pains are taken there in the improvemeut of this tree, both by grafting and cultivation, of the fruit, which, in many plaees, is largely used as food, and is very cheap. In the Atlantic States this fruit is worth from $7 to $18 per barrel. Its price in California is much higher. Inverted Posts—Their Philosophy. There is uo question but that in settiug fence posts, they should be plaeed ina position inverted to that iu whieh they grew —or lop end down. Numerous faets have heen published sustaining the eorrectness of this theory in practice. William A. Otis has informed tho Okie Farmer that he reeeutly had occasiou to take dowu a feuce whieh he built twenty. four years ago. The posts were set butt end down—as they grew. These posts had all been reset, and the second lot were so much decayed as to be utterly worthless. Some gate posts in the line of the fenee, which were set fop eud down, wheu removed, were in good condition, and fit for service for many years to eome. The gate posts were thus set because, as they were cut off at the forks of the tree, the tops were the largest, and were, therefore, put inthe ground to pive the post a firmer “Bet.” Mr. §. E. Fiske, of Prairie Creek, Ind., some timo sinee eommunicated to the New York Farmers’ Club the faet of his once setting the two posts of a gate split from one log—oue with the top end down, the other with the butt down; the latter was completely decayed iu ten years, while the former was still good at the end of seventeen years. Numerous other similar iustauees might be cited. We have one secount hefore us of some posts set top dowu which lasted only ahout five years, and the party thinks he will never try itagain. As he did not try any with the butt down, the experimont amounts to uothing. If any of the same lot had heen set that way, we presume they would have decayed in two years, His timber was probably very poor, or the soil in which they were set particularly uufayorable for preserviug wood. Now if the results of inverting timber for posts are as we have supposed, aud to. some extent proven, there must be a cause therefor; and here we have it, and for aught we see, perfectly philosophical— furnished by a correspondent of the Germantown (Pa.) Zelegraph, from whom we eondense as follows: The particles of wood are so arranged by nature as to enahle the water or sap of a tree to aseend. Were it not for this arrangement it would . he impossihle for the tree to prow. The making of a tree into posts does not change the arrangement of the particles, aud eonsequently a post set iu the ground in the positiou iu which it grew, is coustantly taking up moisturo, while, by a chaugo of positiou, the wood is draiued of this moistnre, aud, as a eonsequence, the post plaeed in an iuverted positiou will last the longest, If itis trne that sap never deseends, there may be considerable advantage seeured by adoptiug his plau of post settiug, The correspondeut of the Telegraph is iu error iu his supposition that sap never deseeuds; but the cireumstauces and laws atteudaut upou the ascent of the sap and desceut of the elaborated fluid in trees are quite dissimilar, as showu in the issne of the Press, of Noy. 15th, under the head of “The Flow of Sap in Trees.” The laws of the movement of sap, as there set forth, fully warrant the conclusions given with regard to the cause of the greater durability of inverted feuce posts. This isasubject of mnch importanee to farmers everywhere, aud shonld bo geuerally knowu and acted upon, A krowledge of the philosophy of the practice will no doubt ind uce mauy to adopt it who would not do so otherwise, for fear of beiug langhed at for following what might be thought a mere whim. A Goon Party.—A ‘‘ wood-sawing party ” has heen organized in Wapakouette, Ohio, numbering somo twenty vigorous young men, for the practical purpose of sawing wood for all the widows of that town. Mammoth Grape Vines. Our readers ave all familiar with the native hahit of the grape vine to spread over a large surfaee; but probably the faot that it is also one of the longest lived of vegetable creations is not so well knowu. Californians are aceustomed to point with wonder and pride at the great age and size of some of our mammoth redwoods. Other regions may point with equal pride at the great age and mammoth proportious of their grape vines, Mr, J. A. Watsou, in the Gardener's Chronicle, mentious a large viue prowiug on Monnt Salevi, in Switzerland, whieh in March, 1867, measured three feet ten inches in circumference of the stem atfour feet from the ground. The branohes have covered and monopolized several large trees, and have had no pruning uor eare of any kind for years; still the produce last year was fonr hundred bottles of first-rate red wine. This, at thirty cents a bottle, is $120 for the entire yield. Caleulatiug the number of square yards eovered by the vine, it is said to be at the rate of over $1,600 per aere. There isa vine in Richmond, Va., whieh measured forty-eight inohes in cireumferenoe at the base, and sixteen inehes in diameter, in 1865, There is a vine in New Jersey with a diameter of two feet. Downing mentions oue on an island in the Ohio river which had a diameter of two feet, the hranehes of whieh eovered more than an acre. These largest vines were estimated by Downing to be two thousand years old. There is a hearing vine in New Jersey whieh gave, twenty years ago, seventy-eight bushels of fruit, which went to market It is in consideration of the great age aud immense spread which the vine reaches, when left to its natural course, that has indueed many persons to take the position that we cultivate it too closely in vineyards—that we thereby gorge it with unripe sap, prodneiug an inferior fruit and indneing disease in the vines. It is well known that if we eut baek the top of a tree, we, to an approximate extent, kill its out-lying roots, and thereby more or less injure their regular and healthy action. Sneh facts would at least seem to prove that the grape ought to have a large exteusion of both root and braneh, to properly eliminate the fruit-forming sap. We have no knowledge of any experiment in this direction; but wonld suggest that sueh should be made. Take a small sectiou of vineyard that las beeu in beariug, say six or eight years, and remove every other viue, Note for several years to eome the quality aud quautity on the sectiou so thinned out, iu comparison with an uudisturhed area of equal extent. Viues so thiuned should be allowed more stem, and should uot be as closely pruued as is the eommou practico. The full advantages of sueh ecultnre could uot, of eourse, be seen until the lapse of several years. A Vint Near tar Door.—The Jussucheusells Ploughman well says that a traveler over a country road would iustinctively have his eye caught and his thoughts somowhat tangled up by a fine vine growing vigorously near the door of a home. It does not matter liow small or humble that home may be, it is raised in the esteem of the passer-by in holding up the suggestive shelter of a vine. It expresses love in the house, thoughtfulness for what is at once graceful and appropriate, pure and healthy domestic sentiment, and a spirit of eontented happiness which mauy an one goes the world over to find, aud looks for in vain. Sueh a simple home ornament as this is a token for all men to see, that the dwellers beneath the roof it adds expression to, are persous of feeling for what is true and lovely, for native refinement and quiet happiness. There should not be a farmhouse in the land without a vine somewhere eontiguous. . Tu cranberry erop of New Jersey for this year amounts in valne to $2,500,000, A Flower Garden on the Farm. Why should not the farmer have a flower gardeu, as well as any other body? Don’t he and his wife deserve some of the good aud heautiful things of this life, as well as his ueighbor iu the village, who owns and cultivates that beantiful garden, which everybody admires? No time to attend to it; we don’t helieve it. He thinks, no doubt,’ that his great gardeu—his farm, — ueeds all his time aud attention; but he is iistakeu. He haga pleuty of time, or at least he ought to have. He owes it to himself aud to his family (all farmers have families) that he should maintain a garden—not ove overrun with the eurse of Adam, aud covered with thorns and thistles; but one beautified with all the loveliness of the floral kingdom. There is many an odd hour that he ean devote to its eare aud eulture, until hissonsand daughters are old enough to take the eare off his hands. Heshould learn to love it himself, and teaeh his children to love it. It will add vastly to his own and the happiness of his family. Flowers are expressive of loveliness. Wherever you seo a well provided flower gardeu, no matter how humble the house, depend upon it there is love aud thrift in that house. Horticulture oeeupies the same relative position to agriculture that the fine arts do to morchandising and mannfaeturing. The progress of either is an index to the advancemeut of a community in eulture, intelligeuce aud prosperity. There is this difference, however, in favor of the farmer —he ean procure fis refinements for less money than the merehaut or manufacturer ean; and his garden possesses more real value, and distrihutes more real happiness, than do the paintings and other adoruments of his more pretentious neighbor, At the close of » prosperous eareer ou the farm, what ean give more real cujoymeut to the farmer himsolf, or to his children, than the possessiou of a homestead adorned with flowers and trees? If his children have goue out from him to the eity or elsewhere, how delightful they find it to visit the old homestead, made beautiful by the eareful hauds of themselves and their pareuts, How much such ahome adds to the family tie. There should uot he a farm-house iu the laud without its flowers and ornamental shrubbery and trees, Pract OrcHarps In CaLiFornza.—The official county reports for the present year show an aggregate of 800,000 peach trees iu California—euough to produce about 100 pounds of peaches to each individual in the State. Tho trees are distrihuted through the various counties as follows: Santa Clara eonuty is down for 70,000 trees, Saerameuto for 74,000, El] Dorado for 56,000, Souoma for 52,000, San Joaquin for 45,000, Butte for 40,000, aud Napa, Plaeer, Tnolumue, Colusa, Amador, Yoloand Yuba rango between 20,000 and 30,000 each, leayiug about 250,000 for the balance of the State. The climate of California is well adapted to the cultivation of the peach, aud it should be still more largely cultivated for drying. The average number of trees to the aere is abont 100; aud the average yield to a treeabout 120 pounds of fruit, which, at four cents, the average wholesale price, makes tho gross returns to the acro, $480, Tho entire expeuse for caro aud eultivation, aside from use of land and trausportatiou, does not exceed $50. How Rock 1s Formep.—The soil, in most places, by its weight and the ehemieal solutions iu the sub-soil, is constantly trying to form roek immediately below where it is disturbed by the plow-share. It is the business of the farmer to see that this process does not go on too uear the roots of his plauts. His piow aud spade are the proper iustrumeuts of his warfare in this eontest. Plow deep.

ra SCI BNEIEIC) . PRESS. [January 1, 1870. Homing and Gardening. Coammnications for this department are solicited from all parts of the Pacific States and Territories. Growing Nut Trees. When it is desired to raise nut trees from the seed, the great seeret of success is iu never letting the kernel of the nut or acorn beeome wilted or driod; for as snre as it does, its vitality is lost, and no gormination can take place. Mauy of our peoplo, for the reason that nursery trees are searce aud high, ave planting the uuts or seeds of various trees, Care should be taken, in selecting the nuts, that tho above conditions have been fulfilled, or both money and labor will be lost, and, worst of all, discouragement will follow. To prepare nuts properly for keepiug or for transportation, they should he packed in boxes, or barrels, and carefully inter-. layed with moistened moss or some similar substance. The packiug material shonld be just sufficiently moistened to prevent the nuts from becoming dry. Wheat chaff is a very good substitute for moss. The nuts should be packed immediately after being pathered, To keep up the moisture until the time arrives for transnortution or planting, a good plan is to bury the box or barrel in whieh the nuts are packed in the pround, in some sheltered plaee, where excessive winter moisture can be avoided. In most loealities in this State, for homegathered nuts, they may be planted immediately after being gathered. Chestnuts, oaks, hickories, etc., are difiicult to transplant, They can be raised mueh cheaper and better from the seed, This is especially true of the black walnut, which has a loug tap-root, which should never be broken. A good tree of this character caunot be produeed by transplanting from the nursery without the utmost care. In fact, all nut-hearing trees aro better raised by planting the seeds just where you wish the trees to grow. ‘Two or more nuts should be putin a hill; and if all grow, prune out the weaker ones after the first year’s growth. Mueh attention is now being given, in all parts of the country, to the plauting of such forest trees as are valuable for timher or nuts. We referred in our last issue, at considerable length, to tho interest taken in the improvement of our native chestnut trees, An instanee of improvement in this direction has since eome to our notice, as recorded iu the American <Agriculiurist for Deeember, 1865, which figures aud describes an American variety that has been so much improved in size by simply manuring the land about their roots that forty of them weighed a pound! Such ehestnuts must come nearly or quite up to the famous Japanese chestnuts which were exhibited at the State Fair in Sacramento two years ago. It is also suid that the nuts were greatly improved in quality by such culture. The natural incliuatiou of all forest trees is to throw out side hrauches as the trunk advances in perpendicular height. This habit may be encouraged by opeu eultivation; and should be where fruit is the main object in view. By planting close, the sun and air are excluded from the lower branehes, so that they are smothered until they die out; thus encouraging 4 long butt, free from knots. The only access of the sun heing to the tops of the trees, their growth is encouraged in that direction. Vantety ix Cuestnuts.—In Europe, there are over thirty eatalogued varieties of the chestnut, all of which may be had of the nurserymen, Great pains are taken there in the improvemeut of this tree, both by grafting and cultivation, of the fruit, which, in many plaees, is largely used as food, and is very cheap. In the Atlantic States this fruit is worth from $7 to $18 per barrel. Its price in California is much higher. Inverted Posts—Their Philosophy. There is uo question but that in settiug fence posts, they should be plaeed ina position inverted to that iu whieh they grew —or lop end down. Numerous faets have heen published sustaining the eorrectness of this theory in practice. William A. Otis has informed tho Okie Farmer that he reeeutly had occasiou to take dowu a feuce whieh he built twenty. four years ago. The posts were set butt end down—as they grew. These posts had all been reset, and the second lot were so much decayed as to be utterly worthless. Some gate posts in the line of the fenee, which were set fop eud down, wheu removed, were in good condition, and fit for service for many years to eome. The gate posts were thus set because, as they were cut off at the forks of the tree, the tops were the largest, and were, therefore, put inthe ground to pive the post a firmer “Bet.” Mr. §. E. Fiske, of Prairie Creek, Ind., some timo sinee eommunicated to the New York Farmers’ Club the faet of his once setting the two posts of a gate split from one log—oue with the top end down, the other with the butt down; the latter was completely decayed iu ten years, while the former was still good at the end of seventeen years. Numerous other similar iustauees might be cited. We have one secount hefore us of some posts set top dowu which lasted only ahout five years, and the party thinks he will never try itagain. As he did not try any with the butt down, the experimont amounts to uothing. If any of the same lot had heen set that way, we presume they would have decayed in two years, His timber was probably very poor, or the soil in which they were set particularly uufayorable for preserviug wood. Now if the results of inverting timber for posts are as we have supposed, aud to. some extent proven, there must be a cause therefor; and here we have it, and for aught we see, perfectly philosophical— furnished by a correspondent of the Germantown (Pa.) Zelegraph, from whom we eondense as follows: The particles of wood are so arranged by nature as to enahle the water or sap of a tree to aseend. Were it not for this arrangement it would . he impossihle for the tree to prow. The making of a tree into posts does not change the arrangement of the particles, aud eonsequently a post set iu the ground in the positiou iu which it grew, is coustantly taking up moisturo, while, by a chaugo of positiou, the wood is draiued of this moistnre, aud, as a eonsequence, the post plaeed in an iuverted positiou will last the longest, If itis trne that sap never deseends, there may be considerable advantage seeured by adoptiug his plau of post settiug, The correspondeut of the Telegraph is iu error iu his supposition that sap never deseeuds; but the cireumstauces and laws atteudaut upou the ascent of the sap and desceut of the elaborated fluid in trees are quite dissimilar, as showu in the issne of the Press, of Noy. 15th, under the head of “The Flow of Sap in Trees.” The laws of the movement of sap, as there set forth, fully warrant the conclusions given with regard to the cause of the greater durability of inverted feuce posts. This isasubject of mnch importanee to farmers everywhere, aud shonld bo geuerally knowu and acted upon, A krowledge of the philosophy of the practice will no doubt ind uce mauy to adopt it who would not do so otherwise, for fear of beiug langhed at for following what might be thought a mere whim. A Goon Party.—A ‘‘ wood-sawing party ” has heen organized in Wapakouette, Ohio, numbering somo twenty vigorous young men, for the practical purpose of sawing wood for all the widows of that town. Mammoth Grape Vines. Our readers ave all familiar with the native hahit of the grape vine to spread over a large surfaee; but probably the faot that

it is also one of the longest lived of vegetable creations is not so well knowu. Californians are aceustomed to point with wonder and pride at the great age and size of some of our mammoth redwoods. Other regions may point with equal pride at the great age and mammoth proportious of their grape vines, Mr, J. A. Watsou, in the Gardener's Chronicle, mentious a large viue prowiug on Monnt Salevi, in Switzerland, whieh in March, 1867, measured three feet ten inches in circumference of the stem atfour feet from the ground. The branohes have covered and monopolized several large trees, and have had no pruning uor eare of any kind for years; still the produce last year was fonr hundred bottles of first-rate red wine. This, at thirty cents a bottle, is $120 for the entire yield. Caleulatiug the number of square yards eovered by the vine, it is said to be at the rate of over $1,600 per aere. There isa vine in Richmond, Va., whieh measured forty-eight inohes in cireumferenoe at the base, and sixteen inehes in diameter, in 1865, There is a vine in New Jersey with a diameter of two feet. Downing mentions oue on an island in the Ohio river which had a diameter of two feet, the hranehes of whieh eovered more than an acre. These largest vines were estimated by Downing to be two thousand years old. There is a hearing vine in New Jersey whieh gave, twenty years ago, seventy-eight bushels of fruit, which went to market It is in consideration of the great age aud immense spread which the vine reaches, when left to its natural course, that has indueed many persons to take the position that we cultivate it too closely in vineyards—that we thereby gorge it with unripe sap, prodneiug an inferior fruit and indneing disease in the vines. It is well known that if we eut baek the top of a tree, we, to an approximate extent, kill its out-lying roots, and thereby more or less injure their regular and healthy action. Sneh facts would at least seem to prove that the grape ought to have a large exteusion of both root and braneh, to properly eliminate the fruit-forming sap. We have no knowledge of any experiment in this direction; but wonld suggest that sueh should be made. Take a small sectiou of vineyard that las beeu in beariug, say six or eight years, and remove every other viue, Note for several years to eome the quality aud quautity on the sectiou so thinned out, iu comparison with an uudisturhed area of equal extent. Viues so thiuned should be allowed more stem, and should uot be as closely pruued as is the eommou practico. The full advantages of sueh ecultnre could uot, of eourse, be seen until the lapse of several years. A Vint Near tar Door.—The Jussucheusells Ploughman well says that a traveler over a country road would iustinctively have his eye caught and his thoughts somowhat tangled up by a fine vine growing vigorously near the door of a home. It does not matter liow small or humble that home may be, it is raised in the esteem of the passer-by in holding up the suggestive shelter of a vine. It expresses love in the house, thoughtfulness for what is at once graceful and appropriate, pure and healthy domestic sentiment, and a spirit of eontented happiness which mauy an one goes the world over to find, aud looks for in vain. Sueh a simple home ornament as this is a token for all men to see, that the dwellers beneath the roof it adds expression to, are persous of feeling for what is true and lovely, for native refinement and quiet happiness. There should not be a farmhouse in the land without a vine somewhere eontiguous. . Tu cranberry erop of New Jersey for this year amounts in valne to $2,500,000, A Flower Garden on the Farm. Why should not the farmer have a flower gardeu, as well as any other body? Don’t he and his wife deserve some of the good aud heautiful things of this life, as well as his ueighbor iu the village, who owns and cultivates that beantiful garden, which everybody admires? No time to attend to it; we don’t helieve it. He thinks, no doubt,’ that his great gardeu—his farm, — ueeds all his time aud attention; but he is iistakeu. He haga pleuty of time, or at least he ought to have. He owes it to himself aud to his family (all farmers have families) that he should maintain a garden—not ove overrun with the eurse of Adam, aud covered with thorns and thistles; but one beautified with all the loveliness of the floral kingdom. There is many an odd hour that he ean devote to its eare aud eulture, until hissonsand daughters are old enough to take the eare off his hands. Heshould learn to love it himself, and teaeh his children to love it. It will add vastly to his own and the happiness of his family. Flowers are expressive of loveliness. Wherever you seo a well provided flower gardeu, no matter how humble the house, depend upon it there is love aud thrift in that house. Horticulture oeeupies the same relative position to agriculture that the fine arts do to morchandising and mannfaeturing. The progress of either is an index to the advancemeut of a community in eulture, intelligeuce aud prosperity. There is this difference, however, in favor of the farmer —he ean procure fis refinements for less money than the merehaut or manufacturer ean; and his garden possesses more real value, and distrihutes more real happiness, than do the paintings and other adoruments of his more pretentious neighbor, At the close of » prosperous eareer ou the farm, what ean give more real cujoymeut to the farmer himsolf, or to his children, than the possessiou of a homestead adorned with flowers and trees? If his children have goue out from him to the eity or elsewhere, how delightful they find it to visit the old homestead, made beautiful by the eareful hauds of themselves and their pareuts, How much such ahome adds to the family tie. There should uot he a farm-house iu the laud without its flowers and ornamental shrubbery and trees, Pract OrcHarps In CaLiFornza.—The official county reports for the present year show an aggregate of 800,000 peach trees iu California—euough to produce about 100 pounds of peaches to each individual in the State. Tho trees are distrihuted through the various counties as follows: Santa Clara eonuty is down for 70,000 trees, Saerameuto for 74,000, El] Dorado for 56,000, Souoma for 52,000, San Joaquin for 45,000, Butte for 40,000, aud Napa, Plaeer, Tnolumue, Colusa, Amador, Yoloand Yuba rango between 20,000 and 30,000 each, leayiug about 250,000 for the balance of the State. The climate of California is well adapted to the cultivation of the peach, aud it should be still more largely cultivated for drying. The average number of trees to the aere is abont 100; aud the average yield to a treeabout 120 pounds of fruit, which, at four cents, the average wholesale price, makes tho gross returns to the acro, $480, Tho entire expeuse for caro aud eultivation, aside from use of land and trausportatiou, does not exceed $50. How Rock 1s Formep.—The soil, in most places, by its weight and the ehemieal solutions iu the sub-soil, is constantly trying to form roek immediately below where it is disturbed by the plow-share. It is the business of the farmer to see that this process does not go on too uear the roots of his plauts. His piow aud spade are the proper iustrumeuts of his warfare in this eontest. Plow deep.