after finishing his Summer harvest (when it is apt to be driest and
warmest), and, having freed it of water to the best of his ability, dig
and draw out one hundred cords of its black, oozy substance, and he will
know better than to unite in that hasty judgment. If the bog be near his
farm-yard, let the Muck be shoveled at once into a cart and drawn
thither; but, if not, let it be simply brought out in wheel-barrows and
deposited, not more than two feet deep, on the most convenient bank that
is well drained and perfectly dry. Here let it dry and drain till after
Fall harvest, and then begin to draw it gradually into the yards, and
especially where it may be worked over by swine and scratched over for
seeds and insects by fowls. Assuming that the farm-yard is lowest in the
centre and allows no liquid to escape save by evaporation, the Muck may
well be dumped on the drier sides; thence, after being worked over and
trampled through and through, to be shoveled into the centre and
replaced by fresh arrivals. A hundred cords may thus be so mixed and
ripened as to be fit to draw out next May and used as a fertilizer for
Grain or Roots, though, if not so treated, it should lie exposed to sun
and wind a full year; being applied in the Fall to crops of Winter grain
or spread upon the fields to be planted or sowed next Spring. All the
manure made during the Winter should be spread over that which lies in
the yard at least monthly; and then new Muck drawn in, to be rooted or
scratched over, trampled into the underlying strata, and overspread in
its turn. Thus treated, I am confident that each hundred cords of Muck
will be equal in value to an equal quantity of manure, though it may not
give up its fertilizing properties so freely to the first crop that
follows its application. I have land that did not yield (in pasture) the
equivalent of half a tun of hay pet annum when I bought it, that now
yields at least three tuns of good hay per annum; and its renovation is
mainly due to a free application of Swamp Muck.
To those who have a good stock of animals, with Muck convenient to their
yards, I would not recommend any other treatment than the foregoing; but
there are many who keep few animals, or whose muck-beds lie at the back
of their farms, two or three hundred rods from their barns; while they
wish to fertilize the fields in this quarter, which have been slighted
in former applications, because of the distance over which manure had to
be hauled. If these possess or can buy good hard-wood, house-made Ashes
at twenty-five cents or less per bushel, I would say, Mix these well, at
the rate of two or three bushels to the card, with your Muck as you dig
it; work it over the next Spring, and apply it the ensuing Fall, so as
to give it a full year to ripen and sweeten, and it will be all right.
But, if you have not and cannot get the Ashes, and _can_ procure dirty,
refuse Salt from some meat-packer or wholesale grocer, apply this as you
would have applied the Ashes, but in rather larger quantity; and, if
you can get neither Ashes nor Salt, use quick Lime, as fresh and hot
from the kiln as you can apply it. The best Lime is that from burned
Oyster-Shells; I consider this, if nowise slaked, nearly equal to refuse
Salt; but Oyster-Shell Lime is too dear at most inland points; and here
the refuse of the kilns--that which is not good enough for
mason-work--must be used. Usually, the lime-burner has a load or more of
this at the clearing out of every kiln, which he will sell quite cheap
if it be taken out of his way at once; and this should be looked for and
secured. Being inferior in quality (often because imperfectly burned),
it should be applied in larger quantity--not less than four bushels to
each cord of Muck.
* * * * *
I will not here describe the process of mixing Salt with Lime commended
by Prof. Mapes, because it is not easy to bring these two ingredients
together so as to mix them with the Muck as it is dug: and, though I
have used them after Prof. Mapes's recipe, and purpose to do so
hereafter, I do not feel certain that any positive advantage results
from their blended application as a Chloride of Lime. If I should gain
further light on this point before completing this series, I shall not
fail to impart it.
XXII.
INSECTS--BIRDS.
If I were to estimate the average absolute loss of the farmers of this
country from Insects at $100,000,000 per annum, I should doubtless be
far below the mark. The loss of fruit alone by the devastations of
insects, within a radius of fifty miles from this City, must amount in
value to Millions. In my neighborhood, the Peach once flourished, but
flourishes no more, and Cherries have been all but annihilated. Apples
were till lately our most profitable and perhaps our most important
product; but the worms take half our average crop and sadly damage what
they do not utterly destroy. Plums we have ceased to grow or expect; our
Pears are generally stung and often blighted; even the Currant has at
last its fruit-destroying worm. We must fight our paltry adversaries
more efficiently, or allow them to drive us wholly from the field.
Now, I have no doubt that our best allies in this inglorious warfare are
the Birds. They would save us, if we did not destroy them. The British
plowman, turning his sod with a myriad of crows, blackbirds, etc.,
chasing his steps and all but getting under his feet in their eager
quest of grubs, bugs, etc., is a spectacle to be devoutly thankful for.
Whenever clouds of birds shall habitually darken our fields in May and
(less notably) throughout the Summer months, we may reasonably hope to
grow fair crops of our favorite Fruits from year to year, and realize
that we owe them to the constant, and zealous, though not quite
disinterested, efforts of our friends, the Birds.
But I do not regard the ravages of Insects as entirely due to the
reckless destruction and consequent scarcity of our Birds. I hold that
their multiplication and their devastations are largely incited by the
degeneracy of our plants caused by the badness of our culture. On this
point, consider a statement made to me, some fifteen or twenty years
ago, by the late Gov. William F. Packer, of Pennsylvania:
"I know (said Gov. P.) the narrow valley of a stream that runs into the
west branch of the Susquehanna, which was cleared of the primitive
forest some forty or fifty years since, and has ever since been
alternately in tillage and grass. A road ran through the middle of it,
dividing it into two narrow fields. A few years ago, this road was
abandoned, and the whole of this little valley, including the road-way,
thrown into a single field, which was thereupon sown to Wheat. At
harvest-time, this remarkable phenomenon was presented: A good crop of
sound grain on the strip four or fire rods wide formerly covered by the
road; while nearly every berry on either side of it was destroyed by the
weevil or midge."
Now I do not infer from this fact that insect ravages are _wholly_ due
to our abuse and exhaustion of the soil. I presume that Wheat and other
crops would be devastated by insects if there were no slovenly, niggard,
exhausting tillage. But I do firmly hold that at least half our losses
by insects would be precluded if our fields were habitually kept in
better heart by deep culture, liberal fertilizing, and a judicious
rotation of crops. I heard little of insect ravages in the wheat-fields
of Western New-York throughout the first thirty years of this century;
but, when crop after crop of Wheat had been taken from the same fields
until they had been well nigh exhausted of their Wheat-forming elements,
we began to hear of the desolation wrought by insects; and those ravages
increased in magnitude until Wheat-culture had to be abandoned for
years. I believe that we should have heard little of insects had Wheat
been grown on those fields but one year in three since their redemption
from the primal forest.
But, whatever might once have been, the Philistines are upon us. We are
doomed, for at least a generation, to wage a relentless war against
insects multiplied beyond reason by the neglect and short-comings of our
predecessors. We are in like condition with the inhabitants of the
British isles a thousand years ago, whose forefathers had so long
endured and so unskillfully resisted invasion and spoliation by the
Northmen that they had come to be regarded as the sea-kings' natural
prey. For generations, it has been customary hereabout to slaughter
without remorse the birds, and let caterpillars, worms, grasshoppers,
etc., multiply and ravage unresisted. We must pay for past errors by
present loss and years of extra effort. And, precisely because the task
is so arduous, we ought to lose no time in addressing ourselves to its
execution.
The first step to be taken is very simple. Let every farmer who realizes
the importance and beneficence of Birds teach his own children and
hirelings that, except the Hawk, they are to be spared, protected,
kindly treated, and (when necessary) fed. They are to be valued and
cherished as the voluntary police of our fields and gardens, constantly
employed in fighting our battles against our ruthless foes. The boy who
robs a bird's nest is robbing the farmer of a part of his crops. He who
traverses a farm shooting and mangling its feathered sentinels
diminishes its future product of Grain and nearly destroys that of
Fruit. The farmer might as well consent that any strolling ruffian
should shoot his Horses or Cattle as his Birds. Begin at home to make
this truth felt and respected, and it will be the easier to impress it
also on your neighbors.
Next, there should be neighborhood or township associations for the
protection of insect-eating birds. We must not merely agree to let them
live--we must cherish and protect them. I believe that very simple cups
or bowls of cast-iron, having each a hole in its centre of suitable
size, that need not cost sixpence each, and could be fastened to the
side of a tree with one nail lightly driven, would in time be adopted by
many birds as nesting strongholds, whence they might laugh to scorn
their predacious enemies. If every harmless bird could build its nest
among us in a place where its eggs would be safe from hawks, crows,
cats, boys, and other robbers, the number of such birds would quickly be
doubled and quadrupled.
And we must summon the law to our aid. Though law can do little or
nothing against stealthy, skulking nest-plunderers, it can help us
materially in our warfare with the cowardly vagabonds who traverse our
fields with musket or rifle, blazing away at every unsuspecting robin or
thrush that they can discover. Make it trespass, punishable with fine
and imprisonment, to shoot on another's land without his express
permission, and the cowardly massacre of the farmers' humble allies
would be checked at once, and, when public sentiment had been properly
enlightened, might, in civilized regions, be arrested altogether.
XXIII.
ABOUT TREE-PLANTING.
I have had so little experience in Tree-Planting that I should have
preferred to say no more about it; but letters that have reached me
imply that the ignorance of others is even denser than mine. For the
sake of those only who are conscious that they know nothing, yet are not
unwilling to learn, I venture a few timid suggestions with regard to
Tree-Planting.
I. Ten or twelve years ago, I bought a pound or more of Locust seed
rather late in the Spring, scalded it by plunging for a moment the
little cotton bag which held it into a pot of boiling water, and letting
the seed steep and steam in the bag till next morning, when the seed was
planted in rows in a newly broken bit of poor old pasture-land. This was
a mistake; I should have given that seed the richest available spot in
my garden, to say nothing of planting it as early as April 20th. My
locusts came up slowly and grew feebly that year, not to speak of the
many seeds that did not sprout at all. Still many came up and survived,
and my place is this day the richer for them. It might have been still
richer had I seasonably known more.
II. What I would now advise as to Locust and most other trees is that
the best seed be procured in the Fall, or so soon as it drops from the
trees; that part of it be sown in drills, two feet apart, with two
inches between seeds in the drills, and that the richest of dry, warm
garden-soil be devoted to this purpose. Fill a large box with rich loam,
stir four ounces of seed into this, and set the box in a cool cellar
where frost does not enter, and here let it remain till April; then take
out the seed and earth together, and sow in drills as above. If some one
who cuts Locust during the Winter or Spring will allow you to trace the
smaller surface-roots from the new-made stumps and cut or dig them up,
cut fifty or a hundred pieces of root the size of your finger each two
feet long, and plant these, about May 1, in the places where you want
Locusts to come forward most rapidly. Some of them may not grow, but I
think many will; and, from all these sources, I judge that you will
obtain a good supply of young trees. Let those you start from the seed
get two years' growth before you take them up and set them where you
want trees, whether in your present woods, in rugged, rocky pastures, on
the sides of steep ravines, or around your buildings. You cannot fail to
obtain _some_ trees if you follow these directions.
III. Begin early this Fall to gather Chestnuts, Hickory Nuts, Walnuts,
White Oak, Acorns, etc., to plant. Select the largest and finest nuts,
giving the preference to those which ripen and fall earliest. Keep them
in cool, damp earth in some barn or cellar where rats and mice cannot
reach them, and persist in collecting till December. Then plant a part
in your garden or in any rich ground where they are not likely to be
disturbed; letting the residue remain in the boxes of moist earth where
you first placed them till early Spring; then plant these, like the
former, in rows two feet apart, with six inches between seed and seed in
each row, and give the rows careful culture for two years; after which,
set them where you wish them to grow.
I venture to suggest that he who has a ragged, stony hill or other lot
which he wishes to surrender to forest should plow it, if it can be
plowed, next September or October; if too rocky to be even imperfectly
plowed, dig up the earth with pick and spade, and sow it thickly with
hickory nuts, walnuts, chestnuts, locust and other tree-seeds, expecting
that some will be dug up and carried off by squirrels, etc., and that
others will fail to germinate. Go over it with hoes the ensuing June or
July, killing all weeds and other infestations; and, nearly a year
later, repeat the operation, taking up young trees from your garden or
nursery, and filling them in wherever there is room. Plant thickly in
order to force an upward rather than a scraggy growth; and so that you
may begin to cut out the superfluous saplings for bean-poles,
hoop-poles, etc., three or four years thereafter. Cut late in Winter or
early in Spring, so that the stumps will each throw up two or more
shoots or sprouts, which usually grow much faster than the original tree
did. And the process of thinning may thus be continued indefinitely,
while the choicer trees are allowed to attain their stateliest
proportions. And thus a rocky, sterile hill-side or knoll may be made to
yield a crop annually after the first two or three years from planting,
while growing trees of decided value. I judge that almost any land
within fifty miles of a great city and not more than two miles from a
railroad depot or from navigable water may thus be made to earn a good
interest on $100 per acre, after meeting all the cost of breaking up and
planting. I confidently assert that many thousands of sterile, rocky
acres, which now yield less than $5 per acre annually in pasturage,
would net at least double that sum to the owner if wisely devoted to
forest-trees.
* * * * *
I have a hearty love of forests. They proffer gentle companionship to
the thoughtful and rest to the overworked, fevered brain. Our streams
will be fuller and less capricious, our gales less destructive, our
climate more equable, when we shall have reclothed our rugged slopes and
rocky crests with trees. Timber grows yearly scarcer and dearer, when it
ought to be becoming more plentiful and accessible, and _would_ be if we
devoted to trees all the land which we cultivate at a loss or fail to
cultivate at all. Let our boys be incited to gather seeds and plant
nurseries; let young trees be bought by the thousand where they now are
by the dozen, and let us all cooperate in covering our unsightly rocks
and making glad our waste places by a superabundance of choice, thrifty,
healthy trees.
Many of our young men have a taste for adventure and excitement which
leads them to the ocean, the mines, to Australia or some other far-off
land recently and scantily peopled by civilized beings. I will not
quarrel with their taste; but I judge that there are openings for their
enterprise and daring within the area of our own country. Let one
thousand of them resolve to devote the next five years to planting
forests on the treeless plains and virtual deserts of the Great Basin
and on either side of it; let them select locations where some acres may
cheaply and surely be irrigated, and, having carefully provided
themselves with an abundance of the best seeds, let them start patches
of woodland at points the most remote from present timber, until a
thousand different forests--one to each of the associates--shall have
been started and guarded till their roots have taken firm hold of the
earth. I presume Congress would grant them preemptions to each section
on which they thus planted at least forty acres of forest, and that most
of these preemption rights could, within ten years, be sold to settlers
for many times their original cost.
XXIV.
FRUIT-TREES--THE APPLE.
If I were asked to say what single aspect of our economic condition most
strikingly and favorably distinguished the people of our Northern States
from these of most if not all other countries which I have traversed, I
would point at once to the fruit-trees which so generally diversify
every little as well as larger farm throughout these States, and are
quite commonly found even on the petty holdings of the poorer mechanics
and workmen in every village and in the suburbs and outskirts of every
city. I can recall nothing like it abroad, save in two or three of the
least mountainous and most fertile districts of northern Switzerland.
Italy has some approach to it in the venerable olive-trees which
surround or flank many, perhaps most, of her farm-houses, upholding
grape-vines as ancient and nearly as large as themselves; but the
average New-England or Middle State homestead, with its ample
Apple-orchard and its cluster of Pear, Cherry and Plum-trees surrounding
its house and dotting or belting its garden, has an air of comfort and
modest thrift, which I have nowhere else seen fairly equaled. Upland
Virginia and the mountainous portion of the States southward of her may
in time surpass the most favored regions of the North in the abundance,
variety and excellence of their fruits; for the Peach and the Grape find
here a congenial climate, while they are grown with difficulty, where
they can be grown at all, in the North; but, up to this hour, I judge
that our country north of the Potomac is better supplied with wholesome
and palatable tree-fruits than any other portion of the earth's surface
of equal or nearly equal area.
On the whole, I deem it a misfortune that our Northern States were so
admirably adapted to the Apple and kindred fruit-trees that our pioneer
forefathers had little more to do than bury the seeds in the ground and
wait a few years for the resulting fruit. The soil, formed of decayed
trees and their foliage, thickly covered with the ashes of the primitive
forest, was as genial as soil could be; while the remaining woods, which
still covered seven-eighths of the country, shut out or softened the
cold winds of Winter and Spring, rendering it less difficult, a century
ago, to grow fine peaches in southern New-Hampshire than it now is in
southern New-York. Devastating insects were precluded by those great,
dense woods from diffusing themselves from orchard to orchard as they
now do. Snows fell more heavily and lay longer then than now, protecting
the roots from heavy frosts, and keeping back buds and blossoms in
Spring, to the signal advantage of the husbandman. I estimate that my
apple-trees would bear at least one-third more fruit if I could retard
their blossoming a fortnight, so as to avoid the cold rains and cutting
winds, often succeeded by frosts, which are apt to pay their unwelcome
farewell visits just when my trees are in bloom or when the fruit is
forming directly thereafter. Hence, I say to every one who shall
hereafter set an orchard, Give it the northward slope of a hill if that
be possible. Other things being equal, the orchard which blossoms latest
will, in a series of years, yield most fruit, and will be most likely to
bear when the Apple-crop of your vicinity proves a failure. I do not
recommend storing ice to plant or bury under the trees in April, for
that involves too much labor and expense; yet I have no doubt that even
that has been and sometimes might be done with profit. In the average,
however, I judge that it would not pay.
In locating and setting an orchard, the very first consideration is
thorough drainage. Nothing short of a destructive fire can be more
injurious to an apple-tree than compelling it to stand throughout Winter
and Spring in sour, stagnant water. Barrenness, dead branches, and
premature general decay, are the natural and righteous consequences of
such crying abuse. There are many reasons for choosing sloping or broken
ground for an apple-orchard, whereof comparative exemption from frost
and natural facility of drainage are the most obvious. A level field,
thoroughly undrained to-day, may, through neglect and the mischiefs
wrought by burrowing animals, have become little better than a morass
thirty years hence; but an orchard set on a tolerably steep hillside is
reasonably secure against wet feet to the close of its natural life.
A gravelly or sandy loam is generally preferred for orchards; yet I have
known them to flourish and bear generously on heavy clay. Whoever has a
gravelly field will wisely prefer this for Apples, not merely to clay
but to sand as well.
And, while many young orchards have doubtless been injured by immoderate
applications of rank, green manures, I doubt that any man has ever yet
bestowed too much care and expense on the preparation of his ground for
fruit-trees. Where ridges or plateaus of fast stone do not forbid, I
would say, Turn over the soil to a depth of at least fifteen inches with
a large plow and a strong team; then lift and pulverize the subsoil to a
depth of not less than nine inches; apply all the Wood-ashes you can
get, with one thousand bushels of Marl if you are in a Marl region; if
not, use instead from thirty to fifty bushels of quick Lime
(oyster-shell if that is to be had) with one hundred loads per acre of
Swamp Muck which has lain a year on dry upland, baking in the sun and
wind; and now you may think of setting your trees. If your soil was rich
Western prairie or Middle-State garden to begin with, you can dispense
with all these fertilizers; yet I doubt that there is an acre of Western
prairie that would not be improved by the Lime or (perhaps better
still) a smaller quantity of refuse Salt from a packing-house or meat
retailing grocery. There are not many farms that would not repay the
application of five bushels per acre of refuse Salt at twenty-five cents
per bushel.