J. H. Walden

“ On no crop does good culture pay better. Many suppose that an apple-tree, being a great grower, will take care of itself after having attained a moderate size. Whoever observes the great and rapid growth of apple-trees must see, that, when the ground is nearly covered with them, they must make a great draft on the soil. To secure health and increased value, the deficiency must be supplied in manure and cultivation. The quantity and quality of the fruit depend mainly on the condition of the land. The kinds and proportions of manures best for an apple-orchard are important practical questions. ”

“ The Victoria is perhaps the latest of all currants, hanging on the bushes fully two weeks longer than others. The White Grape, the Red Grape, and the Transparent, are all good and beautiful. The utilitarian will cultivate the Red Dutch and the White Dutch as his main crop, with two or three of the others for a variety. The amateur will get all the varieties, and amuse himself by comparing their qualities, and trying his skill at modifying them. ”

“ It is that those plants act in a certain manner on the soil requiring a specific action of manure to enable it to appropriate moisture and tax the atmosphere for their growth. This theory explains why too much manure is bad. Not because we give too much food to plants, but because excess of manure dries up the land. But whatever theory we adopt, we all agree in the utility of fertilizers. And the experience of practical farmers is of more value in aiding us to reach right conclusions, than all chemical essays on the subject that have ever been written. ”

“ Careful experiments have shown, that on clay land there is no perceptible difference in the growth of the plants, at any of the stages, in seed sown at any depth, from a slight covering to three or four inches. At a greater depth, it comes up less regularly, and in every way is in a worse condition. But on a light soil, it is, no doubt, best to plant it from four to six inches deep. On very loose soils, as muck land and alluvial soils, the roots of the plants grow too near the surface, and are exposed to being thrown out by winter frosts, and destroyed. ”

“ Grass that is headed out, and in which the seed has begun to mature, is far more nutritious, as every farmer can ascertain by easy experiments. Tall grass, approaching maturity, will fatten cattle much faster than the most tender young growth. Pasturing land enriches it. It is well to mow pastures and pasture meadows occasionally, though few meadows and pastures should lie long without plowing. Top-dressings of manure, on all grass-lands, are valuable; better applied in the fall than in the spring; evaporation is less, and it has opportunity to soak into the soil. ”

“ A wanton recklessness is exhibited about our cities and villages, in killing off small birds, that are of no use after they are dead. Living, they are valuable to every garden and fruit-orchard. In every state, stringent laws should be made and enforced against their destruction. Even the crow, without friends as he is, is a real blessing to the farmer: keep him from the young corn for a few days, as it is easy to do, and, all the rest of the year, his destruction of worms and insects is a great blessing. ”

“ If "he who causes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, is a benefactor of his race," he is not less so who imparts to millions a knowledge of the methods by which it is done.
The last half century has been the era of experiments and writing on the cultivation of the soil. ”

“ Almost everything does best budded or grafted into vigorous stocks of its own nature. Root-grafting, as it is termed,—that is, cutting up roots into pieces three or four inches long, and putting a scion into each—has been a matter of much discussion and diversity of opinion. It is certainly a means of most rapidly multiplying a given variety, and is therefore profitable to the nurseryman. ”

“ Whole peaches planted when taken from the tree, or the pits planted before having become dry, are said to be much more certain to produce the same fruit. We know an instance in which the fruit of an early Crawford peach, thus planted, could not be distinguished from those that grew on a budded tree in the same orchard. One of the difficulties in reproducing the same from seed, is the great difficulty in getting the seed of any variety pure. We everywhere have so many varieties of fruit-trees in the same orchard, that the seeds of no one can be pure; they mix in the blossoms. ”

“ The usual manner of driving, by whipping and bawling, to the annoyance of the whole neighborhood, and until the driver becomes hoarse with his perpetual screams, is one of the most pernicious habits on a farm. ”

“ Roll the land in spring on which you have sown grass-seed in the last of winter; it will benefit the grain, and cause the grass-seed to catch well, and get an earlier and more rapid growth. Let all who would not lose their seed and labor, remember that grass-seed not sown so as to form good roots, before the frosts of winter or the drought of summer, will be lost; the plants will be killed. Timothy-seed sown in the fall, one peck to the acre, will produce a good crop the next season. ”

“ We do not believe that there is an acre of land now under cultivation in the United States, in a latitude where corn will grow, on which we can not raise a hundred bushels of shelled Indian corn, without applying anything but what may be raised out of that soil, and procured in the shape of manure by animals in consuming that product. The poorest farm in America may be brought up to a state of great fertility, without applying one dollar's worth of any foreign substance. ”

“ If the land be not sod land, and you can plow the manure in only deep enough to cover it, and then, just before sowing the seed, plow again very deep, the effect is excellent. Apply manure to land in the fall, or just after harvest, and plow it in, let the land remain till spring, and then plow deep, and you get the best possible effect. On an onion crop, manure does the most good on the surface. On those raised from sets, or on any onions, after they get large enough to give room, put fine manure enough to keep down all weeds, and it will double the crop. ”

“ When you plant only a few in a garden, mulch your musk-melons with chips or sawdust from the wood-yard, or leaves and decayed wood from the forest, and you will get a great growth. They will grow luxuriantly in a pile of chips, with a little soil, in a door-yard, where hardly any other plant would flourish. The water-melon does best in almost pure sand, if it be enriched with liquid or some other of the finer manures. Plant musk-melons six feet apart, and water-melons nine feet each way. When the plants become established, never leave more than two or three in a hill. ”

“ To most of our late works on honey-bees we have one serious objection: it is, that they bear on their face the evidence of having been written to make money, by promoting the sale of some patent hive. These works all have a little in common that is interesting; the remainder seems designed to oppose some former patent and commend a new one. They thus swell their volumes to a troublesome and expensive size, with that which is of no use to practical men. A work made to fight a patent, or to sell one, can not be reliable. ”

“ We can depend only upon our nurserymen to collect all improved varieties, and where we do not see the bearing-trees for ourselves, trust the nurseryman's description of the general qualities of fruit. Seldom, indeed, will a cultivator buy fruit-trees, and set out his orchard, and master the descriptions in the fruit-books, and after his trees come into bearing, minutely try them by all the marks to see whether he has been cheated, and, if so, take up the trees and put out others, to go the same round again, perhaps with no better success. ”

“ Propagation is by annually planting the tubers. No mixture of sorts ever takes place from planting different varieties together. This can only be done in the blossoms, and will consequently appear in young seedlings. To raise good potatoes, always plant ripe seed, and the largest and best, and leave them whole. Selecting small potatoes for seed, and cutting them up, and planting mere eyes and pearings as some do, has done much to injure the health, quality, and quantity of yield of the potato. Selecting the poorest for seed, will run out anything we grow in the soil. ”

“ Applying in the spring to increase the crop for that season, is like feeding chickens in the morning to fatten them for dinner—it is too late. Fertilizing in August is a good preparation for a large crop for the next season. Strawberry-vines, in all freezing climates, should be covered, late in the fall, with forest-leaves or straw, to protect from the severity of winter, and enrich the land by what can be dug into the soil in spring. Rotten wood, fine chips, sawdust, &c., are all good for a fall top-dressing. ”

“ In transplanting, much care is requisite. The bark of the roots is like evergreens, very tender and easily broken, or injured by exposure to the atmosphere; hence, take up carefully, and keep covered from sun and air until transplanted. This is destined to become one of the universally-cultivated small fruits—as much so as the strawberry. The best manures are, wood-ashes, leaves, decayed wood, and all kinds of coarse litter, with stable manure well incorporated with the soil, before transplanting. Animal manure should not be very plentifully applied. ”

“ But the wheat-midge, or weevil, is the great enemy, rendering the cultivation of wheat in some localities useless. One precaution is, to get the wheat forward so early and fast as to have it out of the way before they destroy it. This is often done by early sowing, high fertilization, and warm land. Sometimes wheat is too late for them, and then a good crop is secured. But this can only be relied on in cool, moist climates. Our hot, dry seasons are not suitable for wheat, late enough to be out of the way of the weevil. The great remedy for this enemy is his destruction. ”

“ At the North we have to guard against too much cool weather, and at the South against too much heat. Some vegetables that need planting on ridges in the North, to obtain more sun and heat, should be planted on level land at the South, to guard against too much heat and drought. Besides this, the main difference is in the time of planting, which varies more or less with every degree of latitude, or every five hundred feet of elevation. Have no fruit-trees in your vegetable or fruit garden, unless it may be a few dwarf-pears on the quince-stock, and these had better be by themselves. ”

“ A separate plat of ground for each crop, in nearly all cases, is the most economical. To raise a good crop of beans, prepare the soil as thoroughly as for any other crop. Beans will mature on land so poor and hard as to be almost worthless for other crops. But a rich, mellow soil is as good for beans as anything else, though not so indispensable. Drill in with a planter as near together as possible, and allow a cultivator to pass between them. One bushel to the acre on ordinary land, and three fourths of a bushel on very rich land, is about the quantity of seed requisite. ”

“ The profits of the culture would be great. An acre of locust-trees fifteen or twenty years old would be worth fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars. The expense of growing it, aside from the use of the land, would be trifling. The grove would afford a good place for fowls, while the blossoms would be nearly equal to white clover for honey. The limbs would make excellent wood, and the ground would need no planting for a second growth. Fortunate will be the men on the prairies of the West, and along the railroads and rivers of the land, who shall early plant fields of locust. ”

“ But so much depends upon the cow, that we can hardly write an article on her without giving those general principles that lie at the foundation of all improvement in cattle. The few suggestions that follow, if heeded, would be worth many times the value of this book to any farmer not already familiar with the facts. The cow affects all other stock in two ways; first, the form of calves, and consequently of grown cattle, is affected as much by the cow as by the bull. The quality and quantity of her milk, also, has a great influence upon the early growth of all neat stock. ”

“ Apply clay to such a soil, and it will increase its firmness and consequent capacity of retaining and appropriating moisture, and thus render it highly valuable. Dry straw manure is sometimes said to dry up land, and ruin crops. So of turf in a dry season. In a wet season they greatly increase the growth of crops. Now they contain just as much food for plants in one season as another. Hence a soil too easily impervious to the atmosphere, will be a poor soil, that is, will produce poorly, simply because it has no power to retain the necessary moisture. ”

“ Hence, the great secret of successful farming, is, such a mixture of the soils, and of fertilizers with the soil, as shall keep it friable and moist, and such thorough drainage as will prevent water from standing so as to become stagnant, and to unduly chill the roots of growing plants. Nature has provided, near at hand, all that is essential to productiveness ”

“ There are two varieties—they may be forms of growth, from peculiar habits of culture—one, short, with a large, stiff brush running up through the middle, with short branches to the top, called pine-top: it is of no value;—the other is a long, fine brush, the middle being no coarser than the outside. It should be planted with a seed-drill, to make the rows straight and narrow for the convenience of cultivation. Harrowing with a span of horses, with a V drag, one front tooth out, as soon as the corn is up, is beneficial to the crop. ”

“ That water, on undrained land, causes two evils; it stagnates and renders plants unhealthy, and it is too cool, rendering land what we call cold. Thus, the deeper you plow land, and the finer you make it, the [Pg 394] warmer it will be, and the more perfectly it will control moisture. Mixing soils by subsoiling, trenching, and deep plowing, and by carting on foreign substances, is wholly on this principle. Sand that drifts about with the wind is too light to retain moisture, and needs clay carted on. By this means the poorest white sand has often been converted into the most productive soil. ”

“ Plant gooseberries or currants, and mulch the whole ground between the bushes, and give them no other cultivation, and the berries will grow nearly twice as large as the same varieties standing neglected, to grow up to weeds, in the usual way. Mulching with clean, dry straw, or with charcoal, is a preventive of mildew. It is the easiest method of taking care of strawberries after they are in blossom; the vines will bear much more and finer fruit, and it will be clean and neat. Mulching vines is a great means of insuring a crop. Every crop that can be mulched will be greatly benefited by it ”

“ If you wish more for the sake of variety, your nurseryman will name them, and show the quality of each, that renders it "the best that ever was," until you will become tired of hearing, and more weary of paying for them. ”

“ Transplanting.—This is usually done in wet weather: if it be so wet as to render the soil muddy by stirring, it injures the plants. This may be successfully done in dry weather, not excessively hot. Have a basin of water, in which dip the root and shake it, so as to wash off all the earth from the seed-bed that adheres to it. Put the plant in its place at once, and the soil in which it is to grow takes hold of the roots readily, and nearly every one will live. ”

“ Pruning is the most important matter in the whole business of hedging. A hedge set out ever so well, and composed of the best variety of plants, if left in the weeds, without proper care in trimming, will be nearly useless. A well-trimmed hedge around a fruit-orchard will keep out all fruit-thieves. The great difficulty is the unwillingness of cultivators to cut off, so short and so frequently, the fine growth. ”

“ If you have room near your back door for one large hill of cucumbers, you may obtain a remarkable growth. Dig down deep enough to set in an old barrel, with head and bottom out, leaving the top even with the surface. Fill with manure from the stable, well trod down. In fine rich mould, around on the outside of the barrel, plant twenty or thirty cucumber-seeds. Put a pail of water in the barrel every day. The water comes up through the soil to the roots of the plants, bringing with it the stimulus of the manure, and the effect is wonderful. ”

“ One of the greatest errors of American farmers is their neglect to cultivate groves of trees for woodlands, in all suitable places. Our primeval forests have been wantonly destroyed, and the country is not yet old enough to feel the full force of neglecting to replenish them, by new groves, in suitable localities. On the points of hills, rough stony places, sides of steep hills, [Pg 438] ravines that can not be cultivated, and by the side of all the highways of the land, trees should be cultivated: in some places fruit-trees, but in most places forest-trees. ”

“ No one has ever found wild wheat in any country; it would be as strange as a wild cabbage or turnip. But the practical question is, How can wheat be most surely and profitably grown? The first requisite is a suit [Pg 424] able soil. A clay or limestone soil is usually considered best, as there is much lime in wheat-bran. Such soil is better than light sand, or some of the poorer loams. But the large yields of wheat on the Western prairies, and on the rich alluvial soils of California river-bottoms, shows that the best of wheat may grow on other than clay lands. ”

“ All vines do better in a sandy soil. Plant in the open air only after the weather has become quite warm. An effort to get early cucumbers by early out-door planting is usually a failure; seeds decay, or having come up, after a long while, they grow slowly, and vines and fruit are apt to be imperfect. Six feet apart, each way, is the best distance; and after the plants get out of the way of insects, and become well established, two vines in each hill is better than more: the fruit will be better and more abundant, and they will bear much longer than when vines are left to grow very thick. ”