It undoubtedly makes much difference in the manner clover-hay is made, as it never should be spread, and remain so, until thoroughly dried, but wilted and cured in the cock; and when put into the mow, a little salt applied will tend to keep it in a state in which the dust will adhere to it, and not rise when fed, which I think is the greatest cause of injury.

I am of the opinion that too much hay, of any kind, is not so good for a horse as a smaller quantity of hay, and the balance of nourishment, to keep the horse in condition, in oats. A hearty horse will eat from 25 to 35 pounds of hay in 24 hours; and to keep him in condition to work, 12 or 16 quarts of oats must be added. One-third of that amount in hay, and the worth of the other two-thirds of hay added to the oats, will fit a horse much better for labor, endurance and activity; and a horse fed in that manner, is seldom troubled with the heaves.

Potatoes. The two best kinds of potatoes I have ever raised in this section, are the early June (a round, white potato) for summer use, and the long, flat, white Pink-eye for winter. The black Pink eye is nearly equal to the white, and I think not quite so liable to rot. The blight or rot in the potato, the past season, in this section, has been hardly perceived. I have not seen in my crop a diseased potato, when for three or four years previous I hardly saw a sound one. It has been a vexed question to the farmer; and if, as some have thought, the blight proceeds from an insect, did not the severe cold winter of 1851-'52 have something to do with the favorable change in the crop? Mercury fell to 12 or 13° below zero here. All kinds of insects which infest plants were almost extinct in this section the past season, such as turnip fly, striped bug, the large black beetle-bug, grasshopper, &c., &c.

Yours, respectfully,

L. RISLEY.

FREDONIA, CHAUTAUQUE Co., NEW YORK,

January 1, 1853.

DEAR SIR: The culture of fruit in western New York is fast gaining ground, particularly so far as quality is concerned; as for profit, the fruit crop is one of the first, taking the cost into consideration. Many farmers and amateurs are setting young orchards; and most persons in this vicinity are learning better than to go to a neighbor's orchard and dig up sprouts to form an orchard, or to run here and there to get scions of nameless kinds of fruit. I can best illustrate my meaning by stating my own experience in establishing a small fruit orchard. About twenty years ago I commenced to plant an orchard; and intending to have a choice collection, I got most of the trees and grafted them myself, so that I might know that all was right.

Having no regular nursery near, I spent much time to pick up scions for a good collection. My neighbors were all very kind, and gave me scions of their choicest fruit, calling them by names they had dubbed them with themselves, such as "Queen Ann," "Victoria," "Ninepounders,""Signifieders," and all sorts of large-sounding names, known to nobody but themselves. Well, I grafted about sixty trees with about

thirty of the choice varieties, and labelled their names, and sat down to wait for the bearing. Four years came round, rather slow in that time of my life; but nevertheless it did come round, and the fruit too, when I was not a little disappointed to find nine or ten trees of one kind, and nine or ten of another, and so on, until the varieties were reduced to a few kinds, and a good share of those quite common. I marked the trees and commenced the next spring to saw off and graft over. The next time, to be sure, I purchased the scions of a pedler, who had a few more of his very choice kinds than he had promised to Judge Somebody and General Sucha-one. I put in the scions, and again satisfied my patience with a foretaste of fine fruit in anticipation. Four or five years more passed; and when they again bore fruit, I found that I had not changed half of my trees, but had again put in the identical kinds that I had cut off. The pedler had cut his scions where most convenient, and gave names that answered well until they bore fruit.

The third time, after losing ten or twelve years, I applied to a nursery man of reputation, who sold trees and scions true to the mark, and I am now just beginning to reap the benefit. Pomological conventions and societies are doing much to sift out the best varieties of fruit, and persons selecting fruit from the kinds they denominate first-rate will not be disappointed.

From the varieties of winter fruit I have in bearing, I should select as the best the Northern Spy, Swan, Rhode Island Greening, Hubardson None-such, Westfield Seek-no-further, Monmouth or Red cheek Pippin, and Vandevere.

Very respectfully, yours,

To the COMMISSIONER OF Patents.

L. RISLEY.

SIR: The culture of fruit is receiving increased attention in all this region, particularly in the counties bordering the shore of Lake Ontario. This region is very well adapted to the culture of fruit, on account of its proximity to the lake, whose waters becoming heated during the summer, modify the severity of the autumnal frosts, and thus prolong the season for the ripening of our fall and winter fruits; and, on the other hand, the cold north March and April winds retard the opening of the blossoms of our fruit trees until past the period of spring frosts; thereby rendering the climate congenial to the propagation of those fruits culti vated in the Northern States. Among the fruits cultivated here are apples, pears, peaches, quinces, apricots, and nectarines; and of the small fruits are, plums, cherries, grapes, gooseberries, currants, and strawberries. Apples are, however, the principal fruit depended upon for sale and exportation. Large quantities are annually sent to the seaboard towns, Canada, and the Western States. Buyers are always sure of finding a surplus here when the crop fails East or West, or in the interior of the State, as it frequently does; while here it may be considered a sure crop. I believe there has not been a total failure here for the last twenty-five years; but we have had a supply for our domestic wants.

are,

and more or less to spare. The varieties best to keep for winter use are, the Esopus, Spitzenberg, and Rhode Island Greening, which latter is a fall fruit in the Southwestern States, but is peculiarly adapted to this locality-always fair, and an almost constant bearer, ripening some ten or fifteen days later than in Western New York, and keeping from January to April or May, and in some instances still later; the Westfield Seekno-further, Holland Pippin, and Swaar. The later keeping varieties. the Baldwin, Roxbury Russett, and Northern Spy. All of the above are among our best varieties for exportation. The Newtown Pippin has not been sufficiently tested with us to enable us to speak of its success with confidence; it is hoped, however, that it will succeed upon our sandy loam soils. The pear has not received that attention with us heretofore which it deserves, as a profitable fruit for cultivation. I know of no investment of money, in an agricultural point of view, that bids fairer to be profitable than the planting of pear orchards, consisting of the best market varieties of that fine fruit. One hundred and eight trees, 20 feet apart, can be set out on an acre, which, when fully grown-suppose them to bring half the present price-would amount to tenfold more than any crop of grain, grass, or roots, which we can now cultivate upon the same quantity of land. The blight in the pear tree, which has proved so destructive in many regions, has probably deterred many from going into the cultivation extensively. We have not suffered very much from it here. In addition to the old remedy of cutting off the limb below the part apparently affected, some cultivators here have placed leached woodashes around the base of the tree, to the amount of one bushel to a largesized tree, and in like proportion for smaller trees, with apparent good success. I have tried the same remedy, with an addition of a small quantity of iron filings or blacksmith's forge cinders, and have not had my trees affected with the blight, "leaf or limb." Whether those remedies have been a preventive or not, I cannot say. There has been a little of the blight upon the apple tree and upon the quince here, killing the ends of the branches affected and withering the fruit upon the affected part, but producing no very serious injury.

To your inquiry, "Cannot apples enough be grown on an acre to renden the crop a very profitable one to the farmer?" I would say that next to the cultivation of the pear, would be the cultivation of the apple, on the score of profit.

Possessing, as we do, a somewhat barren, at least an inferior soil, when compared with the best wheat lands of Western New York, and the rich prairie bottoms of the western States, and although a calcareous soil is considered the best for the cultivation of the apple, yet we have one next to it in goodness in that respect-a gravelly, stony, and sandy loam; and together with the climate, as before stated, I think we can successfully compete with most any other region in that department. I would not recommend the course too often pursued by the early settlers of a country, or those planting the first orchards on their farms. I mean the setting of trees one rod apart, or 20 or 25 feet apart, and these of uncultivated or common fruit, and the rows running in zigzag directions. Orchards answering the above description can be seen by a few miles' ride in almost any direction in the country. Their owners undoubtedly were anx ious to get fruit a growing, and sought such trees as were the most easily obtained, which were usually seedlings, on which they probably intended

to graft some good varieties; but for want of knowledge how to perform the operation, means to hire it done, being too busily engaged in some other needed improvement upon the farm, or for some other reason, they have been neglected until too large, or too old. To remunerate the expense of working them, they are suffered to remain cumberers of the ground, and eclipsing the same, so that nothing can be cultivated under them, bearing occasionally a small crop of little scurfy apples, covered with a crust of fungi, and so small as hardly to be worth the gathering, provided the limbs were thinned out sufficiently for one to mount the tree to shake them off, for they certainly would not be worth the picking.

In setting an orchard I would select thrifty and, at the same time, hardy varieties, grafted on budded trees of four or five years' growth, and from seven to ten feet in height. I should prefer them worked near the ground on seedling stocks, on the crown of the same, instead of root grafts, as they are usually furnished with a greater number of lateral roots, and are more stocky. I would set them out after the quincunx method, two rods apart, by commencing a row on one side of the field-say one rod from the side or fence-and set them just two rods distant from each other by means of a two-rod chain or pole; commence the next row by setting the first tree two rods distant from the first two trees in the firs row, thus forming an equilateral triangle; the next tree two rods distant from the first, and two rods from the second and third tree in the first row, thus making each tree two rods distant from its nearest neighbor. By this method 45 trees can be set on an acre-12 per cent. more than can be set on an acre when placed in a square form two rods apart, and the trees more equally distributed, and sufficiently far apart as not to prevent using the field for other agricultural purposes, such as raising crops of grain, roots, and hay. It is highly important that the land should be under a high state of cultivation; if it is not so, the holes for setting the trees should be dug larger than the extent of the longest lateral roots when spread out so that there may be a space between the ends of the roots and the undug soil, to be filled with rich garden mould, or, for want of that, a portion of well-rotted manure or compost, half a bushel per tree, well mixed with the soil to fill up the hole; but it would not be best to have the manure come in immediate contact with the roots. It is highly important that the trees should have higher cultivation in the orchard than they receive in the nursery, in order to attain a size to bear a crop of apples as soon as may be. To this end, it would be best to keep the field under the plough, and to raise hoed crops for the first few years at least, using a good supply of manures. With such cultivation and a common blessing, it may not be extravagant to estimate the crop of fruit at the end of 16 or 20 years to average eight bushels of fruit per tree, or 360 bushels per acre, and worth, if of the best leading varieties, 25 cents per bushel; making the crop worth $90 per acre, besides a remunerating crop of grain, grass, or roots, on the same, and the field having paid a fair per-centage on its valuation and outlay in crops and fruit up to this time. I know of many orchards that yield a larger revenue than that, where the fruit is of the long-keeping varieties. I planted an orchard fourteen years ago last spring, of very indifferent seedling trees, and on soil not of the best quality for fruit-growing. They received but little attention except being trimmed for the first ten years. The trees of the best and longest

keeping variety, in the 13th year after they were transplanted, averaged an income of $3 50 per tree. I expect the crop of last year to pay as well. I know of several isolated full-grown apple trees that yield an annual income of from $16 to $20 per tree.

I am of the opinion that we cannot raise cheaper food than apples for the fattening of swine, horses, and cattle-particularly the former. It has been found, by analysis, that the apple contains as much nutritious matter, weight for weight, as the potato; and certain varieties of sweet apples, I think, contain as much per bushel as the potato, if not more. It also saves the expense of cooking, as the potato would be of little value without the cooking. It is idle to think of making pork from potatoes on the score of profit, as long as they are affected by the rot, (with the exception of those too small for table use, and those partially affected with the disease,) as the average price for the last few years has been about 50 cents per bushel, while the pork they would make would probably not bring half that sum.

I would recommend the planting of the following varieties of sweet apples for the purpose of feeding stock, viz: Early Sweet Bough, Golden Sweet, Brown Sweet, Russeting, and Talman Sweeting. They are, all of them, great bearers, and all come into bearing early-the Bough commencing to ripen in July, and is succeeded by the others in rotation, affording a supply of food for nine or ten months of the year. It is highly probable that the same acre of land could not be made to produce so much food of any other description as the before-mentioned apples, while the same ground can be cultivated to corn, or other grain, potatoes or other roots, if desired. Besides the fattening of swine, they are good to feed to store hogs, excellent to recruit horses, and when fed in regular and not too large quantities to milch cows, it increases their quantity of milk. It is often the pride and boast of the farmer that he belongs to the most independent class in society; that he can raise almost all that he wants to eat, drink, or wear; that he is not as dependent on others as others are upon him; which is probably true, to a very considerable extent. Hence we see farmers generally pursuing a diversified businesssomething at the dairy business, something at wheat and other graingrowing, fruit-growing, &c.; whether their particular farms, locality, or climate are adapted to the particular business or not, or whether it is a remunerating crop. It may be a question of political economy whether that sort of independence, or system, had better be pursued. For instance, suppose wheat, with us, is a crop that does not pay the expense of growing, while fruit is a sure and remunerating article of production; would it not be better to supply a more favorable wheat producing region of the West, and not well adapted to fruit-growing, with our fruit, and receive their wheat in exchange? Each look to the other for a market for its surplus articles, while the facilities for a quick and cheap transit are constantly increasing, by the improvement of natural water-courses and the multiplication of railroads.

Respectfully, yours,

A. H. BARTON.

To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS.