Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-12-02
= November Talk.


Here is a chapter of good practical instruction.
| from Mr.. A ]. DOWNING, which, although little
late is not out of season in this latitude and will be
read with profit by every who has a farm or an
orchard or garden under his care
When the month of Novmber ONES, it is worth
while to look about little, and how you stand
in the garden and orchard You must be miracle
of experiences if you have not failed in crop or
other, if some tree plant has not bafied your
wits. Well this being the case, now is the time to
look about and resolve either that you will succeed
better next year, or that you Will abandon that crop
altogether.
So go into your kitchen garden. If your soil is
DOOR or worn out and full of insects, this is the
very time of all others to doctor it, and here is my
prescription, which | have proved and over
again Clear off the plot of ground to be renovated
and cover it with good dressing of fresh stable
nlge with the litter IN it. Begin at one side Of the
plot and throw up The soil into ridges, digging it
about eighteen inches deep, and mixing the manure
through the soil as you dig. Here let it lie all win
ter The atmosphere and the frost will have
grand chance to do their best in lettering the quail
ity of the soil ITSELF and the of the manure
Will not only be all taken up by the soil, but its
coarseness will be broken down by the spring so
that your plot will be in the best possible order for
vegetables when the swallow comes
If you are troubled with grubs and insects in the
ground and you must be something more than 'big
bug" yourself, if you are not) then you must also
treat it with dose of salt. Scatter any refuse
coarse cheap salt over the earth, before you begin
to ridge it up at the of bushel to the eighth
part of an acre-or eight bushels to the acre Put
on this season; it will do harm to anything veget
able, and will thoroughly rid you Of these enter
prisng little gentry, that crawl out Of the ground
in May and June, and quietly play Guy Fawkes to
the roots and stems of the tenderest things that
the pot bOs. Besides, leaving out of sight the yir
tue of salt as manure, it helps all dry soils amazing
y giving them greater attraction for moisture, and
greater power to hold it in dry weather; and that
is no mean thing for crop that gets thirsty in MIDI
summer.
In the review of your forces of this season, be-
fore they 90 into winter quarters it is to one
but you will find staring you in the face-possiby
not ten PAGES from your doOr-steps-some excellent
old friends, whose acquaintance you begin to be
ashamed of, and sorely tempted to cut at once. |
mean some good old fruit trees still sound and heal
thy, but utterly refusing for years past to bear any
good fruit Possibly they are Virgalieu, or Butter
pears, Pippin, Pearmain apples, whose good name
is thing handed down to you by your ancestors;
and you are therefore not little sorry to cut them
Don't do it. Let US have a little talk over these
trees.
Did they ever bear good fruit in this soil Bless
you yes; such fair golden SKINS and luscious melt
ing flesh as / seldom see nowadays" How long
ago is it that they have stopped bearing such fruit
Say a dozen fifteen years" What have you
done for them? g Not much-scraped tile bark
washed 1t with sOapsuds-spread little compost
the garden, you know in good, rich soil so of
course, they could not want for manure"
This is what my friend says; but don't believe
a word of i'll mean of the last part, that they
don't want for manure" If were HoOsier"
or Buckeye" should say they don't want "any-
thing else" Have they not the same atmosphere to
breathe, the rain TO drink, the climate TO
enjoy. as when they bore the fine crops of fruit
which you lament? What has changed? Nothing
absolutely nothIng-but the soil
Need | % farther establish this9 | hone
not. But the soil is pitiably Od-run out past
the power alone Of stable manure to bring it up
again. 1t is run out as the chemists say, in - lime
and the phosphates" But it can be renovated, Just
as surely as there is manure, lime, and the phos-
pilates to be had; and you may set about it now, if
you please for this is the best time in The world to
begin.
Row, to do this well and thoroughly, will cost
from two to three dollars a tree, labor and all in
cluded An old officer of this sort, that has been off
duty and on halfpay for ten fifteen years, can't
be brought into active service again without
squaring up old accounts somewhat; and you must
make up your mind to this, else have no farther
fruits from old veterans.
Surprising we commenced with a middle-aged
pear apple tree, with sound constitution, which
has been sulking for sometime last on half pay.
Now, it is all very well to say that this tree don't
want animal manure. Its roots have been in the
same place for twenty-five thirty years, with
only little sprinkling of something stimulating
the tops of the soil, which the grass, indeed,
has pretty much TO itself, or slight yearly dressing
of compost, Gf it has stood in the garden which the
vegetables have deVoured. Look at its little short
jointed shoots and unthrifty growth and you viii
that first of all, it wants manure.
Very well. Now clear away everything in the
shape of trees, shrubs bushes, vegetables of any
kind that stand within fifteen feet of the trunk of
this tree Next, bring good two horse wagon load
of fresh stable manure, and trench it under
deeply the roots will let you, and particularly
beyond where the roots extend 1t is as foolish TO
put manure within five or six feet of the trunk of
tree, it would be to pour drink the back Of
thirsty man. At the Gerry outside the roots trench
the soil TWO feet deep, and mix the with it,
leaving it rough and loose for the winter; for 1t is
there-at this outside limit-that the roots will
get good living again. But this is not the whole
which is to be DONE Remember that lime and
the phosphates must be supplied for it is above all
these that the old soils grow poor in. 1t would not
do TO put them in with the fresh manure since they
would not agree well together but would go to de-
composing one another, instead of making success
sion of good dinners for the feeders"-that is to
say, the little fbres of the roots
But next spring early as the soil IS dry, you
must apply to each large tree, MANFRED in the fall
two bushels of ashes and peck of plaster of gypsum
and If it be pear tree, half bushel of bone dust
If it be an apple tree You must substitute peck OF
airslacked lime for the plaster. Spread this evenly
over the soil that was dug and maLured last Autumn
and mix it through the whole with a stout, three
pronged fork This will bring the soil to good
COnulllOH AGAIN anu the OlQ tree Will speeuHy
commence making new roots, setting new fruit buds
and the next season begin to bear fine fruit again.
And this do not give from theory, but from actual
trial, under the most favorable circumstances.
do not tell you TO prune your trees, because
very much doubt the wisdom of it the first year. |
would only see that the bark is clean and smooth
and give it little more soft soap if necessary, in
that quarter. After the tree has begun to exhibit
signs Of feeling the full pay you have given it-say
twenty months hence-then you may, If needed,
prune it moderately. When, indeed the tree IS part
ly decayed or broken, full of tangled and cross
limbs, would be little severe with it at first.
This Is the season when shrewd old digger should
go over his peach and plum trees scrape away the
earth about the bottom of the trunks, and look for
the little rascal, the peach worm. If he IS there,
expecting that 'there is good time coming" now
that he is in such comfortable winter quarters you
will know it by the gum by which the tree always
shows to its natural protector the presence OF us
enemy.
Wherever you see this gum, take your knife,
open the bark and take out the vile grub. If he
stays there a few months longer, he will completely
circumnayigate the trunk; and, after he has gone
round the world in this manner, there are no more
peaches for you. 1t is matter of five minutes to
tree; and if you grudge that pains for rareripes,
the grub win take five months at it, and get the better
of you.
If you are planting fruit trees, don't be so foolsh
as to set tender trees" such apricots, nectar
ines, and so forth in warm, sunny places, on the
south side of walls fences. and gardens Such are,
depend on it. the very spots to kill them-bet"een
the extra heat of midsummer, and the constant
freezing and thawing of the trunk in winter. You
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