Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-12-01

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of greedy buyers, willing to pay th
highest price. = Moore'S Rural Nel
Yorker.
WHAT Ans THE APPLE TREES ?-Tl
conversation some evenings since will
a practical and intelligent fruit grower
he mentioned the article with the abov
heading, recently copied into our Jour
nal, from the N. f. Farmer, and said
81 can tell you what ails them, they ar,
starved to death" He then went on
giving from his own long experience
and close observation, an account Of
orchards that must be, at least, seventy
years old. that are now healthy and
productive, while others are dead OF
dying, and yielding but very little fruit.
The former have been well manfred,
grated and pruned of all dead and de-
caying branches, but the latter have
been neglected, left to themselves, new
er MANFRED, and as a consequence are
of little or no value. He also referred
to instances where old orchards, that
had been going "down hill" for years,
had been completely renovated, and
brought into healthy and good bear
ing state, by the application of liberal
quantities of manure and by being
trimmed and nursed up. And in what
way can labor be better expended, or
return larger profit? We have in
mind an instance of this kind in this
county. A farmer who has upon his
farm an old orchard, that in years past
has been somewhat neglected. not yield
ing much, and having but little expend-
a1 g.,
stimulated no doubt by the high price
of fruit to give more attention to his
orchard--manuring it, cutting off dead
branches, removing superfuous limbs,
mulching, &C., &c, and he has the pre-
sent autumn, sold from off this orchard,
81 900 worth of fruit! A handsome sum,
truly, derived from a source requiring
less hard work than many other branch
es of farming, more of itself than the
proceeds of many entire farms, and
sufficient for the support of the farmers
family without aid from any other
source. Are there not in our State
many such orchards, now neglected and
decaying, that might, with but small
outlay comparatively, produce a profit
as large as the above? And will not the
owners of such orchards set about the
work of renovation at once?
HUsKING Corn IN THE FALL.-A great
deal of corn is lost every year by defer
ring the operation of husking until win
ter has set in, the shocks being small
and hurriedly made are not capable of
withstanding rain, and the ears getting
wet become damaged. If husking can
not be done in the fine weather of Oc-
tober or the beginning of November,
the shocks should be rebuilt, putting
four or five into one, packing the stalks
so closely and finishing the tops of the
shocks so sharply that rain cannot
penetrate to the ears. For large shocks
or stacks, straw will be found very SER
viceable. Some persons remove the
ears and store them without husking,
but this involves the necessity of hand
ling the ears twice instead of once and
makes extra labor.
When the corn is fit for huskiDg, the
sooner the operation is performed the
better, for the ears can be assorted, the
inferior being reserved for early use as
feed for hogs and cattle; the best to be
stored in the corn house or granery,
and the stocks properly secured for fod-
der. Ohio Farmer.
To MAKE PURE APPLE WINE. Take
good new cider, fresh from the press,
dissolve it in sixty pounds of common
brown sugar to each fifteen gallons of
wine, and let it settle. Then put this
fifteen gallons into clean barrel. and
fill the barrel up with clear cider, to
within two gallons of being full; leave
the bung out for forty-eight hours; then
put the bung in with a small vent. Let
the barrel stand a year-the wine is
then fit for use. 1t needs no racking.
The longer it stands, the better.
PRESERVING POTATOES. correspon-
dent of the Scientific American says he
tried the following method of keeping
potatoes for years with complete sue
cess, though in some instances the tu-
bers were diseased when taken out of
the ground: 'Dust over the floor of
the bin with lime, and put in about six
or seven inches deep of potatoes, and
dust with lime as before. Put in six or
seven inches of potatoes and lime again !;
repeat the operation till all are slowed
away. One bushel of lime will do forty
bushels of potatoes, though more will
not hurt them-the lime rather improv-
ing the flavor than otherwise"