The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-30
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FARM AND GARDEN.
Tobacco Culture.

in texture and so saleable In the mar.
kets of EuropeP And why do not the
old lands OF Ohio yield their equal2
The only answer that can be given to
the first question is, that they are quail
fed to do 30 by nature-an answer
which merely makes our ignorance ap-
parent. From the old lands this capa-
city has departed forever.-And no hu-
man agency can rehabllitate them. It
| is like lost innocence ; only the hand of
the Architect of all can restore it. But
we can approximate its restoration by
proper usage.
Let me suggest ssome facts which
observant farmers, have, no doubt,
noticed in their experience. Old fence
rows, which have been standing ten or
fifteen years and grown over by thicket
vines and bramble, will, when the
fence and covering are removed, pro-
duce an article of tobacco but little in
| ferior to that of new lands. Fields long
remaining in weeds and underground,
| and kept free of stock, will also, when
cleared off, yield tobacco nearly equal
| to the product OF new lands. Now let
the farmer profit by these facts-be in
struoted by nature-and- so arrange his
farm that the one.twentieth of it shall
be in this state for each years crop of
| tocacco. a farm may be so laid of
! with but little or no inconvenience to
the farmer, and the superiority of the
Before the field 10 set apart for rest.
plow it deeply as we directed in our
second article. Spread on 1t good crop
of manure, in the first dark of the moon
| occurring in the month of March. Let
everything grow on it that will. Do
not cut anything that starts 10 grow on
it; but elders they should be kept
down as they aid but little in the pro-
| cess of restoration and are troublesome
| to remove after a few years growth
Be sure to let the thistle, mullen docks
raG-weed bushes, &C., grow to their
full satisfaction. In fact it will pay
the farmer we'll to gather the seed of
the thistle, mullen, rag-weed and COM
| mon sour-dock and SOW them broad
cast on the field. These plants restore
the ability to Ohio lands TO produce ex-
cellent fine tobacco, faster and more
permanently than the best compost.
We know that some Will sheer at our
last suggestion, but it will be only the
contempt of self. conceit; for we do
know, and every one who has paid the
attention he should to the replenishing
OF wasted lands, does know that what
we have asserted is true. We have
known many farmers to Craze a field
constantly for eight or ten years. which
they intended to put in-tobacco, Plant
IL, get poor crop and then lament the
failure. Presuming gentlemen indeed
You should know that no lands can be
uninterruptedly pastured and still grow
rich. They will not do it. They must
have vegetation to grow up and fall
down on them, with the renOvating in
fuence ofits shade to make them fertile.
And these conditions are indispensable
to the production of good tobacco on
Ohio lands.
Lands selected TO be pat In tobacco,
blowing, ample mapuriug, and then
hands off and no interferences. And
farmers, you will be astonished how
soon and how we'll nature, left to itself,
| will redeem your fields and give you
good crops. You are generally too OIL :
cious with your lands-meddle with
them unwisely and unnecessarily. You
put on your manures and composts and
| then, farming after an antediluvian
method, have no returns, cry out poor
lands and deride book learning as n
huhbug. You are the humbugs, and
the ones wise above learning. Learn
to unlearn what you have learned
| amiss," and you are ut the spring place
| of progress and reform. Stick to your
| old ideas; tic your cattle's tails to the
| beam of the plough; scratch your lands;
put in immense fields, taken from the
burning action of the sun, unaIded by
the agencies within your knowledge;
and never rested as nature has taught
YOU to rest them; and as result have
scant crops. lean barns and bone-ex.
hipiting farm animals. Ii you rest
lands, rest them. Do not say you have
rested them when you have planted
them all the time or have them perpot
| ually in some sort OF crop. ..
| Pruning PLE-TREEs.-Much has
| been said and written by orChardists In
regard to the best months for pruning
| fruit-trees. Some recommend doing II
lust as the frost is leaving the ground,
Eand before the buds burst: some while
to hi l.
contend that Fall Is decidedly prefera.
BILE. From more than twenty years
observation have become fully sntis-
fed that no season. of the year is so OBJ.
jectionable as the Spring, when the
buds are expanding, and the sap thin
and in full flow. The sap is quite iDju.
.rious as 1t oozes out and causes the
wound to assume dark, unhealthy
appearance, which is sure omen oil
| decay.
| Every season has its advantages as
we'll as disadvantages but none is pre-
ferable, in my opinion, to Summer,
when the days are the longest. The sap
then is not so thin and watery as in the
Spring, and consequently less liable to
flow out, and wounds heal much more
rapidly. am of the opinion that very
light pruning is much preferable to
heavy for the health of the tree; and
even none at all l should prefer, rather
| IMAM 10 XIII trees ny luCHeSS dS SOule OO
by heavy pruning. But, let pruning be
done when 1t may, 1 think much benefit
is derived from applying a coating OF
| cement to the wound to exclude the air
/ and prevent its cracking. Ht3-
| NV grandfather told me, when he was
| alive, he had tried various kinds, and
| found nothing more economical than TO
melt four pounds OF rosin in one pint
| OF linseed-oil, and apply warm with an
old moderately stiff paint-brush. l
shall be very happy to hear from others
on this subject. -r-- - D.. ss
GRAFTING.-Those persons who are
intending to engraft trees with new
fruit must attend to their scions, and
see that they are kept continually
moist. Many a man is disappointed,
Ion looking at his scions, to lind that
they have been removed from the spot
| where he placed them, and that they be-
come as dry as husks, and are entirely
unfit for setting.
1t is we'll to set them early. Do not
cut away single branch from the
tree excepting the one the scion is set
in. Leave all the others until about
the middle ofJune, then take out about
one-third of what must eventually
come away. In October. after the
leaves have fallen, take away another
third; and in the following June take
the remainder. In this way the growth
of the tree is not suddenly arrested,
and is able to go on with nearly its full
powers. Cutting off the old branches
at these stated times prevents the sap
from ooZing out and destroying the
tree. We have seen some of the finest
trees that ever stood in the ground
ruined by taking off most of their
branches at the time of grating them.
Nearly every place cut bled; and now,
hn