The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-02-21
Communicated.
=
4 Model Immigrant.

for eSthetlc HgTiCuituic "iiO ::
The place he pictured was healthy sPo! III
GOOD neighborhood, elevated IN POSITION
with extensive out-view; having post-oince'
markets. nayigable waters, and rallroaos'
convenient soil fertile and adapted 10
cranes. and must not exceed twenty acres
4 great farm he regarded as great eyli,
and would rather make the place on his
Town design than adopt one hall maze Oh
that of another.
he examined registers and read adver-
t;sements. and was besieged at hotels and
on steamboats, by land agents till he wished
for O body guard. But after several weeks
| research he had not succeeded in finding
place that combined all hisrequirements, and
he set out on his return north, taking
Richmond in his way, proposing to take the
first boat which should leave for New York.
But before he sailed, q common incident
led him on q stroll up the Osborne turn
nike. and he passed a place containing
twenty acres, opposite Tree Hill, which was
formerly part Of the background, but now
belonged to Franklin Stearns, who held it
for sale. 1t was bare of everything but
thin coat OF clover, two trees and hall
finished house; it had no fence, nor we'll,
spring, or streamlet.
And vet it took bis fancy and more
nearly represented the beau ideal he was
seeking for than any other he had seen.
He talked with the neighbors, observed the
productions of their farms and gardens, and
on scrutinizing the soil he found it to pos
sess those characteristics which distinguish
the soil of Los Angeles for fertility, and
produce such miracles of grapes and pears
in California.
Ina short interview with the proprietor
| be signed contract of purchase at some
thing over hundred and sixty dollars an
| acre, and few days thereafter paid in full
| and took deed of the property. In few
| weeks the house became a comfortable
dwelling, with q well Of water at the door,
and servants quarters, barn, stabling, and
domestic Offices, sprung up without appa-
rent effort. :.
| After initiating plan of drainage, his
| first field operation was the surrounding the
place with an osage-thorn hedge, which was
we'll set in friable soil, with dressing OF
bone dust, and by the time his plants are
in bearing it will be On efficient protec-
ton, and cannot we'll be toted away for
| fre-wood. The next was the preparation
of the soil for pear orchard, and he
adopted 4 method which exposes the
greatest bulk of sub-soil to the alternate
frosts and thaws of winter. TO this end it
underwent a rough ridging with the plough,
after which thousand excavations were
dug ut twelve feet distance, in quincunx
order, out of each of which cubic yard Of
sub-soil was lifted, and left to lie through
the winter in conical heaps on the surface.
After few weeks frosts, sufficient of the
adjacent surface-soil was taken for filling
the holes half full, and on this the tree was
planted, and it's roots covered in with more
surfaces with which was incorporated
about pound of bone dust. The observer,
tracing this operation, will perceive that
not less than sixty cubic feet of sub-soll
round and under every tree have been dis
placed and exposed to the weather-viz.,
tgenty-seyen feet of excavation, about as
much also underlying the surface-soil which
has been used for reflling, that would be
frozen say six inches in depth and, in adj
dition, the sides and bottom of the hole.
| This sub-soil, 80 densely packed, IS
impervious to the delicate organs OF the
pear and the vine, but exposed to the action
of the elements for time it is converted into
fertile soil it becomes disintegrated by ex-
pansion, and the nutritious elements it con-
tains, which are iron, potash, and sulphates,
are now soluble, and easily appropriated
by the food-seekers in such proportions as
the instincts of the tree demand.
A vineyard was next in order, and sufi-
cient land-say six Or seven acres-was
prepared on the same principle az for the
pears--not emitting the bone dust-but
being planted four times as thick on the
ground; the holes to receive them we're of
course smaller.
. The vines were two-year old Concords,
and planted at six feet distance, which
seems too close for standard or trellised
vines, and for dwarfs needessly sparse !;
but if IN error becomes apparent, it is
easily corrected in the first case by taking
up each alternate row in the second by
planting between every two vines in one d.
rection third. Acclimated plants were
procured from the nurseries of Allan u
Johnson and F. Davis & Co., and are the
best of their kind; and both pears and
grapes have been started on their growth
in soil specially favorable to fruit, under
all the advantages that skill, industry, and
ample means, can supply and though all
the labor was manual except that Of the
first ploughing, the cost has been no more
than the winter wages of two unskilled
hands for an aggregate of three months.
We see, then, that about half the twenty
acres is already planted, and with crops
that need no renewal in lifetime; and
there is no further labor nor expense re-
quired but to extend the sub-soiling opera
| ton by the same means and amount every
year till the whole has been Transformed
which will be in the fourth year-and to
watch the growth of the trees till they yield
such remuneration that the cost of skilled
| labor to dress them will be but an insignif-
cant per centage on the amount.
| Whether the proprietor will continue his
operations this winter till the whole is
planted-as man of his energy may very
easily door defer the remainder to next
season is not yet apparent; but for the
purposes OF this notice it is assumed that
he will complete the whole, and extend his
pear orchard to fifteen hundred trees, or
| five acres, and bis vines to fifteen thousand,
or thirteen acres, at once and for the same
| purpose that the vines will be all Concorde,
though the market value of that fruit is not
| more than half that of the varieties with
which he will probably plant the remain
der.
We have, then, before US the data for q de-
finite estimate of results, and in venturing
upon this ground We are sure our excellent
neighbor will excuse US, since he sees that
it is not prompted by obtrusive curiosity,
but by desire that the thousands OF others
who are engaging in similar enterprise