The weekly Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1872-190?, 1873-05-31
FARM AND GARDEN.

LONGEVITY OF FARMERS. Accord
ing to the registration report of death
in Massachusetts, published now 70
above thirty years, and preserved will
moro accuracy and completeness thai
anywhere else in the country, the great
est longevity is found to obtain in ag
ricultural life. In the ten different oc
equations, as given in these reports, tn,
cultivators of the earth stand, as class
at the head, reaching on an average
the age of nearly sixty five years, while
that of the next class is only abou
fifty years; that of mechanics of all kind.
about forty-eight yesrs; and that o
shoemakers about forty-four years
Thus there is an advantage of ffteer
years on the side of farmers as compar
ed with merchants, as they reach ar
I average age but little short of threescort
years and ten allotted by the Psalmis
to human life.
AN EXCELLENT FERTILIZER.-As g
top-dressing for fruit trees, vines, grain
crops, or garden crops of any sort, on
ground that has been somewhat exhaus.
ted by cultivation, the preparation de-
scribed below will be found very useful
1t would improve the mixture, however,
to add to the ashes about peck Of
good, newly slackened lime, which
would bring the potash of the ashes to
caustic state, and enable it more
speedily to soften and dissolve the
bones which, when lime is thus used,
need not pc necessary in the absence
of the quicklime. With its use in this
way, and with suficiency of good un-
leached wood ashes, the bones, which
have been merely cracked up with the
hammer, may be easily softened.
Take one barrel of pure, finely
ground bone, and mix it with barrel
of good wood ashes during the mixing
add gradually about three pailfuls OF
water. The heap may be made upon
the floor of an out building, or upon
the barn floor; and, by the use of the
hoe, the bone and ashes must be thor
oughly blended together. The water
added is Just sufficient to iberate the
caustic alkalies, potash and soda; and
react upon the gelatine of the bone,
dissolving the little atoms, forming and
fitting it for the plant aliment. 1t
must be used in small quantities, or in
about the same way as the so-called
superphosphates. A barrel of this
mixture is worth any two of the COM
mercial fertilizers, and the cost will be
but about one half as much. If the
bone meal and ashes are very dry, four
pailfuls of water may be required, but
care must be exercised not to have it
inconveniently moist. 1t may be ready
for use in a week after it is made.
Pure, raw Underground bone and the
best of ashes should be employed
Journal Of Chemistry.
MATURING DETERMINATIONS often
sees an orchard with large heaps of
manure close around the body of the
trees, instead of being spread evenly
over the whole ground. This has been
aptly compared to placing feed in the
manger, and then hitching the horse
with the tail to tin other words,
placing the food where there is no
mouth to eat it.
The roots, or feeders, that collect
the trees food from the ground, are not
at the trunk, but are out in circle as
far as the ends of the limbs. These
small root, or feeders may be compared
to an army of small worms moving out
ward from that trunk, and penetrating
every inch of soil from the lowest roots
to the surface, and extracting every
particle of tree-food from the ground as
they go. AS long as these feeders can
extend outward few inches into rich
soil every year, the tree fourishes, but
when the supply of tree-food becomes
exhausted in any direction, the feeders
upon that side of the tree become FAM
ished, and the roots dependent upon
them Immediately begin to decay.
We often see tree thrifty on one
side, and the trunk and limbs dead on
other. The reason is plain that the
feeders on the decayed side have met
with some obstacle to their further pro-
gress in that direction, or that the tree
food has been exhausted within their
reach. In either case the result would
be the same. The roots and feeders
would be neglected and left to decay,
while the whole energy of the tree was
yet abundant. All the danger in ap-
plying manure to an orchard lies in
overlooking this peculiar principle in
the economy of vegetable life. If the
manure is placed outside of the circle of
feeders, they soon reach it, and all is
well but if it is placed inside, and
near the trunk, fatal revolution in the
economy of the root begins. Instead
of drawing support from the feeders
and roots outside of the manure, they
are neglected and left to decay; while
the whole energy of the tree is exerted
to throw out new set of feeders around
the trunk, to live on the manure. And
while the outside roots that held the
tree so firmly in the ground are rotting,
the manure gives to the tree, through
the new set of feeders, a vigorous
growth and fruitage for two, and per-
haps for three years, and the farmer is
satisfied that manuring around the trunk
of his trees has been success. But
disappointment is sure to follow, for