Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1873-05-15
Farm, Garden and Household.
How NV Friend Got His Orchard.

oouc lOuIGccu years, dul WOulu uOe
write it but I think it may suggest the
means of procuring trees, to those who
are now unable (or think themselves SOY
to buy of the nurserymen trees old
enough to set in the orchard. Ny friend
was poor. He began life without means,
and marrying at the age of %, he had
nothing but his head and hands on
which to rely for a living. He taught
the district school winters, and did such
farm labor as was wanted in the neigh
borhood during the remainder OF the
year. His wife had inherited small
home-a comfortable house-and some
farmland adjoining, but there was no
orchard, and the door-yard was desti-
tute of trees. Ornamental trees were
wanted, but the orchard was the first
and important object to be attained
but how? Their small earnings left no
surplus, after paying current expenses,
that could be spared for anything but
pressing present necessities. The agents
of the nurseries frequently called, but
uniformly received the reply, owe
want your trees, but we cannot pay for
them. Finally it CHANGED that an agent
more anterprising than had previously
called, offered to take my friends watch
for anything he had to sell. Here was
a chance to get trees, but the watch was
a poor affair, worth but $40, and would
pay for but few trees of the age and size
usually sold by nurserymen. The diff
Guilty was solved by my friend deciding
to take nursery stock-seedlings that
had been grated but never set in the
nursery, at 81 per 100. He made his
own selections for his thousand trees,
and on receipt of them planted in nur-
sery form. They grew finely, not more
than five per cent. dying. At two years
old he transplanted 300 to the orchard.
The remainder were cared for, and at
three years old were offered for sale to
his neighbors, he only reserving enough
to make good the losses in the orchard.
The sales from the little nursery ran
through some three years and amounted
to $65. Now after IA years we will look
at some of the results. Ny friend now
has an orchard of 800 trees that is now
admitted by all to be the best of its age
and size in this part of the country.
The sixth year after the receipt of the
trees the orchard began to bear, and
one Baldwin had two bushels Of apples.
Since that time there has each year been
good supply for family use. Twoyears
ago the orchard yielded surplus above
the necessities of my friends family
which, by the way, is not small, there
being now five children in the brood
that was sold for $50. There has been
sold from last years yield $25 worth of
apples, and there now remains an equal
amount unsold. And all from the old
watch, worth only $40. My friends
wife says I must say the first silver for
her table was paid for from the first sale
from the orchard.
PIoughing.
The question of deep versus shallow
ploughing is receiving new notice of
late, the shallow ploughing theorists
perhaps itshould he said also exemplars
seeming to be gaining new acccssions.
But in all that has been said and writ
ten, and in all the practical testimony
adduced, we have seen no reason to dis
trust or abandon what experience has
taught us to be the true practice in
ploughing, to wit:
l. Deep ploughing is useless on light,
porous soils, unless there is stifftr
sub-soil with which the surface soil may
be intcrmixed to produce profitable me-
chanical effect.
2. Except in the case where it is de-
sirable to mix stiff subsoil with light
surface soil, trench plough should
never be used in deep ploughing.
3. 1t is a positive gain to all stiff,
tenacious soils to plough shallow in fall
and follow with subsoil plough, lift
ing but not inverting the earth as deep
as may be and on land intended for
corn or potatoes, where stiff clay soils
are cultivated, this subsoiling may be
done profitably in spring.
4. We do not recommend deep trench
ploughing (that is, inverting the soiD
in spring, under any circumstances. If
this is done at all, it should always be
done in the fall. Nor do we recommend
using plough in preparing the seed
bed in spring for grain as a rule a
two. horse steel-tooth cultivator is far
better, because it pulverizes and COM
minutes the earth more throughly.
narrowing Wheat and Grass.
The Elmira Farmers Club, composed
of good farmers, decided at a recent
meeting that wheat is greatly benefited
by being narrowed in the spring when
the ground is neither wet nor dry.
Where put in with drill, the ridges
will be leveled and some of the plants
will be destroyed, but enough more will
appear to make the work highly profit
able. Grass is especially benefited by
narrowing, though manure should be
added. One member stated that piece
which did not produce 500 lbs. of hay
to the acre, being sowed to clover and
timothy and narrowed in, produced a
good crop. The narrowing has the eff
feet of hoeing, and old seed long dor
mant for want of proper seed-bed
terminates. and good stand is secured.
The Club agreed that in seeding land
the best results are obtained on ground
in oats, and that barley and buckwheat
are both unfavorable.
Mice Girdling Trees.
P. F. B., Railway, N. j., has young
apple trees that have been badly gnaw-
ed by mice, and asks how he shall treat
them. He should cut branches of green
wood from the tree, of length requir-
ed to connect the bark above and below
the gnawed space, sharpen them at each