Chapter IX: Part 9

It only remains to consider the principles on which manure acts upon soils, and produces growth in plants. The action of manure on the soil, by which it is enabled to retain and appropriate moisture, constitutes its main, if not its whole benefit. It may afford a stimulus to the roots of plants. Even the specific manures, that are supposed to supply organic matter to particular plants, may impart their benefits by their action upon the air and water. Facts are certainly at hand to show that the great and leading benefits of manures are in their control of moisture, and where that control is not needed, plants get a great growth on what we call poor soil. No manures, either fossil or putrescent, afford any considerable food for plants. Vegetation receives its growth mainly from water and from the atmosphere. Facts in support of this theory are abundant.

A trial was made to ascertain whence comes the matter of which a tree is composed. A quantity of kiln-dried earth was weighed and then put into a tight vessel. A willow shrub was also weighed and planted in that earth, and the vessel covered with perforated tin to keep out the dust; for a year and a half it was supplied only with pure water. The tree was then taken out, and found, by weight, to have gained one hundred and sixty pounds. The earth was then kiln-dried, as before, and weighed, and its weight was found to be only two ounces less than it was a year and a half before, when it was deposited there. The tree, then, must have received its growth, not from the soil, but from the water or the atmosphere, or both.

Another fact: take a load of manure, dry it thoroughly, and weigh it. Then moisten it and apply it to the soil, and it will increase the weight of vegetation from ten to thirty or forty times its own weight when dry, and yet most of that manure may still be found in the soil. Hence it can only feed plants in a very limited degree. Its action must be on air and water, or the control it gives the soil over those elements.

It is also matter of common observation that soil well manured, will continue moist for a long time after similar land by its side, but which has not been manured, is dried up. Hard coarse soils dry up very quickly, while soft, mellow, and friable ones will endure a long drought. The gases and moisture generated by the decomposition of manures produce this mellow state. Hence the necessity of having that decomposition take place under the soil, or of plowing in the manure.

Another important fact bearing on this question is, that what are regarded very poor soils, such as light sandy or gravelly land, will produce good crops in a season remarkable for the frequency of showers. On such soils crops are from twice to four times as large, in a wet season as in a dry, and yet there is an addition of nothing but moisture, and in such a manner, as not to have it stand and become stagnant among the roots of the plants.

Yet another evidence is in the strength of clay soils. A hard clay is very unproductive. But so disintegrated that plants can grow in it, it produces a great crop. This is because clay is of so close a texture, that when mixed with manure, turf, sand, or muck, although friable, it retains more moisture, than sand or ordinary loam. This is the reason of the superior fertility of land annually overflowed with water, as Egypt in the vicinity of the Nile. It is not that the Nile brings down deposites from the mountains of the Moon, so rich above all that is in the valleys below. The entire weight of all that a river deposites on ten acres would not equal in weight the increased vegetation of a single acre. The cause of the increased fertility is the fact that the deposite is so fine that it prevents rapid evaporation, and thus causes the soil to retain moisture for the large growth, and maturity of the plants.

One more evidence is found on our sandy pine plains. Our common forest-trees, as beech, maple, elm, or linden, will not flourish there. Such land will produce comparatively no corn, oats, or wheat. But rye that stands drought better than any other grain, grows tolerably well. But such plains always produce an enormous growth of pine timber, hardly equalled in the number of cords to the acre, by the heaviest-timbered land of the river bottoms. Why is this? Does a maple need so much more food than a pine, or is it in the habits of the trees? It is not in the richness or poverty of the soil, but in the adaptation of the trees to reach and appropriate moisture. The roots of the maple and beech, spread out near the surface of the ground. And it being a light, porous, sandy soil, it does not retain moisture enough to promote their growth. But whoever notices a pine-tree that has been turned up from the roots by the wind, will see that the roots run down almost perpendicularly ten or fifteen feet into the sand. There they find plenty of moisture and hence their great growth. This principle explains the comparative productiveness of all soils.

A soil composed of light muck, or a kind of peet-soil, will dry up soon. There is nothing to prevent rapid evaporation; hence it is always unproductive, for want of suitable moisture. Mix with it clay, to render its texture more firm, and it will retain the moisture, and be very productive. Clay alone is too solid to retain moisture; it runs off, as from a brick. Mix sand with it, and it becomes mellow, and retains moisture, and produces great growth. Sand allows so free and rapid an evaporation that it is unproductive. We say it leaches and is hungry, and so it is, because it has little power to retain water. Our manures do it good, only as they are calculated to aid it in controlling moisture. If we apply a light manure as we would to clay, it is comparatively useless; it adds no firmness to the texture of the soil, and hence does not increase its capacity for controlling water. On such land, the only good that manure does, is while decomposition is taking place in the soil, it renders it more moist, and hence more productive. Apply clay to such a soil, and it will increase its firmness and consequent capacity of retaining and appropriating moisture, and thus render it highly valuable. Dry straw manure is sometimes said to dry up land, and ruin crops. So of turf in a dry season. In a wet season they greatly increase the growth of crops. Now they contain just as much food for plants in one season as another. Hence a soil too easily impervious to the atmosphere, will be a poor soil, that is, will produce poorly, simply because it has no power to retain the necessary moisture.

We suppose these facts and reasons to establish our theory, that the principal benefit of manures, and of mixing different soils, is in the control they give over the moisture and the atmosphere. Hence the greatly increased crop of clover from the application of three quarters of a bushel of plaster to an acre. The increased weight of clover on five square rods, would outweigh the plaster applied, and still that plaster remains, in almost its full weight, on the soil. This principle explains the benefit of mulching trees, plants, or vegetables. This is the best means of preserving trees, the first year after transplanting, and of securing a great growth, of any kind of shrubs or plants. This may be done with common straw or leaves. Now wherein is their utility? Not in the nourishment they afford the plants, but in the fact that mulching so covers the surface as to prevent rapid evaporation. In such cases, it is the more abundant moisture that secures the greater growth.

Hence the first study of a soil culturist should be to ascertain how he shall so mix and manage the materials at his command, as to cause them to retain moisture for the longest time, without leaving water to stand about the roots of his plants. On this depends the whole importance of deep plowing and ditching. On this theory we may also account for the fact that certain plants prefer a certain kind of manure to all others. It is that those plants act in a certain manner on the soil requiring a specific action of manure to enable it to appropriate moisture and tax the atmosphere for their growth. This theory explains why too much manure is bad. Not because we give too much food to plants, but because excess of manure dries up the land. But whatever theory we adopt, we all agree in the utility of fertilizers. And the experience of practical farmers is of more value in aiding us to reach right conclusions, than all chemical essays on the subject that have ever been written.

MARL.

This is one of the best distributed and most universal fertilizers. Marl proper contains nearly equal proportions of clay and lime. Sand-marl is spoken of, in which sand and lime are the main ingredients. Clay-marls are to be applied to sandy and gravelly soils, and sand-marls to clayey soils. Shell-marls are very valuable, and seldom contain clay. Marls may easily be known, even by those not at all acquainted with chemistry. Apply any mineral acid, or even very strong vinegar, and if it be a marl, an effervescence will at once be observed: this effect is produced by acid upon lime.

MARJORUM.

There are two varieties in cultivation--the _sweet_, an annual herb; and the _winter_, a hardy perennial. They are grown and used as summer savory--used green, or dried for winter. They give a sweet, aromatic flavor to soups, stews, and dressings. The cultivation is, in all respects, like other garden-herbs of the kind, whether for medicinal or culinary purposes.

MELONS.

There are two species--musk and water melons--which are subdivided into many varieties of each. These are among the most delicious of all the products of the garden. A little use makes all persons very fond of them. The climate of the Middle and Southern states is well adapted to raising melons; much better than the same latitudes in Europe. The following brief directions will insure success in their cultivation. A light, rich soil is always desirable. There should always be a little sand in the composition of soil for melons. If not there naturally, supply it; it will always pay. The warm sands of Long Island and New Jersey are the best possible for melons, especially for water-melons. It may be well to trench deep for the hills, and mix in a little well-rotted manure, and cover it with fine mould. A quantity of manure, left in bulk under the hills, will dry them up at the worst possible time. When you plant only a few in a garden, mulch your musk-melons with chips or sawdust from the wood-yard, or leaves and decayed wood from the forest, and you will get a great growth. They will grow luxuriantly in a pile of chips, with a little soil, in a door-yard, where hardly any other plant would flourish. The water-melon does best in almost pure sand, if it be enriched with liquid or some other of the finer manures. Plant musk-melons six feet apart, and water-melons nine feet each way. When the plants become established, never leave more than two or three in a hill. The product will be greatly increased in number and size, by picking off the end bud of the first runners when they show their blossom-buds; this causes them to throw out many strong lateral vines, which will produce abundantly. The attacks of striped bugs, so well known as the enemies of vines, and also of the black fleas, or hoppers (very minute, but quite destructive to tender vines when first up), may be prevented (says Downing) by sprinkling near the plants a little guano. As but a small portion of cultivators will have it, or can obtain it, we recommend to put many seeds in a hill, to provide for the depredations of the bugs, and sprinkle offensive articles around them. These will not always be effectual. We have recommended elsewhere to fence each hill, as the most effectual method. A box, with gauze or a pane of glass over the top, is a certain remedy in every case; it also greatly promotes the growth of the young vines. This is equally effectual against the cutworm and all other insects; and, as the boxes will last a dozen years or so, we should use them if we had ten acres of melons. But by early and late planting, and watchfulness, and replanting, you will succeed without protection. An excessive quantity of stable-manure does not increase the growth, especially of water-melons. Plaster, bonedust, and ashes, are good applications; hog-manure is the best of all. The seeds should be soaked two days, and planted an inch deep on broad hills, raised in the centre four inches above the level of the bed, that water may not stand around them; planted low, they sometimes perish in a few hours in a hot sun, after a rain. Hoe them often, but never when they are wet, and never hoe near them after they have commenced running; the roots spread, about as much as the vines, and hoeing deep near them cuts off the roots, and materially injures them. Many a promising plat of melons has been ruined by stirring the soil when they were wet, and hoeing around them after they had begun to run. In walking among melons, great harm is done by stepping on the ends of vines. No one should be allowed among melons but the one who hoes or picks them. Many are lost by drought, after great care. We have often used an effectual remedy; it consists in turning up the vines, if they have begun to run before the drought, and putting around each hill from a peck to half a bushel of wet, well rotted manure; that from a spent hotbed is excellent for this purpose; and hoe from a distance between the hills, and cover the manure an inch or two deep with fine mould, lay down the vines, and saturate the hill with water, and they will hardly get dry again during the season. A little judicious watering will give you a great crop in the most severe drought.

_Varieties of the Musk-melon._--These are numerous, and the nomenclature uncertain. The London Horticultural Society's catalogue enumerates seventy. Most of them are of no use to any one. Two or three of the best are sufficient. There are three general classes of musk-melons--the _green-fleshed_, as the citron and nutmeg; _yellow-fleshed_, as the cantelope, or long yellow; and _Persian melon_. The last is the finest of all, but is too tender for general cultivation with us, requiring much care and very warm seasons. The yellow-fleshed are very large, but much inferior in quality to either of the others. The green-fleshed are _the_ musk-melons for this whole country. The nutmeg has long been celebrated; but, it being much smaller than the citron, and in no way superior in quality, we think the latter the best for all American gardens.

The following are enumerated in "White's Gardening for the South," as adapted to the latitude of the Southern states: _Christiana_, _Beechwood_, _Hoosainee_, _Sweet Ispahan_, _Pineapple_, _Cassabar_, _Netted Citron_, and _Rock_. These are doubtless all fine, and would do well at the North, with suitable care and protection. Downing's catalogue is nearly the same, with a very few additions.

_Varieties of Water-melons_--are also numerous, and names uncertain. The best varieties, however, are well known. The most choice are the following: _Imperial_, _Carolina_, _Black Spanish_, _Mountain-Sprout_, _Mountain-Sweet_, _Apple-seeded_, and _Ice-cream_. The following excellent water-melons all originated in South Carolina: _Souter_; _Clarendon_, or _dark-speckled_; _Bradford_, very dark-green, with stripes mottled and streaked with green; _Ravenscroft_, and _Odell's large white_. There is a fine little melon, called the orange-melon, because the flesh and skin separate like an orange. These varieties will all do well with care. To preserve any one of them, it must be grown at some distance from other varieties. All water-melons should be far removed from citrons, which resemble them, raised only for preserving. They always ruin the next generation of water-melons. Different varieties of musk-melons planted together produce hybrids, partaking of the qualities of both, and are often very fine. We raised a cross between the yellow-fleshed cantelope and the nutmeg, which was excellent.

Seeds of most vines are better for being two or three years old, as they produce less vines, but more fruit. Melons are a luxury that should grow in every garden, and the state should enact severe laws against stealing them, making the punishment no less than fine and imprisonment.

MILLET.

This is a species of grain, partaking much of the nature of a large grass. Sowed thin, it produces a good yield. The seed is excellent for fowls. Ground, it is good for keeping or fattening all domestic animals. It is about equal to Indian corn for bread. Cut while green, but when nearly ripe, it is a good substitute for hay, producing a much larger quantity per acre. All animals prefer millet, cut in the milk, to hay. It is a less profitable crop for grain, on account of the irregularity of its ripening, and its extreme liability to shell, when dry. It must be cut as soon as the seed begins to harden. It also attracts swarms of birds, which are exceedingly fond of the seed. About three tons per acre is an average crop on tolerably good land. From one to three pecks of seed to the acre are sown broadcast. When sown in drills and cultivated, it grows very large, and requires only four quarts of seed per acre. It will make good fodder sown at any time from April to July. Its more extensive cultivation for fodder is recommended.

MINT.

This genus of plants comprises twenty-four species. Those usually cultivated in gardens are three, _Peppermint_, _Spearmint_, and _Pennyroyal mint_. All mints are propagated by the same methods. Parting the roots, offset young plants, and cuttings from the stalks. Spearmint and peppermint like a moist and even wet soil. Pennyroyal does better in a rich loam. Plants come into use the same season they are set. Set the plants eight inches apart, and on beds four feet wide, leaving a path two feet between them. In field culture, for the oils and essences, place them two feet apart, for the convenience of going between the rows with a horse. Thus cultivation becomes easy. They should be cut in full blossom, and dried in small bunches in the shade, but better by artificial heat, like hops. They should be cut when dry. For domestic uses, dry quickly, and pulverize, and put away in tight glass bottles. They will retain all their strength, keep free from dust, and always be ready for use. The same is true of all the herbs for domestic use. As a field crop, mints are profitable.

MULBERRY.

There are three varieties cultivated in this country. We place them in the order of their qualities:--

1. _The Johnson._--A new variety, thus described by Kirtland: "Fruit very large; oblong cylindric; blackish, subacid, and of mild and agreeable flavor. Growth of wood strong."

2. _The Black Mulberry._--An Asiatic variety, rather tender for the North, though it succeeds tolerably well in some parts of New England. Fruit large and delicious; tree low and spreading. Easily cultivated on almost any soil. Propagated by seeds, layers, cuttings, or roots.

3. _The Red Mulberry._--A native of this country. Fruit small and pleasant, but inferior to the two preceding.

MULCHING.

This is placing around plants or trees, coarse manure or litter of any kind, to keep down weeds, and prevent too rapid evaporation of moisture. All straw, corn stalks, old weeds or stubble, forest leaves, seaweeds, old wood, sawdust, old tanbark, chips, &c., are good for mulching. Any tree taken up and planted with reasonable care, and well mulched and watered, will live. One of fifty need not die. Cover the loose earth deep enough to prevent the springing of weeds. Put a little earth on the outer edge of the manure, leaving it dishing about the tree. Fill that occasionally with water, and you will get a good growth, even in a dry season.

Plant gooseberries or currants, and mulch the whole ground between the bushes, and give them no other cultivation, and the berries will grow nearly twice as large as the same varieties standing neglected, to grow up to weeds, in the usual way. Mulching with clean, dry straw, or with charcoal, is a preventive of mildew. It is the easiest method of taking care of strawberries after they are in blossom; the vines will bear much more and finer fruit, and it will be clean and neat. Mulching vines is a great means of insuring a crop. Every crop that can be mulched will be greatly benefited by it; hence, all the straw and litter that can be saved is money in the pocket; for mulching alone, it is worth five times as much as it can be sold for. Burning or in any way destroying cobs, cornstalks, stubble, old straw, or decaying wood, is extravagant wastefulness.

MUSHROOMS

Are vegetables growing up in old pastures, or on land mulched and the straw partly covered with soil. They are also cultivated in beds for the purpose. Picked at the right stage, they are a fine article of diet, almost equalling oysters. The use of the wild ones, however, is attended with some danger, for the want of knowledge of the varieties, or of the difference between the genuine mushroom, and the toadstools that so much resemble them.

Persons have been poisoned unto death by eating toadstools instead of mushrooms. When of middle size, mushrooms are distinguished by the fine pink or flesh color of their gills, and by their pleasant smell. In a more advanced stage, the gills become of a chocolate color; they are then apt to be confounded with injurious kinds. The toadstool that most resembles the true mushroom is slimy to the touch, and rather disagreeable to the smell. The noxious kind grows in the borders of woods, while the mushroom only grows in the open field. It is better, however, not to eat them unless gathered by a practised hand, so as to be sure of no mistake. With the help of one accustomed to gathering them, you will learn in a few moments, so as to be accurate and safe.

_Mushroom Beds._--Prepare a bed in the corner of the hothouse, or, in the absence of that, in a warm, dry cellar. The first of October is the best time. Make the bed four feet wide, and as long as you require. It should be one foot high perpendicularly at the edges, and sloping toward the middle; it should be of horse-manure, well forked, and put in compact and even, so as to settle all alike. Cover it with long straw, to preserve heat and the exhalations that would rise. At the end of ten days, the heat will be such as to allow you to remove the straw, and put an inch of good mould over the top of the bed. On this put the spawn or seed of the mushroom, in rows of six inches apart. The spawn are white fibres, found in old pastures, where mushrooms grow, or in old spent hotbeds, and sometimes under old stable floors. The warmth of the bed will produce mushrooms plentifully for a considerable time. If the production diminishes and nearly ceases, it may be renewed by removing the mould, and putting on good horse-manure to the depth of twelve inches, and covering and planting as before, and the production will be plentiful for a number of weeks.

MUSTARD.

There are two kinds cultivated, the black and the white, annuals, and natives of Great Britain. The white mustard is cultivated in this country principally for greens, and sometimes for a small salad like the cress. It may be sown at any time from opening of spring to the beginning of autumn. But sown in hot weather, the bed must be shaded. The Spaniards prefer the white mustard for grinding for table use, because of its mildness and its whiter flour. White mustard-seed, being much larger than the black, is preferred for mangoes, and all pickling purposes.

Black mustard is cultivated principally in the field, for the mills. It is there ground, and makes the well known condiment found on most tables.

Sow in March or April, broadcast on land tolerably free from weeds, and if you get it too thick, hoe up a part. In July or August, you may get a good crop. Cradle it as wheat, before ripe enough to shell.

Mustard used in various ways is medicinal. It is one of the safest and most speedy emetics. Stir up a table-spoonful of the flour and drink it. Follow it with repeated draughts of warm water, and in half an hour, you will have gone through all the stages of a thorough emetic, without having been weakened by it.

NASTURTIUM.

This annual plant, found in most gardens, is too well known to need description. Were it not so common, its flowers, that appear in great profusion, from early summer till destroyed by frost, would be regarded very beautiful. Its main use is for pickles. Its green berries are nearly equal to capers for that purpose. It grows well on any good garden soil; bears more berries on less vines, planted on land not too rich. Single vines four feet apart, on rich land, do best.

NECTARINE.

This is only a fine variety of the peach, having a smooth skin. Downing gives instances of its return to the peach, and others of the production of nectarines and peaches on the same limb. The appearance of the tree is hardly distinguishable from the peach. It is one of the most beautiful of dessert fruits: it has no down on the skin, being entirely smooth and beautiful, like waxwork. Its smooth skin exposes it to the ravages of the curculio. It is longer-lived on plum-stocks, but is more generally budded on the peach. It is usually productive wherever peaches flourish, if not destroyed by the curculio. It is even more important than in the peach to head-in the trees often, to produce good large fruit.

_Varieties_--are divided into freestone and clingstone, with quite a number in each class. We give only a few of those most esteemed.

_Boston._--Freestone, American seedling; hardy and productive; color deep-yellow, with a bright-red cheek. Time, September 1st.

_Due du Telliers._--Freestone, pale-green, with a marbled reddish cheek; flesh whitish, inclining to green; very fine; a great bearer of rather large fruit. Time, last of August.

_Hunt's Tawny._--Very fine and early; a great bearer; tree hardy; color, pale-orange, with a dark-red cheek, with many russety specks. Time, forepart of August.

_Pitmaston Orange._--A fine yellow nectarine, maturing the last of August.

_The Early Violet_--is an old French variety, everywhere esteemed; it has sixteen synonyms; fruit high-flavored. Time, last of August.

_Newington._--A good clingstone; an English variety that has long been cultivated; it has many synonyms; the color dark-red when exposed. Time, 10th of September.

_Newington Early_--Is one of the best, earlier, larger, and better, than the preceding; ripens first of September. The same varieties are excellent for the South, where they ripen considerably earlier. The following selection of choice, hardy nectarines for a small garden, is from Downing:--

Early Violet, Elruge, Hardwicke Seedling, Hunt's Tawny, Boston, Roman, and New White.

NEW FRUITS.

That these are constantly appearing, is a matter of common observation; but the manner of their production has given rise to much diversity of opinion. The theory that they are the results of replanting, from the seeds of successive generations of the same tree, is called the Van Mons' theory, after Dr. Van Mons, of Belgium, who devoted many years of close study and application to the improvement of fruit, especially of pears, by this method. His directions may be briefly summed up as follows. Plant seeds from any good variety of fruit; let those seedlings stand without grafting, until they bear. Take the first fruit from the best of those seedlings, and plant it and produce other seedlings, and so on. The peach and plum are said to reach a high state of excellence in the third generation, while the pear requires the fifth. Seeds from old trees are said to have a great tendency to return to their wild origin, while those of young, improving trees will more generally produce a better fruit. The seeds from a graft from a young tree does not produce a better than itself. The succession must be of seedlings. This theory requires long practice, and is exposed to interruptions by the crosses that will necessarily occur between different trees in blossom. And we have in so many cases had a fruit of great perfection arise from a single planting of seed from some known variety, that we must conclude the improvement to be produced by some other principle than that of the Van Mons' theory. The evidence is in favor of the opinion that new varieties of fruit arise from cross-fertilization in the blossoms of different kinds, and that the improvement of the qualities of any given variety is the result of cultivation. Some of the best plums we have are known to have been the product of fertilizing the blossoms of one tree from the pollen of another; this is constantly taking place with our fruits, and is consequent upon our mixed orchards. Let this be attended to artificially, by covering branches with gauze, to prevent the fertilization by bees and winds, and make the cross between any two varieties you choose, and the results may prove highly beneficial. The amateur cultivator may render essential service to pomology by this practice. We know that all our choice fruits have come from those not fit for use. It is not improved cultivation of the old, barely, but the production of new varieties. The subject of further improvement, therefore, demands careful study and practice. The seeds of established varieties, planted at once without drying, will often reproduce the same. We are not certain but they generally would, if not affected by blossoms of contiguous trees.

NURSERY.

Of this subject we can only give the general outlines. This department of soil-culture is so distinct, that the few who engage in it as a business are expected to make it an especial study. In a work like this, it is only desirable to give those general principles that will enable the cultivator of the soil to raise such trees as he may desire on his own premises. These directions may be considered reliable, and, as far as they go, are applicable to all nurseries.

_Location._--This is the first point demanding attention. If a piece of land containing a variety of soils can be selected, it will prove beneficial, as different trees require different soils for their greatest perfection. A situation through which a rivulet may run, or in which a pond may be constructed, fed by a spring or hydrant, is of great value for watering. The situation of the nursery, as it respects shade or exposure, is also important. Trees should generally be as much exposed to the elements, in the nursery, as they will be when transplanted in the orchard. Trees removed from shaded situations to the open field will be stinted in growth for some time, and may be permanently injured. Never allow your nursery to be shaded by large trees. Bearing trees, designed to show the quality of your fruit, should occupy a place by themselves.

_Soil._--A theory that has had many adherents is that trees raised on poorer and harder land than that they will occupy in the orchard, will grow more vigorously, and do better, than those transplanted from better to worse soil. Thus, trees have often been preferred from high, hard hills, to transplant in good loam or alluvium. On the same principle, a calf or colt should be more healthy, and make a better creature, for having been nearly starved for the first year or two. Neither of these is true. Give fruit-trees as great a growth as possible while young, without producing too tender and spongy wood for cold winters. It is only desirable to check the early growth of fruit-trees on the rich prairies of the West, and that should be done, not by the poverty of the soil, but by root-pruning or heading-in; this prevents a spongy, tender growth, that is apt to be injured by their trying winds. Trees that are brought from a colder to a warmer region, always do better.

_Preparation of the Soil._--It should be made quite rich with stable-manure, lime, and wood-ashes, and cultivated in a root-crop the previous year--any roots except potatoes. Those left in the ground will come up so early and vigorous in the spring, that you can not eradicate them without destroying many of your young seedlings. The land should be worked very deep by subsoiling, or better with double-plowing, by which the manure and top-soil are put in the bottom. As manure always works up, the effect will be excellent. Buckwheat is good to precede a nursery; it shades the ground so densely as to protect it from the scorching sun, and effectually destroy all weeds. Trees planted on land prepared by double-plowing (see our article on "Plowing") will make one third greater growth, in a given time, than those on land prepared in the ordinary way. In double-plowing, if the subsoil be very poor, it will be necessary to give a top-dressing of well-rotted manure, worked in with a cultivator. Thorough draining is also very essential to a nursery.

_Time of Planting._--The general practice is to plant in the fall, at any time before the ground freezes. The better way is to keep seeds in moist sand, or dry and spread thin, until spring, and plant as early as the ground will allow. Freezing apple-seeds is of no use. Hard-shelled seeds had better be frozen, to open the stones and give them an opportunity to germinate. The advantage of spring-planting is, the ground can be put in much better condition, and the seeds will start quite as early as the weeds, and much labor may be saved in tending.

_Method of Planting._--Plant with a drill that will run about an inch deep, putting the seeds in straight rows, not more than an inch wide, and two and a half feet apart; this will allow the use of a small horse and cultivator, which will destroy nearly all the weeds. Use a potato-fork or hoe, across the rows, among the seedlings, and very little weeding will be necessary. It is not more than one fourth of the ordinary work to keep a nursery clean in this way. Two thirds of those thus planted and cultivated will be large enough for root-grafting the first season, and for cleft-grafting the second. When your seedlings are six inches high, if you thoroughly mulch them with fine straw or manure, you will be troubled with no more weeds, and your trees will get a strong growth.

For root-grafting, pull up those of suitable size very late in the fall, cut off the tops eight inches from the root, and pack in boxes, in moist sand, and keep in a cellar that does not freeze; graft in winter, and repack them in the boxes with moist sand, sawdust, or moss, and keep them until time to transplant in spring. They should not be wet, but only slightly moist. In the spring, plant them in rows three feet apart, and ten inches in the row. The second year, if they are not wanted in market, they should be taken up and reset, in rows four feet apart, and two feet in the row. Cut off the ends of large roots, to encourage the growth of numerous fibrous roots. Large nursery-trees, that have not been transplanted, are of little value for the orchard, being nearly destitute of fibrous roots. But large trees, even of bearing size, when transplanted in the orchard, do quite as well as small ones, provided they have been several times transplanted in the nursery. This produces many fibrous roots, upon which the health and life of the tree depend.

In many regions, great care must be taken to prevent destruction of young trees by snow-drifts. This is done by selecting locations, and by constructing or removing fences, to allow the snow to blow off; treading it down as it falls is also very useful, both in protecting the trees from breaking down by the settling of drifts in a thaw, and from the depredations of mice under the snow.

Trees should be taken up from the nursery with the least possible injury to the roots. Do not leave them exposed to the air for an hour, not even in a cloudy day. It is an easy matter to cover the roots with mats, straw, or earth. Protect also from frosts; many trees are ruined by exposure to air and frost, of which the nurseryman is very careful in all other respects. For transportation, they should be closely packed in moist straw, and wound in straw or mats, firmly tied and kept moist. Trees, cared for and packed in this way, may be transported thousands of miles, and kept for two months, without injury.

NUTS.

More attention to the cultivation of nuts, would add materially to our domestic luxuries. There are so many nuts in market, that are the spontaneous productions of other countries, or raised where labor is cheap, that we can not afford to raise them as an article of commerce. But a few trees of the various kinds, would be a great addition to every country residence. We could always be certain that our nuts were fresh and good. A small piece of ground devoted to nuts, and occupied by fowls, would be pleasant and profitable. English walnuts do well here. We have varieties of hickory nuts, native in this country, which, to our taste, are not surpassed by any other. Chestnuts are easily grown here (see our directions elsewhere in this volume). Butternuts, filberts, peanuts (growing in the ground like potatoes), and even our little forest beechnuts, are easily raised.

The dwarf chestnut of the Middle and Southern states is decidedly ornamental in a fruit garden. Its qualities are in all respects like the common chestnut, only the fruit is but half the size, and the tree grows from five to ten feet high. In all our landscape gardens, and in all places where we retain forest trees for ornamental purposes, it is better to cultivate trees that will bear good nuts. The varieties of nut-bearing trees, interspersed with evergreens, make a beautiful appearance.

OAKS.

Raising oak-timber, on a large scale, will soon be demanded in this country. In some sections we have immense quantities of native oaks; but they are fast disappearing, and the present expense of transporting the timber, to places where it is needed, is much greater than would be the cost of raising it. A million of acres of oaks ought to be planted within the next five years. A crop of white oak, of only twenty-five years' growth, would be very valuable; and twenty-five or fifty acres, of forty years' growth, would be worth a handsome fortune, especially in the West. On all the bluffs in the West they grow well, and on the prairies they will do even better, after they have been cultivated a few years. The application of a little common salt on rich alluvial soils, is a great advantage in growing timber.

Preserve acorns in moist sand during winter, and plant in the spring, in rows six feet apart, to give opportunity for other crops among them for a year or two, to encourage good cultivation. Plant a foot apart in the row, that, in thinning out, good straight trees may be left; at three or four years old, thin to four feet in the rows; afterward, only remove as appears absolutely necessary. Trim straight and smooth. The question of transplanting is important. Shall we plant thick, as in a nursery, and then transplant, or shall we plant where they are to grow? In fruit-trees, the object is to get a low, full, and spreading top, of horizontal branches, that will bear much fruit. This is eminently promoted by transplanting, root-pruning, and heading-in. But in raising timber, the object is to get trees of long, straight bodies, with the fewest possible low branches. Such are the native trees of the forest. This is best promoted by planting thick, never transplanting, and keeping all the lower limbs well trimmed off. These directions are for raising timber on good tillable land. Such groves may be good for pastures, and for poultry-yards, for a long time. Beside this, we have large areas of rough land, that will not soon be brought into cultivation for other purposes. Fine timber may be grown on such land, with no care but trimming.

OATS.

This is one of the great staple agricultural products of all regions, sufficiently moist and cool for their successful growth. Oatmeal makes the most wholesome bread ever eaten by man. For all horses, except those having the heaves, oats are the best grain; to such horses they should never be fed--corn, soaked or ground, is best. They are valuable for all domestic animals and fowls.

_Varieties._--These are numerous. Those called side-oats yield the largest crops: but of these there are several varieties. The genuine _Siberian_ oats are tall, heavy, dark-colored side-oats, the most productive of any known. _Swedish_ oats, and other new varieties, are coming into notice; most of these are the Siberian, under other names, and perhaps slightly modified by location and culture. The barley-oats, Scotch oats, and those usually cultivated, will yield only about two thirds as much per acre as the true Siberian; the same difference is apparent in the growth of straw. Oats will produce something on poor land, with bad tillage, but repay thorough fertilization and tillage as well as most other crops. Enrich the land, work it deep and thoroughly, and roll after harrowing. Moist, cool situations are much preferable for oats: hence, success in warm climates depends upon very early sowing. Oats sowed as late as the first of July, in latitude forty-two and further north, will mature; yet, all late oats, even with large straw and handsome heads, will be found to be only from one half to two thirds filled in proportion to the lateness of sowing. The entire _profits_ of an oat-crop depend upon _early sowing_.

Harvest as soon as the grain begins to harden, and the straw to turn yellow. Allowed to get quite ripe, they shell badly, and the straw becomes useless, except for manure. Cut with reaper or cradle, and bind: all grain so cut is more easily handled, thrashed, and fed. Mow no grain that is not so lodged down that a cradle or reaper can not be used. The straw of oats cut quite green is nearly as good as hay.

OKRA.

A valuable garden plant, easily propagated by seeds. It is excellent in cookery, as a sauce. Its ripe seeds, used as coffee, very much resemble the genuine article. The green pods are much used in the West Indies, in soups and pickles. Plant at the usual time of corn-planting, in rows four feet apart, two or three seeds in a place, eight inches apart in the row; leave but one in a place after they get a few inches high, and hoe as peas, and the crop will be abundant.

OLIVES.

These are natives of Asia, but have, beyond date, been extensively cultivated in Southern Europe. Olive-oil is an important article of commerce in most countries. Its use in all kinds of cookery, in countries where it flourishes, renders olives as important, to the mass of the people, as cows are in New England. It should be a staple product of the Southern states, to which it is eminently adapted. It is hardy further north than the orange. With protection, it may be cultivated, with the orange and lemon, all over the country. Olive-trees attain a greater age than any other fruit-tree. An Italian olive-plantation, near Terni, is believed to have stood since the days of Pliny. Once set out, the trees require very little attention, and they flourish well on the most rocky lands, that are utterly useless for any other purpose. Calcareous soils are most favorable to their growth. They are propagated by suckers, seeds, or by little eggs that grow on the main stalk, and are easily detached by a knife, and planted as potatoes or corn. Olives will bear at four or five years from the seed; they bear with great regularity, and yield fifteen or twenty pounds of oil per annum to each tree. There are several varieties. Plantations now growing at the South are very promising.

ONIONS.

Of this well-known garden vegetable there are quite a number of varieties.

1. _The Large Red._--One of the most valuable.

2. _The Yellow._--Large and profitable, keeping better than any other.

3. _The Silver-skin._--The handsomest variety, excellent for pickling, brings the highest price of all, but is not quite so good a keeper as the red or yellow, and does not yield as well.

4. _The White Portugal._--A larger white onion, often taken for the true silver-skin. It is a good variety. The preceding are all raised from the black seed, growing on the top.

5. _The Egg Onion._--So called from its size and shape. On good rich soil, the average size may be that of a goose-egg, which it resembles in form. It is of a pale-red color, and more mild in flavor than any other. They are usually raised by sowing the black seed, very thick, to form sets for next year. Those sets, put out early, will form large onions for early market, that will sell more readily than any other offered.

6. _The Top Onion._--So called because the seed consists of small onions, growing on the top of the stalks, in place of the black seed of other onions. These are good for early use, grow large, but are poor keepers.

7. _The Hill or Potato Onion_.--Of these there are several kinds, most of which are unworthy of cultivation. The _Large English_ is the only valuable variety. The small onions, for sets, grow in the ground from the same roots, by the side of the main onion. Some of these grow large enough for cooking. The main onion is the earliest known, grows large, and has a mild, pleasant flavor;--they will mature at a certain season, whatever time you plant them; hence, they must be planted very early to produce a good crop. We have planted them on good ground so late as to get little more than the seed. They are fine for summer and fall use, but keep poorly. The foregoing are all that are necessary. They can all be brought forward by early planting of sets raised the previous season, by sowing the black seed so thick that they can not grow larger than peas, or small cherries.

Good sandy loam and black muck are the best soils for onions. Any good garden soil may be made to produce large crops; good, well rotted stable-manure and leached ashes are the best. The theory of shallow plowing, and treading down onion-beds is incorrect. The roots of onions are numerous and long. The land should be well-manured, double-plowed, and thoroughly pulverized. The only objection to a very mellow onion-bed is the difficulty of getting the seed up: this is obviated by rolling after sowing, which packs the mould around the seed, so as to retain moisture and insure vegetation. Fine manure, mixed in the surface of the soil for onions, is highly beneficial; on no other crop does manure on the surface do so much good. Mulching the whole bed, as soon as the plants are large enough, is in the highest degree beneficial, both in promoting growth, and keeping down weeds. An onion-bed must be made very smooth and level, to favor very early hoeing, without destroying the small plants. All root-crops that come up small, are tended with less than half the expense, if the surface be made very smooth and level. Never divide your onion-ground into small beds, but sow the longest way, in straight narrow rows, eighteen inches apart, for convenience of weeding and hoeing. Cultivate while very young, and work the soil toward the rows, so as to hill up the plants; this should be removed after they begin to form large bulbs. Breaking down the tops to induce them to bottom, is a fallacy: it will lessen the crop. Rich soil, deep plowing, thorough pulverizing, early sowing, and frequent hoeings, will insure success. Our system of double-plowing is the best for this crop. They will do equally well, some say improve, for twenty years on the same bed. Work the tops into the soil where the plants grow. Let the rows be very narrow and very straight, and you will save half the ordinary expense of cultivation.

_To gather and preserve well_, you should house them when very dry. A day's exposure to a warm autumn sun is very beneficial. Keep them in an open barn or shed until there is danger of frost. A warm, damp cellar always ruins them; keep them through winter in the coolest dry place possible, without severe freezing. Once freezing is not injurious, but frequent freezing and thawing ruins them. They are very finely preserved braided into strings and hung in a cool, dry room.

ORANGES.

This name covers a variety of species of the same general habits. It flourishes well on the coast of Florida, and all along the gulf of Mexico. It will stand considerable freezing, if protected from sudden thawing. In southern Europe, they are grown abundantly by being protected by a shed of boards. They may become perfectly hardy, as far north as Philadelphia. And by a thorough system of acclimation, and a little winter protection, they may be grown abundantly, in every state of the Union. The great enemy of the orange-tree is the scaled insect. It has been very destructive in Florida. A certain remedy is said to have been discovered in the _camomile_. Cultivate the plant under orange-trees, and it will prevent their attacks. The herb hung up in the trees, or the tree and foliage syringed with a decoction of it, will effectually destroy these insects. The orange is long-lived. A tree called "The Grand Bourbon" at Versailles was planted in 1421, and now, being 437 years old, is "one of the largest and finest trees in France." There are several varieties mentioned in the fruit books. The common Sweet Orange, the Maltese, the Blood Red--very fine with red flesh. The Mandarin Orange, an excellent little fruit from China. The St. Michael's is described as the finest of all oranges, and the tree the best bearer. Oranges are propagated by budding, and cultivated much in the same way as the peach.

ORCHARDS.

An orchard is a plat of ground, large or small, occupied by trees for the purpose of bearing fruit. The main directions for orchard culture, are given under the respective fruits. Any soil good for vegetables or grains, is suitable for orchards. Any land where excessive moisture will not stand, to the injury of the trees, may be adapted to any of the fruits. Set pears on the heaviest land, peaches on the lightest, and the other fruits on the intermediate qualities. Although peaches will do quite well on light soil, yet they do better on a rich deep loam, or alluvium. When it is desirable to set out an orchard on land originally too wet, a blind ditch must pass under each row, extending out of the orchard, and the place where each tree is to stand, should be raised a foot above the level around it.

_The aspect_ is also important. A southern or eastern exposure is preferable, in all latitudes where the transitions from summer to winter, and from winter to summer are so sudden as to allow but little alternate thawing and freezing. This would therefore be the rule in high latitudes. In climates of long changeable springs, a northern or western exposure is better. Trees may be made to start and blossom later in the spring by snow and ice about them, well pressed down in winter, and covered with straw. This will prevent the first warm weather from starting the leaves and blossoms, and cause them to be a little later, but surer and better.