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at Waukesha, and succeeds very generally throughout the State. No fruit garden or orchard should be without at least one tree, and where it is at home there is no more profitable market variety.

Ellwanger & Barry, of Rochester, have a plantation of Dwarf trees of the White Doyenne which gave the 4th year from planting at the rate of $500 per acre, and about the same the 6th year.

C. L. Hoag, of Lockport, N. Y., set out in 1853, fifty standard White Doyenne trees and gave them good culture with hoed crops, and the 4th year they yielded four barrels of fruit. He has two old trees which have yielded 4 or 5 bbls. annually.

J. J. Thomas, says, in Western New York, single trees of the White Doyenne pear have often afforded a return of $20 or more after being sent hundreds of miles to market.

We know parties in Wisconsin who would as soon grow a bushel of pears as of apples, the pear having proved with them quite as hardy and much more profitable. Few persons, however, will give the attention and care necessary to attain the best results, and all localities are not equally well suited for pear culture.

In suitable soil, with a judicious selection of varieties and skillful culture, it will be safe to expect as much net profit from an acre planted with pears as from an 80 acre farm in ordinary A. G. HANFord.

crops.

COLUMBUS, Ohio.

The Great Orchards of California.

According to the editor of the California Farmer, the orchards of Briggs & Haskell, at Marysville, are on a broad scale. We extract the following from his account:

It would be impossible for a stranger to form any possible conception of the extent of these orchards, the immense crop daily gathered, or the wonderful producing power of the trees. Strange as it may appear, with all the disastrous effects of the floods, which swept away and destroyed thousands of trees, burying, also, great numbers, and having many buried by drift-wood, of which more than a thousand cords swept over and upon them, and another

thousand cords of peach-tree fire-wood will be made from the broken and killed trees; yet, with all this destruction, the crops of these orchards will far exceed any former crop. And this, too, with another singular fact, that with all the energy and attention possible, and with about seventy men, the fruit often ripens faster than it can be gathered, so much so that more than ten thousand bushels will be lost in these two orchards alone. 1n connection with these orchards, there is the Oroville orchard, where about thirty men are gathering and shipping, in like enormous quantities.

That some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the business of these fruit orchards,

there was sent from these orchards, the second week in August, from sixteen to twenty tons, or from 30,000 to 40,000 pounds a day, of peaches, apricots, and plums; of which about two-thirds were shipped to Sacramento and San Francisco.

We spent some time in going through these orchards, and noting the effect of the floods upon the trees. In many places in these orchards, the drift-sand was piled up from two to four feet-but where the wash was only sand, no injury resulted to the trees, they were vigorous and healthy. But where the deposit was a soft clay, or mixed deposit, the trees were killed. In the entire orchard, among the peaches, nectarines, pears, and apples, where the deposit was sand alone, the trees were loaded with splendid fruit-the nectarines and peaches, enough to load several clipper ships, the trees breaking down with the fruit, and the ground covered with the finest nectarines

we ever saw.

Horticulture and the War.

It is sad to reflect on the enormous losses to horticulture and agriculture arising from the rebellion. We believe no class, taken collectively, endeavored to avert the strife more energetically than ours; and, though suffering in common with others, have less to answer for. From our position, in correspondence with so many different sources, we can say of our own of the war, with few exceptions, the great knowledge that up to the actual breaking out body of Southern horticulturalists were opposed to secession, not but they had their differing views as to the abstract justice of the doctrine, or as to the advantages which a separate independence might or might not bring with it, but solely because they saw that the assertion of the doctrine would inevitably lead to a bloody and disastrous struggle, which would render any ultimate success by far too dearly bought. It is pleasant to dwell on this power of horticulture to restrain rash passion; and it should be a strong inducement with all haters of war to extend horticultural taste wherever practicable-Gardners' Monthly.

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Delaware Grape.

No fruit introduced in many years past has awakened so much interest as the Delaware Grape.

It has been cultivated in the neighborhood of Delaware, Ohio, for thirty years or more, but it is only ten or twelve years since it was much disseminated.

ties, it was for a time believed to be a foreigner, but is now generally received as an American seedling.

The above cut is from a photograph of a well grown bunch.

We hope the introduction of such fine early and hardy varieties as the Delaware, Hartford Prolific and Concord will enable our readers to enjoy well ripened and delicious grapes instead of the half ripe sour clusters we generally have to put up with in this climate.

In some localities, the Isabella and Catawba-both excellent varieties - succeed well; but, as a general rule, they are too tender to be entirely reliable, and we have need of something more hardy. The grapes above aamed are all of this character; in addition to which the Delaware particularly is the most delicate and delicious grape of which we have any knowledge in this or any other country.Messrs. Bateham, Hanford & Co., Columbus, Ohio, are skillful cultivators of them and are prepared to fill orders to the entire satisfaction of purchases. Let every farmer secure at least a few cuttings, and so provide himself and family with one of the greatest luxuries in the fruit world.

Winter Management of Newly Planted and Dwarf Trees.

All trees planted last spring and this autumn should have a mound of earth thrown up

It is claimed that the original vine was around the stem, twelve or fifteen inches high, brought from New Jersey. and a mulch of coarse straw manure, three

So unlike, so superior to our native varie- or four inches thick, spread for the space of

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Improvements in Farm Machinery.

It is a feature of the first importance in the agriculture of this as well as other countries, that the improvements in agricultural machinery are receiving so much attention, and accomplishing so much of real practical benefit to the farmers. This fact alone has done much to revolutionize the operations upon all large farms, and to some extent to change the system and practices among small cultivators.

Every year brings with it new inventions, numerous and pretentious; and we believe, also, that nearly every year gives to the public some decisive advance towards the perfection of agricultural machinery. It would be too much to expect, under the high pressure demand for improved machines, that all inventions will prove valuable; and, on the contrary, it is doubtless true that nine-tenths of those offered to the public are failures; but out of this great wealth of mind and skill, something must be evolved which will simplify agricultural operations, and benefit the farmer.

Taking our observations at short intervals, or by single years, the changes may not appear to possess very great significance; but when we extend them to a decade or to a score of years, the results achieved are astonishing, and fill us with admiration. When we revert to the exhibitions which it was our practice to attend twenty years ago, of the State and County Agricultural Societies, and compare the implements and machines then in use with those now offered for inspection on similar occasions, we are filled with admiration for the genius and skill of American mechanics, and prompted to congratulate the farmers of the United States upon the advantages thus placed within their reach.

This subject has been brought forcibly to our notice on reading, in the Prairie Farmer, a sketch of the exhibition of agricultural machines and implements at Dixon, Illinois, under the auspices of the Illinois State Agricultural Society. That exhibition was a great

and proud triumph for the cause of American and proved conclusively to our mind the steady mechanical skill and for American agriculture, and even rapid progress of the farmers in this country towards the dignity of labor, and the triumph of mind over muscle.

Events are fast proving the practicability of applying science, in the form of skilfully constructed machinery, to the practical work of the farm. Henceforth, in farming as in other pursuits, mind shall be worth more than muscle, and the intelligent, educated farmer enabled to employ his powers to better profit and greater advantage, in the direction of his business, than in the mere manual drudgery of routine work, which the machines of the present day will perform vastly quicker, cheaper, and more successfully than it can be done by hand labor.

The West is peculiarly the field for the introduction and use of agricultural machinery.— Farming there is done on a broader scale than in the Atlantic States, and the nature of the soil, as well as the face of the country, specially invites this system of agriculture.-Ec.

Nails, Nuts, Screws and Bolts.

It is well for every farmer to have at hand the facilities for repairing. In addition to the more common tools, he should keep a supply of nails of different sizes, bolts and nuts. Common cut nails are too brittle for repairing implements, or for other similar purposes. Buy only the very best, and anneal them, and they will answer all the ordinary purposes of the best wrought nails. To anneal them, all that is necessary is to heat them red hot in a common fire, and cool gradually. Let them cool, for instance, by remaining in the fire while it burns down and goes out. One such nail, well clinched, will be worth a dozen unannealed.

Nothing is more common than for a farmer to visit the blacksmith shop to get a broken or lost bolt or rivet inserted, and often a single nut on a bolt. This must be paid for, and much time is lost. By providing a supply of bolts, nuts and rivets, much time and trouble may be saved. They may be purchased wholesale at a low rate.

These should be kept in shallow boxes, with compartments made for the purpose, furnished with a bow handle for convenience in carrying them. One box, with half a dozen divisions, may be appropriated to nails of different sizes; and another, with as many compartments, to screws, bolts, rivets, &c.

Every farmer should keep on hand a supply of copper wire, and small pieces of sheet copper, or copper straps. Copper wire is better than annealed iron wire; it is almost as flexible as twine, and may be bent and twisted as desired, and it will not rust. Copper straps, nailed across or around a fracture or split in any wooden article, will strengthen it in a thorough manner.

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Aiken's Famous Family Knitting Machine. When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne of England, three hundred years ago, such a thing as a knit stocking had never been heard of in all her realm. Nor, indeed, have we any reliable authority to suppose that anything of the sort had ever been produced anywhere in the world. But the tense, unyielding hose manufactured upon the loom were an uncomfortable, unsatisfactory thing, and so some ingenious mind-it is not known whose-conceived the

idea, and executed the plan, of manufacturing them with the use of needles, in such manner that they should be both seamless and very elastic. The first pair knit were presented to Her Majesty, in the third year of her reign,

who was so delighted with them that she would never again consent to wear the stocking of the old style.

As the result of the royal example and of the remarkable superiority of this wonderful manufacture, knitting became at once immensely popular, so that high-born dames and

royal ladies emulated each other in princely finding their climax in the wonderfully simple, halls and gilded palaces.

cheap and capable machine of J. B. Aiken, of But the process of knitting with the fingers Franklin, N. H. As a factory machine this is was slow and tedious; and so the brain of one unquestionably the most popular one now in William Lee, of Woodborough, England, about existence, and every day seems to be adding to thirty years after the original invention of the high esteem in which it is held. Over $2,knitting, stimulated, it is said, by a strong de-000,000 worth of knit fabrics are now annually sire to supercede the needles of a beautiful manufactured upon it in this country; while young girl, whose passion for knitting appear- in the various countries of Europe it is rapidly ed more all-absorbing than her coveted love growing into favor with the most enterprising for him, contrived a machine, which was so manufacturers. remarkable for its achievements as to attract the attention, first of Queen Elizabeth, then of her successor, King George, and finally-when both of these English sovereigns failed to give it the encouragement it deserved, through fear of interfering with the employment of the poor -the patronage of Henry the Fourth, King of

France.

But all this remarkable success did not satisfy the ambition of Mr. Aiken. He saw that his machine was enabling manufacturers with capital to amass great fortunes, while the people-the million-were comparatively little benefitted. A machine which should come within the slender means of even a very poor family, and thus diffuse its blessings as the Sewing Machine has done, was needed. The simple and effective circular" machine of which the above cut is an illustration, was the result of this worthy and persistent endeavor.

Lee had hardly established himself, however, at Rouen ere his royal friend and patron met his untimely death, and the disappointed, but never discouraged, inventor returned to England and established a factory at Nottingham-So simple and durable in all its parts that shire, which, to this day, has been and is the great seat of hosiery manufacture in Europe.

For more than one hundred and fifty years, Lee's machine reigned without a rival,' until in 1756 an important improvement was made by Jedediah Strutt, of Derby, with a view to render the machine less cumbrous and difficult to operate, and, if possible to adapt it to other than muscular power. His efforts were only partially successful, however, and the world was left without a power machine until the

year 1822, when Timothy Bailey, of Albany,

a

there is scarcely a possibility of its getting out of order; so rapid in its working that when operated by the hand of a child it will knit over four thousand stitches in a minute-if by the foot five thousand-or if by steam, to which it may be adapted, sixty thousand!—so small in compass that it may be packed in a box less than a foot cubie; and, withal, so cheap that it can easily be made to pay for itself in one winter, it can hardly fail of a very great demand even in war times. Indeed the harder the times the greater the need, on the part of

the poorer families at least-and nearly all are which may come as a help in securing the feeling pretty poor about now-of everything means of support.

New York, after many months of fruitless effort, at last succeeded in perfecting his plans and giving to America and the world a power machine of large capacity. Still, it was Every year the American people send five clumsy thing, very expensive and was only de-millions of dollars to other countries for the signed to knit the flat web, which must subse- single item of knit goods, which ought to be quently be sewed together by hand.

About a quarter of a century ago circular looms were introduced into this country from Belgium and France; since which time there have been several American improvements, all

manufactured at home There is, therefore, no danger but that the demand will insure good paying prices-especially as the war must very materially add to the amount of knit hosiery required for American consumption.

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