The method of preserving potatoes has already been suggested, and to go far ther into detail on this subject would ex ceed our Threshing.
The usual mode of threshing is attend ed with the inconvenience of the straw being very often not thoroughly cleared, by which much grain is lost ; and with that of affording the workmen great and perpetual incentives to depredation, which, perhaps, are rarely resisted, or at least are certainly often yielded to. A fixed threshing mill will give compara tive security against these evils ; and one worked by two or three horses may be purchased for from sixty to a lamdred guineas, and which, in eight hours, will thresh fifteen quarters of wheat. The granary should be over this mill, and the corn may then, immediately after thresh ing, be drawn up into it, and deposited safe under the key of the farmer. Fresh threshed straw is better than old for feeding cattle, and is best managed for them by being cut into chaff Fruit trees.
The culture of trees, for the purpose of deriving a fermented liquor from their juice, employs a great proportion of the land of this, and of other countries, and is, therefore, an important branch of agricul tural attention. The preparation of the juice of apples is more particularly at tended to in the British empire, than that of any other fruit ; aml the few remarks on the general subject which our limits will permit will be confined to that fruit. The varieties of apples are entirely artifi cial, nature having produced only one species, which is the common crab. But different culture produces very great dif ferences, which are preserved by artifi cial propagation. The seeds of the finest flavoured apples among the native spe cies should be sown in seed beds, in an extremely rich soil ; and the as,sistanee of a frame, or even a stove, may be applied. In the first or second winter the plants should be removed to the nursery ; while they remain there, the intervals between them may be occupied with garden stuff, which should not, however, crowd or overshaderw them ; and weeds, whenever they appear, should he extirpated. In pruning, particular attention must be gi ven to the leader ; and, where there are two, the weakest of them must be cut off The undermost boughs should be gradually removed, and not all in one sea son. The height of the stein should he
seven feet, or seven and a halt, as the crops on a tree of this elevation are less exposed, and, indeed, the tree itself is less susceptible of injury. When they have attained five inches in girt, which they will do in seven or eight years, they may he safely planted out. Tillage is fa vourable, as the ground is thus stirred about them ; and, where cattle are per mitted to feed among them, they are apt to injure them, and, indeed, also to injure themselves after the trees begin to bear, by the fruit sticking in their throats ; on which account apple grounds, not in til lage, should be eaten bare before the sea son of gathering. Apple trees should be carefully cleared of a redundance of wood, which intercepts the free circulation of the air. They should be kept clear also of the misletoe, which is often extremely injurious. Moss likewise should never be permitted to incumber them. The failure of crops, in particular years, is often ascribed to what is called hut, to adopt more intelligible language, is probably imputable to the ex haustion of the trees by recent bear ings; to prevent or mitigate which ex haustion, the best application is that of care, to bestow upon them all the natu ral means of healthy and vigorous vege tation. Excess of bearin„m, however, will inevitably impair streugth. Grafting- in the boughs, and when they are fully grown thinning the branches, will prevent excessive produce, and may be consider ed as a very probable method of procu ring fruit in moderate quantities every year. As general management, with re spect to orchard grounds, it is a judici ous rule to plant, for such, a broken up worn out sward, keeping it under arable till the trees have attained tolerable growth, when it may with advantage be laid down to grass, and be permitted to remain in that state till the trees are final ly removed. After one set of graft-stocks on the stem have become effete, a second has been successfully applied : and thus, though the effect of age will at length prove fatal, the hearing of trees has been often very long protracted. The pear tree is of much longer duration than the apple. Both should he extirpated with out reluctance, when their produce no longer compensates for tke ground occu pied by them.