SECKETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 343 



drainage or otherwise as well as lie can, gives what shelter he can from cold 

 dry winds, plants the very hardiest and most enduring and fruitful sorts that 

 he can find hy observing through his neighborhood, and then lets them have 

 their own way in shaping their growth, especially avoiding every sort of stim- 

 ulus to unseasonable growth which cannot fully ripen. 



The quince is a tree, or rather a bush, that endures the trials of our climate 

 very illy. Wo can give it the rich open mould that its fibrous roots want, and 

 we can keep them above the line of stagnant water, but the parching winds 

 that occasionally sweep almost our whole territory are too much for its open- 

 textured bark and soft wood. Within the influence of the Gulf Stream vapor 

 on the east coast and probably in the humid air and sheltered valleys of Ore- 

 gon and Washington Territory it may prove reliable. A grower — U. B., West 

 Creek, N. J. — describes in tlie Brickshurg Twies and Joiirncd how he has 

 secured a good crop on part of his trees. He let only one stem grow, and 

 thinned or stopped both shoots and first blossoms until the tree had great 

 vigor. He then bent and tied down the branches in August. He applied 

 lime slaked with brine to the soil, and earthed up the collar. This is good 

 tre atment for a good locality. In England they train currant bushes to sin- 

 gle stems. In nearly all parts of our country it would be as vain and useless 

 to train the quince in that way as the currant. There is in that case only one 

 string to the bow — which is sure to give way within two or three years, and 

 then what is there left ? — N, Y. Trihune. 



MULCHING AND CULTIVATION. 



THE VALUE OF LEAVES. 



The time has come when the value of fallen leaves for littering stables, 

 mulching the ground and protecting tender plants is better understood. For 

 littering stables they have one great advantage over straw. Their broad sur- 

 face and the stratified position in which they always arrange themselves not 

 only exclude cold currents of air, but render them more perfect non-conduct- 

 ors, and exclude the cold better than other similar substances. They make a 

 fine soft bedding for horses; and as a component part of manure are not so 

 coarse as straw and soon decay, giving a fine texture to the compost they form. 

 They impart similar advantages when used as a mulch, namely, lightness of 

 covering and perfect protection. For covering tender plants they are pecu- 

 liarly fitted, being always so dry as not to suffocate or rot the plant, and the 

 thin plates of air interposed between them entirely exclude the frost if suffi- 

 cient depth is given. 



A gardener has had remarkable success with roses, the tender kind, which he 

 kOeps through the winter in open ground by a thorough covering with leaves. 

 AVlien a foot in thickness, with a few brandies of evergreens on the top to pre- 

 vent them blowing away, no frost can penetrate them. Many farmers have a 

 large supply of leaves in their woods and hollow places; the wind will some- 

 times sweep them into heaps two or three feet in thickness, and they may be 



