41^ STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



anything left in the shape of cherries excepting the Morellos, and few peo- 

 ple care to eat them. The birds are no discriminators of flavor. They 

 little heed whether a cherry is ''iron-clad/' "gilt-edged " or merely for 

 "cooking purposes." To them a cherry is a cherry, and they flock to my 

 early Kichmonds and late Kentishes in devastating flocks and without the 

 slightest fear of my life-like dummies in the trees. To add to my grievances, 

 already of latter years the trees have blighted, not cracking in the bark only, 

 after the old fashion, but opening in great slits to the heart of the trunk. 

 A wound like this usually means death. The few remaining specimens that 

 serve to mark what was once a flourishing avenue of cherry trees now only 

 develop small yellow leaves and rarely form any new shoots. What is to be 

 done in such a case? They have had the best of care in former times, per- 

 haps have been treated too kindly, but having exhausted my list of remedies, 

 I respectfully ask for advice. 



PLUMS. 



Plum ox Peach — Josiah Hoopes is responsible for the following note : It 

 is strange how persistent the opponents of this system are, and yet with all the 

 theories advanced in favor of their views, they overlook one incontrovertible 

 fact — that plums budded on peach stocks, in many sections grow as thrifty, 

 bear as profusely, and are as long-lived as when worked on the plum root. In 

 some localities, especially on light and sandy soils, the former are not noticeably 

 superior, even succeeding perfectly where the latter proves a failure. In sight 

 of where I write is a small collection of plums budded on peach roots, 

 now some ten years planted, that have been fruiting for several seasons with 

 excellent success, and a more thrifty set of trees it would be difficult to find. 

 It is easy to form plausible theories to meet our views on almost any question, 

 but actual experience sometimes demolishes them. In reversing the system 

 and budding the peach on plum, very little good is affected, unless we make 

 an exception in favor of the dwarfer growth. Experiments, covering many 

 years, have demonstrated to my satisfaction that no substantial improvements 

 ever result from the union. Even in pots, peach on its own roots appears to 

 grow and fruit quite as well as when budded on healthy plum roots. The 

 "borers" must be kept out in either case, and "yellows" is as likely to attack 

 one as the other. 



Curculio Catchikg. — T. S. Gold in giving his experience with the Cur- 

 culio, says: It has been said that you cannot scare away the curculio; that 

 you must catch him and kill him; but if I have not scared him away from my 

 place, I have deceived him, and made him believe there was no place for him 

 to lay his eggs in the young plums. With very little trouble, say two hours' 

 trouble a year, in caring for the trees, I have been able to obtain a full supply 

 for my family, for the last ten or fifteen years, of some dozen varieties of 

 plums. The secret of success is to apply to the trees, soon after the calyx 

 falls, some mixture or substance, either liquid or powder, that shall so affect 

 the curculio that he will avoid the tree. There are two that I have used suc- 

 cessfully. One is to take the drainings of the barnyard, tbe liquid manure, 



