THE FARM ANU GARDEN, 



We give place to a letter by Mr. J. H. Baugh- 

 xnan, on grafting. When such articles come 

 from practical men like Mr. Baughman, we are 

 glad to insert them, even if they differ from our 

 views. The Farm and Garden is a practical 

 paper. We believe in facts and not theories, and 

 believe in letting each one have his say. We 

 claim the publication of the new feature in grafting, 

 to which he refers, to be original with us, and 

 until we received his letter, in all our reading we 

 never saw it recommended. The idea of placing 

 the graft with the " top to lean out a little " we 

 find in practice, to make the graft, in top graft- 

 ing, liable to blow off in heavy winds. We think 

 the bud plan we advise meets all the require- 

 ments he recommends, and makes a firmer 

 union. We place our grafts, not from the side, 

 AS usually done, but from the tup, looking down- 

 wards, and can always see if the wood is even, 

 "Which will be the ease if it is even at top of the 

 stock and the graft set in line with the stock. 

 We want all the facts, so do our large class of in- 

 telligent readers. 



Look well to the Round-headed Apple Borers. 

 They make their appearance as perfect beetles 

 this month, after a three-years' existence in the 

 larval state in the tree. We obtained some apple 

 trees of a local nurseryman and found a few 

 borers in them. We thought we had caught all 

 "When set, but we find a few this spring almost 

 ready to leave the tree. They are all destroyed 

 at once, but it is expensive, and takes time to 

 find them. Better spend ten dollars now than 

 have the orchard infested with borers, from 

 which we hope to be always exempt. We advise 

 for the borer a wash of one pound of caustic soda 

 to a gallon of water. Use a brush or a rag 

 fastened to a stick, and thoroughly wash the 

 body of the trees with the solution, especially 

 near the roots, at least two or three times during 

 the summer. The eggs are deposited in June 

 and July, and the soda wash kills the j'oung 

 worms before they enter the tree. We gave a 

 good receipt last year for the borer, as our old 

 readers will remember. 



D. E. Hoxie, in the Fa)in and Home, writes 

 that he sowed a bushel and a half of salt on five 

 plum trees, ten years old, the crop of plums 

 were always destroyed by the curculio. The salt 

 killed all the grass under the trees, and he sup- 

 posed the trees were killed also. The next spring 

 they bloomed profusely, and bore a full crop of 

 plums free from curculio, the first crop for years. 

 He thinks the salt killed the worms in the 

 ground when they were changing from worms 

 to the perfect insect. We hope some of our 

 readers will try salt, which should be done now, 

 before the worms leave the fallen plums to enter 

 the ground. This they always do to undergo 

 their change from, worms to the beetle state. If 

 salt is just applied of course it will not keep the 

 curculios away this year, and make a crop of 

 plums, but will kill the crop of the curculios 

 that will kill the plums next year. Randolph 

 Peters also claims that the use of a peck of salt, 

 and from a half bushel to a bushel of ashes will 

 make full crops of plums. We hope our readers 

 will try this plan, and let us know if successful 

 or not. We want practical experiments. Spread 

 the salt evenly over the entire ground. 



Kditor Farm and Garden : 



I notice your article on "Cleft-Rafting" in the 

 number for April, The best way of scarfing and 

 inserting the graft or scion is the one you have 

 there described. I used to scarf and set them 

 precisely as you have described forty years ago. 

 I thought them surer to live and grow, and in 

 addition to the advantages you mention, they 

 seemed to secure a firmer and much earlier hold 

 on the stump than in the older way of setting. 

 Our old-fashioned .September gales were often 

 hard upon the first season's growth; so likewise 

 the loads of snow and ice of the first winter. 



Some always split the stump in a vertical di- 

 rection, so that if the cement cracks and lets in 

 water on the top of the cleft, it may find its way 

 out on the under side, consequently the under 

 scion or branch was much the oftener broken 

 down, sometimes after it began to bear. If both 

 scions are to be allowed to grow, I think the hori- 

 zontal cleft the better way. This applies only to 

 trees of many stumps projecting various angles 

 with the horizontal. 



I observe that many people prune their apple 

 trees in February and March, just when there is 

 the most freezing and thawing going on, and 

 when they will bleed, if ever. If only small, 

 thrifty branches were cut it would not be of seri- 

 ous moment. I never cut a partly-dead branch 

 of any size unless the tree is growing. I think it 

 best in full foliage. The wood then generally be- 

 comes hard, and the healing process begins at 

 once. If one desires his trees to have nesting- 

 holes for birds, the March operation is, by far, 

 the best. 

 Tj/ngsborough, Mass. A. M. Swain. 



J. B. Rogers, in a paper read before the New 

 Jersey Horticultural Society, divides straw- 

 berries into three classes, in respect to the need 

 of special fertilizer tor each class. Mr. Rogers 

 experimented four years, and finds that the 

 *' Primo, Triomphe de Grand, Bidwell, and Sharp- 

 Jess constitute a class that make the greatest 

 -development in fruit and flower with barn-yard 

 manure and commercial manures poor in potash, 

 ■Class second, those that grow to greater perfec- 

 tion by the addition ol potash to the manures 

 already named ; of this class are the Miner and 

 Seth Boyden No, 30. Cla.ss third includes the 

 ■Cumberland and Charles Downing, which seems 

 to grow under any special manure equally as 

 well, and appear indifferent to any special ferti- 

 lizer." Do we not find here the reason that varie- 

 ties of berries are variable in different soils, 

 because of the absence or presence of the special 

 fertilizer the variety demands? We shall have 

 more to say about this fertilizer question, and 

 the capacity of feeding of the strawberry. 



Last year we tried Paris green on pears for the 

 curculio and pear-tree slugs, using a teaspoonful 

 of Paris green to a Yankee pailful of water, and 

 sprayed every other tree with a hand force-pump 

 when the pears were as large as buckshot. The 

 alternate trees were full of slugs and the pears 

 were knotty and wormy, while those that were 

 Paris greened, except where too freely used, the 

 foliage was perfect and the pears free from 

 worms, very smooth and fine. The difference 

 was very apparent. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



By Matinla B. ''h<t<t>(ork-, Vt-rmont HI. 



** Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen; it will 

 take six more boxes to fill this crate. Hurry up 

 Tots, and bring them !" 



It is in the height of strawberry season; the 

 fifteen pickers, in among tlie vines, are picking 

 oft the luscious berries, one by one, and putting 

 them in the clean, sweet-smelling boxes, and 

 the little girls. May and Gay, carry them to 

 Aunt Nancy, who, under the shade of the Scotch 

 pine, is putting them in the crates and fastening 

 down the lids. 



Eight O'clock and the picking is all done; and 

 away we go to the depot, to send tht m off on the 

 train, and at noon, people fifty miles away will 

 be eating our freshly-picked strawberries, with 

 the dew still on them. 



It makes lively work, but we like to make 

 things hum, and after the berries are on the 

 train we can straightenour backs and rest a little. 



And such flush times as we have as long as 

 the berries last. Strawberries and cream, straw- 

 berry short-cake, strawberry pie, and stewed 

 strawberries. Some of us are getting so " tony " 

 that we have our berries set on the table in the 

 boxes and we pick off the burs and sugar and 

 cream them to suit our fancy without any wilt- 

 ing or mashing. Others of us want them "fixed" 

 and set away for the sugar to melt and make lots 

 of juice; while still others of us like them best 

 stewed. And don't our appetites for strawberries 

 last though ? We get tired of egg when eggs are 

 cheap ; we get stalled on chickens when chickens 

 are plenty ; and we get tired over and over again 

 of potatoes and beans; but we can eat straw- 

 berries three times a day for four weeks with 

 never a murmur. 



And I do believe it makes us good-natured to 

 live on strawberries. It looks reasonable that 

 eating so much acid, would work off the bile and 

 leave the liver in good order, and healthy livers 

 make good-tempered people the world over. 



Water newly-set trees well. 



Salt in small quantities is good for most trees, 

 especially quinces and plums. Too freely used 

 will kill the trees. 



Use the pruning knife daily to keep young 

 trees of all kinds in shape. Easier to shape 

 them now than later. 



Do not cultivate quinces too deeply. Their 

 roots are all near the surface. Deep plowing 

 Injures them. The richer the ground the larger 

 and more prolific the quince. Mulching is 

 better than cultivation. 



The fruit prospect is not very flattering. Straw- 

 berries are very late and are injured by the past 

 severe winter. Blackberry and raspberry canes 

 are injured and weakened from the same cause. 

 Apples are not promising. There are many trees 

 killed outright, and others are so weakened that 

 the apples will drop before maturing. Pears ap- 

 pear to promise well, and peaches, except in 

 some parts of the Mississippi Valley, promise a 

 fair crop of fruit. The indications are that 1885 

 will not be a fruit year. 



We saw recommended in an English paper 

 that alum dissolved in water and sprayed on 

 gooseberry bushes would kill or drive away the 

 currant worm. We tried jt thoroughly last year, 

 and found it of no use whatever. The goose- 

 berries stood near where we sprayed a pear tree 

 for the curculio, and some of the Paris-green 

 water fell on the bushes and the worms were at 

 once all poisoned, and the bushes grew finely, 

 while where the alum water was used the worms 

 grew finely and ate all the leaves. Do not use it 

 for gooseberries. 



The reader will see that we recommend one 

 pound of Paris green to one hundred gallons of 

 water (about 800 pounds); not as most of our 

 contempories do, give one part of Pai-is green to 

 seven or eight hundred parts its bulk of water. 

 Since Paris green is very heavy by bulk, you 

 would have, perhaps, one part of Paris green to 

 less than twelve gallons of water. Were it possi- 

 ble to so mix it the trees would be all killed by it. 

 We are always sure of our advice being right 

 before we offer it to our readers. The reader 

 always can depend upon our information as 

 practical, not theoretical. 



A writer in the Farm, Field and Stockman re- 

 commends driving tlie tree full of nails to pro- 

 duce fruitfulness. Should our readers try it, be 

 sure and do so on some neighbor's tree. It would 

 also be well to borrow the nails for such a simple 

 experiment,. Those who are so superstitious as 

 to believe such nonsense have had misfortune 

 enough already, and should lay a part of the 

 burden on some more fortunate neighbor and 

 his apple trees. We say, do not be foolish. For 

 the tree that does not produce we advise steel, 

 not iron, and in the form of a sharp axe is best. 

 Then at the proper season plant a fruitful variety. 



Strawberry Raspberry, Blackberry. 

 Currants, Grapes. 



InHuiliniZtli.- n|.i [. .(..■,1 ;uiilii.-w varieties. 

 May Klne. Miirlboro. KurW I'Iua- 

 t-er, Fny. XliiEuro, t'omet, KlefTer. 

 Peach Tref«. Ac. >fnd for Ciita- 



^7."! JOHN S.COLLINS, 



MOORESTOWN, N. J. ' 



SOS- 5, 



STRAWBERRIES ! 



May Kiiit; U>r thp best early, Cniinet'ticiit ({iieen 

 for latP. i^larlboi'O ami Kaiioorji"* K !ispb<>rrie!!i. 

 Wilson Jr. BlackbeiTy. CATALOtiUK sent tree. 

 SAMlIEIi C\ DE cor, Moerestown, N. J. 



EIVJ AGAR A WHITE GRAPE. MARLBORO Raapberry. 

 H. S. Anderson. Union Springs. N.Y!^ Catalogaeyrga 



Locust Grove Nurseries. 



Choice Tref^s. Vines and Plants. All the newvarietiea. 

 Manchester Strawberries. Hansell Raspberries. Kieffer 

 Pear Ttees. Peach Trees a specialty. Large stock 

 and low prices. Send for circular to 



J. BRAY, Red Bank N. J. 



RED, ULSTER PROL.lt^'ir. and Duchess Grapci. 



Send to the originators for description and tPrms. 



A. J, CAYWOOD & SONS, Marlboro, New York. 



Also -'How to Use a Razor. 



WHERE DID WE GET THE IDEA? 



you ! we pick up ideas from every source. 

 The "boys" tell us 

 what they want. This 

 knife has 3 blades, as 

 shown; they are 

 keen, strong, sensi- 

 ble. Price, by mail, 

 ?1 ; 3 for 82.50. 6 for 

 ?^.fiO. Heavy li-blade 

 knife, 50 cts.: Ladies' 

 50 cts.; boys' 25 cts. 

 Pruning knife, .50 cts. 

 to 81. 48-page list free. 

 MAHER ^ GROSH, 76 Smnmit Street, Toledo. Ohio. 



