ORCHARDS. 189 



writing. Four or five of the letters of each name are enough, 

 and numbers are quickly printed. 



6. Labels made of strips of old tea chest lead, old tin, zinc, or 

 sheet lead, cut wide at one end for marking, the other drawn to 

 a point and bent round a limb. The point may be run through 

 a hole in the label and clinched. 



7. For the use of the farmer, old tin, &c., may be used, and 

 the letters or figures made with a sharp pointed awl or punch, 

 by shaping them with little dots or holes. This is very simple 

 and durable. Fastenings — Stout twine will last a year. Nos. 

 20 to 23 anjiealed copper wire is far the most durable and 

 best fastening; but see it does not cut the limb. 



"A tree label that will not require too much trouble to 

 make it, and that will remain legible for a series of years, has 

 long been a desideratum among fruit-growers. It may be 

 that this is supplied by the simple zinc label written with a 

 common black-lead pencil. Several gentlemen inform us that 

 they have had labels of this kind remain legible for ten or 

 more years, and that though the writing makes but little show 

 when recently done, in time it becomes more distinct. We 

 suppose that the surface of the zinc just under the writing is 

 protected by the black-lead or plumbago of the pencil, and 

 that while the rest of the surface is oxidized by the action of 

 the weather this remains intact ; or it may be that the carbon — 

 the best black-lead is nearly pure carbon — unites in some way 

 with the zinc. The only objection we see to these labels is 

 the ease with which they may be effaced when the writing is 

 fresh, but a few weeks' exposure fixes it. The zinc is cut in 

 the form of an elongated triangle, the point of which, when 

 wrapped around a twig, will hold the label, and at the same 

 time expand as the tree increases in size. Mr. 0. D. Case 

 sends us a specimen of the labels he has found to be most ser- 

 viceable. He uses a tag of zinc, upon which he marks a 

 number, and then with an awl punches holes through the zinc, 

 following the outline of the number, as in the figure; the 

 roughness raised b}^ the punching is filed off. A number of 

 this kind has the advantage that it can be buried in the ground 

 with cuttings and scions without risk of being obliterated, but 



