PLUM, APRICOT AND NECTARINE. 



505 



w3. The finest Scarlet Verbenas. 



B. Bourbon Roses. 



C. Hebe Petunias. 



D. Bengal Roses. 



E. The finest "White Verbenas. 



F. Tea Roses. 



G. The finest large Purple Petunias. 

 H. Noisette Roses. 



To give additional variety and effect we 

 would sow, every spring, the seeds of the 

 following annuals, of dwarf growth, be- 

 tween the roses in the four largest beds, so 

 as to completely cover the surface of the 

 same, viz : 



B. With Portulaccas, purple, scarlet and white. 



D. With Sweet Alyssura. 



F. With Nemophila insignis and Mignonette. 



H. With Convolvulus minor. 

 This little design would, though com- 

 posed of such limited materials, have at all 

 times a gay and charming effect. It will 

 not be too late to carry it into execution 

 even when this number appears ; and if the 

 beds are pretty thickly planted, (the roses 

 turned out of pots,) its effect will begin to 

 be enjoyed in a few weeks, and the whole 

 will be in full beauty during the latter part 

 of the summer, and the entire autumn. 



HOW TO MAKE THE PLUM,. APRICOT AND NECTARINE HOLD THEIR FRUIT. 



BY A PENNSYLVANIA SUBSCRIBER. 



[The following mode of treating the plum, 

 and other stone fruit trees, is not entirely 

 new to us, as we have had similar success- 

 ful accounts of trials on a smaller scale, 

 from other portions of the country, and think 

 very favorably of the plan adopted by our 

 correspondent. Ed.] 



I believe there are many parts of the 

 courftry where the finer stone fruits, the 

 plum, the apricot and the nectarine, are 

 of little value, because they seldom mature 

 a good crop of fruit. At least, this is the 

 case in the mellow sandy soil which I cul- 

 tivate, and in many parts of New- Jersey 

 and Pennsylvania. 



The trees grow as finely as any one could 

 wish, blossom abundantly, and set good 

 crops of fruit ; but such is the power of the 

 wily little eneny, the curculio, which stings 

 the young fruit just after the blossom falls, 

 that often not one in a thou?and escapes, 

 and the poor fruit cultivator has the morti- 

 fication of seeing a handsome crop all tum- 

 ble to the ground before they, the plums, 

 are two-thirds grown. 



Vol. n. 64 



Looking upon this as a very great and 

 serious evil, I want to lay before you my 

 practice, which I have fully satisfied myself 

 of the value of, in raising good crops every 

 year of these stone fruits, where, in the 

 common garden or orchard, they are a com- 

 plete failure. 



About ten years ago my attention was 

 drawn to a plum tree in my neighborhood, 

 which was rather celebrated as the only one 

 that bore large crops of beautiful plums for 

 several miles round. It stood behind the 

 garden of a farmer, and just between two 

 large hog pens. I might say, indeed, in 

 the midst of a pen ; as there was hardly a 

 space of two feet between the pens in which 

 the tree grew. Well, this tree, as I have 

 said, was loaded with the finest imaginable 

 fruit, and the curculio did not appear to at- 

 tack it in the least, while no other plum 

 trees, on the premises, bore any crops of 

 fruit except the common preserving damson. 



Drawing the inference, that the swine 

 destroyed or drove away the curculio, I im- 

 mediately set about putting the informa- 



