DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



$1$ 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Pruning Arbor Vitj:. — W. L. Vanderburgh, 

 (Fultonville, N. Y.) No tree will bear pruning or 

 shearing better than tliis evergreen. We have 

 cut off the tops of hundreds two or three feet 

 each, without injury, and improvmg the growth 

 Cor a hedge. You had belter shorten the tops of 

 your new planted lines, and cover the earth over 

 the roots with straw, litter, shavings, or any other 

 mulching, to keep the roots moist and cool. 



Summer Transplanting. — G. A. Brush, (De- 

 troit.) The trench referred to by Mr. Perkins, 

 (vol. 1, p. 171,) as three or four inches wide, may 

 be made as much wider as you please — as that is 

 not material — only the wider the trench the more 

 water will be required to fill it. 



Strawberries. — J. H., (Albany.) The vari- 

 ety you have sent us the drawing and description 

 of, appears to be the Grove-end Scarlet — a stand- 

 ard English variety. E. R. J., (Philadelphia.) 

 Elton is a delicious late strawberry — but wants 

 ample cultivation — a deep, rich soil, and rather 

 shady site — say the north side of a fence. It ripens 

 a week after the strawberry season. You don't 

 succeed with strawberries, because your soil is 

 worn out. Trench it three feet deep, and manure it 

 heavily with stable manure while trenching it, and 

 you will get as fine crops as your neighbors. To 

 obtain good crops of the Alpine in September, you 

 must have damp soil, made rich and deep, and 

 you must destroy all the blossoms that appear in 

 the spring. You can then gather a fine crop of 

 fruit in the autumn. If you have no straw to pro- 

 tect the fruit, use instead the short grass that you 

 mow from your lawn. 



Vegetables — A Vermont Subscriber. Your 

 season is not quite long enough for the okra or to- 

 mato, but you may succeed very well with both 

 these vegetables by starting them early upon pie- 

 ces of sods, turned upside down, a little soil put 

 over them, and the seeds sown thereon — the whole 

 protected by a simple frame, with any old sashes, 

 if you have no hot-bed lights, in the same way as 

 melons are started, (see page 480 of last vol.) 

 By planting them in this way, and by transplant- 

 ing them on the sods when all danger of frost is 

 over, you can get a good crop and add a month — 

 go far as these are concerned — to the length of 

 your season. 



Hardy Fruits. — D. H. Carley, (Barrington, 

 111.) We refer you, for lists of fruits that have 

 been proved valuable for cultivation in the extreme 

 northern states, to the proceedings of the Congress 

 of Fruit-growers, (which we have sent you by 

 mail.) See the reports of the committees for the 

 states of Vermont, Maine, Iowa, and with lists of 

 fruits order your trees from the east as early as 

 possible in the autumn. 



Verbenas. — i. C, (Richmond.) Your Verbe- 

 nas failed from having been attacked by insects — 

 the small gray ones you speak of at tho roots. 



Mix a little ashes with the soil of your beds, to 

 prevent it. It should have been done when tho 

 beds were made in the spring. " Brill's striata " 

 is a pretty American seedling, with llowcrs striped 

 somewhat like Van Houttc's phlox. 



Knots in Plum Trees. — A., (Long Island.) 

 Cut out the knots, down to the sound, healthy 

 wood, and wash the wounds with weak copperas 

 water. We have found this effectual. 



Vineries. — /. Wilson, (New York.) Never syr- 

 inge the vines while they are in bloom ; the most suc- 

 cessful cultivators do not syringe any more after the 

 blossoms open. The best time to plant a new vine- 

 ry is in May, but it may be done with success as 

 late as the middle of June. The vines, one or two 

 years old in pots, may be had of any of the lead- 

 ing nurserymen. Rely on Black Hamburgh, Chas- 

 selasof Fontainbleau, White and Grizzly Frontig- 

 nans and Muscat of Alexandria, for your principal 

 crop. Other sorts may be added for variety. W. 

 Hazzard. Your vines fail because your border is 

 exhausted. Fortunately, there is an easy remedy 

 for this, viz: watering it copiously with liquid ma- 

 nure. Prepare several hogsheads of it — an infu- 

 sion of barn-yard manure is the best; and apply 

 it plentifully, once every week, till August. 



Summer Green-Houss. — You may render your 

 green-house attractive and beautiful, instead of 

 " an ugly thing in summer," by filling it with 

 Fuchsias, Achimenes, Gloxinias, and other exqui- 

 site flowers, introduced within a few years past. 

 They should be allowed plenty of room, (about 

 three times as much as winter plants,) and the 

 glass partially shaded. Any of the leading grow- 

 ers will furnish you with a good collection of 

 these summer blooming exotics — taking the most 

 popular and showy sorts for a very moderate price 

 — the selection left to them. 



Apples.— H. R. Hart, (Utiea, N. Y.) The 

 apples were received in good order, but their name 

 is unknown to us. We advise you to send speci- 

 mens to the next Pomological Congress. W. W. 

 C. (Worcester.) Don't give up your orchard. 

 We have known trees as severely injured as yours 

 by the borer, entirely restored. Take out all the 

 insects immediately, or kill them by thrusting a 

 wire into their holes, and coat the trunk and prin- 

 cipal branches with a mixture of soft soap and to- 

 bacco water, immediately, to prevent a fresh de- 

 posit of eggs in the bark. 



Hardy Grapes. — A Constant Reader, (Tren- 

 ton, N. J.) The Isabella vines, which have been 

 planted two years, and ''won't grow vigorously," 

 may soon be brought to behave themselves, if you 

 will have the "suds" of the "weekly wash" poured 

 at their roots. Try it and see. 



Winter Cauliflowers. — A. M., (Baltimore.) 

 Sow seed of Walcheron cauliflowers, for winter 

 flowering, immediately, and plant them out;'as 

 soon as large enough. They need not show signs 

 of flowering, when you take them up at the end 



