LOW HEADED FRUIT TREES AND ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES. 



129 



Again, some years since, I planted a few 

 nectarine trees for espaliers against a high 

 fence, in a field where, so far as I know, 

 no fruit trees, subject to the curculio, had 

 ever before been grown ; and certainly, at 

 that time, there were none anywhere near 

 it. But my first and two succeeding crops 

 were completely destroyed, and I then 

 grubbed up the trees. Both these experi- 

 ments prove that, with us at least, the in- 

 sect is of a more enterprising nature than 

 those with which Mr. Allen had to deal, 

 which, perhaps, were of Dutch descent. 



At the convention in New- York last 

 year, Mr. Manice, of Long-Island, gave an 



interesting account of his success in guard- 

 ing against the curculio, by a high, tight 

 fence, — going to prove that they do not fly 

 high. I have heard a similar opinion ex- 

 pressed by a distinguished horticulturist in 

 this state ; and I hope by another season to 

 be able to give evidence on this question. 

 Truly yours, H. W. S. Cleveland. 



J Oatla.ids, Burlington, N. ■/•, Aug 14, 1^49. 

 



[Paving, as we before remarked, will 

 not answer in all cases. Where the curcu- 

 ! lio is not very abundant, it is a quite suffi- 

 j cient preventive. But, where the whole 

 I neighborhood is full of this insect, it fails. 

 I Ed.] 



LOW HEADED FRUIT TRESS AND ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES. 

 BY A NEW SUBSCRIBER, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Dear Sir — For the many gratifications I 

 have received from reading the highly in- 

 teresting, useful articles of yours in the 

 Horticulturist, I should like to give you a 

 good hearty shake of the hand. I have 

 thought many times of a word or two, 

 which I have desired to say for your read- 

 ers, but have thus far delayed the saying 

 for a more convenient season : but as you 

 have no lack of good correspondents, per- 

 haps you and I both are all the better for 

 the delay. But an article in your last (Au- 

 gust) number, from "A Pennsylvania Sub- 

 scriber," on the management of fruit trees, 

 has induced me to arrange a few ideas in 

 some kind of order for a page or two of 

 your magazine. Some articles by Prof. 

 Turner, upon the same subject, have been 

 very valuable. The more of such we have 

 the better. Let us have all the light and 

 truth possible upon the subject. 



I have long been trying to convince fruit- 

 growers, that it was much better to grow 



fruit trees with heads and branches near 

 the grovnd, than to have them branching 

 high over head, and this for various rea- 

 sons, 1st. The sun, which is, perhaps, in 

 our hot and dry summers, the cause of 

 more disease and destruction in fruit trees 

 than all other causes together, is kept from 

 almost literally scalding the sap, as it does 

 in long, naked trunks and limbs. The 

 limbs and leaves of a tree should always 

 effectually shade the trunk and keep it 

 cool. The leaves, only, should have plenty 

 of sun and light ; they can bear and profit 

 by it. If trees were suffered to branch out 

 low, say within one or two feet of the 

 ground, we should hear very much less of 

 " fire-blight," " frozen sap-blight," black 

 spots, and the like. 2d. The ground is 

 always looser, moister and cooler, under a 

 low branching tree than under a high one. 

 Grass and weeds do not grow a hundredth 

 part so rank and readily, and mulching be- 

 comes unnecessary. 3d. The wind has 



