THE CURCULIO— COVERING GRAPE BORDERS. 



301 



«ng or subsoiling is imperative ; and we have 

 seen astonishing results, where places for 

 trees twelve feet broad and five feet deep 

 have been prepared for them. If any one 

 •of our readers will take the trouble to watch 

 an elm tree making its growth next season, 

 he will notice that, if the season is moist 

 and cool, the shoots will continue to lengthen 

 till past mid-summer; but if, on the con- 

 trary, the season is a dry one, all growth 

 will be over by the middle of June. Why 

 does the growth cease so early in the sea- 

 son ? Simply because the moment the 

 moisture in the soil fails, and the roots feel 

 the effects of the sun, the terminal buds 

 form at the end of each shoot, and then all 

 growth for the season is over. Deepen the 

 soil, so that the roots go on growing in its 

 -cool moist depths, and the tops will go on 

 lengthening despite the power of the sun ; 

 nay, so long as there is moisture, by the 

 help of it. And hence, the length of time 

 which an ordinary tree will continue to 



grow, depends mainly on the depth of the 

 soil in which it is planted. 



If any skeptic wishes to be convinced of 

 the effects of deep and rich soil upon the 

 luxuriance of a plant, he has only to step 

 into a vinery, like that in Clinton Point, 

 (described in our October number,) and see, 

 with his own eyes, the same sorts of grape, 

 which in common soil, even under glass, 

 usually grow but six or eight feet high in a 

 season, and with stems like pipe-stems, grow- 

 ing twenty or thirty feet in a single season, 

 with stems of the thickness of a man's 

 thumb, and ripening delicious fruit in 14 

 months after being planted. Now, exactlv 

 the same effect may be produced by deep- 

 ening and enriching the soil, where the 

 elm or any other hardy ornamental tree is 

 to be planted ; and we put it thus plainly to 

 some of our readers, who are impatient of the 

 growth of trees, that they may, if they choose, 

 by a little extra pay, have more growth in 

 three years than their neighbors do in ten. 



A NOTE ON THE CURCTTLIO, AND ON COVERING GRAPE BORDERS. 



BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND, BURLINGTON, N. J. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — I perceive that Mr. 

 Longworth is shocked at my presumption, 

 in basing an opinion upon a single year's 

 experience. If I asserted more than my 

 experience will sustain, I will plead guilty 

 to his charge ; but on looking over my let- 

 ter (which he has ridiculously misquoted,) 

 I find no assertions made, except that paving 

 is not always a preventive of the curculio, 

 and that the insects are often of a wander- 

 ing habit ; and as I plainly state my rea- 

 sons for coming to these conclusions, it is 

 in every reader's power to judge for him- 

 self of their value. 



Mr, L., however, asserts that the safety 



of the pavement arises from the instinct of 

 the insect, which will not deposit its egg 

 over a pavement, because the young, when 

 they fall to the ground, would be unable to 

 secure winter quarters. 



If this is true, how comes it that my 

 whole crop was destroyed when the ground 

 was paved, as I described, in such a man- 

 ner that it was impossible the insects of 

 the previous year could have come out of 

 the ground under the tree ? Did instinct 

 tell them that the pavement would be re- 

 moved before another year ? 



Of the utility of paving, in some cases, I 

 have no doubt j as I know of plum trees in 



