332 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[^November, 



turnl Society," were not whitewashed with a 

 view of preventing blight, but to clean the burk, 

 it acting apparently on the same principle, and 

 perliaps nearly as well, as a wash of soap and 

 water. The whitewash was applied early in 

 Spring eaih year on the trunks and large 

 branches with a coninion whitewash brush, and 

 I do not consider it had any eflect on the trees 

 blighting, either one way or another. Some 

 Lawrence trees that had formerly been entirely 

 exempt from blight, were attacked and ruined in 

 1870, the year of second application. 



THE NORTHERN RANGE OF WALNUT 

 GROWING. 



BY MR. ROBT. COIT, XKW LONDON, CONN. 



In a late number of the Gardener's Monthly 

 some one inquires how far north the English 

 "Walnut will mature its fruit. I have this tree in 

 my garden here, which bears and ripens nuts 

 every year. This year the crop is larger than 

 ever before, amounting, I should think, to 1| or 

 2 pecks. The tree is at least twenty-five years 

 old, and has been in bearing some eight years. 

 It is sheltered on the north and west by build- 

 ings. But in the garden adjoining mine is 

 another English Walihut tree, exposed in all di- 

 rections. It is an older tree than mine, and has 

 ripened crops of nuts, more or less sparsely, for 

 twenty years. The latitude of New London is 

 47° 21^ north. 



APRICOTS IN CALIFORNIA. 



BY " BERYL,'" SAN DIEGO, CAL. 



In the Gardener's Monthly for July, 1877, I see 

 a short article— " Apricots in California" — 

 speaking of the failure of said fruit there this 

 year, which suggests, the " curculio " as being the 

 possible cause of the failure. 



I have been over eight years hi the nursery 

 business in this State, and have never seen or 

 heard of said pest yet. 



Peaches and apricots are almost a total failure 

 south of San Francisco this year, and although 

 many seem in doubt as to the cause, I have but 

 little doubt that the unusual hot weather in Janu- 

 ary was the v?ause of it, the thermometer stand- 

 ing at 80° to 87° in the shade for a good part of 

 three or four days. The bloom-buds on my 

 peach trees swelled as though they were going to 

 bloom, and the chilly weather afterwards stop- 



ping the flow of the sap killed the fruit, I believe. 

 Most of the peach trees remained dormant from 

 the middle until the last of June. Many of the 

 limbs have died about half back, but now the 

 new growths are (luite vigorous in most of the 

 trees, but some of the trees that are leaving out 

 are dried on one side as though scorchetl by fire. 

 What do you think is the cause of failure, if I 

 am wrong? 



Some five years ago I had an orange tree com- 

 pletely girdled by cut worms, which grew more 

 than two feet afterwards, but withered as though 

 it had been cut off" as soon as the upward flow of 

 sap ceased. The puzzle to me is how the thing 

 could grow after being girdled. 



[A layer of wood is formed annually. The 

 new wood each year is generated from the wood 

 of the last. These annual layers are alive for 

 seveial years, varying according to the kind. 

 Sometimes the act of girdling kills these usually 

 living layers at once — the trees die ; but some- 

 times they live, and their crude sap will be 

 drawn up for several years — as long as they live 

 — enabling all above the girdled part to keep in 

 growth for that time. — Ed. G. M.] 



GRAPE CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



BY JOHN DONN, FOREMAN TO P. HENDERSON, 

 JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS, N. J. 



I read your paper, one copied from the London 

 Jonrnal of Horticulture. The writer's practical 

 suggestion holds good in some points ; in others 

 my experience differs. I will therefore reply to 

 the remarks as arranged, which begin — Thin- 

 ning the^shoots : I disbud when the eyes have 

 pushed about an inch, and remove all but one, 

 the strongest. I infer that if it don't produce a 

 bunch the weaker ones will not. Crowding the 

 wood in fruit trees is injurious, equally so is 

 thinning, to the same extent as practiced in 

 Great Britain. Sun and light is stronger, and 

 more foliage is required to keep from scorching. 

 I find no difficulty in thoroughly ripening the 

 wood in a cold grapery, as far north as New 

 York. Stopping the shoots : My plan, and one 

 I also find answers well, is to pinch every shoot, 

 sometimes three or four eyes above the bunch 

 and even more if tliere is any show for the leaf 

 to develop without overcrowding. Also, in pinch- 

 ing the lateral shoots, I leave two or three eyes 

 instead of one, but am always careful toward the 

 middle of October to thin out gradually as the 



