1878. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



341 



market? The Baldwin and Lady Parham are 

 nearl}^ gone. Both ripened last year middle of 

 October.''' 



[These were medium sized Peaches, Avith dry 

 firm flesh, and would no doubt be excellent 

 keepers. Where there would be a profitable de- 

 mand for Peaches at Cliristmas, such a late 

 character would be very valuable. — Ed. G. M.] 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Pears in the West, — An Indiana corres- 

 pondent, writes : "I have a fine crop of Pears. 

 Among the new varieties, the Mount Vernon is 

 fruiting the second time, and promises well, to 

 say the least. Bartlett, however, is the standard, 

 or rather most popular, but as it has to compete 

 with a heavy Peach crop, it does not bring a 

 very good price. Apples a fair crop. Grapes 

 poor." 



Grape Borders. — J. C. S., Normal School, 

 Hampton, Va., writes : "I have a lean-to green- 

 house twenty-four and a half feet long, and about 

 thirteen feet wide, in which I wish to force 

 Grapes. It is heated by steam pipes. One end 

 is against the dwelling. The outside border is 

 about four feet wide and two feet deep, and in it 

 are planted close to the brick wall of the green- 

 house, three Black Hamburg vines, four or five 

 3'ears old. They are not more than three feet 

 high, having made but little wood this season, 

 and the several irregular canes are not much 



thicker than one's finger. Will you kindly in- 

 form me through the pages of the Monthly, 

 how I may proceed in order to get Grapes in 

 cold weather, and also, how many vines I may 

 grow in such a house? There are two stages^ 

 one in front, one in the middle, and shelves, like 

 stairs, at the back. May I grow plants without 

 detriment to the vines before they are old enough 

 to fruit? As the vines are so old, I hope to get 

 fruit from them sooner than from young ones. 

 May I bring them through the brick wall, mulch- 

 ing them during Winter? If they are to be 

 treated as though they were young vines, they 

 might as well be taken up and planted inside. 

 In that case, the front stage would of course, 

 have to be removed." 



Grape vines three or four years old and not 

 over three feet high, must have something the 

 matter with them. What is the trouble cannot be 

 be gathered from our correspondent's commuica- 

 tion. Vines do better as a rule Avhen the roots 

 are in the outside border, than when the plants 

 are set inside. We should keep the plants out- 

 side, drawing the vines in through the wall. But 

 as the old ones have done so badly, would new 

 ones do any better ? Perhaps the roots are too 

 deep ; or the phylloxera may be injuring them. 

 As we remarked to another correspondent re- 

 cently, plants and Grape vines can be grown 

 together only where the gardener has very su- 

 perior skill and experience. It is an art that 

 cannot be taught, and the majority of even good 

 gardeners will fail in the attempt to learn it by 

 themselves. 



Forestry. 



COMMUNICA riONS. 



FELLING TREES. 



BY DR. A. FURNAS, DANVILLE, IND. 



Allow me to differ with your correspondent, 

 Margid Digram, in the September number of the 

 Gardener's Monthly, page 274. His plan of 

 digging up green trees and pulling them over 

 with a rope, looks well enough on paper, but 

 it is not practical for large tracts of land. First, 

 it will cost from two to fifty times more than the 



land is worth to rid it at once of stumps, and 

 when this is done, the diverging roots of many 

 kinds of timber are often mucli more in the way 

 of the plow than the stump. The Poplar, Beech,. 

 Elm, and Wliite and Black Walnut, are especi- 

 ally troublesome to plow any way near their 

 stumps. The common Gray Ash, also extends 

 its roots very near the top of the ground, but 

 they are so brittle that a team will ofien break 

 them two or three inches in diameter. Another 

 objection to his method is the serious injury to 

 the ground thus hastily brought into cultivation. 



