do not, but keep it there winter and summer, you will iiiid tlint it docs no more 

 pood timn blowing a<?ainst the wind — for the very plain reason that the bark 

 bei'oines tender at the top of the pile, instead of the surface of the ground, as 

 before. 



Some years ago a good deal was said in favor (»f itonring boiling wator al)ont 

 the neck* of ])each-trees. It was said to kill the worms and do no harm to the 

 tree. I am an advocate for this practice. I do not consider it, by any means, 

 60 tliorongh a means of ridding the tree of worms as "war to the knife"' is, but 

 still, it will in most cases do the job for them most effectually ; and many a tree 

 that stands near the kitchen door may be protected in this way by her who holds 

 the kettle for a weapon, as well as by the " regular army" of jtractical gardeners. 



Besides this, I have satisfied myself, by experiment (though I am sorry I have 

 not yet had time to get up the theory), that a good dose of hot water is a means 

 of bringing-to many a i)each-tree just about giving up the ghost. It seems to 

 rouse the vital powers; and if there is life enough left, a good scalding at the 

 neck seems to produce a reaction that is at times (juitc wonderful. 



Three years ago I had two trees, a peach and a favorite apricot, that had been 

 failing for a couple of seasons — often thought before that very serviceable trees. 

 They had been rather badly treated by the worm, to be sure, but that had been 

 attended to in time, and the roots ajjpeared to be in very fair condition. Still, 

 the trees dwindled, looked sickly, and bore little or no fruit. As a desperate 

 remedy, I resolved on a trial of hot water. I removed the soil directly round the 

 neck of the tree, making a basin three inches dee}) and twenty inches across. 

 Into this I poured twelve gallons of boiling water. 



To my great satisfaction the trees, instead of dying, immediately pushed out 

 vigorous shoots, took a healthy ajipearance, and made a fine growth of wood, and 

 have since borne two crops of delicious fruit. I experimented last year again, 

 with equal success, and now am ready, like old Dr. Sangrado, to prescribe hot 

 water in all desperate cases. Yours, 



AN OLD DIGGER. 



PROPAGATION BY MERE LEAVES. 



Richard Bradley, in the last century, pul)lished a translation from the Dutch 

 of Agricola, on the "Propagation of Plants by Leaves," in which it was asserted 

 that, by the aid of a mastic invented by the author, the leaves of any plant dipped 

 at the stalk end into this preparation, would immediately strike root ; the book 

 was adorned with copper-jjlates, exhibiting both the process and its result, in the 

 form of fields stock full of orange leaves growing into trees. 



This is absurd enough, yet it originated in the discovery that the mere leaves of 

 some plants will grow under special circumstances — a fact often supposed to be 

 much more rare than it is. Rochea falcata, the orange, the aucuba, and the fig, 

 are named, by Professor Morren, as instances of leaves which will multiply their 

 leaves; the power of Bryophillum to do the same thing, is a familiar example. 

 Echeverias grow immediately from the leaves that naturally fall off even its flower- 

 stalks. Hedwig found the leaves of the Crown Imperial, put into a plant-press, 

 produce bulbs from their surface. The Ornithogalum thyrsoideura, the Theo- 

 ])hrasta, the Cardamine pratensis, are said to be cultivated thus. Ferns, especially 

 the Woodwardia radicans, do the same. It is even said, by Turpin, that water- 



I mean by the neck the bottom of the trunk, just at the surface of the ground, where 

 roots start out. 



