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DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



flEDGES OF THE THnEE-THOKNF.D AfAflA. 



The Thorny Acacia (Gledilsrhia triacnnthim) has 

 been recommernled to mc for a hedge. What is 

 your opinion of it / I can procure seeds of it 

 in abundance, and I understand they will produce 

 a hedge much more quickly than the Hawthorn. 

 Yours. S. M. Cincinnati, 0., iM6- 



We cannot recommend the Threc-lhorned Aca- 

 cia, where a really g^ood and permanent he<lg:e is 

 desired. It prows very rapidly, and its foliage is 

 very ornamental; but its habit is so coarse, and its 

 growth so rampant, that it is almost impossible to 

 keep it within due bounds, and form it into a real- 

 ly compact hedge. If only a loose and picturesque 

 barrier is desired by our correspondent, then it 

 will do perfectly well. Uut if he desires a com- 

 pact and durable hedge, he had better em])loy the 

 Ruckthom, or some of our native thorns. Our 

 friend, the late Judge Buel, was quite partial to 

 this plant, and strongly recommended it for hedges. 

 By his persuasion mainly, we jdanted about 600 

 feet, eight or ten years ago, in excellent soil. The 

 hedge is a flourishing one, but neither trimming, 

 shearing nor plashing, succeeded in making a close 

 and satisfactory hedge. — Ed. 



The Lenoir amd the Herbemont Grapes. — 

 In your "• Fruits and Fruit Trees," you do not de- 

 cribe the Herbemont Grape. Is this because you 

 suppose it synonymous with the Lenoir ? I ob- 

 tained from Mr. Herbemont both these varieties, 

 and always, till this season, felt certain they were 

 not the same. I still incline to this opinion. But 

 one of my vine-dressers, who has grown both for 

 Beven years, believes them the same. I have al- 

 ways supposed the Lenoir made double the wood 

 of the Herbemont, and produced the most compact 

 bunch of grapes. Can the Lenoir be a native ? It 

 is as hardy as the Winter Grape (Frost Grape), and 

 as a table grape hardly to be surpassed by any fo- 

 reign variety. The fruit of the two (if they are 

 two) is of equal quality. I have thought the Le- 

 noir wine inferior to the Herbemont. iV. Long- 

 zuorth, Cincinnati, 0. 



Remarks. — We supposed these two grapes iden- 

 tical, when we wrote our work on Fruits. Both 

 these sorts are still very rare, indeed are scarcely 

 known in our collections at the east; and we have 

 yet had no very good opportunity of comparing 

 them, but hope to do so the coming September. 

 Since our last number, we have tasted a bottle of 

 the Herbemont wine from I\Ir. Longworth. It pos- 

 sesses a very delicious bouquet, and high and pecu- 

 liar flavor, and was pronounced, by a friend who 

 is a connoisseur, to be a wine of very high cha- 

 racter. — Ed. 



Coal Tar. — We have recommended the coal of 

 the gas works as an application to the stems of 

 fruit trees, near the ground, in order to prevent 

 mice from girdling them in winter. We observe, 

 in the Okio Cultivator} that a correspondent says, 



he ajiplied it to some trees in a young peach or- 

 chard, and it destroyed the trees. 



Now we have seen this coal tar applied to at 

 least 500 trees for three successive winters, anil 

 with the most satisfactory results. In England it 

 is largely usetl in parks and preserves, ui)on all 

 kinds of small shrubs, to jirotect them against the 

 domestic hare, and we have never heard a com- 

 I)laint. 



It is therefore very evident, cither that the cor- 

 respondent in question did not use tar from the gas 

 works, but some stronger kind of tar, or that he 

 used it in an inordinate quantity. The coal tar of 

 some of the iron manufactories is very strong; 

 either it or common tar,if very liberally used, would 

 cause the death of tentler young trees. But the 

 gas works tar is thin, and but little of it will ad- 

 here to the bark at a single application. Where 

 this cannot be used, we have known common tar 

 to be applied with the same good results, after 

 being mixed with one third lard. 



There are always some experimenters who fail 

 from thinking " if a little of a thing is good, more 

 must be better." Hundreds of cultivators in this 

 country burnt up their crops with iruano, last sea- 

 son, by applying too much, anil therefore forever 

 after have foresworn this manure. 



So too with the mixture of salt and saltpetre, 

 recommended not long ago in the agricultural jour- 

 nals as a fertilizer for the peach tree. A writer, 

 in the Transactions of the Cincinnati Horticultural 

 Society, who gives his experience with it, in an 

 orchard of four hunilred sickly trees, says, after 

 applying it, in the course of a few months the 

 trees gave evidence of renewed life. He adds in 

 a note, "a number of individuals in the vicinity 

 of this city, having fine young orchards, destroyed 

 many of their trees, by applying the remedy too 

 freely i" 



Neither coal tar, nor guano, nor saltpetre, nor, 

 in short, any thing else that is a powerful agent, 

 can be used with the prodigality of air and water. 

 Unless peoi)le can use them with some judgment, 

 they had better not meddle with them. A burnt 

 child dreads the fire, while a Humboldt finds in 

 this element the moving cause of life, beauty and 

 order, in the whole material universe. 



Knight's Sweet Currant. — This variety has 

 borne fruit with us, and we observed a dozen 

 strong plants, well laden with fruit in the well 

 stocked nursery of Mr. James Wilson, Albany. 



It is much less acid than the common Red or the 

 Red Dutch Currant. I\Ir. Wilsim considers it a 

 great acquisition. Mr. W., in company with us, 

 compared it in flavor with different varieties then 

 in bearing, and we decided, that as regarded its 

 flavor, it very closely resembles the While Dutch 

 currant, being just about as acid as that variety, 

 which is the most agreeable in point of flavor of 

 all currants. The colour is a paler red than the 

 Red Dutch 



