MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS AT THE SOUTH. 



is more likely, after the nutriment has been elaborated by the appropriate organs, the 

 fibrous texture is destroyed to such a degree that the elaborated nutriment can not be car- 

 ried through the proper vessels to its destined places, and the tree therefore dies. The 

 excrescence insect seems to prefer the morello cherry tree to any other tree. I have seen 

 that tree, standing among young and vigorous plum trees, destroyed, while the plum trees 

 remained untouched. 



I have been acquainted with the wild plum tree for nearly half of a century, and I do 

 not remember to have seen an excrescence on any of them. The curculio generally des- 

 troys its fruit. A gall insect often preys on the wild plum and wild cherry also, convert- 

 ing both the plum and the cherry into large, irregular bladder-like masses. The wild 

 pliini tree does not grow so fast as the cultivated plum tree, but is much longer lived. I 

 have seen them more than a foot in diameter in this vicinity, and I think three quarters 

 of a century old. The cultivated plum, inocculated or ingrafted into the wild stock, 

 grows well. I recently measured a thorn tree in this vicinity, sixteen inches in diameter. 

 The apple tree ingrafted into the thorn, grows well here. Respectfully yours. 0. 



Owego, N. Y., March, 18j1. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS AT THE SOUTH. 



BY JAMES STEWART, MEMPHIS, TENN. 



To be a thorough good plant-grower requires no mean competency, and an amount of 

 practice by no means insignificant. But to be such in the southern states, is almost say- 

 ing you have reached perfection in the art. Doubtless this will appear singular, and 

 will be strongly questioned by those who are accustomed to the climate of England, or 

 other parts of Europe, and who imagine they have a deal more to contend with, than it is 

 possible to have in such a favorable climate as that of America. These, as well as perhaps 

 some plant owners, are apt to suppose that good practical " plantsmen" are not yet among 

 us, to take the matter in hand. But that is not the case, as we have as competent men in 

 that department as any country can produce; and nothing more or less than the scorch- 

 ing heat of American tropical summers, which is so overpowering in its effects of parch- 

 ing the leaves and drying their substance, weakening and exhausting others, and even 

 dissolving some of a certain class, and notwithstanding the efforts and energies of the gar- 

 dener, he will be even threatened, in some instances, with the entire loss of his stock. 

 Large plants that are of any age, seem as though they were more exposed, and in all cases 

 are the greatest sufferers. Small and young stock will always survive best, and conse- 

 quently we have always, with such, to be pretty well supplied; we water largely, and 

 syringe freely, but this is in an hour wasted and consumed by a burning atmosphere. 

 Again, the variations of seasons such, as extremes of wet or dry, or sudden interchanges 

 of both, defy all rules. To be a plantsman here, you must be directed by nature's laws, 

 paying the closest attention to the great excesses of temperature which belong to a climate 

 partly temperate and partly tropical. 



The winter division here, that is after the heat of summer declines, and before it regains 

 its power in the spring, is to a certainty, of all the climes I have practiced in, the most 

 favorable. "VVe may pot, repot, reduce balls of earth, shake them to j^ieces, or whatever else 

 necessity and proper management directs. Nature assists at this season, and every 

 prospers well and grows luxuriantly. A charming sight certainly, is a well kept an 



