SEASONABLE HINTS. 



are mighty fond of this sort of thing. One of these "gintlemen" was lopping oif and 

 utterly despoiling the natural ways of a fine linden tree lately. When he was cross- 

 questioned a little as to Avhat he was about, ruining the tree in that manner, he replied — 

 " Bless yer sowl — I'm only a littin the hair intil it!" But in fact, many a better gar- 

 dener than this Paddy — many a man who has done as good things iu the gardening way 

 in Great Britain, as can be done any where in the world, is placed in the same awkward fix 

 when he comes into a country with a dry, hot climate, like the United States. All his 

 life-long has he been busy learning how to " let the air in " to the top, and keep the wet 

 away from the roots, till it is a second nature to him, and he finds it almost as impossible 

 to adopt just the contrary practice when he gets to America, as it is for a Polar bear to 

 lay aside his long, white furry coat, and walk about like a tropical gentlemen in his na- 

 tural nankeen pantaloons and waistcoat. He cuts away at his trees to let in the sun, and 

 raises up his flower beds to diain off" the wet, when it is just the very sun and drouth 

 that we have too much of. No man can be a good gardener who will not listen to reason, 

 and in a country where nature evidently meant leaves for umbrellas, take care how you 

 snap your fingers at her, by pruning without mercy, and " littin the hair in.'" 



If you find some of your transplanted trees flagging, and looking as if they were going 

 to say good bye to you, don't imagine you can save them by pouring manure water about 

 their roots. You might as well give a man nearly dead with debility and starvation, as 

 much plum pudding as he could make a hearty meal of. The best thing you can do is, 

 first to reduce the top a little more, (or a good deal more if needful) — for the difficulty 

 most probably is, that we have more top to exhaust than root to supply. Then loosen the 

 soil, and water it if dry, and lastly, mulch the ground as far as the roots extend. This 

 you may do by covering it Avith three or four inches of straw, litter, tan-bark, or some- 

 thing of that sort, to keep the roots cool and moist — so as to coax them into new growth. 

 Watering a transplanted tree every day, and letting the surface dry hard with the sun 

 and wind, is too much like basting a joint of meat before the kitchen fire, to be looked 

 upon as decent treatment for anything living. If your tree is something rare and curi- 

 ous, that you are afraid will die, and would not loose for the world, and yet that wont 

 start out in spite of all your wishes, syringe the bark once every night after sun-set. This 

 Avill freshen it, and make the dormant buds shoot out. 



If you find any of your fruit trees barren, from too great running to wood, about the 

 first of June is the time to shorten back the long shoots, and clip or pinch off" the ends of 

 the side shoots, so as to force the tree to expend its substance in making fruit buds, in- 

 stead of wasting every bit of sap in overgrowth. 



Make war upon insects all this month, and especially at the end of it, as if it were the 

 chief duty of man to destroy them — (there is no doubt about its being the chief duty of 

 the gardener.) Tobacco water is your main weapon, and with a syringe or a hand en- 

 gine, you can, if you take them in time, carry such slaughter into the enemy's camp as 

 would alarm the peace society, if there is one among these creeping things. Slugs on rose 

 bushes, or the green fly on plants, will make their appearance by thousands and tens of 

 thousands, as the weather gets hot, and the nights summery. The time to open your light 

 artillery upon the "inemy," is very early in the morning, or just after sun-down, the 

 latter the better time — by all odds. Find out whether they " roost" on the under or up- 

 per side of the leaves, or nibble away at the tender points of the shoots, and shower them 

 to the tune of " Old Virginny," i. e., strong tobacco water. If your plant is of a delicate 

 substance, mind, however, that you don't give it a fainting fit, as well as the vermin. 

 Always make the tobacco water by mixing some rain water with it, for such plants, and 



