spring to keep down the weeds, until the stools have spread to cover the ground. But Willows 

 have an enemy, as well as other plants, when planted near a stream of water. The musk rat 

 will do the "cutting" in good season. I had, during the last year, about half an acre destroyed 

 by them — cutting off rods half an inch ia diameter — all done iu the night. 



It would gratify me and others, if some one of your correspondents would inform us of the 

 best method of preparing the rods for market, and where a market can be had. I have a large 

 lot of rods that would answer to make up. I can sell them to a German basket-maker, but he 

 calculates to get them for a song. A friend of mine who had an acre planted three years ago, 

 sold the whole crop for $25 — over two tons. I asked him why he did so ; his answer was, "I 

 did not know what to do with them." John H, Corning. — Kinderhook, N. Y. 



Several cultivators of the Willow have recently complained to us of the difficulty of find- 

 ing a market. This is not surprising. It is a new business, and has not yet been reduced 

 to a system. As soon as the culture has become sufficiently important, we shall have per- 

 sons wlio will engage in the business of preparing them, supplying them to manufacturers, 

 &c. The consumption of willow ware in this country is very great. In all our large cities, 

 there are houses engaged solely in importing Willows ; and a very large share of the money 

 we send to Europe for them, might just as well be kept at home. We are glad to see the 

 business attract so much attention, and hope cultivators will persevere until it gets estab- 

 lished on a proper basis. 



♦ 



Drownixg the Curoulio. — A friend of ours has deliberately laid a plan for drowning 

 the Cure alio ! He says : 



" I propose to lay out a Plum orchard on a dead level, as near as possible to a pond or spring, 

 and inclose it with a sort of dam, say a foot high, having two sluices — one to let the water in, 

 and the other to discharge it; the water to be conducted from the pond or spring by means of 

 a ditch or pipe. In due season I will let in the water around the trees, to the depth of two to 

 six inches, then shake the trees well, and instantly let the water rush out, Laving the sluice 

 large. This operation should be performed daily for at least three weeks. A sort of seine or 

 netting might be fixed at the outlet, so that all the scamps might be caught and killed. The 

 water will by no means injure the trees. I have seen thousands and scores of thousands of Plum 

 trees on low, swampy grounds, on the very edge of streams, ponds, and rivers, in Germany, and 

 they are both healthy and productive. Indeed, a Plum tree can live where no other fruit tree 

 can, except perhaps the Quince and Filbert. This strikes me as the most effectual means that 

 can be adopted where the water can be had. The work will not require more than at the rate 

 of one man five minutes for twenty trees." 



We should be glad to have this experiment tested ; but it seems to us that flooding the 



soil in which trees wore growing, every day for three weeks, could scarcely fail to injure 



the roots, unless the water were to pass off very quickly indeed, and the soil be of a very 



porous nature. 



♦ 



Fungus Blight. — I notice, in the October number of the Horticulturist, a note from Mr. Downer, 

 in regard to a disease which has lately attacked his Apple and Pear trees. I send you a twig 

 from one of my Pear trees, affected, as I presume, with the same malady. I have termed it the 

 Funrpis Blight, from the fact that it seems to owe its existence to the deposition and growth of a 

 peculiar species oi fungus upon the under side of the smaller limbs or branches, from which it 

 extends along the under side of the leaf-stalk and leaf, turning it of a dark brown and then a 

 black color, as far as it progresses, till all the foliage of the branch above the point of attack is 

 entirely destroyed. Nor does it stop here; for if a fruit comes in its way, it will proceed along 

 the stem until it reaches the fruit, and then spreads over its base and shaded side, entirely stop- 



