1816.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



4T 



Manuring of grapes should be regulated by the 

 nature of the soil. If it be damp — in most cases 

 a bad condition for grape growing — stable manure 

 in great quantities means diseased vines. In dry 

 ground, it has a beneficial effect. Many persons 

 of small places have grapes in damp ground, or 

 can nave none. They must take care to keep the 

 roots near the surface ; never crop the ground 

 about them to destroy the small fibres, if it can 

 be avoided; and even good may often follow, 

 when the vines seem failing, to carefully follow 

 up the roots, lift near the surface, and encourage, 

 as much as possible, those remaining there. 

 Wood-ashes, bone-dust, and such like fertilizers 

 are best for grape-vines in low ground. 



In order to grow good fruit, we need only re- 

 peat in a general way, that trees require as much 

 food as a crop of corn, or potatoes ; but it is very 

 important to keep the feeding roots at the sur- 

 face, and therefore that the very best way to 

 mature fruit trees is by surface dressing. 



COMMUNICA TIONjS. 



THE ICING WATER-MELON. 



BY IRA J. BLACKWELL, TITUSVILLE, N. J. 



Having gi'own the above melon the past sum- 

 mer, and thinking it a good variety for family 

 use, I endeavor to speak a word in its favor. We 

 grew the past season the mountain sweet, ice 

 cream, and the icing water-melons, all good 

 varieties. With us the icing ripened first, and 

 produced the most ; all the melons were of good 

 quality, even the small ones ripened up good, 

 and it continued bearing until the frost killed 

 the vines. It is one of the new things that is 

 good, or probably best, here. It is not very large. 

 Green skin, red flesh and white seeds, form 

 round. I think it a cross with the imperial, or 

 most probably a seedling. The dark green variety 

 is much the best. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE BARK OF FRUIT TREES. 



BY P., OF MISSISSIPPI. 



I notice your tilts at those who do not believe 

 in opening the bark. I have seen in an orchard of 

 the best fruit, splendid trees, split in the bark of 



the trunk and larger limbs. In a place, fence 

 between, same soil, same trees in variety, scant 

 fruit, bad quality in comparison and no thrift. 

 I have split tree bark ; saw it done sixty years 

 ago; then the careful men always did it. I 

 have scraped the rough bark off, and cleaned 

 the trunks. 



A friend here uses linseed oil, to an extent as 

 if house painting, on 1, 2, 3 and 4 year old pear 

 trees, trunk and limbs, and has stopped the blight, 

 no increase of disease and tree apparently un- 

 harmed. I saw the trees, had my hand on them, 

 and he says, he did this before and will con- 

 tinue. 



DON'T USE THE HATCHET OR SAW, 



BY REV. J. H. CREIGHTON; COLUMBUS, O. 



Of all the blunders that the common farmer, and 

 some others, make with trees, none is so com- 

 mon, or so hurtful, and which he is so long find- 

 ing out, and of which he might know so cer- 

 tainly, as the practice of cutting off lower limbs. 

 All over the country nothing is more common 

 than to see mutilated trees on almost every farm. 

 Big limbs cut off near the body of the tree, and 

 of course rotting to the heart. 



This is a heart sin against nature. The very 

 limbs necessary to protect the tree from wind 

 and sun, and just where limbs are needed most, 

 they are cut away. 



But the greatest injury is the rotting that al- 

 ways takes place when a big limb is sawed off — 

 too big to heal over it must rot, and being kept 

 moist by the growing tree, is in the right condi- 

 tion to rot, and being on the body, the rotting 

 goes to the heart and hurts the whole tree. 



It is common all over the country to see large 

 orchards mutilated in this way. We often see 

 holes in the trees where big limbs have been cut 

 away, where squirrels and even raccoons could 

 crawl in. Perhaps the only reason these trim- 

 mers would give is, that the lower limbs were 

 easiest got at, and some would say thej'^ wanted 

 to raise a crop under the trees. 



[To the good suggestion made by our corres- 

 pondent we would say also. Do not hack with 

 hatchet and saw; but when you do, paint the sur- 

 face of the part exposed by the saw, to keep out 

 water. Common paint is quite as good as wax 

 or plaster made from the most approved recipes.. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



