PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 



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PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 

 BY "AN OLD DIGGER." 



Grafts may be cut now, as vvell as later 

 in the winter, if more convenient to you. 

 Keep them in a cool place, half-buried in 

 earth or sand, till you want them. If not 

 wanted till spring, bury them out of doors, 

 with only a couple of inches of the points 

 expcsed, and throw two or three inches of 

 litter over them. 



Strawberry beds will produce good crops 

 in open winter quarters, in the Northern 

 States ; but they will bear much better ones, 

 and much larger fruit, if you cover them 

 lightly with straw, salt-hay, or stable litter; 

 otherwise you are likely enough, in stiff 

 soils, to find half the plants dead or injured 

 by being " thrown out in the spring. 



You may transplant, all winter, when the 

 ground is not frozen — only take care not to 

 e.Kpose the roots to frost while not covered 

 with soil. In winter-planting, it is best to 

 pile up a mound of earth 6 or 8 inches 

 around the trunk of the tree. This keeps 

 it steady, and protects it, partially, against 

 severe frost. 



If you are very anxious to be cheated, 

 send to some nursery that modestly informs 

 the public of its immense superiority over 

 every other establishment in the world ; or 

 that offers hundreds of varieties of " splen- 

 did, pre-eminent, and delicious " fruits, not 

 to be found elsewhere — or that challenges 

 competition for accuracy. Where there is 

 so much modesty in boasting, there must be 

 great difiidence in sending you anything but 

 what the dealer knows to be first rate ; and 

 you must be aware, yourself, that there are 

 now hundreds oi first rate fruits. If you 

 send to a nursery for a new variety of tree 

 or plant, don't expect to see the plant as 

 high as your head, or the tree fit to bear a 

 bushel of fruit. Be content if it is healthy, 



has a good root, and is a foot high. People 

 " in the trade," can't afford to send you 

 large trees, full of grafts or cuttings, of 

 sorts which are scarce as guineas, and 

 which have not been long enough in the 

 country to enable them to get more than 

 one year's growth. If you want "big 

 trees," order the good old standard sorts. 



When a tree brought from a distance has 

 been a long while out of the ground, and 

 looks quite dried up, don't plunge it into a 

 tub of water ; that would be well-nigh as 

 fatal as giving a gallon at a single drink, to 

 a man nearly dead of thirst. Moisten the 

 roots, and after shortening the branches 

 severely, bury the lohole tree in the ground 

 for three or four da\s. 



When you prune a small branch of a 

 tree, always see that a hid is left opposite 

 the cut ; this will help it to heal over 

 quickly : and you will assist the matter still 

 more, by making the cut always a slo-ping 

 one. 



If you are obliged to plant trees in the 

 rich but worn-out soil of an old garden, and 

 you have not time nor means enough to cart 

 away part of the old soil and replace it 

 with new, you can renew its fertility b}- 

 throwing a part of it up in heaps, mixing 

 it with brush, faggots, saw-dust, or any sort 

 of cheap fuel, and burning it. 



Don't let insects of various kinds over- 

 run your orchard or garden, and then lazily 

 fold your arms and saj', " it's no use, this 

 trying to raise things, now that so many 

 vermin are about." Spend three days, in- 

 dustriously, in the early stage of the mat- 

 ter, in putting down the rascals, and then 

 look around you and see if a little industry 

 is not better than grumbling. 



If you want early vegetables, set your- 



