DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



255 



car of Winkfield, Lawrence, Beurre d'Aremberg. 

 The Columbia is a fine fruit, but it is very liable 

 to be blown off by high winds. 



Rapid Growing Trees. — Hortus. (Syracuse, 

 N. Y.) The two very best rapid growing trees 

 are the Dutch Elm and the Silver Maple ; both to 

 be had in the nurseries. They are greatly supe- 

 rior to the Ailanthus, and the Silver Poplar (abele,) 

 because they grow as fast, and do not sucker so 

 intolerably. The Silver Maple is doubly as rapid 

 in its growth as the Sugar Maple. Norway Spruce 

 is the best evergreen for your purpose ; it often 

 makes annual shoots five feet long in a good deep 

 soil. 



Insects.— F. Weston. (Sandy Hill, N. Y.) 

 We have sent the branch to Professor Harris, and 

 will give you his opinion (which is worth more 

 than ours,) when we receive it. 



Flower Borders. — An Amateur. (Hartford.) 

 The cause of your failure, " for the last few 

 years," is the worn out condition of the soil in 

 your borders. Take up all the smaller plants, 

 carry away all the soil for a foot deep, at least, 

 and fill up again with new soil, well mixed with 

 manure. Some good turfy loam, from an old 

 meadow that has not been cultivated for years, is 

 the best. After replacing with this, trench the 

 whole a couple of spades deep, and you will find, 

 the next season, every plant growing and blooming 

 as vigorously as ever. 



Seeds. — G. Y. (Mobile.) We will be greatly 

 obliged for seeds of the novel Gordoquia, you de- 

 scribe. I.B.J. — (Wheeling.) If it is not con- 

 venient to plant your magnolia, and other rare 

 tree seeds this autumn, sow them thickly in boxes 

 of sand, and place them in the cellar till spring, 

 when you can re-sow them in the open air ; or, 

 what is better, plant them thinly in the boxes, and 

 keep the young plants in the same the first sea- 

 son, the boxes placed, in summer, in a partially 

 shaded aspect, and watered every day. W. L. 

 C. — Plant the acorns of the Overcup Oak at any 

 time before winter. If you have to keep them till 

 spring, put them in a box, and mix them with 

 soil. 



Hedges. — W. L. Coe. (Scottsburgh, N. Y.) 

 The Hemlock, with care and patience, makes an 

 exquisite hedge. If you wish to propagate it from 

 seeds, the cones must be gathered in the autum ; 

 and if placed on a sieve, before a fire, they will 

 open and the seeds will drop out. They should 

 then be sown immediately. A deep, mellow, and 

 rather sandy border must be made in a shady 

 situation. Sow the seeds upon the top of the well 

 pulverized soil, and cover them very lightly with 

 some fine sand, or leaf mould, from the woods. 

 Afterwards, cover the surface of the bed with 

 branches of evergreens till spring, when they 

 should be removed, and the seeds will vegetate. 

 The only certain mode of getting evergreens to 

 vegetate, is to plant them in large shallow boxes. 



about six inches deep. After the seeds are sown 

 in these, (as just described,) place the boxes in a 

 cold-frame, i. e., a mere empty frame, covered 

 ■with glass, and placed on the north side of a fence 

 or building. Here they may remain till spring, 

 when the lights should be taken off. The boxes 

 should still be kept in the frames all this season, 

 and watered very frequently, or as often as they 

 appear dry. In this way, nearly every seed will 

 vegetate, and the plants will be fit to transplant 

 into the nursery-rows the ensuing spring. An In- 

 quirer. — (Osweso.) The Osage Orange will, no 

 doubt, be perfectly hardy with you, as Lake Onta- 

 rio renders your climate mild. Wherever the 

 peach tree ripens good crops, this excellent hedge 

 plant may be used. The Buckthorn forms quite a 

 strong wall, after having been sheared several 

 years. Staten Island. — Buckthorn and Osage 

 Orange will grow together ; but we doubt if an 

 everareen would thrive well, intermingled with 

 either. It is better, in mixing plants, for a hedge 

 to alternate the plants, rather than make one row 

 of each. 



Grapes. — /. D. Lcgare. (Aiken, S. C.) The 

 Royal Muscadine, among foreign grapes, and the 

 Isabella, among natives, are least liable to rot or 

 mildew. We note your experience with ashes to 

 prevent rot. But you must not decide against it, 

 with one year's trial. It has been found effectual 

 here, at the north, when used along with gypsum. 



Catalogues. — E. Haren, Esq., secretary of 

 the St. Louis Horticultural Society, desires nurse- 

 rymen to forward copies of their catalogues to 

 him, for the use of the society. 



Cherries. — Milwaukie. You say the cherry 

 tree suffers from gum, and from the effects of the 

 sun in early summer. Allow your trees to form 

 low bushy heads, (as near the surface of the 

 ground as may be,) prune them scarcely at all, 

 and manure with wood ashes. 



Stocks. — C. H. (Vermont.) We are not 

 aware that stocks of the Mahaleb or St. Lucie 

 cherry, are to be had in any (juantity in this coun- 

 try. They may be had of any respectable French 

 or Belgian nurseryman, at moderate prices. In 

 the Catalogue of Van Houtte, of Ghent, we no- 

 tice them offered as follows: Mahaleb Cherry 

 Stocks, 30 francs (about $6) per 1000 ; Paradise 

 Apple Stocks, 30 francs; Quince do., 33 francs. 

 Send the amount of the bill you wish to order to 

 Sheppard, 143 Maiden-Lane, N. Y., or some 

 other responsible commission agent, and he will 

 import them for you. 



*»• Correspondents who are subscribers, will 

 hereafter find replies to any questions on subjects 

 within the scope of this journal, in this depart- 

 ment, (unless otherwise requested) — and all que- 

 ries put in a brief shape, and sent to us free of post' 

 age, shall receive attention. Ed. 



