396 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



where the material is to be had, and that without 

 any unusual cost of hauling, the annual expense 

 of making and repairing fences is immense. All 

 of this it is in our power to do away with, and 

 tliat without difficulty. Hedge with the Cherokee 

 Rose. In Adams and Wilkinson counties, Miss., 

 there are scores of plantations completely and 

 most effectually fenced in with this plant. No 

 animal, whatever, larger than a rabbit — and he 

 must creep cautiously — can pass under or through 

 it, after the fourth or fifth year, if it has been 

 reasonably well attended to. It will even confine 

 the negroes to the plantation, or at least compel 

 them to find egress at the gates. It forms a 

 beautiful feature in the landscape, with its rich, 

 glossy green leaves, summer and winter — and in 

 the early spring is eminently beautiful, with 

 long, pendulous wreaths of the whitest of all ro- 

 ses. 



There cannot be an objection oflered to it, for 

 this purpose. Now is an excellent time to make 

 such improvements. Cotton is too low to make 

 it an object; and rice and sugar command such 

 prices that the planter can very well afford to 

 bestow a portion of his labor on work of so much 

 consequence. This, too, is the season of the year 

 to plant — from the 15th of January till the 1st of 

 March. Remove the fence ; grub and clean up 

 the old fence-row; break it up thoroughly with 

 more than one ploughing and harrowing; if too 

 poor to yield fifty busliels of corn to the acre, 

 open a deep, wide furrow, and fill it with rich 

 compost, or cow-pen scrapings, etc. ; throw a 

 couple of furrows back, and harrow effectually. 

 The fence may now be re-set, if necessary ; better 

 if it can be tended with both plough and hoe. At 

 every 2^ feet distance in the hedge-row, open a 

 hole with the spade; set in two or three cuttings, 

 replace the earth, press it down with the foot, 

 and the work of planting is done. Tend just as 

 you would a row of corn or cotton. The cuttings 

 should be fifteen inches long, made from the shoots 

 of last year's growth — the stouter the better. 

 They must be put fully two-thirds of their length 

 in the ground. Next fall or winter, instead of 

 covering up the shoots with earth, as many do, 

 out them off within a foot or so of the main stem, 

 and the plants will throw out stronger shoots the 

 next year. If the land is poor, the hedge-row 

 should, at the same time, have a pretty good top 

 dressing of compost, or cotton seed, etc. If, after 

 the cuttings have had a couple of ploughings and 

 hoeings, a quantity of corn stalks, saved for the 

 purpose, or leaves from the woods, be spread 

 carefully along each side of them, so as to keep 

 the ground cool and moist, they will make double 

 the growth they would without it. Four years, 

 with such care, will produce an excellent fence. 

 It is better not to allow the scions or shoots to 

 run up, and cover the rail fence, but each fall to 

 press them down and cut off the stragglers, by 

 which means the hedge will be much more com- 

 pact and close, and will occupy less space. No 



trees, bushes, or briars, must be allowed to grow. 

 Southern Cultivator, 



IJNrRUiTFUL Plum Trees. — Dear Sir: This 

 part of the country, as you probably know, is 

 blessed or cursed with a very light sandy soil. I 

 may say blessed, because it enables us to turn 

 everything into market gardening, — the spring 

 crops come in so early and so fine; and I may 

 say cursed, because we are so bothered, past en- 

 durance, with all manner of insects, that harbor in 

 light soil. 



Well, what I want to say most is, that we can't 

 raise plums. Peaches, apples, pears, grow and 

 yield first rate crops; but the plums all dropoff 

 the trees before they are half grown. I have 

 tried all the remedies for curculio ; they may do 

 in a neighborhood where these creatures are 

 scarce, but not here. The insects will sting mv 

 plums, and the plums will fall off. Now, will 

 you or your correspondents tell me what I must 

 do ? or must I " give up the ship ?" Yours, ,A 

 Pine-barren Subscriber. New-Jersey. [If our 

 subscriber will fence in a small spot adjoining his 

 hog-pen, plant his plum trees all in that spot, 10 

 or 12 feet apart, and let his hogs " have the run" 

 of the enclosure from March to September, (ex- 

 cepting when the fruit is ripening,) he will get 

 good crops. Ed.] 



Prune de St. Jean. — Dear Sir : I notice in 

 the article on forcing plums, in the December 

 number, a query of yours, whether the Prune de 

 St. Jean is the Jaune Hative. Thinking I might 

 possibly do somewhat towards answering it, I 

 venture to trouble you with a line. 



I have cultivated a plum as the " St. Jean" for 

 some years. The tree from which I obtained the 

 buds is standing in a garden in this town, and was 

 received from France about the year 1837, under 

 this name. 



It is very productive. The fruit is fine, ripen- 

 ing before the Morocco, and is distinct from any 

 other with which I am acquainted. I made no 

 exact memorandum of it ; but if my recollection 

 serves me, it answers more nearly to your descrip- 

 tion of the Royale de Tours than any other. 

 Branches of the St. Jean very downy. (I notice, 

 in your fruited branches of R. de T., smooth, and 

 in the last editions, downy.) [The latter is cor- 

 rect. Ed.] 



As I never could find the name in any cata- 

 logue or pomological work, I supposed it to have 

 been wrongly named. I thought highly of it at 

 first, and propagated it in my nursery; but soon 

 found it quite too tender to be profitable, and so 

 dropped it , a.s hardihood is an indispensable requi- 

 site here. It is as hardy as the Royale Hative. 

 If you think it may prove a desirable acquisition, 

 I shall be happy to supply you with scions. 



The remarks of " A Young Planter," in the 

 same number, are quite to my taste. The great 

 want now seems to be a knowledge of the stock 



