DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



447 



yellow ochre dissolved in the water used in tem- 

 pering the mortar, will give it a better color. 



Orange Trees. — Delaware. Your trees are 

 suffering from lad soil. Turn them out, and repot 

 them in a mixture of burnt sods and fine charcoal, 

 and they will soon recover. 



Bitter Rot. — T. B., (Wai'iington.) A libe- 

 ral dressing of wood ashes will be likely to pre- 

 vent this disease in your apples. See Mr. Elli- 

 ot's communication in this number. We also re- 

 commend a trial of gypsum. 



Vine Borders. — A Connecticut Subscriber. 

 If your subsoil is a yellow sand, always dry, you 

 will need nothing in the bottom of your border for 

 drainage. By all means mix the bone manure, 

 leached ashes, charcoal screenings, chopped loamy 

 turf, &c., through the whole mass of the border, 

 and not put them in layers. The only substances 

 needing to be treated in this way, are very warm 

 manures, such as carcasses, &c., placed at the 

 bottom so that the roots may not reach them till 

 they are decomposed, or bones and lime rubbish, 

 M'hich thus serve the double purpose of food and 

 drainage. But recent observations incline us to 

 doubt the good effects of whole bones, and we 

 would always use them either groimd or dissolved. 

 Neither ground bones nor leached ashes will do 

 any harm to the roots of your vines when inter- 

 mixed M'ith the soil. All the above substances 

 are excellent materials for a vine border, and a 

 sprinkling of gypsum, may be added with advan- 

 tage. Chopped sods are much better than loam 

 if you have not much manure at hand. The horse 

 manure may be used liberally -with great advan- 

 tage, and should be mixed through the whole mass. 



Camellias. — W. E. J., (Southbridge, Mass.) 

 The Camellia may be kept in a cellar free from 

 frost, provided there is plenty of light, and the 

 plants are watered but seldom — so as to keep 

 them dormant. The old Double White, Double 

 variegated, and Press' Eclipse, will best answer 

 3'our purpose. See Mr. Feast's remarks, present 

 number. 



Osage Orange. — John Foster, (Dayton, O.) 

 The young plants often suffer the first one or two 

 winters from the seed — the young wood being 

 sappy. But the plants will be perfectly hardy 

 with you when the hedge is grown. Of course, 

 all plants stand the winter better growing on high 

 than on low ground, It is a good plan to turn a 

 furrow in the autumn against the young hedge, 

 and remove it in the spring. It serves as a pro- 

 tection. 



Strawberries. — ^i Young Horticulturist, 

 (Middleboro', Mass.) A swamp well drained, 

 and coated a foot deep as you propose, would be 

 an excellent soil for strawberries and raspberries; 

 — much better than a gravelly upland — for unless 

 the latter soil is deep, the crops and fruit will be 

 small. If a gravelly soil, is well trenched and af- 

 terwards enriched, it will answer perfectly. 



Compost. — Middleboro' . Swamp muck, redu- 

 ced with leached ashes, makes the better compost 

 for sand}' soils; and muck reduced with lime for 

 heavy soil. 



Improving Forest Groups. — Yeoman, (Hart 

 ford, Ct.) You may greatly improve the appear- 

 ance of the meagre looking forest trees in your 

 approach, by loosening the soil around them with 

 a pick, and giving them a heavy top-dres.sing of 

 guano, ashes, and gypsum, mixed together. Head 

 back at once the tops of any of the young sap- 

 lings that are unsightly — this will make them put 

 out new and more bushy heads. Plant the follow- 

 ing rapid growing trees at the points marked C. 

 D. E. F. on your sketch — viz: Cork-bark Elm, 

 Silver Maple and European Sycamore; — the Pau- 

 lownia would not harmonize with the present 

 groups. Prepare the holes for these trees tho- 

 roughly, by digging them four feet across and 18 

 inches deep, and manuring them well. 



Girdled Trees. — Y. If your trees are not 

 quite girdled, and you cover the wound with the 

 shellac solution described in our last vol., p. 533, 

 they will recover. If wholly girdled, your only 

 chance of saving them is to graft a ring of bark 

 from another branch of the same kind of tree, on 

 the girdled spot. This may be done when the sap 

 flows freely, and we have known even a narrow 

 strip of bark, say an inch wide, inserted in this 

 way, which saved the whole tree. Of course, 

 the whole wound must be carefully covered from 

 the air by grafting wax or clay. 



Hot-bed Lights. — N^ew Bedford Sub. The 

 best substitute for glass is strong cotton, coated as 

 described by a correspondent in last vol., p, 354. 

 It is cheap, but not very durable, unless carefully 

 used. 



*»* Correspondents who are subscribers , will 

 hereafter find replies to any questions within the 

 scope of this journal, in this department, (unless 

 otherwise requested;) and all queries, put in a 

 brief shape, and sent to us free of postage, shall 

 receive attention. They should be sent, if possi- 

 ble, in the early part of the month. Ed. 



