PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 



431 



ther need of them, they will last a dozen 

 years or more. 



When you are planting a tree or shrub, 

 don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish ; in 

 other words, so anxious to have it look 

 large, as to be unwilling to cut off a single 

 inch of its top to balance the loss of roots. 

 Remember that if your tree would grow 

 six inches if left " unshortened," it would 

 grow twelve if properly shortened, besides 

 making far healthier shoots and bigger 

 leaves, to say nothing of its being five times 

 as likely 7iot to die. 



If you are about to turn " orchardist," 

 never buy a large quantity of trees of any 

 nurseryman, on the strength of his own 

 " extensive" advertisements. It is easy to 

 say fine things in print ; such as " immense 

 specimen grounds," " 50,000 trees, care- 

 fully propagated under the direction of the 

 proprietor," &c. &c. Go and see for your- 

 self; and very likely the "immense speci- 

 men ground" may turn out to lae a dozen 

 old trees in a grass plat, and the nursery a 

 wilderness of confusion. Never, in short, 

 buy a large quantity of fruit trees of any 

 man who is a stranger to you, without in- 

 quiring first all about his accuracy, from 

 customers who have dealt with him, and 

 proved his sorts. Such people, who have 

 tasted his quality, are not very likely to 

 tell "long yarns," though advertisements 

 sometimes will. 



The neatest and most perfect mode of 

 grafting, is spZtce grafting; (see Downing's 

 Fruits, p. 15.) It can only be done when 

 your stock and scion correspond pretty 

 nearly in size ; but the amalgamation is 

 done in short-hand. Tie the wound over 

 neatly with a strand of matting or coarse 

 woolen yarn, and smear the whole over 

 with thick "shellac paint," and not one in 

 a hundred will fail. 



No large fruit tree is so readily " re- 



formed" as a pear. Many a tree, of twenty 

 or thirty feet high, that stands, at this mo- 

 ment, uithin ten rods of your door, and 

 bears nothing but fruit that you would be 

 ashamed to offer at a county fair, may be 

 made to bear bushels of Bartletts, or some- 

 thing as good, in three years' time, by the 

 expenditure of a couple of hours, in cutting 

 back and grafting all the principal limbs 

 as soon as the sap is fairly in motion, 

 " Cleft grafting" is the readiest mode for 

 this sort of subject ; and a little practice 

 will enable any one to perform it very 

 quickly. 



If you want to be successful in trans- 

 planting, don't be afraid of working in dull 

 weather. If you are shy of a " Scotch 

 mist," buy an India-rubber macintosh. No- 

 thing is so cruel, to many sorts of trees, 

 as to let their tender fibres parch up in 

 a dry wind, or a bright sun. Such wea- 

 ther may be fun to you, but 'tis death to 

 them. 



Dress your lawns with a mixture of 

 guano and ashes : one bushel of the former 

 to four bushels of the latter. The earlier 

 in the spring it can be put on the better, so 

 that the rains may carr)"- the soluble parts 

 to the roots. A light coat of this, spread 

 broad-cast, is much better for grass than 

 any other manure. 



The best top-dressing for a strawberry 

 bed is burnt sods. Pile up the brush and 

 rubbish you have at hand in layers with 

 the sods, and set fire to the heap; let it 

 smoulder away for several days, till the 

 wood is pretty well burnt out, and the sods 

 well roasted. Then overhaul the heap, 

 chop and beat it up fine with the spade, and, 

 after loosening up the soil in the bed, give 

 them a coat an inch or two in thickness. 

 It will give new life to the plants, and set 

 them in a way to give you an uncommonly 

 fine crop. 



