Jlorti.cultui'al JVotes. 93 



The n'cei>lng Willow. 



The "Weeping Willow has a romantic history. The first scion was sent from 

 Smyrna, in a box of figs, to Alexander Pope. General Clinton brought a shoot, from 

 Pope's tree, to America, in the time of the llevolution, which, passing into the hands 

 of John Parke Custis. was planted on his estate, in Virginia, thus becoming the 

 progenitor of the Weeping Willow in this country. 



Omitwentitl I'dluit of Trees. 



At a local meeting, in New P]ngland, one speaker said he considered the value of 

 his farm enhanced fully $1,000 in consequence of the attractiveness given to it by 

 Jive Elm trees, planted along the roadside, by his grandfather, eighty-five years ago. 



Tyiquid Manure for Strntcberries. 



An English gardener has been very successful with his strawberry crop for several 

 years on the same bed, and attributes the abundance and size of his fruit to the use 

 of a liquid manure, composed of one pound each of Epsom salts, Glauber's salt, pearl 

 ash and carbonate of soda, and one-half pound of muriate of ammonia to sixty gallons 

 of water. He applies this manure as soon as the plants show signs of growth in 

 spring, watering them pretty freely without a hose, three times, at intervals of about 

 a week, so as to finish before they come into flower; and, if the season be dry, he 

 finds it absolutely necessary to supply them liberally with common water afterward 

 during the whole time of growth, or their increased activity, he thinks, would very 

 quickly kill them. 



The Cranberry Crop. 



The cash value of the cranberry crop, in the United States, according to statistics, 

 has been estimated as follows : 



In 1870 Maine produced 1,000 barrels, Massachusetts 8,000, Connecticut 2,000, 

 New Jersey 50,000. This amount of 61,000 barrels was raised principally from 

 cultivated fields. At nineteen stations on the St. Paul and Milwaukee railroad, 

 14,885 barrels were freighted during the season of 1869. Only about 8,000 barrels 

 were shipped in 1868. The crop of 1867 was estimated at 62,500 barrels, of which 

 New Jersey produced 35,000, New England 12,000, and the West 15,000 barrels. 

 The average price per barrel, for the season of 1867, was $16, giving a total of 

 $1,000,000. 



Gif/antle Trees 



Prof. Gray stated in substance, in a late address, in speaking of the Sequoia of 

 California, that the largest of these trees cannot much overdate the Christian era — 

 that other trees in other parts of the world may be older ; that certain Australian 

 trees lencalypti) may be taller — so that they might even cast a flicker of shadow on 

 the summit of the pyramid of Cheops — yet the oldest of these all grew from Seed shed 

 long after the names of the pyramid builders were forgotten. We may add that the 

 ages of the largest California trees, which were hollow, were first estimated by count- 

 ing the remaining rings, to have been growing in the days of the prophet Elijah — but 

 it has since been discovered that the inner portions grew more rapidly than the later 

 and exterior parts, and the estimate supposed erroneously that all were alike. When 

 this error is corrected, the age is found not to exceed about two thousand years. 

 Country Gentleman. 



Jtabhits iiiiil Yottuff Trees. 



An Ohio correspondent of the Rural Neio Yorker gives directions as to keeping 

 rabbits and mice from gnawing young trees. He advises to tie five or six corn-stalks, 

 cut about two and a half feet long, about each tree, setting them close together. 



Salt for Pear Trees. 



The result of an experiment is thus reported by a horticulturist: " Last spring I 

 put a small shovelful of the refus6 material from the salt works, which is composed, 



