JFruit jyotes. 319 



Ziayeritiy Grtixte Vines. 



After giving; a correspondent directions for layering vines, the Farmer and Gard- 

 ener says, we would, however, caution our readers as to the danger of layering too 

 much of the wood of a vine. Nothing exhausts the latter more rapidly than layer- 

 ing. It will reduce the crop of fruit for the ensuing year, and weaken the vine for 

 years. From our layering vines we expect no fruit, nor more than three or four 

 years of life. Never layer a bearing vine if you wish to keep it healthy and pro- 

 ductive. 



To have Applctt every Year. 



A correspondent of the New York Tribioie, tells three ways of having apples 

 every year. We give them for what they are worth, although we do not consider 

 them infallible — No. 1 is certainly not to be depended upon — and No. 3 is to be 

 demonstrated before we believe : 



1. Take scions from a tree in 1873 and put them into a good thrifty tree, and do 

 the samu in 1874, and you will get fruit in alternate years. 



2. If you cut oif the thrifty trees the growth of 1873 in the last of June, leaving 

 three or four buds that would como out in 1874, 3'ou would force out the next year's 

 buds and gain one year. 



3. If you remove all the blossoms on one-half of your trees in the bearing year 

 you will have fruit on that half the odd years. These things I have done success- 

 fully. I have now in bearing the Victory apple of the odd year produced in this 

 way ; next year the scions of the last year will bear in the regular order. 



Ashes in the'^ikrchard. 



D. W. Kauffman, of Des Moines, Iowa, writes to the Iowa Homestead that ashes 

 are worth one dollar per bushel to put about fruit trees, and that he would not sell 

 his ashes at that price and do without their use in the orchard. He has used ashes 

 about fruit trees for fifteen years, and during that time has never seen a borer where 

 ashes were used. The borer is a terrible pest to the fruit-grower, and if all other 

 impediments to successful growing were as easily overcome and completely controlled 

 as the borer, then fruit growing would be very successfully practiced. 



At the recent meeting of the Fruit-growers' Association of Ontario, Mr. Moodie 

 stated that he had been in the habit of using unleached ashes as a manure for his 

 fruit trees, and that he values them more highly for this purpose than barn-yard 

 manure. If our farmers knew the value of wood ashes for the garden and orchard 

 and farm, they would not sell them for a few cents per bushel. The ashes that they 

 barter for a few pounds of soap would, if applied to the soil, so increase their crops 

 of fruit and grain as to yield ten times the value they now get for them. 



Mulcliiny fruit Trees in Autumn. 



There is no general or sweeping rule which can be applied to manuring and stimu- 

 lating trees. Some are already in a thrifty, rapidly growing condition, and do not 

 need any pushing ; others are stunted, feeble or exhausted, and it is important that 

 these be assisted by manuring. Every cultivator will readily perceive, by an exam- 

 ination of the annual shoots, what is the proper treatment to be given to his 

 trees. Young trees which have made a summer's growth of three feet, more 

 or less, or bearing trees with annual shoots a foot or two long, are growing fast 

 enough. But if the shoots are not over a foot on young trees (and they are often 

 seen only a few inches), and only half that length on older ones, they need special 

 attention. 



There are two causes that operate in retarding vigor. One, and a very powerful 

 one, is neglecting the ground and allowing trees to grow in weeds and grass. Unless 

 the soil possesses great natural fertility, this want of clean culture will operate 

 strongly against them, especially if the tree be young or newly transplanted. The 

 other retarding cause, is bearing heavy crops. The only remedy for this feebleness, 



