1879.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



47 



ers, properly educated in their profession, and 

 who of coiu'se, expect to be both paid and 

 treated difterently from common laborers and 

 domestics. I live in a section of the country — 

 ]N^ew Jersey, Essex county — where both soil 

 and climate seem to be especially favorable 

 to the grape vine ; for there is hardly a house 

 Avithout its grape arbor or trellis, and thousands 

 of them may be counted in one day's tour; but 

 incredible as it may appear, it is an unde- 

 niable and stubborn fact, not one is attended to 

 after it has received its annual clipping by one of 

 the above named class of men in the spring of the 

 year. ^N^ot much better is it with regard to other 

 fruit. Is it not an anomaly that, to such a place, 

 with thousands of acres fenced in but lying idle, 

 apples and grapes are brought from fifty miles 

 away, and Concord or Delawares sold at ten 

 «ents the pound, and Rhode Island Greenings at 

 two cents apiece ? Does that look like pro- 

 gress ? 



would set the trees at regular distances for orchard 

 planting, in any State of the United States, and 

 then let the trees branch low, where hot suns 

 prevail, I would advocate not higher than one 

 foot. I think it is the best and only shelter 

 needed to protect from sun or cold. There is 

 another advantage of low trees in early bearing, 

 and on trees properly trained the fruit will be as 

 fine and high flavored as trees trained high. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



CURE FOR TEXAN ANTS. 



BY P. H. O. 



In the Gakdener's Monthly for December 

 1878, C. O. S., Seguin, Texas, complains about 

 the destructiveness of a certain kind of ant which 

 eats his plants, and asks if any correspondent 

 knows a remedy. I suppose it is the same kind 

 of an ant which was formerly the dread of Texas 

 gardeners ; here are two recipes for their destruc- 

 tion, the first is preventive. Buy a pound or 

 less Cyanide of Potassium, and where you find 

 the ants carrying the leaves in the ground, open 

 the hole carefully and put a few grains of the 

 above named drug into it. The ants are killed 

 by the fumes of this substance, and after a few 

 ■days you will find for some distance, the hole 

 ■choked and filled with dead ants, and it will take 

 some time before they will venture to open a 

 new gang and attack your plants again, and if so, 

 treat them to another dose of Cyanide of Pot- 

 assium. The second remedy is radical. It con- 

 sists of a contrivance to blow the fumes of burn- 

 ing sulphur into their dens, which are in Texas, 

 from nine to ten feet below the surface. The 

 fumes are blown into their nests by little ma- 

 chines, similar to those of a fanning mill. 



SHELTER IN ORCHARDS. 



BY IRA J. BLACKWELL. 



I saw an article lately, about planting trees 

 for shelter. I would suggest that, if the parties 



The Cook Apple. — California having distin- 

 guished herself in seedling pears, has turned to 

 the apple, and the " Cook " is at least one which 

 is likely to mantain its value. It was raised by 

 David Cook, of Sonoma, and is said to be just the 

 thing for long keeping in the California climate. 



Peach and the Plum. — It is said that the 

 practice of grafting the peach on the plum, is 

 coming into increased favor in the South. 



Peach Yellows in Canada. — The Canadian 

 Horticulturist says that the peach yellows has 

 made its appearance in one or two orchards about 

 Grimsby, Canada. 



The Spotted Clover. — This is the Medicago 

 maculata, and is said to be popular in the South 

 for pasturing, as it keeps green during the win- 

 ter, when the Bermuda grass, Cynodon Dactylon, 

 is dormant. 



The Profits of Oranges. — The Florida Dis- 

 patcTi acts on the same principle that we do, — 

 that success in any undertaking can only be per- 

 manent when the exact truth is brought out. It 

 is devoted to building up the interests of Florida, 

 but it does not believe that Florida is to be saved 

 by bringing people down there under the impres- 

 sion that to grow the golden orange and to gather 

 in the gold are synonymous terms. "While it is 

 true that Florida oranges in ISTew York and 

 Pliiladelphia, this winter, have been bringing 

 forty to fifty dollars a thousand, for the best or- 

 anges, it says that about S12.50 to $15.00 per 1,000 

 at the grove, is a very good price for the best 

 article. But at these prices one can make a very 

 good profit on the orange culture business if they 

 ' know how. It is the same in the orange bus- 

 iness as in every other branch of fruit culture, 

 profits do not so much grow as they are made. 



