366 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 31, 1865. 



the original spnr. b is the right shoot, which has been selected 

 to bear (both shoots are, however, perfect) mainly on account 

 of the presence of the good buds at the junction f. The second 

 growth, E, has been left (this is optional here). The left 

 shoot, c, is cut to the lowest group of triple buds ; for the 

 central bud of this group, being a good wood-bud, will give us 

 a strong new shoot, which will be stopped at four leaves, and 

 be kept to bear in its turn. At its base are reserve buds which 

 may become cluster spurs, or put forth other succession shoots. 

 An y of the three good gi'oups left on the shoot, B, may 

 bear the fruit. If the highest be selected, its central wood- 

 bud should be stopped when it has made two leaves, there 

 being abundance of leaves at the jimction above it. The re- 

 maining gi-oups, and, perhaps, the latent buds at the base will 

 now e.\teud, and afJord the pruner ample scope for his skill. 

 c is to bear the fruit now ; therefore, e has to provide the suc- 

 cession wood. Besides this, however, it is proper to develope 

 one shoot more on e, at least, so as to multiply the chance of 

 fruit, and so that by the winter, the spur, a, shall have three or 

 four shoots of various kinds found on it to select from. — T, C. 

 Bbehaut, Iiic)u>wnd House, Guernsey. 



GOURD— JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES— CASTOR 

 OIL PLANT. 



Will you allow me to call your attention to the Portmanteau 

 de Naples as a Vegetable Marrow ? I fancy I can with propriety 

 use that term. It has been in bearing for months. My gar- 

 dener cut one weighing 28 lbs. this morning. I hang these 

 Gourds in the kitchen, and have slices cut off as wanted. It 

 forms a useful side dish in winter, and is excellent with roast 

 meat. 



I have a large patch of Jerusalem Artichokes in full bloom, 

 many with eight flowers fuUy expanded. I cannot call to 

 mind seeing them in bloom but once before, although I have 

 been a gardener upwards of forty years. My Castor Oil plants 

 this year are as taU as Chimg. — F. Davies, Captain 10th 

 W. B'. v., Pershore. 



A PEEP AT THE WOODS IN ODD PLACES. 

 No. 2. 



ACER SACCHAEINUM (sUGAIl MATLE). 



Picture to yom-self a beautifully wooded hill, with a silvery 

 rivulet trickling around its base. It is a glorious day, the sun 

 is shining brightly overhead, with its warm rays bringing mi- 

 raculously into activity the slumbering powers of the vegetable 

 creation. The sap is beginning to rise, buds to shoot, com to 

 spring up, and trees to foliate ; all bespeaking the wonderful 

 power which the sim possesses in Canada West, and forcibly 

 reminding us that to the unchristianised mind of the Aztecs 

 and ancient Mexicans both prior to and during the reign of 

 Moetezuma, their rehgion is not the unreasoning belief that 

 some would have us think, but a beautiful conception in the weak 

 mind of man of the eternity and omnipresence of a Supreme 

 Being, whom the poor human understanding can in no wise 

 comprehend. I refer to the worship of the sun. And now I 

 will turn to the scenera in which the elegant and most valuable 

 Sugar Maple (Acer sacchaiinum), rears its softly rounded, and 

 delicately gi-een foUage. The tree grows to the height of from 

 20 to 60 feet ; the leaves are shaped somewhat like those of 

 the common Maple, of a most delicate pale green in the spring 

 and summer, becoming converted, as autumn draws on and 

 stem winter heralds his advent, into yellows, varying in tone 

 from pure gamboge to deep chrome, and reds, and scarlets, 

 from the bright scarlet Verbena to the dull heavy Indian red 

 shown in the ^ving of the caged and pining Virginian night- 

 ingale. The bark is of a whitish brown colour, rather deeply 

 fissured in the sap-bearing trees, something after the manner 

 of the common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), of our own coimtiy. 

 It is brittle, and from between the bark and the young wood, 

 or outer woody rings of the trunk, called by carpenters and 

 mechanics the sap-wood, in contradistinction to the darker inner 

 rings denominated the heart, flows, on piercing the bark, a 

 clear sweet liquid, containing the sugar from which the tree 

 acquii'es its name. 



Haring thus briefly described the tree and the position in 

 which it is most commonly found — viz., upon hilly ground in 

 the ncighbom-hood of water, I shall next proceed to give an 



account of a sugar-boUing " bee." Lest any of my readers 

 should not know the meaning of the word " bee," it is as well 

 to state that when in any part of the northern states of America, 

 or Canada, a large amount of work is required to be performed 

 in a limited time, as the preparing of Apples for di'jing, husk- 

 ing corn, quilting, or raising a house, the person requiring aid 

 notifies to all neighbours, near and far, that on a certain day he 

 wishes their company, not to meet together in the evening as 

 we do in this country, too often to talk over and scandalise our 

 neighbours, but to go the whole day from early morning and 

 devote theu- best energies to forward the welfare of the under- 

 taking ; and they well know that when evening shall have put 

 an end to their labom's, the cheerful glass and song, varied with 

 dancing, will fully reward them for a day spent in hard work 

 and helping a friend. 



Perchance some of my fair readers may wish to haye an 

 insight into the arcana of my western ball and supper-room. I 

 must beg of you to imagine the day's hard work completed, and 

 the actors in the scene instead of being, to use our own phrase, 

 quite tired out, only just primed for any amount of fun or 

 dancing that can possibly come in their way. The building in 

 which we are met is a stately one for that part of the country; 

 the gentleman, if I may so apply the term, for whose good the 

 " bee " was held, was in a superior position to the generality of 

 those around him, and, therefore, the building — namely, the 

 barn in which our gathering took place, was more roomy and 

 better adapted to such an occasion than often happens. It 

 was constructed of sawn timber regularly put together Uke the 

 frame of an Enghsh boarded house, and planked outside so as 

 to be a perfect shelter against inclemencies of weather. Of 

 course, in Canada %ve consider a cuiTent of air which would ex- 

 tinguish a gas light as a mere zephyr, and not worthy of being 

 noticed. But let us baste to the dance, where we can hardly 

 say— 



" We foot it fleetly as we go. 

 On the light fantastic toe." 



but what was missed in airiness and elegance was most fully 

 compensated for in activity and perseverance, for we all 

 followed in the steps of Goldsmith's village swains, who 



" Simply sought renown. 

 By holding out to tire each otuer down." 



and I may boldly add, that the city belle who could dance down 

 some of the company then present, would have been a lady 

 possessed of no small amount of thews and muscles, and would 

 require no sui'geon's certificate to testify as to the soundness of 

 her heart and lungs. But "tell it notinGath;" here, even 

 here, in the heart of a country in which it would be difficult, 

 nay almost impossible, to find a himdred acres cleared from its 

 virgin forest, the almost entire surface of which was twenty- 

 five years ago bush land, that had hardly been trodden by 

 the feet of white men, where the bear and the Indian, the 

 moose and the deer, were the lords paramount, and held un- 

 disputed sway over the coimtry — even here Venus and Bacchus 

 hold court, and wield their sceptre over a numerous train of 

 subjects ; and it can hardly be expected but that at a meeting 

 of young folks brought together for the purpose of fun and 

 frolic, many worshippers of both goddess and god, would not 

 be found : consequently love-making on the broadest basis was 

 plentifully intenningled with libations to Bacchus, in the shape 

 of whiskey, and the wreathing fumes of the calumet of peace of 

 the red lords of the soil, or according to our host, who was of 

 Irish extraction, a " shaugh of the dudeen," Anglice a whif 

 of the pipe. This combination of dancing, love-making, 

 whiskey, and tobacco, taken in rapid succession, soon brought 

 matters to a conclusion ; for, as in hunting the pace kills, 

 MoiTiheus came to the aid of the previous god and goddess, and 

 notified to the guests that it was time for retiring to their 

 various homesteads ; and between three and four in the morning 

 the "bee" had ended, and none remained save a few single 

 young men who stopped to complete the work commenced on 

 the previous day. 



Having previously mentioned the object of the "bee," IwiU 

 now proceed to a description of the process of sugai'-obtaining. 

 A small tree, varying from 9 to IS inches in diameter, of some 

 hard wood, perhaps even a worn-out Maple, is cut down, and 

 chopped into lengths of between 2 and 3 feet ; these small logs 

 are then split in two, and each half is rudely hoUowed out by the 

 axe into a small trough. One of these troughs ia placed immedi- 

 ately below an incision made obUquely through the bark to where 

 the sap flows ; the object of this direction being chosen is that 

 the liquid may run from the wound along a chip thrust into the 

 cut, and thus "drop into the trough. It is as well to mention. 



