106 THE CAKADTAX HORTICULTUHIST. 



is an instance of this slow maturity; the trees of this variety will 

 attain a size three times as great as that of the Early Harvest near by, 

 which has been yielding fruit for several years, before it will begin to- 

 bear. It may be that our correspondent has some variety of this slow 

 habit, which takes many years to come to a fruit-bearing condition. 

 If so, the root pruning, and other methods of inducing fruitfulnes& 

 already mentioned, will have a tendency to hasten maturity. 



But there is another cause of seeming barrenness in the case of 

 plums trees, which must be traced to quite a different source.. The 

 tree is not to blame, it forms fniit buds, blossoms, sets fruit, but the 

 fruit all drops off before it is half grown, and the owner naturally 

 enough complains that his pluniK trees yield him no fruit. The plums 

 drop off because they are stung by the Curculio. Such however is- 

 now the general diffusion of knowledge on this subject through the 

 labors of our entomological assistants, to whom the fruit growqr and 

 the farmer ow^e many a debt of gratitude, that it is not probable that 

 the Curculio is the caiise of want of fruit on our correspondent's plum 

 trees. The fallen plums, scarce half grown, strewing the ground be- 

 neath the trees^ bearing the crescent mark of the little enemy, tell all 

 too plainly the cause. The remedy in this case is already well known 

 to our readers.. 



FIG CULTtlKE AT THE. NOETH A SUCCESS. 



We have been favored wath a second paper from* Mr. G. E. Needham, 

 of Washington, D. C, with the above title. He is very confident that 

 tlie fig can be successfully and profitably grown in our climate.. He 

 lias recently received a letter from a gentleman in England, an 

 Americ'an, who has resided in England and France some thirty years, 

 and for seven years at Brighton on the south-east coast. In his letter 

 he expre^es his astonishment that the fig has not found hundreds, aye 

 thousands, of cultivators, and a ready market for all produced. He 

 says, " I have enjoyed special opportunities for witnessing fig culture 

 in this part of England, where it is grown profusely, without any 

 special care or outlay, though much exposed to the cold south-east 

 winds, which are blighting in their character and effects at certain 

 seasons of the year; yet the fig tree survives it all, gives a good gro-wth 



