A Venerable Orchard 



half of it is wholly denuded of bark, as if 

 it had been struck by lightning, and the 

 trunk is perfectly hollow, but the grafted 

 stem still sends out very strong and 

 healthy-looking shoots, that yield an abun- 

 dance of fine rosy-cheeked fruit every 

 other year. 



The canker-worm has meddled very lit- 

 tle with these trees, but the web-caterpil- 

 lar has to be waged constant war upon, 

 both in spring and fall, and the last two 

 summers, owing to the preceding mild 

 winter, this pest was particularly active 

 and ubiquitous. 



A row of Plum-trees against the east 

 foundation-wall of the old house, which 

 still stands, and makes a good shelter for 

 our Raspberry bushes, seem as if they 

 would do well if we could only cope suc- 

 cessfully with the murderous black knot, 

 with which we found them perfectly cov- 

 ered. In 1889 all the diseased portions 

 were cut away, and- since then they have 

 sent out a quantity of tall, healthy branches, 

 but no blossoms, from their closely polled 

 stems ; we purpose next spring to try the 

 effect of salt bags in the crotches of the 



