290 Notes and Gleanings. 



ment must be made at the top.^'' Now, this is a truth I long since learned — to 

 my cost, however. I began with the lower branches — I suppose because these 

 were more accessible, for I can give no other reason. But season after season 

 left its record of failures, the symmetry of my trees was more and more impaired, 

 and I was discouraged. Whenever I strolled through my orchard, naked, pro- 

 jecting stumps, like bony fingers, pointed at me on all sides, and seemed to taunt 

 me for my mismanagement and cruelty. More than this, I then began to think 

 the evidences perpetual ; for they appear to defy time itself. How I dislike their 

 testimony ! 



But thanks to the suggestion of some friend or sensible writer, I have learned 

 "a better way." This I find embodied in your excellent essay, but I shall re- 

 peat it here. " The upper branches attract the sap more than the lower ones, 

 and here the work of grafting a large tree should always be commenced.'''' 

 Acting on this principle, success is nearly certain ; any other course will result 

 not only in waste of labor and means, but oi years of time. 



For one, I engage in the work of changing a large tree with reluctance ; and 

 I advise those who find satisfaction in the possession of a healthy, full-grown, 

 symmetrical tree — if the variety is anything above mediocrity — to be slow in 

 making an alteration, which, under the most favorable results, will require years 

 to complete, but which may quite as likely return you an unsightly object, or 

 leave on your hands a feeble, sickly body, for which the woodman's axe will 

 bring the only relief, especially if the stock has passed its "grand chmacteric," 

 and gives evidence of being on the " downhill of life." You see that I speak of 

 my trees very much as I do of my friends ; and truly I do not see how a man 

 can expect his trees will do their best for him, unless he feels such a sympathy 

 with them as to do Ins best for tliem. 



Small Fruits in Central Massachusetts in 1869. — A capital article, just such 

 as we want from every locality. Mr. Draper's statements of the qualities of his 

 small fruits carry with them the evidence of their truth, as they have proved with 

 him. His estimate of the Wilson differs from that of the majority, but I proph- 

 esy that there will be more who agree with him before there are fewer. 



Successful Pear Culture. — I am glad to know, after all that has been said, 

 that there is a place in Pennsylvania where pears can be grown, and a man who 

 can grow them successfully, though I don't doubt that there are a great many of 

 both. And I am glad that we are to know something through your pages, Mr. 

 Editor, of this instance of remarkable success ; and perhaps when the series of 

 papers is concluded, I shall have something more to say about it. 



New Strawberries. — Mr. Merrick has made a specialty of this subject with 

 the greatest success. I wish there were more like him to test all the legion of 

 new varieties as they are introduced from year to year. It is a discouraging task, 

 T know, after cultivating perhaps a hundred kinds two or three years, to find but 

 a single one, or it may be not even one, worthy of a permanent place ; but it is 

 not without its rewards ; and certainly he who does it and warns his fellow-cul- 

 tivators of the worthless, and commends the good, is a benefactor not only to 

 them, but to the whole community. 



How to Make the Most of our Gardens is what we all want to know ; and if 



