Editors' Lcttcr-Box. 367 



Destroying Caterpillars. — J. B. The method we have pursued with 

 the insects is to clean them from the hmb and crush them: this may be done 

 by hand, or with the spiral brush invented for the purpose ; and by placing it on 

 the end of a long pole, they may easily be brought down from high trees. They 

 may also be destroyed by a strong solution of whale oil soap, applied freely 

 with a swab. We have seen a recommendation to burn them with coal oil, 

 but this we have not tried. It is done by taking paper or cloth, saturated 

 with the oil, fastening it on the end of a pole, setting it on fire, and holding 

 it under the nest. Whatever method is adopted, must be early in the morn- 

 ing or late in the afternoon, when the caterpillars are in their nest. They 

 will also be found at home on dull rainy days. The earlier they are destroyed 

 the better ; it is ten times easier to kill them as soon as they begin to spin their 

 web, than after they have got their growth. 



MoRUS. — You will find some account of Downing's Ever-Bearing Mulberry 

 in our Volume VI., p. 191. As far south as Philadelphia it is perfectly hardy, 

 but here it is not. If you wish to plant it where its hardiness is doubtful, select 

 a dry soil, and not so rich as to cause a late, luxuriant growth of unripe wood. 



Scion. — The care of grafted trees the second year is very simple. Go over 

 them all and press the wax into place where it has been raised by the growth of 

 the grafts, supplying additional when needed. Then cut out clean all the suck- 

 ers, if any have been allowed to grow (as is the best way on large trees), saving 

 such as are in a position where a limb is needed. Then, if the grafts have 

 grown very vigorously, it will be best to shorten ihem in, as otherwise, they are 

 apt, when the wood is soft and the foliage abundant, in June, to be loaded down 

 with rain, or to be broken by the wind, greatly injuring the future shape of your 

 tree. 



California Fruit. — We are under obligations to a correspondent for 

 the following correction of some statements in the February number of the 

 Journal : — 



" I do not think the correspondent of the Boston Daily Advertiser knows 

 much about the productions of California, or he never would have stated that 

 ' Oranges, lemons, and limes grow only in the southern part of the State — Los 

 Angeles County and vicinity ; ' and that ' figs are raised in favored localities 

 within thirty or forty miles of San Francisco.' There are orange trees growing 

 in Marysville, fourteen years old, also on General Bidwtll's farm at Chico. 

 Lemons and limes grow as easily as a plum tree, and figs are as common as any 

 fruit we have ; many families dry them the same as peaches or apples for winter 

 use. One of my neighbors has over fifty fig trees, six years old, and they bear 

 three full ripe crops a year. I send you an orange raised in Dr. Reilay's gar- 

 den, Marysville, Yuba County. The tree had about two hundred and fifty on it. 

 They commenced to ripen in November, and many of them remain on the tret 

 yet. It will blosso n again in a few weeks." J. T. S. 



