312 Queries, Criticisms, ^c. 



The Season. — Extract of a letter from our friend Willis Gaylord, 

 dated Otisco, June 9, 1835. 



" The backwardness of the spring, and extreme wetness and coldness 

 of April, had a most unfavorable effect upon the operations of the 

 farmer, besides being productive of great inconvenience, and in some 

 parts of the country real distress. Perhaps our flocks and herds suffered 

 as little as in any section, but it will require large quantities of good 

 feed, (which as yet we have not,) and considerable time, to bring them 

 to the condition in which an ordinary winter and spring would have left 

 them. Corn was necessarily planted late, and owing to various causes, 

 its present appearance in general is not promising. Some have been 

 obliged to rc|)lant their corn, in consequence of the extensive ravages of 

 the small red wire worm, which attacked the kernel as soon as it be- 

 came softened in the earth, or as soon as it had sprouted. 



Fruit of all kinds grown here, with the exception of peaches, promises 

 well. Many of our peach trees have died, and those which escaped de- 

 struction barely lived. The flower buds were so frozen, that but few 

 have opened, while the others have dried up and dropped off." — Gen- 

 esee Farmer. 



Mammoth Strawberry. — A strawberry was presented to us yesterday 

 by C. M. Lee, Esq., which measured 8 inches. It was of the Methven 

 variety, and the coxcomb shape, and was fairly measured according to 

 Horticultural usage, by Mr. L. B. Langworthy, in the presence of a 

 number of citizens. The same gentleman produced six strawberries, 

 which measured more than 30 inches, which were selected from a dish of 

 two (}uarts. In fact, berries of 4 and 5 inches are so common in our best 

 gardens, that they are not noticed since the introduction of the new 

 varieties. AVe are aware that Rochester has the credit of dealing a 

 little m poetical prose, but while other places are croaking about 4 and 

 5 inch berries, we could not restrain mentioning this very extraordinary 

 production. — lb. 



Gama Grass. — We have been informed by James B. Marsh, Esq., that 

 he has lately brought into a state of cultivation this valuable grass, and 

 in the month of May, cut from less than two feet square, two pounds nine 

 ounces sreen grass. In less than fourteen days after cutting, it grew 

 twelve inches in length ; and it may be cut every twenty-five days, until 

 the first of November, or severe frost. He says his horses, cattle, and 

 sheep prefer it to the best of blade fodder ; and having tried red-top, 

 timothy, and clover, he is certain that one acre of gama will produce 

 more forage, than ten in those grasses. — North Carolina Whig. 



Art. III. Queries, Criticisms, 4rc- 



Budding Roses. — Your valuable correspondent, J. W. Russell, in 

 your May number, in an excellent communication on the budding of the 

 rose, states that the tea rose may be budded on the stock of boursalts, 

 multiflora, &c., and that they make splendid objects when in bloom, 

 if budded at some distance from the ground, so as to form small trees. 

 I have seen the effect produced by this method myself, and can testify to 

 it as being the very perfection of the culture of the rose. Only imagine 

 the effect "of ten or twelve varieties of the moss rose towering above the 

 shrubberv, and showing their moss covered buds, tipped with the morn- 



