THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 271 



The salt hay, somehow, helps cure it. I do not attempt to 

 explain the philosophy of it.&quot; 



Farmers who have old stacks of this hay, and heaps of 

 refuse straw about the barn, should save them, and try 

 Squire Oaks experiment. I guess there is more virtue in 

 the dry hay than in the salt. It helps the ventilation, and 

 makes the curing complete. 



A NEW MULCH FOR STRAWBERRIES was shown us in 

 the garden. This consisted of sods from a brake swamp, 

 cut an inch or two thick, with a spade, so that they could 

 be laid between the rows. He had been draining a piece 

 of wet land, and had a plenty of these on hand. When 

 fresh cut, they are free from seeds of weeds, and so sour 

 that nothing will grow on them the first season. They 

 are easily handled, keep the ground moist, and the berries 

 clean. After a year s exposure, they may be spaded in, or 

 removed to the manure heap. 



TRELLIS FOR GRAPES. Mr. Oaks has turned his ledges 

 to good account in training grape vines all over them, by 

 means of wires. These ledges, some of them, present a 

 bare surface, of twenty or thirty feet, and as he could not 

 very well remove them, he covers them with a mantle of 

 green in summer, and has the purple clusters in autumn. 

 This is a timely hint for the multitude of improvers in 

 Westchester county and elsewhere, who are troubled with 

 ledges. They were made on purpose for grapes. 



How NATURE PLANTS A TREE. He showed us an ap 

 ple tree planted on Nature s plan i. e., as near to the sur 

 face as you can get it, and a spot where a tree was planted 

 on some gardener s plan burying the roots in a deep 

 hole. The latter spot was vacant, while the tree was 

 flourishing, and had made a very broad collar just above 

 the surface of the soil. Titus Oaks, Esq., laid very great 

 stress upon this mode of planting. &quot; Nature,&quot; says he, 

 &quot; in growing an apple tree, first runs the seed through a 



