T2 GENESEE FARMER. Mah. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT 

 BY P. BARRY. 



Orchard and Garden Operations for Marrh. 



Pruniiijj;. — Orchards should now he pruned, 

 if not already done. Young trees require but i he ahle to do it — full directions are given in 



sap is in motion. Plums and Cherries should be 

 grafled first. It is better in the case of these 

 that the trees have not started at all. Apples and 

 Pears may he grafted later. Gel your scions, 

 tools, &.C., all in readiness. Grafting is an ex- 

 ceedingly simple operation — every farmer should 



little, just enough to keep the hearls in proper Downing's and other fruit works. Where per- 

 shape. and to remove branches, that cross or in- 'sons are employed to do it, they should he such 

 terfere with others. Old trees, the heads of on/j/ as are well known, and can be fully relied 



upon. Itinerant quacks have filled our country 

 with errors. Avoid them. 



Strawberry Beds, Bulbous Roots, Tender 



which have gi-own dense with brandies, should 

 be thinned out to admit the sun and air ; this im- 

 proves, very much, both the size and flavor of 



the fruit. In doing this a pruning saw should be I Tree*, S/mlbs, Plants, Roses, Grape Vines, 

 used — the limbs should be cut close to the tree, '^c., that have been protected during winter should 

 and the cut smoothed over with a sharp pruning be uncovered as soon as the weather is mild, 

 knife or a chisel. No pruning should be done. Broken and bruised limbs should be pruned ofT, 

 if it can be avoided, after the sap h;is commenced and the earth carefully dressed around them — 

 flowing. The Plum, Cherry, and other trees supplying manure where necessary, 

 apt to give out gum, which is termed bleeding, t jj^t Beds.— Every farmershould have at least 

 had better be pruned in midsummer. Trees that ^„g l,ot bed frame, if it were only to forward 

 were top grafted last season, or previous ones, plants for the garden— such as cabbage, culi- 

 should be carefully examined, and all the natural flowers. Celery, Tomato, Egg Plant, Pepper, &c. 

 shoots that have sprung up below thegrafi should Pe,-sons who live at a great distance from mar- 

 be pruned olT. ;].gl^^ gardeners who raise such plants for sale, find 

 Deciduous Ornamental Trees and (S/«nf&s it difficult to get them, and by depending on those 

 should now be pruned. This must be done with raised from seed in the open ground, the summer 

 a view to improve their shape. All straggling, is half gone before vegetables can be had fit for 

 irregular, decaying, or dead branches should be use. Stable manure is abundant, and it requires 

 removed. [ no great mechanical genius to constructthe frame 

 Scions for Grafting. — Finish cutting your and sash. This can be done now before the 

 Scions now, as soon as possible. This ma'ter of ground thaws. 



cutting scions is very roughly and badly perfor- Leltxice and Early Peas may be sowed as 

 med, generally speaking. A sharp knife should soon as the ground is open. 

 be used, and two or three buds of the young Compost and Manure Heaps, for the vege- 

 ehoot, the last years growth, should be left. We table and fruit garden, and orchard, should be 

 find that many cut off the lokole of the young, thoroughly turned, mixed up, and put in com- 

 and more or less the old wood. The person cut- plete readiness for application, 

 ting should have labels ready to label each sort ; pniit and other Trees and Shrubs, that have 

 as it is cut. Every cultivator should endeavour been neglected, should receive a liberal dressing 

 to know the correr^ name of each variety he cul- of well rotted manure or compost around the 

 tivates. In grafting he should note down in a j-oots, as soon as the ground can be worked. If 

 memorandum book the name of each sort, and the the trunks have become mossy, they should be 

 source whence he procured it— anrl we may add, carefully scraped, and washed with' strong soap 

 that no scions should be procured from a source gudg. The increased beauty and fertility of the 

 oi iiery questionable correctness. I,.ee next summer will be an ample recompense 



On this matter of names we wish to impress tor this trouble, 

 upon every grower the importance of t'le greatest i Orchard Caterpillars. — These plagues, that 

 possible care and exactness. It will not be in have of late years become so numerous and des- 

 future as it has been. The grower who knows tructive, by toleration, in oursection, can notohe 

 his varieties, and has them correctly named, will destroyed ea.silv, when pruning is going on, and 

 find more ready sale, and better prices tlian his scions cutting, &c. The eggs are now seen on 

 neiglibour who knows only that he has got fruit the limbs of the trees— deposited in rings around 

 of some kind or other. ithem. These rings are of a broM-nish gray col- 



Plunting Fruit Trees, <^c., should be commen- or, from a quarter to hvlf an inch long, and each 

 ced as soon as the weather will admit. L;istsea- contains 200 to 400 eggs. Suppose a tree to con- 

 son tlie ground was open about the 4th of March, tain '20 of tliese rings (and some h;ive more,) 

 and we then transplanted trees — that was rather tliere are 8,000 cateri)illars, with ravenous appe- 

 unusual. Gooseberries, Currants, Raspberries, tifes ready to devour the fi>ilage of your trees aa 

 and all such things, that commence gi'owing ear- .soon as it makes its apjjearance. (io to work 

 ly, sliould he attended to first. l now, and look sliarpdy for tliese eggs ; pickthem 



Grafting, should be attended to as soon as the I from the limbs and destroy them. 



