ALMOND. 



ALOPECURUS. 



shoots are often forced into a crooked direc- 

 tion, and this causes the trunk to be de- 

 formed, and unfit to become a fine tree. 

 When the surface of the seed-bed has been 

 smoothed, a covering of rotten tanner's bark, 

 or leaf mould, to the depth of two inches, 

 must be laid upon it, which being light, pre- 

 vents the fruit-stones from being damaged 

 by any severity of winter. At the beginning 

 of May this covering of bark or leaves must 

 be raked clean off the bed. The stones might 

 be reserved till spring, and be sown at the end 

 of March, but the plants do not come so cer- 

 tainly as when sown in autumn. An addi- 

 tional advantage of an autumn sowing is, that 

 the plants come up about six weeks or two 

 months earlier than those sown in spring ; 

 consequently the plants become vigorous and 

 well rooted the first year, and thereby not liable 

 to be thrown out of the ground by thaws suc- 

 ceeding frost in the following winter. 



During summer, care must be taken to 

 pull up all weeds, when very young, for if 

 they be allowed to get strong before pulling 

 out, this operation is apt to injure the roots 

 of the almond plants. 



When almond stones have been sown in 

 spring, it will be necessary at the approach of 

 the succeeding winter to have the beds covered 

 with rotten tanner's bark, or leaf mould, scat- 

 tering it an inch deep, or more, amongst the 

 plants, a covering which will tend to prevent 

 the plants being injured or thrown out by frost. 



In the second spring after the sowing, the 

 plants should be taken up, carefully preserving 

 all the fibrous roots, a care which, as they are 

 but sparingly produced, will be essentially ne 

 cessary. The plants must be transplanted in 

 rows, at two feet apart, row from row, and a 

 foot and a half distant in the rows. Here they 

 may be trained to form standards, half stand- 

 ards, or dwarfs, and be regulated and prepared 

 either for wall training or shrubbery planta- 

 tions. For both purposes, attention will be 

 requisite during summer and winter, to thin 

 out the branches, reserving only a suitable 

 number for the future limbs of the tree, and 

 these so far apart that they may not, in any 

 future stage of growth, be liable to rub against 

 each other, which standard trees would be 

 liable to ; for if this be not avoided, gum 

 would be exuded at such injured parts, and 

 the speedy decay of the tree be the conse- 

 quence. 



Almond plants intended for training agains 

 walls should have some stakes fixed in the 

 form of a trelis, to which the branches should 

 be secured in a proper form, so that they may 

 be suited to the position of the wall on their 

 final removal. (Miller's Dictionary.) 



[In many parts of the Middle and Southern 

 United States, the climate admits the almonc 

 tree to mature its fruit. The kind with a hare 

 and smooth shell will ripen ir New Jersey and 

 the southern part of Pennsylvania, near Phila- 

 delphia. A communication published in the 

 15th vol. of the American Farmer states tha 

 the more tender and valuable soft-shell kinc 

 have been brought to perfection at Cambden 

 Kent County, Delaware, which is about eighty 

 miles south of Philadelphia.] 

 72 



ALOPECURUS. A genus of grasses of the 

 oxtail kind, of which there are several species, 

 some of which may be cultivated to advantage 

 n the field. 



Alopecurus agrestis. Slander foxtail-grass. 

 [Alopecurus myosuroides, Curt. Lond.) One ol 

 he most inferior species of this grass. The 

 herbage it produces is comparatively of no 

 value whatever. It appears to be left un- 

 :ouched by every description of cattle. The 

 seed is produced in considerable abundance, 

 and is eaten by the smaller birds, as well as 

 by pheasants and partridges. This annual 

 species of foxtail-grass is distinguished from 

 the perennial meadow foxtail {Alopecurus pro- 

 tensis) by the total want of woolly hairs on the 

 spike, so conspicuous in that of the A. pro- 

 tensis. The Rev. G. Swayne observes, that it 

 is a very troublesome weed in many places 

 among wheat, and execrated by farmers under 

 the name of black bent. 



" I have always," says Mr. Sinclair, " found 

 it prevalent in poor soils, particularly such as 

 had been exhausted by avaricious cropping. 

 It is most difficult to extirpate when once in 

 possession of the soil ; for it sends forth flow- 

 ering culms during the whole summer and 

 autumn, till frost arrests it; so that it can bear 

 to be repeatedly cut down in one season, with- 

 out suffering essentially by the process. In- 

 deed, it will be found a vain and unprofitable 

 labour to attempt the removal of this grass by 

 any other means than the opposite to that 

 which gave it possession of the soil, which is 

 judicious cropping. To return land, in this 

 state, to grass, in the hope of overcoming this 

 unprofitable plant, will be found of little avail. 

 I have witnessed this practice, and the slender 

 foxtail, instead of disappearing in these in- 

 stances, re-appeared with the scanty herbage, 

 and in greater health and abundance. The 

 soil must first be got into good heart by very 

 moderate and judicious cropping, which in- 

 cludes the proper application of manure, a 

 skilful rotation of crops, and the most pointed 

 attention to the destruction of weeds ; which 

 last can only be effected, in this sense, by 

 adopting the drill or row culture for the crops 

 After this the land may be returned to grass 

 for several years with every prospect of suc- 

 cess. It flowers in the first week of July, and 

 successively till October. 



Alopecurus arundinaceus. Reed-like foxtail- 

 grass. The substance of the culms and leaves 

 of this grass is coarser than that of the Alnpe-. 

 curus pratensis f and the root is so powerfully 

 creeping as to render its introduction into 

 arable land a matter of great caution. The 

 produce and nutritive powers are very consi- 

 derable : it is an early grass, producing culms 

 at an early period of the spring, and continu- 

 ing to vegetate vigorously through the summer 

 and autumn. It cannot be recommended as a 

 constituent of permanent pasture ; but as a 

 grass to cultivate by itself, to a certain extent, 

 for green food, or for hay, it offers advantages 

 in the superior produce and nutritive powers 

 above stated. It grows stronger, and attains 

 to a greater height, than the A. Tauntoniensis ; 

 but, owing to the roots spreading wi.le, being 

 large, and requiring a consequent greater sup 



