170 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



July 



EFFECTS OF THE PAST WINTER ON TREES. 



From many portions of the Western States we 

 have information that the severity of last winter has 

 been exceedingly distructive to trees. A friend in 

 Illinois, says : — " Ml of our orchard peaches, and 

 most of our choice cherries, (and we had 'a good 

 few ' of them, as our Yorkshire neighbor says,) are 



dead — defunct, winter-killed ; not blighted a la , 



but killed by cold. And many, too many, of our 

 pears are in the same fix, and eke some. Our two or 

 three years old nursery peaches mostly dead, and one 

 year old two-thirds dead, and last years buds half 

 dead. Most of the native seedlings still alive, and- 

 on the lower limbs (which were buried in snow,) 

 there were abundance of flowers, and will be some 

 fruit. Mr. , of Wisconsin, writes me that near- 

 ly all of his pears and plums in the nursery are dead, 

 and also many apples." 



The nursery business here has quite enough of 

 toil and trouble for us, but in a climate like that of 

 portions of the west, how must it be ? What a 

 thorough cure i/jch experience as the above would be 

 for some persons who seem to be laboring under a 

 delusive idea that the nursery business is one of the 

 most lucrative and delightful in the world. Before 

 they get into it they dream of Fruits and Flowers, 

 pleasure and riches ; after they get fairly embarked 

 in the matter, they sometimes dream of excessive cold, 

 heat, frost, snotv, hail-storms, blight, insects, rain, 

 drought, and a thousand other things that annoy the 

 poor cultivator. 



In Western New York we had a remarkably se- 

 vere winter, but vegetation seemed to suffer very 

 little. We have not seen a single tree, old or young, 

 winter killed. Pawlonias, Ailantus, Catalpas and 

 other tender trees are quite uninjured. Young 

 Deodar Cedars, Auracarias, and other evergreens 

 planted out last summer, and not protected at all dur- 

 ing the hardest part of the winter, are perfectly safe. 

 Roses generally, had more of their tops winter killed 

 than usual, but this has done them very little harm. 



Fruit trees are very promising, as we stated in the 

 June number. Apricots, Nectarins, Peaches, Plums, 

 Appres, and indeed all the fruits, are bearing at this 

 moment, an abundant crop. The young trees in the 

 nursery never looked better. The buds of peaches, 

 pears, plums, and indeed all the fruits look unusually 

 well. This is a great contrast with the state of 

 things in Illinois, Wisconsin, fk.c, which our friends 

 communicate. 



Culture of Orchards. — It is an indispensable 

 requisite, in all young orchards, to keep the ground 

 mellow and loose by cultivation ; at least for the first 

 few years, until the trees are well established. In- 

 deed, of two adjoining orchards, one planted and kept 

 in grass, and the other plowed for the first five years, 

 there will be an incredible difference in favor of the 

 latter. Not only will these trees show rich dark 

 luxuriant foliage, and clean smooth stems, while those 

 neglected will have a starved and sickly look, but the 

 size of the trees in the cultivated orchard will be 

 treble that of the others at the end of this time, and 

 a tree in one will be ready to bear an abundant crop, 

 before the other has commenced yielding a peck of 

 good fruit. Fallow crops are the best for orchards, 

 — potatoes, vines, buckwheat, roots, Indian corn, and 

 the like. An occasional crop of grass, or grain may 

 be taken. — Downing. 



ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Degeneracy of Apples by, continued Grafting.— I 

 have been informed by some of our oldest innahitants, that 

 the uniform effect of grafting successively from a graft, is, de- 

 generacy of the fruit; that the degeneracy comm 'nces with 

 the third remove from the parent stock, and rs increased with 

 each successive departure: Thus the fruit of a craft taken 

 from a seedling stock, is better than the original that the 

 fruit of a graft taken from this grift, will be about equal to 

 the preceding; but that the fruit of a graft taken from this 

 latter, will be inferior to the preceding; and that the next 

 will be still worse, and so on indefinitely. Query. — Is it al- 

 ways so? II, 



No, not ahcays so, nor so in any case. What would be the 

 natural result of this law of degeneracy? Why. it is plain 

 that our best apples would, in perhaps fifty years from the 

 seed, be no better than crabs. Bad modes of propagating, 

 the use of bad stock, bad culture, &c, &c, causes degene- 

 ration in trees and consequently in the fruit, but grafting 

 alone, under proper circumstances, does not, nor never has, 

 caused degeneracy. On the contrary it may, and in many 

 cases does, greatly contribute to the amelioration of fruits, 

 as most cultivators very well know. 



Garden Snail or Slug. — Can you inform us of any 

 remedy for the snail? Many of our gardens in Palmyra are 

 badly infested with them. They cut down our cabbage 

 plants, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, corn, pumpkin-- and 

 choice flower seed plants, almost as fast as we can get them 

 out of the ground. They appear early in morning and eve- 

 ning, by hundreds. The first we saw of them was last sea- 

 son, destroying our cabbages. 



We have tried ashes and lime, and for a time it makes 

 them writhe in pain, hut soon appears to loose its strength 

 and they cease to mind it. Our borders are also iron! led 

 with bl;ick ants, large and small. Any information in the 

 Farmer will greatly ohliee many here, and elsewhere as I 

 learn. R. G. Pardee.— Palmyra, N. Y., 1849. 



AlR-slacked lime can hardly fail to destroy the slugs. It 

 should be applied early in the morning, in the evening, or 

 after a rain. Lime water and other caustic solutions are used 

 sometimes with success. . We have seen it suggested some 

 where to place at short distances through the garden, small 

 heaps of bran. The slugs assemhle round these and can the 

 more easily be killed. During the heat of the day a great 

 many may be destroyed in the shade of garden fences, plants, 

 or other objects about the garden. 



Ants are destroyed by inundating their retreats with 

 salt water, boiling water, ,or water and oil. To prevent them 

 from injuring fruit, a ring of some sticky substance like 

 paint, may be put around the tree, and renewed, to prevent 

 their ascent — or a band of wool, or some such mat rial, will 

 effect the same object. If they once get into a tree thoy 

 can be trapped with vials of sweetened water hung among 

 the branches. 



Early Richmond Cherry Seeds. — (I. F. ) We know 

 of no reason why good well ripened seed should not grow. 

 Your failure may be owing to some mismanagement in sav- 

 ing the seed ; sometimes we fail entirely with the Mazzard 

 and others. The seeds of all cherries should either be sown 

 immediately when gathered, or be cleaned of the pulp and 

 put away in earth or sand till planting time. 



The Apple Tree Borer. — (A Subscriber. Windsor, N. 

 Y.) This is no doubt, the insect you have found in your 

 trees. The larva; is thus described by Harris, in his ; ' Trea- 

 tise on Insects" ■ — " Whitish grubs nearly cylindrical, and 

 tapering a little from the first ring to the end of the body. — 

 The head is small, horny and brown ; the first ring much 

 larger than the others, the next two are very short and with 

 the first, are covered with punctures and very minute hairs; 

 the following rings to the tenth inclusive, are each furnished 

 on the upper and under side, with two fleshy warts situated 

 close together, and destitute of the little rasp like teeth that 

 are usually found in the grubs of the other Capricorn beetles; 

 the eleventh and twelfth rings are very short, no appearance 

 of legs can be seen, even with a magnifying glass of high 

 power." The lervae stale continues two or three years. The 

 safest and surest method to get rid of them, is to cut them 

 out carefully with a knife, or they may be killed by a wire 

 thrust into their holes. 



Paradise Stock.— (T. H., Richfield.) The usual method 

 of propogation is by layers. Those used in this country have 

 so far been mostly imported. 



