326 



Facts about Digestion. — Grafting Currants. 



Vol. XII. 



you could scarcely credit the improved qual- 

 ity of the pruned tree, without comparing 

 them. 



One of my acquaintances, who is an in- 

 telligent orchardist, and grows peaches for 

 market on a large scale, now makes his 

 trees branch out, or form their heads quite 

 low, and shortens them in with a pair of 

 large hedge-shears, — the blade two feet 

 long, — fastened on long handles. In this 

 way it is but a short job to prune a whole 

 orchard. 



I have used wood ashes as a manure for 

 peach trees with the greatest benefit. It 

 gives them a particularly healthy and sound 

 look; that is, without becoming gross, or 

 over-luxuriant, they make a moderate growth 

 of good plump shoots, have very healthy fo- 

 liage, bear high coloured and well ripened 

 crops. 



I use wood ashes, either leached or un- 

 leached. The latter is, if quite fresh, about 

 three times as strong as the former; and, 

 therefore, while half a peck of unleached is 

 sufficient, usually, tor a young tree just be- 

 ginning to bear, I have found half a bushel 

 not too much of the leached ashes. It ought 

 to be spread over the surface, and dug in a 

 few inches only. Probably the best time of 

 applying it is in October; but I have also 

 found it to answer admirably as late as June, 

 — very soon, if the season is a rainy one, 

 changing the common colour of the leaves 

 to a deep emerald hue. 



I have so high an opinion of the good 

 effect of ashes, that — agreeing with you, 

 that the yellows is only disease, caused by 

 bad treatment and exhaustion, — I feel almost 

 certain that the shortening-in mode of prun- 

 ing, and the use of ashes, will drive this 

 malady out of the country, if cultivators can 

 be brought to estimate properly their joint 

 value. 



It is, no doubt, best to prune the peach 

 tree early; but, as I have seen no bad effects 

 whatever from shortening-in as late as the 

 middle of Alay, I advise such of your read- 

 ers as may not have performed that opera- 

 tion already, on their peach trees, to take 

 knife in hand and sally forth immediately. — 

 Horliculturist. 



Facts about Digestion. 



Wheat is most nutritious of all substances, 

 except oil; containing ninety-five parts of 

 nutriment to five of waste matter. Dry 

 peas, nuts and barley are nearly as nutri- 

 tions as wheat. Garden vegetables stand 

 lowest on the list, inasmuch as they contain, 

 when fresh, a large portion of water. The 

 quantity of waste matter is more than eight- 



tenths of the whole. Veal is the most nu- 

 tritious, then fowls, then beef, last, pork. 

 The most nutritious fruits are plums, grapes, 

 apricots, peaches, gooseberries, and melons. 

 Of all the articles of food, boiled rice is di- 

 gested in the shortest time — an hour. As it 

 also contains eight-tenths of nutritious mat- 

 ter, is a valuable substance of diet. Tripe 

 and pig's feet are digested almost as rapidly. 

 Apples, if sweet and ripe, are next in order. 

 Venison is digested almost as soon as apples. 

 Roasted potatoes are digested in half the time 

 required by the same vegetable boiled, which 

 occupy three hours and a half— more than 

 beef or mutton. Bread occupies three hours 

 and a half — an hour more than is required 

 by the same article raw. Turkey and goose 

 are converted in two hours and a half— an 

 hour and a half sooner than chicken. Roast- 

 ed veal and pork, and salted beef, occupy 

 five hours and a half — the longest of all arti- 

 cles of food. — American Journal of Agri- 

 culture a7id Science. 



Grafting Currants. — The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle recommends, for the pretty ap- 

 pearance presented, as well as improved fla- 

 vour, to graft currants of different colours, 

 as the red, black, and white, variously inter- 

 mixed, on stocks trimmed up to a single 

 stem, three or four feet high. The tops 

 may be headed down to a dense compact 

 head, or trained as espaliers in the horizontal 

 or fan method, the two latter modes of train- 

 ing, by the free exposure to the sun and air, 

 much improving the quality of the fruit. 

 The importance of trimming the bushes up 

 to a single stem to improve the fruit and fa- 

 cilitate clean culture, instead of suffering 

 two hundred and fifty suckers to shoot up all 

 around into a dense brush heap, is very obvi- 

 ous to those who have tried both. 



Hens. — To make them lay perpetually, 

 have their houses thoroughly cleansed; let 

 no filth get in the nests; whitewash the 

 places they frequent ; put lime, sand, ashes 

 and gravel, under roof, where they have ac- 

 cess; give them fresh chopped meat, grain, 

 and potatoes every day during cold weather, 

 and until insects appear; never leave nest 

 eirgs for them ; give them clean hay, plenty 

 of water, and they will be profitable. 



True Breeding. — Lord Chatham, who 

 was almost as remarkable for his manners 

 as for his eloquence and public spirit, has 

 defined good breeding to be "Benevolence in 

 trifles, or the preference of others to our- 

 selves in the little daily occurrences of life." 



