352 



Season for Trimming Trees. — African Guano. Vol. VIII. 



purposes. These are field peas and sweet 

 potatoes, which crops, extended as may be 

 their culture already, and great their pro- 

 ducts, have not yet been duly appreciated in 

 respect to all their benefits. 

 ■ The pea crop, sown broadcast, is an admi- 

 rable rest or manure crop — giving shade, 

 moisture, and consolidation to the soil — and 

 serving, by the sudden and great change of 

 condition from any clean tillage crop, to re- 

 move or lessen the foulness of land, both of 

 insect and vegetable plagues. Such I have 

 known in my own practice, to be the highly 

 beneficial operation of this crop, even under 

 the much less congenial climate of Virginia; 

 and much better must it serve in South Ca- 

 rolina, where not only are the climate and 

 soil more suitable, but where the want of a 

 crop so operating is far greater. — Rvffin's 

 Agricultural Survey of South Carolina. 



Season for Trimming Trees. 



As soon as planting is over, we should 

 look to our apple trees and cut off the sur- 

 plus branches. We cannot recommend cut- 

 ting large branches in any case; we usually 

 do more hurt than good, when we take off a 

 limb that is more than two inches in diame- 

 ter, for the wound will not often heal soon 

 enough to prevent decay at the heart. A 

 tree will sometimes look more thrifty for a 

 time, in consequence of lopping large branch- 

 es, but the improvement will not be lasting. 

 If trees are attended to annually, there will 

 be no need of cutting large limbs. If they 

 have been long neglected we should content 

 ourselves with trimming out the small limbs, 

 and suffer the tree to continue in the shape 

 that it has already formed. 



We may not be able to give any satisfac- 

 tory reason for preferring May to March, for 

 trimming apple trees. Most farmers how- 

 ever agree, that the sooner the wound is 

 healed the better, and that it is not of ser- 

 vice to draw forth much sap at the wound. 

 Now it is certain that a wound never begins 

 to heal till the tree has put forth its leaf. It 

 has no means of making new wood before it 

 has leaves, for the sap that forms the new 

 wood passes through the leaf. From the 

 time of trimming, then, to the forming of 

 the leaf, your wound is exposed to the wea- 

 ther and the process of healing has not com- 

 menced. 



We find that when a limb is cut in July, 

 there will be about as much new wood made 

 to cover the wound, during the season, as 

 when the limb is cut earlier. There is a 

 critical time, however, in July, between the 

 first and second growth of the season, when 

 the sap will run from a wound and will dis- 



colour the bark for a foot or more below it ; 

 we notice this in trimming nursery trees, 

 and we think trmiming in July is not judi- 

 cious. 



As to the comparative waste of sap in 

 March and May, we call the attention of 

 our readers to the practice of tapping the 

 maple for the purpose of gathering sap. All 

 know that no sap can be gathered in May, 

 and not much in April, in our latitude. Sap 

 runs most freely in March. For this reason 

 we never trim grape vines in March. But 

 after the leaf is formed the vines will not 

 bleed. 



You want a fine saw to trim with, to 

 make as smooth a wound as may be, and if 

 a knife is used after the saw, the wound 

 will heal the sooner. Yet we often see 

 trees trimmed with an axe ! We also see 

 the bark torn oft' the limbs by the use of 

 heavy boots by the trimmer. All will own 

 this is barbarous. If you stand on the tree 

 while trimming, you should wear slippers 

 or thin shoes. 



When no limbs larger than one inch in 

 diameter are cut, the wound may be ex- 

 pected to heal over in a couple of years; in 

 a thrifty tree it will heal in one year. When 

 only small limbs are cut, there will be no 

 need of covering the wound with clay or 

 with any kind of plaster. We cannot find 

 that limbs which have been grafted and 

 then covered over with any kind of compost, 

 heal faster than limbs uncovered. A limb 

 should always be cut in such a manner as 

 to let no rain water stand in the little cup 

 that will be formed by the healing of the 

 wound. — Massachusetts Ploughman. 



From the New England Farmer. 

 African Guano. 



To THE Editor, — 



Dear Sir, — I send you a short notice of 

 the above, from a paper by Dr. John Davy, 

 in the April number of the Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Journal. The African guano 

 has been imported into Liverpool, by Mr. 

 Roe, whose son has discovered this new end 

 abundant deposit. It is on an island, a bar- 

 ren rock, on the S. W. coast of Africa, about 

 three miles from the main land. The son of 

 Mr. Roe, was led to look for it, from a notice 

 in the journal of an American whaler, which 

 he read when at school. No rain nor fresh 

 water is found on the island, nor does there 

 appear to be, in fact, any thing except pen- 

 guins, and a deposit cf guano twenty feet 

 deep, over the whole island, which is about 

 a mile in circumference. The penguins 

 were so tame that they pecked at the naked 

 feet of Mr, Roe and his companion. 



