^I.VIII.— Nn. 13. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL 



139 



It .-|iiiiig. So I am induced to believe that all modes 

 j:ral'tiiig succeed alike. Is not this way of 

 lojiiigating the orange trihc, which grows so 

 iilily from seed, preferable to the tedious and 

 ubiesome |)roces3 of inarching, so generally in 

 3 ill otir gardens. Here trees are not wanted 



finit, but only for ornament ; raised in this way 

 from cuttings, which, if properly tnannged, shoot 

 idily enough, they would form small, but very 

 udsome trees. 



believe greenhouse plants, and perhaps all 

 es and shrubs which root from the cutting, and 

 ry few will not so root, can be successfully pro- 

 bated from the bud in sand. Last spring I in- 

 led in sand a bud of the Greville rose^ leaving 

 ached to it the leaf and a portion of the wood 

 large as the head of a dressing pin, and covered 

 vith a bell glass, shading it four or five weekfe. 

 the same time I planted in another pot of sand, 

 nc cutting of the same rose. In seven weeks 



cutting began to push ; and in nine the bud. — 

 the present time the largest shoot of the cutting 

 )ut three inches, while that from the bud is more 



1 twelve. 



[ii August I tried experiments with other i)lants. 

 shoot of the Kerria Japonica, which strikes as 

 sly as tlie willow, containing ten or twelve buds, 

 s cut up so as to leave a line of the wood to 

 h bud. These were buried in sand half an 

 b deep, the leaf standing up erect out of the 

 d :'- — the beautiful Calothamnus quadnjida, an 

 h of the wood furnishing fifteen buds — Melaleu- 

 n anata, and hypericifolia, were successfully 

 jected to the same experiment, the leaves of 



last plant being opposite and closely attached 



:ie wood, two with their buds were necessarily 

 irted together, and in such a manner as to half 

 er them with the sand. None of the buds of 



Kerria Japonica failed, and but few of those of 



oilicrs. Trees grown from the bud in this 

 y possess the maturity, and other valuable prop- 

 es of the parent, together with the beauty of 

 seedling. It is my intention to jn'osecute my 

 eriments on those i)lants which strike with 

 re difficulty as Cape Heaths, &c. In these ei- 



ments a pot was filled with the finest white 



I, previously washed, watered, and left to drain 

 r or five hours. Holes were made with a gooso 



II, a pebble dropped into each, on which the 

 I was made to rest ; the sand was pressed firm- 

 own upon the bud, and afterwards a fiiw drops 

 vater were permitted to fall upon each bud from 

 lotige. The bell glass was forced down into 



sand so as effectually to exclude the air, and 

 ^ raised every day or two to wipe off the nioist- 

 I found that water given once a week kept 

 sand sufficiently moist. JAMES'LEWIS. 

 ''ork, Penn. JVov. 7, 1829. 



CULTURE OF CAMELLIAS. 



rjic following letter will be read with pleasure by the 

 ;rous cultivators of this beautiful plant, in this city 

 ell as in New York, where numerous complaints 

 been made of the abortive flower buds of the Ca- 

 a at this season. The letter was not written for 



lication, but we trust the writer will excuse the lib- 

 we have taken in presenting it to our readers.] 



J. Ij. Rdssell, 



JEAR Sir — You ask my opinion of the causes 

 the fall of the buds of the Camellia without 

 ning. It is a most vexatious disappointment 

 V a twelve months' care. It has occurred to 

 onee and once only ; and to a friend to whom I 

 e a double white, (worth, in my opinion, all 

 others put together, however curious they may 



be,) I can only say, that in this limited experi- 

 ence in two cases only, it was caused solely by the 

 scaly insect. To professional gardeners, this in- 

 sect is familiar; to general readers, not so. In 

 the camellia, it attacks the flower bud in prefer- 

 ence, and at its insertion, in the stalk. Three or 

 four of them are fatal to any bud. It requires a 

 close observation to discover them. It seems, to a 

 careless observer, to form apart of the plant itself, 

 and to be a mere light brown speck on its surface. 

 A penknife will remove it from a single plant in a 

 parlor, or the point of a lady's scissors, but it re- 

 quires patience, and early care, before the calyx 

 of the flower turns to a brown color. On a large 

 scale, this remedy is inapplicable, and I can only 

 say, that from European cultivators, I learn, that 

 boiling water has been found to be destructive to 

 tin: insect, while its temporary use was not injuri- 

 ous to the living plant. Of course, great care 

 should be adopted in applying such a remedy. — 

 But while I state the only cause which has pro- 

 duced the abortion and fall of my own flowers, in 

 two .cases only, I think it proper to say, that other 

 causes may conctir leilh the scaly insect, or even 

 without it, to produce the total failure of the blos- 

 soms of the Camellia. As it is, without question, 

 the most beautiful parlor Jlower, putting forth its 

 blossoms when they are most required, from No- 

 \ ember to March, it would be proper to say, that 

 it often suffers from too much water, and too lilllc. 

 V/hen not in growth, or in flower, its waterings 

 should be sjiaring. At no time should it have a 

 Xia.n filled loilh tvater ; nothing could be more des- 

 tructive to it. Pans are generally destructive of 

 all plants, except aquatic ones ; and are only 

 adopted by ladies, who dread the moisture upon 

 their paint, or carpets. They are perfectly right 

 in preferring the more inqiorlant object, but they 

 cannot hope that plaiUs should flourish in a soil 

 saturated with water. To return to the Camellia. 

 It is better adapted to the ])arlor than any other 

 plant, but it must be kept free from insects. 1 

 think it probable that soot, or sulphur, or lime, 

 would, without the use of boiling water, produce 

 ibis efliect ; but there are objections to their use, 

 in a parlor, far surmounting any possible good ef- 

 fects. 



In conclusion I may say, tha.t })arlor cultivation 

 is difficult with all plants. The air is often too 

 dry ; always unnatural ; and that it is better occa- 

 sionally to buy new plants than to see old ones in 

 a constant state of deterioration. 



I shall send you the precise facts in relation to 

 my application of a European discovery of a ma- 

 nure for orange trees. I shall do it without a 

 theoretic feeling, for if any man living has a pro- 

 found contempt for all theories, on religious, moral, 

 or physical subjects, I may say "My friend, I con- 

 cur with you." There is nothing certain in this 

 world, which cannot be proved to be true by ex- 

 perience and by facts. 



[Items for the New England Farmer, from a correspon- 

 dent in Ohio.] 



Having been in the habit of cultivating prairie 

 land for many years, I have found that the best 

 method to insure a crop was to plant on the sod ; 

 all kinds of grain and vines succeed well in this 

 way. Potatoes do best when the sod is turned 

 over in the fall and stirred in the spring. 



Black cherry will poison cattle. One of my 

 neighbors lost two valuable cows by eating the 

 trinmiings from one of these trees. 



Sweet potatoes should lay on a dry floor for a 



week or ten days before they are put up for seed. 

 The best kind of seed is procured by cutting ofT 

 the vines when they get to be about eighteen inches 

 long, and planting them in hills. This will not in- 

 jure the parent plant in the least. 



By the by, I have heard much said about the 

 beautiful blossoms of the sweet potato. I should 

 like to know what color they are, as I have been 

 in the habit of cultivating them for thirty years, 

 and have never yet seen a blossom. 



[The following communication from E. Patten, 

 Esq. a highly respectable farmer in this neighbor- 

 hood, presents a case truly discouraging, but such 

 as, we hope, may lead to an inquiry into the causes 

 of the disorder, and discover a cure. Blr Patten 

 stated verbally to us, that the difficulty could not 

 proceed, he thought, from the food or water given 

 his cattle, as no unusual feed was attempted, and 

 the water was from a brook, at which they and 

 other cattle, not affected, were always watered.] — 

 Ed. JVewburyport Herald. 



DISEASE IN CATTLE. 



Mr Allen^ — A very singular disorder has ap- 

 peared among my stock of cattle, during the past 

 simimer, some account of which, by your leave, 

 may be the means of ascertaining its nature, and 

 leading to a cure in cases like circumstanced. In 

 June last, two cows, two oxen, and two hortes 

 died, and last week, one horse and one o.x, in all, 

 eight creatures. The first that died was, without 

 any previous syitqitoms of disorder, found dead 

 in her stall. The others lived between twelve and 

 eighteen liours from the attack ; symptoms, heavi- 

 ness about the eyes and loss of appetite without 

 much apparent jiain until shortly before death, 

 when the agony became extreme'. On opening 

 the bodies, the intestines were found in a healthy 

 state, the vital parts not disordered, and no appear- 

 ance of disease, save in the spleen or melt, which 

 was enlarged to twice its usual size, and looked 

 mortified. All the ordinary means for curing cat- 

 tle were uSed in these cases. A number of cattle 

 belonging to difi^erent persons in this neighborhood 

 have died, apparently from the same cause. 

 Yours, &c. » 



ROBERT PATTEN. 



Jlmesbury, JVov. 28, 1829. 



From the Journal of Heallh. 



Change of Clothing. — By throwing oft' thick 

 clothing too soon in the spring, and putting it on 

 too late in autumn, we run the risk of having fe- 

 vers in summer, and colds in winter. 



Exercise. — Throughout all nature, want of mo- 

 tion indicates weakness, corruption, inanimation 

 and death. Trend; in liis damp prison leaped 

 about like a lion, in his fettei-s of seventy pounds 

 weight, in order to preserve his health : and an il- 

 lustiious ])bysiciau observes, " I know not which 

 is most necessary to the support of the human 

 frame, yoorf or motion. Were the exercise of the 

 body attended to in a corresponding degree with 

 that of the mind, men of great learning would be 

 more healthy and vigorous ; of more general tal- 

 ents ; of ampler practical knowledge; more happy 

 in their domestic lives ; more enterprising, and 

 more attached to their duties as men. In fine, 

 it may with much propriety be said, that the high- 

 est refinement of the nund, without improvement 

 of the body, can never present anything more than 

 half a human being. 



