284 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



don't know how to prune them, or else they think 

 it is too much trouble." 



" It is really very little labor if attended to in 

 time. I know a man who pruned his grapes this 

 eumuier with a pair of garden shears. The vines 

 had been neglected, and he went at them with a 

 vengeance. The shoots were hanging over from 

 the top of the trellis in a perfect mat. These he 

 clipped off without ceremony. He then went over 

 the vines on the trellis, cutting out the shoots that 

 were not needed, and shortening in the others, and 

 snipping off the laterals till the vine presented 

 quite a respectable appearance. The whole opera- 

 ration of pruning three large vines did not occupy 

 more than half an hour." 



" Two years ago last spring I grafted over quite 

 a number of apple and pear trees. It was the 

 first grafting I had ever performed, but the grafts 

 nearly all took, and have done well. Some of the 

 apples are now bearing. "We have had quite a 

 nice lot of Red Astrachans, and I really think 

 they taste all the better because I grafted them 

 tnsyelf ! Some of the pears are also bearing this 

 year. One graft of Bartlett is loaded with fruit. 

 It has twice as many pears on it as it would be safe 

 to leave on a dwarf pear tree three years from 

 planting." 



" The currant worm has not been quite so prev- 

 alent this year as last. If people generally would 

 only kill them — either with the thumb and finger 

 or with white helibore or slaked lime, we should 

 soon get them within reasonable bounds." 



" We must not hope to raise nice fruit for any 

 length of time without meeting with some draw- 

 back. In a new country it seems right and proper 

 that, having so many other things to contend against, 

 insects should not be as numerous. But as the 

 country becomes settled, and we begin to enjoy 

 greater advantages, we must no longer hope to 

 escape." 



" The currant worm is an old enemy. In Eng- 

 land it has been known for centuries, but as a 

 general rule it does comparatively little damage. 

 If neglected they spread over the gardens and be- 

 come as destructive as in this country. We did 

 not attend to them in time. It would have been 

 an easy matter to have destroyed them when they 

 first made their appearance." 



"I was in Connecticut last week and saw a 

 hedge of currants surrounding a garden, loaded 

 with large, fine fruit. The worm had not yet 

 made its appearance there, and there was a real 



old fashioned crop of currants. The good ladies 

 of the village were busily engaged in picking- the i 

 fruit and making jelly for the soldiers." 



K&BEING TREES. 



Evert body has felt the want of some effective 

 plan of marking fruit trees in the orchard. All 

 sorts of labels have been tried, and most persons 

 depend for strict accuracy on having a manuscript 

 list made of the trees as they are numerically ar- 

 ranged on the ground. This is very well ; but as 

 one has to have the list always about, or sometimes 

 likes to graft several kinds on one tree, the plan is 

 so far objectionable. 



Now, it is a well known fact that the scratch of 

 a pin on the bark leaves a scar that endures almost" 

 with the life of the tree. We were shown a beech 

 tree, recently, in Delaware county, by a middle 

 aged man, with the initials of his father still plainly 

 traceable, which were scratched on the bark when 

 his father was a boy. The same can be done with 

 fruit trees, as we believe we saw suggested some 

 years ago in an agricultural journal, but w:Jiich, 

 like a good many good ideas that yearly float over 

 the great sea of the agricultural press, has nearly 

 been forgotten. 



We saw some trees a few days ago that had 

 been marked in this way, and it reminded us that 

 the idea was worth resuscitating. 



The annexed cut will ex[)lain the idea clearly : 



The letters of the name are scratched on the 

 under side of the branch, and the letters one above 

 the other. In the case we saw, there were two 

 kinds on the two arms of the tree : Baldwin and 

 Northern Spy — the main or central stem being of 

 another kind, the name of which we do not now 

 remember. — Gardeners' Monthly. 



Oenamentixo Vacant Fire-places in StrMMER. 

 " E. a. M." the popular writer on Window Gar- 

 dening in the Lcnion Oardcmrs' Chronicle has in 

 one of the June numbers a plan for ornamenting 

 vacant fire-places in summer by having climbing 

 plants in low pots trained upon a folding wicker 

 screen, the pots placed upon the floor. If still 

 greater decoration is desired, the chimney-piece can 

 be fitted with a board that curves prettily and 

 edged with basket work three inches high, with a 

 tin lining case which prevents any damp escaping. 

 Ferns or mosses, or any low-growing plants, can 

 be" put around the edge— in pots, of course — and 

 some taller ones at the back. 



