THE GENESEE FARMER. 



05 



els a year ; had tried different methods of preserv- 

 ing; hut the best way, he had found, was to take 

 boxes m which several layers could be placed, with 

 cotton between the layers, and kept in a cool place. 

 Great care must be taken in handling them, not to 

 bruise them, and they must not be moved much 

 after packing. 



Mr. Spence had kept grapes in cotton in a cool 

 place in garret or cellar until the latter part of 

 March, lie had found that he had to l)e very care- 

 ful in handling, and thought that jarrmgs rupture 

 the minute interior cells of the fruit, when they 

 immediately commence to decay. 



They Society agreed to hold their Summer Meet- 

 ing m June, in this city, and the Fall Meeting at 

 Buffalo. 



TRAINING HEDGES. 



It is not an easy thing to rear a good hedge. 

 Even in England, with its mild winters and cool 

 summers, and with plants unquestionably Avell 

 adapted to the climate, good fai*m hedges are not 

 as universal as is generally imagined. Those who 

 have "coached it" from London to Birmingham, 

 in the good old times when the railroad locomotive 

 lay quiet in the brain of SxEpnExsoN, must have 

 seen hundreds of miles of hedges that would be 

 considered a disgrace to an American farmer. And 

 even at the present time, notwithstanding the vast 

 improvements which have taken place during the 

 last twenty years, the traveler over the same 

 road would find that even in the districts where 

 fencing has received the most attention, and where 

 good hedges are the rule, that there are a vast num- 

 ber of exceptions. It is difficult to find a hedge of 

 any extent without a gap. To rear a good hedge in 

 any country, requires moi'e care, skill, and patience, 

 than most persons are able or willing to bestow. 

 Still, a good hedge can be made, and is worth all 

 the labor it requires. 



accompanying engraving. Those who have such 

 hedges had better cut them down at once to ■witliin 

 two or three inches of the gi'ound, and try again. 



SPECIMEN OF A PROPERLY TRAINED HEDGE. 



To show what can be done by skilful and judi- 

 cious training, we give a cut of an osage orange 

 hedge growing in front of the grounds of H. K 

 lIooKEB & Co., of this city, and which we had 

 drawn and engraved for the Rural Annual. It is 

 a beautiful hedge, and one which wiU turn any 

 animal. From an able article on Hedges, in the 

 Rural Annual for 1857, written by Mr. Hooker, 

 we abridge an account of his method of planting 

 and training the osage orange for hedges. 



The plants may be one year old or more, but 

 yearlings answer ever}- purjjose. Plant in April or 

 May, in a single row, six or eight inclies apart. 

 Keep the ground clean and mellow all the season, 

 and few plants wiU die, and the year's growth will 

 be from two to three feet. In April following, cut 

 the plants back to within one or two inches of the 

 old wood. Prune about the first of July, giving 

 the hedge a pyramidal form — not shortening the 

 sides much, but cutting back the tops severely. 



In the spring prunings which follow, care must 

 be taken to keep the toji down, and gradually spread 

 the sides : the top can be raised any year. Every 

 summer, about the first of July, the coarse growth 

 may be cut back, and the hedge kept neatly ip 

 shape by pruning, if necessary, a second time. 



SPECIMEN OF A BADLY TRAINED HEDGE. 



The great error in training plants into a fence, 

 arises from an inconsiderate hastiness. We are in 

 such a hurry to obtain a fence, that it is with diffi- 

 culty we can bring oiirselves to cut back the up- 

 ward growth to the extent which the necessities of 

 the case require. The plants are allowed to follow 

 their natural tendency, and form a hedge bushy at 

 the top and open at the bottom, as shown in the 



THE WOODPECKER -RUKAL ANKUAl. 



Editors Gexesee Faemeji : — I am highly pleased 

 with the Rural Afinual this year. The article ou 

 Birds, by Mr. Bemext, is alone worth the price of 

 the book. But he has entirely mistaken the object 

 of that rascally Httle Striped Woodpecker in per- 

 forating the bark of our apple trees. I have been 

 a strict observer of their habits for many years, and 

 I have ascertained that their sole object is to tap 

 the bark tosuck the sap that circulates between the 

 bark and the wood in forming the new grain of 

 wood. Each little fellow, after making many holes 

 in several trees, follows them up from day to day 

 for about six weeks, or so long as the sap runs. 

 Their fun may be spoiled, and the trees saved, by 

 white- washing the trees (about the time they com- 

 mence boring) with a wash made of lime and strong 

 soap suds, or a coat of coal tar and a httle slaked 

 lime dusted on before it dries. h. hecox. 



South liuUand, Jeff. Co., -V. Y. 



