818 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



OENAMENT FOE DEIED FLOWEES. 



The above drawings, made for the Horticulturist 

 by an accomplished lady, represent a pasteboard 

 hanging vase, covered with moss, and attached to 

 an oak branch, for a parlor ornament. From the 

 materials employed, it is better suited for dried 

 flowers than those which require water. 



The smaller basket represents the mode in which 

 the pasteboard is united after being shaped, and 

 the larger exhibits the same covered with moss. 

 Every lady of the least taste can make these bas- 

 kets, and ornament her boudoir, parlor, or sitting- 

 room with her own handiwork, which she will 

 enjoy more than expensive purchased objects. 



The oak-leaves may be represented in winter in 

 leather. 



Faemers, Pla^tt Apple Orchards ! — If any 

 farmer, says the Country Gentleman^ who has had 

 for 20 years a good orchard of grafted apple trees, 

 properly selected for market, and in tolerably fa- 

 vorable portions of the country, has kept an ac- 

 count of the annual average product of his trees 

 for that tune, he wiU find they have netted him 

 fifty dollars per acre a year. This remark applies 

 to such orchards as have had no care. Those which 

 have received good cultivation have done better. 

 Why then cultivate whole farms, at hard labor, for 

 a net proceed of five dollars per acre ? "Why not 

 plant orchards? 



TEAnrmG the feae tbee. 



We condense a portion of the remarks made 

 on this subject at the recent meeting of the 

 American Pomological Society : 



Mr. Barry knew of no form more beautiful or 

 better than the pyramidal. This form is not 

 difficult to obtain. A little care at the beginning 

 will cause the tree to form a good base, and after 

 this form is once established it is as natural for 

 the tree as any other. From the manner in 

 which trees are grown in nursery rows, a large 

 growth of top is induced, and therefore some 

 cutting for a few years will be necessary to se- 

 cure the desired form. For amateurs and all 

 gardens lie would recommend the pyramidal 

 form, both on the pear and quince stocks. This 

 is somewhat a matter of taste. On tlie quince 

 stock, however, something like the pyramidal 

 form is necessary, to prevent injury from the 

 wind. If dwarf trees are grown with a heavy 

 top, they are apt to be swayed over and injured. 

 He was surprised lately on reading an article in 

 a horticultural journal, stating tliat the pyra- 

 midal form was bad, as it prevented the use of 

 the plow in cultivating the trees. This is a mis- 

 take. The ground can be cultivated as near as 

 the branches will admit of, and that is near 

 enough. If trees are pruned up four or even six 

 feet from the ground, the branches of most sorts 

 will hang down so that horses can not work 

 under them For orchard culture, would not 

 aim at the exact pyramidal form, but would cut 

 back well for three or four years, and after that let 

 them take nearly their natural course. Very little 

 nssp of the knife would be required. Some people 

 wite and talk as though the great point in culture 

 •orrs to keep a little circle of a foot or two in diam- 

 eter cultivated around the trunk, wiiile it is far 

 more important to keep the ground stirred outside 

 of the extremities ot the branches. No other fruit 

 can be grown as profitably as the pear, and none ia 

 as certain. The present season we have neither 

 peaches nor apples in Westejn New York, but our 

 pear crop is fair, as it always is. 



0. M. Hovey, of Boston, said that at the east 

 they had good collections of trees — the pyramidal 

 form on the quince root was the favorite tree. In 

 the orchard culture of the pear they had not done 

 as much as had been done in "Western New York. 

 In regard to pruning for the orchard, he thought a 

 moderate height better than allowing the branches 

 to grow to the ground. He alluded to the experi- 

 ment of Dr. LiXDLEY, published in the Genesee 

 Farmer for September, 1857, showing that the 

 temperature near the ground was several degrees 

 lower than a few feet above, so that with late 

 spring frosts the blossoms or young fruit on limbs 

 near the ground might be injured, while those a 

 little higher might escape. He had observed this 

 result in his own grounds. In damp weather the 

 leaves on the lower limbs had rusted, and he had 

 tliem sawed off so as to leave none within sis or 

 eight inches of the ground. This was a moist soil. 

 On high land and dry soil the lower the limbs the 

 better. His advice would be, in low situations, to 

 prune up a little so as to allow a circulation of the 

 air under the branches, and in dry locations to en- 

 courage the growth of branches as low as possible. 



