192 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



plum tree at the first trial, yet by regular daily at- 

 tention, a good ';rop was secured on this as well as 

 on many other trees, which fur previous years had 

 never ripened one. Combined with the real prac- 

 tice of confining pigs or poultry, this remedy can 

 scarcely fail in the most unfiivorable localities in 

 the most destructive years. — Albany Cultivator . 



OUROUIilO. 



Take an old oil cask, and make in it, from time 

 to time, as he wants to use, a strong suds of whale 

 oil soap, (which can be procured of any of the drug- 

 gists.) and to sprinkle the entire tree, from top to 

 bottom, and the ground under the tree, thoroughly 

 with the suds, twice or three times a week — com- 

 mencing as soon as tlie l)lossoms begin to make 

 their appearance, and continuing it until the plums 

 are as large as a pea. It might be better to follow 

 it until the fruit is about half grown, at about which 

 time the curculio disappears altogether. The suds 

 does not destroy the insect, but the whale oil soap 

 is so offensive to them that they will not approach 

 a tree which is protected by its odor. 



He has tried tliis experiment every year, witli a 

 single exception, for many years past, and that 

 every season he has tried it, his trees have been 

 loaded down with nice full grown fruit, and that 

 the season he omitted it, the curculio made such 

 ravages that he did not have forty plums on all of 

 his trees. — Suffolk Democrat. 



POSTS INVERTED. 



It is now generally believed that posts will en- 

 dure much longer if inverted, than if set in their 

 natural position. The fact, it is said, "has not 

 been satisfactorily explained." 



Now it appears to me that the difficulty in ex- 

 plaining this, is the same with that of explaining 

 the circulation of tlie sap. The mechanism, if any 

 there be, in the green tree, remains the same in the 

 dry. In the green tree the sap ascends through the 

 pores, or tubes, in the wood, and descends between 

 the wood and bark. Hence, if a post be set in its 

 natural position, the moisture from the ground will 

 ascend in the same way, if not on the same princi- 

 ple that the sap ascends in the living tree. Hence 

 such a post will l)e found wet, or moist, internally 

 at some distance above the surface of the ground. 

 If set in an inverted position, this will not often be 

 the case (as the circulation would be downward 

 instead of upward.) Hence such a post will gen- 

 erally be dry within, even below the surface of the 

 ground. As moisture hastens decay, the former 

 must perish sooner than the latter. — Rural New 

 Yorker. 



Water may be forced through the capillary 

 tubes of a tree only toward its top. On this prin- 

 ciple the finer woods are sometimes changed in 

 color for the use of tlie cabinet maker. A hole is 

 bored in the side of a tree, and a bent hollow tube 

 has one of its ends driven into the hole, while the 

 other end of the tube is carried up nearly the whole 

 height of the tree. Any solution may then be 

 poured into this tube from the top, and" from the 

 pressure arising from the height of column, it will 

 be forced into the tree in an upward direction only. 

 In this way woods have been colored in France 

 while growing, and by the introduction of solution 

 or metallic salts, they may be rendered nearly im- 

 perishable by rot. 



Posts should be placed in the ground with the 

 butts up; then bore a hole in the butt, throw in a 

 small quantity of corrosive sublimate or common 

 copperas, (sulphate of iron) and drive in a plug of 

 wood. If the former be used, the centre tubes of 

 tlie wood will become kyanizcd, and be thus ren- 

 dered indestructible by rot and less liable 1o crack 

 or wind — if the latter, the posts will last much 

 longer than w'hen left without such addition. 



If posts be first placed with the ends in a tube 

 containing a solution of common copperas for a few 

 days, and then in clear lime water, the lime will 

 be changed into sulphate of lime as received into 

 the wood, thus leaving the capillary lubes of the 

 wood filled with plaster of paris, (sulphate of lime) 

 and their surface coated with oxide of iron, precip- 

 itated from the copperas. Wood so prepared will 

 last many years longer than if used in an unpre- 

 pared state. — The Working Fanner. 



BRICK-DUST FOR CUTTINGS. 



A New York correspondent of the Horticulturist 

 writes as follows: 



I have had great success in propagating plants 

 lately — especially the more tender kinds of green- 

 house plants. As I think my good luck depends 

 not so much on the treatment as \\\e material I use, 

 I beg you to "make a note of it," for the benefit of 

 your readers. This material is brick-dust — tlie ref- 

 use of the kiln after burning — or what may be 

 made by taking soft bricks and pounding them up. 

 Enough may be had at any brick-yard for a mere 

 trifle, to last a great while — but I think the fresher 

 it is the Ijetter. For those plants more difiicult to 

 root, such as Daphnes, Heaths, Cape Jasmines, &c., 

 I fill shallow cutting pots entirely with brick-dust, 

 excepting about an inch at the bottom, which is 

 filled with coarse lumps of brick, to secure a good 

 drainage. For plants that root more easily, 1 use 

 half brick-dust and half sandy loam. 



It is quite surprising how much more certainly 

 and quickly cuttings of all sorts root in brick-dust 

 than in sand, or in loamy soil, in the common way. 

 "Damping off," which is so fatal to cuttings made 

 in the ordinary way, rarely happens when brick- 

 dust is used, and from the mass of fibre quickly 

 thrown out from the bottom of the cuttings, I am 

 convinced that there is something more than the 

 texture of brick-dust which causes the much great- 

 er vigor and success of cuttings planted in the or- 

 dinary way. 



We have heard, remarks the editor, of burnt clay 

 having been used for strilving cuttings with great 

 success, and the brick-dust probably acts in a simi- 

 lar manner, /. e., absorbing a large supply of am- 

 monia from the air, and giving it as food for the 

 cutting, while its dry and gritty texture facilitates 

 the granulation of organizable matter, and the emis- 

 sion of new roots. 



Vegetable Poison. — Almost every farmer is 

 more or less troubled with poison ivy, sumach, 

 parsnip, and the like. After trying a great variety 

 of remedies, I have found that a poultice made of 

 buckwheat flour and butter milk, with a piece of 

 blue vitrei the size of a pea, pulverised and dis- 

 solved, added to the mixture, has had the happy 

 effect of removing the trouble and effecting a cure 

 in a short time. — E. S. Fox. ' 



