194 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 





ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



P. Barry— Dear Sir: — Being an admirer of the Spiraa fam- 

 ily of shrubs. I take an interest in every word said in their 

 praise. I arn confident few genuses of hardy plants add 

 more to the sublimity of our lawns, shrubberies, and borders. 

 I am familiar with all the most esteemed species, and with 

 tanceotata, of which you gave an engraving in the July num- 

 ber of the Farmer. I also know u/mifnUa as an herbaceous 

 perennial variety, the description of which corresponds with 

 yours, except being an herbaceous perennial instead of a 

 shrub, I will describe the herbaceous uhnifolia. and give 

 you the year of introduction : — Color of flower, white ; time 

 of flowering, 6th month ; native of Caniola ; introduced the 

 year 1790. I have searched all botanical works of the latest 

 dates, and got up by the first authors, for a shrubby l^jiircra 

 uhnifolia, and can not find anything said or quoted of such a 

 shrub. Please inform me, through the pages you edit, if the 

 K/m;/o/ia of which you gave an engraving, is new, and where 

 it cJime from, and when. I am desirous of knowing, having 

 nearly all the most desirable Spirwas under cultivation, and 

 will have the ulmifuUa you describe, if distinct. C. J. Ryan. 

 —Rochester and Charlotte Planic Road Nurseries, Jnlti. 18.50. 



We are quite astonished at you, friend Rvan. 

 Why didn't you search among other " botanical 

 works of the latest date," Loudon's Encyclopedia 

 of Plants, his "Arboretum Britlanicunt," or the Bon 

 Jardinier; any, or all of them, will tell you about the 

 Spiraa ulmifolia. But, pray, in what work have 

 you seen the account of the herbaceous species ? or 

 have you seen the plant ? 



Mk. Editor : — In reading your excellent pajier, I found a 

 recommendation to raise dwarf fruit trees, especially pears. 

 Do you dwarf apple trees aUo ? If so, will you please give 

 some of your friends in a new country, where quince tress 

 and fruit of all kinds are scarce, some information as to the 

 manner of obtaining them ? In so doing, you will very 

 much oblige a number of the readers of your paper. D. 

 V/ooVi.— Woods' Corners, Hills. Co., Mich., June. 18,50. 



The quince stocks suitable for dwarfing the pear 

 on, can be obtained from the nurseries. The apple, 

 for pyramids, is worked on a species of apple called 

 the ijovcain; and for dioarfs, on the Paradise: both 

 of which can be procured at nurseries jvhere trees of 

 this character are grown. These stocks are mostly 

 imported from Europe, by our nurserymen ; but when 

 a stock is once obtained, they may be increased by 

 layering. 



(A Young Subscriber.) The time for grafting is 

 March and April. You can bud through August and 

 part of September. You can dwarf the apph- by 

 grafting or budding on the Paradise stock, the pear 

 on the quince stock, the cherry on the mahalcb stock. 

 the apricot and peach on a slow growing plum stock. 

 Clear fruit trees from moss, as recommended by Mr. 

 Stone, in this paper — lice, by washing with a solu- 

 tion of soft soap and tobacco ; either dip the ends of 

 the shoots mostly affected in the wash, or throw it 

 on in the morning or evening, with a syringe. The 

 birch can not be used as a stock for fruit trees. Use 

 free stocks for standards and those above named for 

 dwarfs. Cut out the black spots on apple trees, to 

 the soimd wood and bark, and the parts will soon 

 heal over at this season. 



(A Young Gardener.) To destroy. the aphis, or 

 green louse — pour boiling water on tobacco ; when 

 the strength of the tobacco is extracted, add soft 

 soap, and treat your trees as recommended in the 

 above article The black slug that is doing your pear 

 and cherry trees so much injury, you might have very 

 easily destroyed by sprinkling dry ashes or lime on 

 them. 



MOSS AND HOUGH BARK ON TREES 



All are perhaps ready to agree with me, that moss 

 and rough bark are heavy drawbacks on the apple 

 tree. We wiJl first consider the cause, second the 

 eft'ect, and then the remedy. The center of vitality 

 in the stem or trunk of a tree, is in the line of de- 

 markation between the bark and wood ; and it recedes 

 from that point both to the center of the wood and to 

 the surface of the bark, until in old trees dead wood 

 can be found in the center, and dead bark on the sur- 

 face. By a law of nature, when life ceases to hold 

 organized matter, dissolution and decay follows. It 

 tlien becomes food for other organizations, and thus 

 never ending changes are going on. Moss is a kind 

 of parasite that grows from the dead bark, and is 

 supported by the decayed matter of the dead bark and 

 also by drafts of sap from the live bark. Thus the 

 moss steals, as it were the life blood of the tree, and 

 it loses its healthy appearance, and its fruit is less- 

 ened both in quality and quantity. Moss and rough 

 bark are also places of deposit for insects, in which 

 their eggs are deposited. Tliey also hold water for 

 days after rainy weather, and by its gradual evapora- 

 tion keep the temperature of the tree too low for a 

 cold climate. 



As a remedy, use a scraper first, and then, on 

 young trees whose heads are not sufficiently devel- 

 oped to shade the stem or trunk, use whitewash, 

 which will reflect the heat and relieve it from the 

 extreme heat of a summer sun ; but on large trees, 

 soad suds, ashes and water, or lye, is preferable. In 

 washing young trees, lye should not be too strong ; 

 otherwise, unless it is washed off or put on immedi- 

 ately before a brisk shower, there is danger of injur- 

 ing them. 



In order that these hints may be put in practice, 

 and that good may be the sequel, I will cite the read- 

 er to his own observation. Show me a mossy, rough 

 barked orchard, that yields a fair return of good fruit, 

 and I will show you a phenomenon. Archibald 

 Stonk. — Hinmanville, April, 1850. 



A CtJRIOSITT 



Messrs. Editors: — As I was gathering apples in 

 the fall of 1848, I came to a large Greening tree, and 

 tlie next tree south of it was a Russet. I put my 

 ladder against a large limb of the Greening, that 

 projected toward tTie Russet, and ascended, and found 

 a branch containing eight or ten Greenings, large 

 and fair, and one apple about two-thirds as large, 

 covered with russet. I cut the branch oft' and showed 

 it to two men who were present. Had it fallen to 

 the ground before discovered, every one would have 

 said it grew upon the other tree. I did not taste it, 

 as one present said he would carry it home as a curi- 

 osity. If it was not fertilized by the other tree, what 

 was the cause ? I saw several others that had round 

 spots of russet, some as large as a ten cent piece. 

 A. W .—Marcellus, A'. Y., 1850. 



Were it not for the confidence with which A. W. 

 makes his statement, we should be inclined to think 

 the russet apple came from the russet tree, or that 

 this apple had only the russety appearance common 

 to a greening grown in the sun.. — En. 



Remove the surface of the ground before watering 

 trees or plants, then water thoroughly, and when the 

 water lias disappeared, return the earth. 



