HORTICULTURAL QUACKERY. 



249 



Mot/iimt'imins:, ami Mc.4vo!/'s .Vo. 1, each one. 



A vote IVom si.K members being afterwards taken 

 for the three worst strawberries, Lizzie Randolph 

 had three vote.? ; McAvoy's Extra Red, six ; Gush- 

 ing, two ; Columbus, Burr's Seedling, Schneick's 

 Pistillate, Bicton Pine, loica, British Queen, Stod- 

 dard's Alpine, each one. 



Two members who have had considerable expe- 

 rience in raising strawberries for marljet gave both 

 their votes for Large Early Scarlet as best market 

 variety. 



It will be seen from the above that McAvoy's Ex- 

 tra Red received all the votes (six) as the worst 

 strawberry, on account of its flavor. 



Gushing received two, as its flavor, being pecuhar, 

 is disliked by some. 



HOSTICTTLTUEAL aTIACKEEY. 



In the American Farmer for July, among other di- 

 rections undLT the head of " Jf'ork for the Month," 

 we find the following directions : 



'• Examine your peach trees a few inches beneath 

 the surface of the ground, and wherever you find a 

 puncture, or the exudation of gum, thrust a knitting 

 needle, or a piece of wire, or the point of a knife into 

 the hole, work it about, and you will kill the worm; 

 then fill up the hole with a mixture composed of two 

 parts of soft soap, one part flour, sulphur, and one 

 part salt, then paint the trunk of the tree from the 

 point at which the earth had been dug out to the 

 limbs, throw back the earth that had been dug out, 

 and sow around the trunk of each tree a mixture com- 

 posed of half a peck of lime, half a peck of ashes. 1 

 pint of salt, and J lb. of saltpetre, and each year 

 thereafter slrew around the trunk of the tree at the 

 ground, half a peck of lime." 



It is to the .sentence in italics to which we wish to 

 call attention, as it involves the violation of an impor- 

 tant physiological law. Very frequent cases are re- 

 corded by our exchanges of the destruction of trees 

 from practices similar to the one here noticed. In 

 reference to this subject, we find the following in the 

 Country Gentleman of the 19th ult.: 



"Some cultivators seem not to be aware of the ex- 

 istence of evaporating pores in the bark of trees. We 

 sea an evidence of this want of knowledge, in the fre- 

 quent attempts that are made to prevent grafts from 

 diwing, by merely closing the ends with wax, and 

 other similar attempts. Improperapplicatious to the 

 bark, by closing these pores, frequently causes the 

 death of the trees: instances of which are often seen 

 recorded in the papers. When we see oily substances 

 recommended as remedies to prevent the attacks of 

 insects, &c., we may confidently predict the destruc- 

 tion of the trees. As examples, we chp the two fol- 

 lowing statements from exchange papers, now on the 

 table before us:" 



Sure Cure fob the CuRcn.io. — Mr. James Tay- 

 lor of St. Catharines, Canada West,- having learned 

 from the Tribune that a Mr. Joseph Mather, Goshen, 

 0. W., had found a mixture of sulphur, lard, and 

 Scotch snutr rubbed freely upon the body and branch- 

 es of a plum tree, an effectual remedy against the cur- 

 culio, writes to that paper that he (Mr. Taylor) tried 

 it upon some of his choicest trees, and had a splendid 

 crop of plums. But mark the result: Every tree 

 so treated, except one or two young ones, is notv dead! 

 Sure remedy, that! — Amcr. Agriculturist. 



Tar and Oil for Trees. — The Ozaukee County 

 Advertiser says: 



In the May number of the Chicago Prairie Farm- 

 er, an article appears, contributed by A. U. Ilauford, 

 Esq., of Waukesha, recommending the use of "tar and 

 linseed oil, equal parts mixed,'' to be appUed while 

 warm to fruit trees, to destroy the "bark louse." 

 While in Waukesha, a few days sincf, we chanced to 

 visit the orchard of Mr.'A. Grifliu, who with a sad- 

 dened countenance pointed to his once thrifty and 

 productive orchard, now totally destroyed by the a[i- 

 plication of tar and linseed oil. It appears that he 

 had heard of the success of the experiment as tried 

 by O. S. Eathburu of Brookfield, and resolved to 

 make the trial on his o^vn orchard, the result of which 

 was the entire destruction of a beautiful and bearing 

 orchard. 



The structure of woody jjlauts consists principally 

 of woody tissue or fibre and cellular tissue. These 

 two tissues exist in relation to each other' in diflerent 

 plants in different proportions. Tiees and shrubs are 

 mostly woody fibre, while soft, succulent herbs are al- 

 most entirely composed of cellular tissue. 



" When the stem is first called into existence, it is 

 merely a small portion of cellular tissue: an organic 

 substance, possessing neither strength nor tenacity, 

 and altogether unsuited to the purposes for which the 

 stem is destined. If such matter formed exclusively 

 its solid contents, the stem would have neither tough- 

 ness nor strength, but would be brittle like a mush- 

 room, or like those parts of plants of which cellular 

 tissue is the exclusive component; such, for example, 

 as the clul5-shaped spadix of an Arum, or the soft 

 prickles of a young Rose branch. Nature, however, 

 from the first moment that the rudiment of a leaf 

 appears upon the growing point of a stem, occupies 

 herself with the formation of woody matter, consist- 

 ing of tough tubes of extreme fineness, which take 

 their rise in the leaves, and which, thence passing 

 downwards through the cellular tissue, are incorpora- 

 ted with the latter, to which they give the neceessary 

 degree of strength and flexibility. In trees and 

 shrubs they combine intimately with each other, and 

 so form what is properly called the wood and ijner 

 bark; in herbaceous and annual plants, they consti- 

 tute a lax fibrous matter. No woody matter appears 

 till the first leaf, or the seed-leaves, have begun to 

 act; it always arises from their^bases; it is abundant, 

 on the contrary, in proportion to the strength, num- 

 ber, and development of the leaves; and in their ab- 

 sence is absent also. 



" When woody matter is first plunged into the cel- 

 lular tissue of the nascant stem, it forms a circle a lit- 



