Editor's Lctter-Box. .191 



W. E. T., Macon City, Mo. — We should have reversed your plan, and used 

 the hog-pen manure with the strawberries, and the chip manure and ashes for 

 the grape vines. The hog-pen manure, if applied freely, would be likely to pro- 

 duce a rank growth of wood, which would not ripen as well as if a less stimulating 

 manure had been used, and accordingly would be more likely to winter-kill, 

 though there would not be as much danger from this source with you as with us. 

 The hog-pen manure would answer well for the strawberries, but if fresh, it 

 should be worked deeply into the ground. We do not mean that it should all 

 be buried deep, but the ground should be stirred to a good depth, and the ma- 

 nure mixed through the whole. On a stiff clay like yours, chip manure, or other 

 coarse manure, will be beneficial by its mechanical effect, keeping the ground 

 light and open. The gooseberries will do better in a cool place than in a warm, 

 and if slightly shaded it will be no harm ;• but they should have a good circula- 

 tion of air to prevent mildew. In terracing a hill-side, the soil is too often left 

 very thin in some places, and unnecessarily deep in others. It is worth while 

 to spend some pains and money to avoid this. 



Mr. Editor : In looking over your Journal for April, I noticed in Mr. 

 George Jaques' article on Pruning, that he recommends a covering of shellac, 

 grafting- wax, coal tar, or common paint as a protection from the air. It is not my 

 intention, nor do I consider myself capable of contradicting such good authority 

 as Mr. Jaques, but I will give you a little experiment which I tried. It happened 

 to be on a mode of pruning which I do not fancy. It is my misfortune to hve 

 in a neighborhood where there are a good many goats kept, and one of those 

 destructive pests got into my garden and barked one of my pear trees very badly ; 

 it was eaten clear through to the wood in two places ; one place on the trunk, 

 and another place on a large limb. The wound on the body of the tree I cov- 

 ered with grafting-wax, the wound on the limb I painted with common house 

 paint ; this was for an experiment ; the place with the wax I wound round with 

 a piece of stiff cotton cloth. This hapiDened in the fall. The following summer 

 I took off the bandage, and to my great satisfaction, the wound under the wax 

 and bandage was all grown over with new bark, but the wound covered with 

 paint remains so still — did not cover over with bark as did that where I used 

 the wax. T. R. 



Worcester, Mass., April 30, 1871. 



[We published last month a statement from an exchange, agreeing with 

 "T. R.'s" experiment. We wish to add, that we have never tried coal tar for 

 covering wounds, but we should be a little shy of it. We have known pine tar 

 used with very injurious effect. It certainly preserves the wood, but the wound 

 does not cover. — Ed.] « 



T. D., Garryowen, Iowa. — It would require more space than we have at 

 present to give a full account of the bark louse, by which we suppose you mean 

 the one which infests the apple tree, and which, from its shape, is known as the 

 oyster-shell, or muscle-shell bark louse. The scientific name is Aspidiotiis con- 

 chiformis, and we condense the following description from Harris's Insects 



