Editor's Letter-Box. 255 



O. L. — There have been different compositions recommended for applying to 

 cotton cloth to render it transparent for covering hot-beds, etc., but they do not 

 make a very durable covering. Perhaps linseed oil is as good as anything. 

 Such coverings are cheaper than glass, but not as good, nor very durable, unless 

 carefully used. 



C. C. — Copperas is sulphate of iron or green vitriol, though the name has 

 caused it to be confused with sulphate of copper, which is blue vitriol. Cop- 

 peras has been recommended as a preventive of the black wart in the plum, and 

 also as an application co the ground to promote the health of trees ; but we have 

 used it freely for both these purposes without producing the slightest perceptible 

 effect. Blue vitriol is recommended by European writers as a remedy for mil- 

 dew on rose bushes, two ounces dissolved in a large pail of water ; but we have 

 never known it tried, the common remedy of sulphur, apphed exactly as for 

 grape mildew, always proving effectual. 



G. R. E. — The reason you did not succeed any better in grafting your plum 

 trees is, that you did it too late. Plums and cherries must be grafted much 

 earlier than apples and pears. In this latitude about the last of March is a good 

 time, and it can then be done with as much certainty of success as apples, 

 which, to a skilful grafter, means that the losses will be so few that he would 

 not pay anything to have them insured. 



Malus. — Lime, plaster, and wood ashes have been recommended as pre- 

 ventives of bitter rot in apples. The apple is well known to require a propor- 

 tion of lime in the soil, so that in those destitute of it a dressing of air-slacked 

 hme would be beneficial ; but it could do no good to add lime to a soil already 

 containing plenty. If troubled with bitter rot, it would be best to avoid varieties 

 such as the Pennock, which are badly affected by it. 



M. L. A. — It is said that the rose-bug may be captured by shaking the trees 

 which it infests over a sheet just at night ; but we have never tried it. The 

 method generally pursued, and supposed to be the only effectual one, is to pick 

 them off by hand into a bucket of water, and then crush or scald them. 



F. R. A. — New strawberry beds may be made as soon as the new runners 

 have made sufficiently firm roots to be transplanted, say in August here. Select 

 the oldest runners of this season — that is, the one nearest back to the parent 

 plant. You will get a tolerable crop next year ; but this plan is not as much 

 practised as formerly, and never by large growers for market. If you take up 

 the same plants in spring and set them carefully, first cutting off the ends of the 

 roots, in a shallow hole, broad enough to receive the roots without crowding, 

 you will lose fewer plants, and get about as much fruit. They must set early. 

 Make a little mound in the centre of the hole, so that the bottom is shaped like 

 an inverted saucer, and spread the roots carefully over it. Cover the roots with 

 earth, but before filling up pour in a quart of water, and then finish filling ; and 

 you ought not to lose a single plant. 



