Notes and Gleanings, 307 



Stocks for Orange Trees. — A writer in " The South Land " says, that 

 the best method of procuring stocks for orange trees, so as to secure a perma- 

 nent and healthy orange grove, is to select the most plump and perfect seeds of 

 the Wild or Sour Orange, from fully mature and ripe fruit ; to plant these seeds 

 in drills, two or three feet apart, in suitably rich and rather moist soil, dropping 

 them two or three inches apart in the drill, and when the young seedlings attain 

 the height of five or six inches, having the whole crop carefully " lifted " (in 

 damp weather), the taproot clipped off with sharp pruning-shears or a knife, and 

 the plants skilfully replanted six inches apart, in three-foot drills, and in fresh 

 soil, expressly prepared for the purpose. 



Such stocks are much superior to those raised from seed of the sweet or culti- 

 vated orange, the latter being feebler in constitution, and therefore more liable 

 to disease, and to the attacks of all the insect enemies of the Citrus tribe. They 

 are also much better than the seedlings growing wild, which are wrenched out 

 of the i^ich, damp, shady hummocks in which they grow, without lateral roots, 

 transported in open boats, exposed to the hot sun, and then crowded into a 

 small hole on some dry, sandy bluff or upland. 



We have seen just such trees planted in just such places, and, from the obser- 

 vation we have been able to make, we have no doubt that plants raised from 

 selected seed, as above described, possess all the superiority imputed to them, 

 though we should suppose that the wild seedlings, if taken up and transported 

 with care, and well planted in good soil, thoroughly prepared and afterwards 

 mulched, they would give satisfactory results. In selecting, care should be 

 taken not to choose too large plants. Stocks of an inch in diameter would be 

 preferable to those of two or three inches, such as we have seen selected. 



Exhaustion of the Soil, in the language of Practice, has a relative mean- 

 ing, and signifies a reduction of producing power below the point of remunera- 

 tion. A soil is said to be exhausted when the cost of cropping is more than the 

 crops are worth. In this sense the idea is very indefinite, since a soil may refuse 

 to grow one crop, and yet may give good returns of another, and because a crop 

 that remunerates in the vicinity of active demand for it may be worthless at a 

 little distance, on account of the difficulties of transportation. The speedy and 

 absolute exhaustion of a soil once fertile, that has been so much discussed by 

 speculative writers, is found in their writings only, and does not exist in agricul- 

 ture. A soil may be cropped below the point of remuneration, but the sterility 

 thus induced is of a kind that easily yields to rest or other meliorating agencies, 

 and is far from resembling in its permanence that which depends upon original 

 poverty of constitution. " How Crops Feed,''^ by Professor S. IV. Johnson. 



How TO CURE THE Sting OF A Bee. — When stung by a bee, extract the 

 stinger immediately, to keep the poison from spreading, and there will be no 

 danger of the flesh swelling as big as a mound. The tincture of lobelia is very 

 good to allay the pain, and prevent the flesh from swelling when stung by bees. 

 Coal oil, ammonia, and cold water are also good preventives. Apiculturist. 



