Editors Letter- Box. 63 



A CORRESPONDENT writes, that he has an apple-orchard of some fifty trees, 

 in full maturity, and asks if the general practice of scraping the bodies is to be 

 recommended. It appears to be his opinion, that the protection afforded by the 

 coarse, loose bark against cold in winter and the influence of excessive heat in 

 summer, more than compensates for the injury resulting froni the few insects it 

 is generally supposed to shelter. — He is undoubtedly right in his views of the 

 value of the protection afforded by the rough outside bark. The necessity of 

 such protection is not generally understood ; but those who have seen the soft, 

 tender bark on the limbs of a tree scorched by the sun as soon as it was de- 

 prived of shade by removing the limbs in grafting, would need no further argu- 

 ment to convince them of it ; and we have known an instance, where, in a severe 

 winter, trees with a smooth bark were generally killed, while those with a rough 

 bark escaped. Some cultivators have even gone to the trouble of shading the 

 stems and large limbs of their trees with straw and mats to protect them from 

 the sun. It is just as natural for the bark of an apple or pear tree to become 

 rough wlien it has attained a sufficient age, as it is for it to bear fruit. The tree 

 sloughs off the old bark, and this forms a most admirable non-conductor of heat 

 and cold. Nothing can be more pernicious than the common custom of scrap- 

 ing apple and other trees " to the quick." The inner bark, which ought to be 

 moist, soft, and white, is soon dried, indurated, and browned by the sun and air. 

 We should as soon think of scraping off the pustules on a man's face to cure 

 him of small-pox, as of scraping a tree to make it vigorous. But there is a con- 

 dition of the bark, well known to the experienced orchardist, which is an indi- 

 cation of want of vigor. The scales of outside bark are small, clinging closely; 

 and the whole bark has a dry, hard appearance. The remedy must go deeper 

 than scraping. Dig in a generous dressing of manure, and prune out all super- 

 fluous wood early in the spring. At the same time, the stem and large branches 

 may be treated to a wash as follows : Take a large tub, say half a molasses 

 hogshead, and put into it a wheelbarrow-load of yellow clay, and an equal quan- 

 tity of fresh cow-manure, covering it with water. After soaking and mixing a 

 day or two, add half a bushel of wood-ashes, a pound of sulphur, and six or 

 eight pounds of soft soap, and mix well together ; then slake half a peck of lime 

 and add to the mixture, using water sufficient to make the whole about the thick- 

 ness of cream, which will nearly fill the tub ; mix well together for several days; 

 then, with a common whitewash-brush (an old floor-brush will answer), paint the 

 bodies of the trees, having first used a smaller brush to paint the crotchets of 

 the limbs, and the limbs themselves as far as possible. If our correspondent 

 will act on these principles, he may trust the woodpeckers to remove all the 

 insects that will harbor under the bark. 



A. C. S., Duxbury, Mass. — Not an Arethttsa, but own cousin to it, Pogo- 

 nia opJiioglossoides. 



A CORRESPONDENT wishes to know where plants of the mammoth sage, 

 which produces no flowers, but is propagated by division of the root, can be 

 obtained. 



