no THE FARM. 



old pear tree io vigorous health is worth fully $10, and when a dozen auch 

 are injured the aggregate losa is quite an item. The horse should be a 

 careful one, accustomed to such work. 



Owing to other pressing duties, it occasionally happens that a heavy 

 growth of fall gi-ass is permitted in the orchard, after the vegetable crops do 

 not longer need cultivation. It should not remain all winter, especially 

 around the trees, as it affords snug retreats for rabbits, field mice, etc., 

 which too frequently gnaw the bark of the young trees, sometimes com- 

 pletely girdling them, and causing death. To prevent this, in the late fall, 

 with a hoe or strong iron rake, remove the grass from around each tree for 

 two or three feet, and to make a further protection, ridge up around the 

 trees with the plow, this ridge can bo easily plowed or cultivated down in 

 the spring to give a level surface to the orchard. 



Planting hoed and well-manured crops between the trees supplies them 

 with all the matter needed duiing the first few years. When the trees get 

 too large to make it either desirable or profitable to grow such crops, ma- 

 nure in some form must be specially applied to make up the deficiency. 

 Bone-dust makes a valuable dressing, as does well-rotted stable manure, 

 which, no doubt, is the most easily obtainable on the farm. There is no- 

 thing which equals wood-ashes, and we attribute much of our success in 

 raising heavy crops and splendid specimens of pears to the liberal use of 

 this fertilizer. Not only did we use all that we could save on the place, but 

 bought liberally at good prices. If enough cannot be secured to put over 

 the whole surface spread the ashes around each tree. The best time to ap- 

 ply the manure is in late fall or early spring, after the plowing and before 

 the harrowing. If there is an undue growth of wood and foliage diminish 

 the supply of manure; and it is sometimes well to put the land down to 

 clover (never to timothy, wheat, rye or other uncultivated grain), and let it 

 remain one or two years in sod. It can then be plowed and planted with 

 com to break the sod, and the ground either used for vegetables or kept fal- 

 low. — AgrlcuUurist, 



■\Vaste Bones for Trees and Vines. — The bones of fish, fowls, and the 

 large and small pieces of bones which are purchased with beefsteak and 

 mutton, constitute the very best food for fruit trees and grape vines, if the 

 fragments are only placed where the roots can lay hold of them. Instead of 

 allowing pieces of bones to be cast into the backyard, as food for stray doga 

 and cats, domestics shoiild be durected to deposit everything of the sort in a 

 small tub provided with a cover. As soon as a few pounds have accumu- 

 lated, take the tub to some grape vine or fruit tree, dig a hole three or more 

 feet long, a foot or two wide, and not less than a foot deep, into which the 

 bones are dumped, spread over the bottom of the excavation, and covered 

 with the soil. The more the fra.q;mont3 can be spread around, the better, 

 but th(!y should bo buried so deep that a plow or spade will not reach them. 

 The roots of growing vines or fruit trees viiW soon find the valuable mine of 

 rich fertility, and Avill feed on the elements that ^vill greatly promote the 

 growth of healthy wood, and the development of fair and luscious fruit. 



Many horticulturists and farmers purchase bone-dust costing not less than 

 two cents a pound, simply to enrich the soil ai'ound and beneath tlu'ir trees 

 and vines. Fragments of bones are just as valuable as ground bone, al- 

 though their elements of fertility will not be found available in so short a 

 time as if the large pieces were reduced to atoms. Nevertheless, if large 

 bones be buried three or four feet from a grape vine, the countlcsa uumben 



