124 THE FA TIM. 



rions of tlio inixtTire shoiild be one pint of kerosene to a gallon of tlie white- 

 wash. Whatever substances are ehoscn, they should be applied thorouglily. 

 To insure complete destruction of the insect, a second application should be 

 made some days after the first. 



Top Grafting Trees. —A practical fruit grower gives the following as 

 his mode of top grafting: I have in a measure discarded the old system of 

 cleft grafting, for a cheap, safer and easier way. I save the cions by cut- 

 ting them in the fall or early winter, pack in sand or sawdust and keep in a 

 cool cellar. After the trees have come out in leaf, during May and June, 

 cut a bud from the cion and insert under the bark well tied and waxed to 

 keep out the air and water, sotting one bud in each leading Umb all over the 

 tree. In the course of two or three weeks these buds will have connected or 

 else have died. For all that have connected saw the Umbs off above the bud 

 and throw the growth into them^ Those that have died set again in July or 

 August with buds taken from the new growth of wood, and cut them off the 

 next spring. I set tops in that way in twenty seedling apple trees twelve 

 years old in June, 1878, putting in on an average twelve to the tree. In 

 1884, six years from setting, they have forty bushels of Stark apples, worth 

 one dollar per bushel. The expense of budding was ten dollars. If the 

 same trees had been changed by cleft grafting the change would have cost 

 two or three times that amount. 



Hints on Marketing Pears. — Pears, whether early or late, should 

 never remain on the tree until they become mellow. Whenever they have 

 made their growth they should be gathered. It is easy to tell the proper 

 condition by observing the ease with which the stem parts from the tree. If, 

 on taking hold of the pear and lifting it, the stem readily breaks away from 

 the spur to which it is attached, the fruit has received all the nourishment it 

 can get from the tree, and the sooner it is gathered the better. Pears are 

 sent to market in crates and half barrels; especially fine specimens are sent 

 in shallow boxes, only deep enough for a single layer of fruit, and each pear 

 is wrapped in thin white paper. Extra specimens of any of the standard 

 kinds will bring enough more to pay for this extra care in packing. The 

 early varieties mature quicker after gathering than the later kinds, but all 

 should reach the market in a firm and hard condition. As with all other 

 fruits, it will pay to carefully assort pears. Make three lots, firsts and 

 ■econds for market, and the third for keeping at home — for the pigs, if need 

 be; there is positively no sale for poor pears. 



Ants in the Orchard. — Many of the leading orchard proprietors in 

 nofthem Italy and southern Germany are cviltivators of the common black 

 ant, an insect they hold in high esteem as the fruit grower's best friend. 

 They establish ant-hills in their orchards, and leave the police service of 

 their frtiit trees entirely to the colonists, which pass all their time in climb- 

 ing up the stems of the fruit trees, cleansing their boughs and leaves of 

 malefactors, mature as well as embryotic, and descending laden with spoils 

 to the ground, where they comfortably consume or prudently store away 

 their booty. Thej' never meddle with sound fruit, but only invade such 

 apples, pears and plums as have already been penetrated by the canker, 

 which they remorselessly pursue to its fastness within the very heart of the 

 fruit. Nowhere are apple and pear trees so free from blight and destructive 

 insects as in the immediate neighborhood of a large ant-hill five or six years 

 old. The favorite food of ante would appear to be the larvae and pupae of 



