160 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



1871 



Destroying Ants. We have never seen these 

 pests so numerous as the present season. They 

 seem to be every where, and to permeate everything 

 both in and out of doors. 



FIVE \V.\YS TO DESTROY ANTS. 



1. Pour copiously, liot water as near the boiling 

 point as possible, down their burrows and over 

 their hills, and repeat the operation several times. 



2. Entrap the ants by meaes of narrow sheets of 

 stiff paper or strips of board, covered with some 

 sweet, sticky substance. The ants ants are attracted 

 by the sweet, and, sticking fast, can be destroyed as 

 ofien as a sufficient number are entrapped. 



3. Lay fresh bones around their haunts. Thej' 

 will leave everything else to attack these, and when 

 thus accumulated, dip them in hot water. 



4. Pour two or three spoonfuls of coal-oil into 

 their holes, and they will abandon the nest. 



5. Bury a few slices of onions in their nests, and 

 they will abondon them. 



San Francisco Fruit Market. The Pacific 

 Rural Press of May 5th, says of the fruit market : 



" Cherries, Gooseberries, etc. have made their ap- 

 pearance in the market during the past week. Of 

 cherries, three lots have been received, selling at 

 $1.25, 75c and 50c per Bi, closing yesterdaj' at 75c. 

 Of gooseberies, the first lot sold at 18c. The re- 

 ceipts of strawberries during the week have been 

 steadily on tlie increase, aggregating 180,000 lbs., or 

 an average of 30,000 Its. for each day, the price 

 meanwhile dropping from 10@15c to 6@7c. On 

 Monday the receipts were forty-thousand lbs., and 

 on Tuesday 50,000 lbs. The trains of Wednesday 

 morning brought 27,000 lbs. strawberries, which 

 found a ready market at6@7cfor choice in baskets." 



Beautify Home. — The Southern Farmer says : 

 "Beautify your home. It is astonishing to .sec how 

 much can be done year by year to adorn and beau- 

 tify the farmer's home and its surroundings. A few 

 trees set out here and there ; a few old decayed trees 

 grubbed up, perhaps, and removed, an unsightly 

 wall or fence taken out of the way ; in a thousand 

 ways, indeed, beauty may be made to spring out of 

 deformity, and that, too, without any serious ex- 

 penditure of time or money." 



Lime for Fruit Trees. The Horticulturist 

 says : " It is a good plan for all fruit growers to 

 applj' lime freely in their orchards every two or 

 three j^ears. A half bushel to each tree, or 100 

 bushels broadca.st, per acre, will suffice." 



One bn.shel of wood ashes is worth two of lime 

 for the same purpose. Every quart of ashes made 

 by a fruit grower should find its way to the orchard 

 or the garden. 



Big Strawberry PicKrNO : — The Norfolk, (Va.) 

 Jmirnal, of the 10th ult., says : " Mr. Anderson on 

 Monday shipited from his form near this city, four- 

 teen thousand quarts of strawberries, the fruits of 

 one picking from his patch of nearly one hundred 

 acres. The culture of strawberries is one of the 

 most profitable branches of the truck trade in this 

 vicinity. More can be made from one acre in 

 strawberries, than from ten in corn." 



Salt for the Strawberry. The Norfolk Vir- 

 ginian is informed by a practical Iiorticulturist that 

 during an overflow from an extraordinary storm, a 

 strawberry bed was partially covered with brackish 

 water at the time when, fruit was forming, and also 

 that the occurrence stimulated the vines to greater 

 perfection of fruit and general vigor, a discovery 

 that may prove of advantage to fruit raisers in the 

 vicinity of salt water. 



Florida Peaches. — A correspondent of the 

 Rural Ncio- Yorker writes, April 9: "I have three 

 peach trees, now nine feet high, and from one 

 inch to one inch and a quarter in diameter, one 

 year and one month old. They bloomed in Febru- 

 ary and fruited several peaches, but shed them at 

 the size of a filbert. One of them is still holding 

 two peaches the size of a large hickory nut." 



PoTAsn FOR THE Peach. Iu a paper read be- 

 fore the American Philosophical Society the author 

 stated his belief that the short life of peach trees 

 is due to a deficiency of potash in the soil, and as- 

 serts that if this alkali be supplied to the tree so 

 that it shall reach the small roots and be absorbed, 

 the fruit bearing power is restored and the fruit it- 

 self, prematurely perishing, is revived. 



An Old Apple Tree. The Clareinont (N. H.) 

 Advocate states that Mr. Samuel Andrews, of that 

 town has a stately apple tree standing near his 

 house, which last year j'ielded him forty-.six bu.sh- 

 els of large, fair and excellent flavored apples. The 

 tree is now in its eightieth year, bears fruit per- 

 ennially, and to all appearances will continue to do 

 so for eighty years to come. 



California Wine in London. — London is be- 

 ginning to send orders to San Francisco for Cali- 

 fornia wines. One thousand gallons of Cocomongo 

 was the last order received. Sonic of these wines 

 are esteemed iu London superior to those of 

 Europe. 



Large Strawberry Crop. Wm. Boots writes 

 from San Jose to the Pacific Rural Press that from 

 14 acres, he sold in 18(i0, forty-four tons of straw- 

 berries, and in 1S70 a little over forty-one tons- 

 bringing in the aggregate $11,800. 



