NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



OSAGE ORANGE. 



Agreeably to request, ■\ve lately published an 

 article on the use of this plant for hedges, and we 

 inquired as to its hardiness ; since that time, ■we 

 have heard from several places -where it has been 

 cultivated in New England, and it is found too ten- 

 der for the cold of this climate. It has also been 

 killed by the winter on Long Island, N. Y. Mr. 

 Downing, in his Horticulturist, gives an opinion 

 that it will endure the cold as far north as the 

 Isabella grape will ripen ; but we think, from the few 

 experiments that have been made, that the Osage 

 orange will not bear extension so far north as the 

 Isabella, for this is the principal grape cultivated in 

 this region. 



HOW TO ENLARGE VEGETABLES. 



A vast increase of food may be obtained by man- 

 aging judiciously and systematically carrying out for 

 a time the principles of increase. Take, for instance, 

 a pea. Plant it in very rich ground ; allow it to bear 

 the first year, say half a dozen pods only ; remove all 

 others, save the largest, the following year, and retain 

 of the produce three pods only ; sow the largest the 

 following year, and retain one pod ; again select the 

 largest, and the next year the soii; will by this time 

 have trebled its size and weight. Ever afterwards 

 sow the largest seed, and by these means you will 

 get peas, or any thing else, of a bulk of which we at 

 present have no conception. 



CULTIVATION OF THE RASPBERRY. 



The plants are frequently set out in light and poor 

 soils, crowded together, left untrimmed, choked up 

 with a profuse growth of weak stems ; and Avhat 

 little fruit they produce is nearly dried up, from the 

 arid situation in which they were placed. On the 

 contrary, in cool, deep, and moist soils, in a sheltered 

 and partially shaded place, the plants throw up 

 suckers to the height of six or eight feet, and pro- 

 duce a profusion of large, handsome, and well flavored 

 ben-ies. So well assured are the most eminent 

 English cultivators of the raspberry, of its love of a 

 cool and moist soil, that some writers have strenuously 

 recommended the use of bog earth and rotten leaves, 

 in the place of richest loam. We are well assured 

 that the many complaints which are made of the 

 meagre produce of niany raspberry plantations, may 

 be attributed wholh'' to the light and droughty soils 

 in which they are often planted. 



A cool aspect is of material consequence ; and to 

 secure this, the north side of a fence or trellis, which 

 will form a screen from the sun, is the most favor- 

 able ; on the north side of the shrubbery or row of 

 fruit trees, is also a suitable place. If neither of 

 these situations is to be had, an open spot in the 

 garden may be chosen, always being careful to avoid 

 the south or east side of the fence. A temporary 

 shade may be effected in the open garden by plant- 

 ing a row of running beans on the south side. — 

 Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture. 



A HINT TO OWNERS OF HOTHOUSES. 



" Give me air, or I shall die ! " is an exclamation 

 which most people have heard occasionally, but 

 which a gardener might listen to every hour of his 

 existence, had he skLU to interpret the language of 

 plants. " Give me air, or I shall die ! " is incessantly 



repeated by every leaf in ninety-nine hothouses, 

 greenhouses, conservatories, hibcrnatories, and pits, 

 in a hundred, all over the world. But the voice is 

 unheard ; the pale looks, the feeble frames of the 

 sufferers arc disregarded ; heat is offered as a substi- 

 tute for air, and the duties of horticulture are thought 

 to be fultillcd when a blanket is AvrajDped round a 

 patient perishing with suffocation. 



PREPARATION OF CLOVER SEED. 



"We have received two communications from Jo- 

 seph Warbasse, of Newton, New Jersey, on his mode 

 of preparing clover seed for sowing, by whitih the 

 writer calculates he makes a saving of one half the 

 seed required. Mr. Warbasse's process seems to be 

 predicated on the assumed fact, that ordinarily more 

 than one half of the seed does not germinate, 

 cither from the want of moisture to swell it, or of 

 gypsum, the presence of which he considers essential 

 to stimulate the germinating principle. Mr. War- 

 basse is probably right in saying that one half the 

 clover seed sown does not come up ; he is strength- 

 ened in his supposition that much of it remains 

 dormant in the soil, by the fact he states, and which 

 is of common notoriety, — tliat plaster sown on light 

 lands will bring in clover, where no seed is sown at 

 the time. Mr. Warbasse's remedy for the evil is, to 

 saturate and swell the seed thoroughly in soft water, 

 to which a small quantity of salt is added, and after 

 it becomes well saturated, to coat it with gypsum, 

 &c., the effects of which seem to be to prevent the 

 escape of moisture which the seed has imbibed, and 

 thus insure its germination and growth. A further 

 advantage may be, that the salt imparts fertility to the 

 soil which comes in immediate contact with the 

 seeds, and causes a more vigoroiis growth. Such 

 seems to be the philosophy upon which Mr. W.'s 

 practice is founded. We give the process of prepar- 

 ing the seed in his own words. 



" The seed is to be made thoroughly wet with a 

 strong pickle from your pork cask ; let it remain in a 

 heap one day ; then spread it about one or two inches 

 thick on a dry floor, and in a few days a crust of 

 salt will be formed on each grain. When you wish 

 to sow it, moisten it again with pickle, spread it over 

 a floor, and put on about three quarts or more of 

 gypsum to a bushel of seed ; mix it well, and 

 keep it moist in a cellar until you sow it." — Yankee 

 Farmer. 



NEW INVENTION. 



An acquaintance of ours in this city, who is quite 

 a bee-fancier, and has closely observed and studied 

 their habits for several years, placed a new swarm in 

 a hive of his own construction on the 2oth of June 

 last. This hive is made to conform to the natural 

 habits of the insect in its wild state ; is of the usual 

 form, but closed at the bottom with a close-fitting lid 

 covered with wke cloth, about eight meshes to the 

 inch. This allows all the dirt and chips of comb 

 made by the bees to sift through, and admit suffi- 

 cient air for ventilation. It is hung on butts, and 

 can be opened to brush off any dead bees, or any 

 other substance too large to fall through it. Near 

 the top, directly over the drawers, is an inch auger 

 hole, for the passage of the " workers." This aper- 

 ture, being at the top of the swarms, has always a 

 cluster of busy bees about it, so that no miller can en- 

 ter ; and as there is no other mode of ingress, our 

 friend thinks that the hives may be kept from worms, 

 Avhich are the great enemy of the apiary. Nothing 

 larger than an ant can go tlirough the Avirc bottom, 

 and they are easily kept away by salt. The swarm 

 in the hive is the most busy its owner ever witnessed ; 



