216 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



fruit trees, just as I had taken them from the forest tree, and I let them 

 remain until the last of April; then I removed them, and my peach trees 

 were at least one week behind my neighbors in blossoming, but they 

 escaped the early frost, and I had a full crop while they had very few. 

 The next year I set them tunnel shape, the small end up; in both cases I 

 saw that peaches and plums yielded larger crops than those without this 

 rabbit protector. 



"In Pennsyluania I used hemlock, in Wisconsin poplar bark; there the 

 ground is generally soft and the end of the bark can be pressed into it. 

 Where the ground is hard, dig a little circle and imbed the end of the bark 

 firmly to prevent the wind blowing it against the tree. In ui?ing barks 

 that have been kept over the season, they must be soaked to spring them 

 open so as to go around the tree, and it may be necessary' to tie them 

 together. I have found having barks around the tree tlie whole year inju- 

 rious, I do not like tarred or greased paper, for young trees like little 

 children should have plenty of breathing room." 



Mr. A. Curtiss, Clinton, Kansas, saj's: "I protect my trees with buts of 

 corn stalks, which are worth nothing for fodder. Cut then) eighteen inches 

 long and tie them around the trees, A man can protect 150 a day." 



Dr. Ward. — I find one of the best protections, is to prune late in autumn 

 and lay the limbs where the rabbits can get them. They will eat the buds 

 in preference to gnawing the barks of trees. A few trees may be protected 

 with bark, &c., all in a nursery cannot. The pruned limbs may save them, 



Mr, R. H. Williams. — I have seen the bark of the basswood and chesnut 

 used for the protection of young trees from rabbits; the bark of the bass- 

 wood is rapidly pealed and may be applied very readilj', it should be 

 inserted just below the soil and extended up the tree and securely tied. 



Delaware Vimes in Iowa. 



Mr. H. Parker, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, says: "Mr. N.YanVost of this place 

 purchased of me last spring thirty of Dr. Grant's No. 3 single eye Delaware 

 vines, one year old, and they were about the smallest specimen of the Dela- 

 ware vine that I ever saw. He had prepared his ground in the fall by 

 trenching, putting the top soil underneath to the depth of two feet, and 

 placing the clay subsoil on the top. In the spring (some time in April) he 

 opened the trenches, and planted his vines so as to leave the lowest but 

 about six inches below the surface of the ground, and as the vines grew, 

 he hoed the dirt to them until the trench was filled to the level of the 

 ground around them. lie then gave them no further attention, neither 

 staking nor pruning, and in the fall I went over with a friend and measured 

 the vines. They had made an average of fifteen feet growth, of good, 

 strong, well ripened wood, the main cane near the surface of the ground 

 being about a quarter of an inch thick. Some of the vines had made 

 twenty-five feet of wood. Mr. V, Made about twenty layers, every layer 

 being as large as half a dozen of the original vine. The vines were 

 planted on a side hill, a gradual slope facing the south, and as the season 

 was very dry, I consider this an extraordinary growth," 



