16i 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



June 



4. Balsam Fir. — I briog in this plant becaus* 

 it has, and still is, largely cultivated and planted. 

 For sins;le specimens, they do not form fine ob- 

 jects a ter twelve years' growth, and, in the pro- 

 fusion of more beautiful and equally available 

 evergreens, should not be planted on small lawns; 

 but it possesses a degree of def>p color in its 

 foliage which renders it indispensable in the 

 formation of groups in the better class of land- 

 scape gardening. A group often or twelve Bal 

 sam Firs, closely planted and surrounded with a 

 border of Hemlocks forms a fioe feature in a 

 pleasure garden. But it is not recommended as 

 a tree to be planted in limited grounds. 



5. Scotch Fir. — I can recollect that some 

 fifteen years a plant of this Fir was quite a rari- 

 ty; now one meets it everywhere. When young 

 it Is, like most all Pines, a very pretty, compact- 

 growing plant; as it attains age it looses this 

 compact habit, and inclines to be thin and strug- 

 gling in its growth. A group of five or seven 

 planted closely together form an agreeable con- 

 trast, its light green color being conspicuous in 

 winter senery. 



6. Austrian Pine. — This rigid-looking Pine is 

 found to stand the climate well. It is not a tree 

 for small lawns, as it is completely destitute of 

 grace, and requires considerable space to devel- 

 ope in perfection. It should always be removed 

 when small ; a plant two feet in heighth is quite 

 as large as should be transplanted, as it forms 

 long wiry roots, which are difficult to remove 

 without injury. When young it assumes a very 

 bushy form, the lower branches being more fully 

 developed than the Scotch Fir, which it in some 

 measure resembles ; but whether it will retain 

 this desirablo quality, or lose its lower limbs as 

 it attains in heighth, I have no means ascertain- 

 ing. 



7. Arborvit^s. — The American Arborvitae is 

 most common, and makes the best of all hedges. 

 The Siberian is more compact, and of a bluish- 

 green color. The Golden is a poor affair — noth- 

 ing golden about it, except the golden price that 

 is usually asked for it. It has the demerit of 

 losing its lower branches, and becoming desti- 

 tute of its foliage, except on the points of the 

 shoots. When about two or three feet high it is 

 very neat — but there its beauty ends. 



These embrace the most dcj^irable of our har- 

 dy evergreens. There are others of more or 

 less merit, whicn may form another paper. — 

 Farmer and Gardener. 



-«••- 



Low Headed Prnit Trees; 



In trimming fruit trees we should always be 

 careful to secure the trunk from the rays of the 

 summer sun. Solar heat, by being long per- 

 mitted to come in contact with the bark, is said 

 to scald the circulating fluids, and thus cause 

 many of the diseases which affect fruit trees in 

 this climate. The foliage only should be fully 

 exposed to the influences of heat, for that is ca- 

 pable of bearing it unharmed, and even to profit 

 by it, when most intense. It has been asserted 

 by distinguished terraculturists that trees which 



are permitted to branch out low — say three or 

 four feet from the ground — are rarely attacked 

 by "fire-blight." "frozen sap blight," black spots 

 or other diseases of the bark or limbs. 



There is, also, another advantage attending 

 this practice. The soil is kept lighter, looser, 

 and more free from weeds, and there is no ne- 

 cessity of mulching. The high winds pass, also, 

 almost harmless over the trees, and have nopoW" 

 er to twist, rack, and break the brancbes, or to 

 detach the fruit, as they do when the branches 

 aspire and are exposed, A writer on this sub- 

 ject says : "The trees will be much longer lived, 

 more prolific, beautiful, and profitable. They 

 are most easily rid of destructive insects, and 

 fruit is much legs damaged by falUog, and the 

 facilities for gathering it are much greater; 

 there is less danger in climbing, and less danger 

 in breaking the limbs. The trees require less 

 pruning, scraping and washing, if the two latter 

 are thought necessary ; and the roots are pro- 

 tected from the scourge of the plow, which is too 

 often allowed to tear and mutilate them." 



The proper shape for fruit trees is that of au 

 umbrella reversed. When this shape is commu- 

 nicated by pruning, the foliage is more freely 

 exposed to the action of the solar rays, and to the 

 air, which ought always to have a free circula- 

 tion among the foliage and fruit. By communi- 

 cating a conical form to any tree, although it 

 may be rather more graceful and elegant in its 

 effects upon the landscape, we certainly injure it 

 in many ways, if looked upen it as nn object of 

 profit. The fruit of apple trees which grow on 

 the interior limbs, where the surrounding foliage 

 and branches prevent the sun's rays from pene- 

 trating, and where the direct influences of the 

 heat are never felt, is, to a certain extent, insip- 

 id ; it does not mature thoroughly, and wi'l not 

 keep so long or so perfectly as that which grows 

 on the outside branches, exposed to the sun and 

 wind. It also varies so much in shape, and es- 

 pecially in color, that we have known two plates 

 of apples, selected from the same Baldwin tree, 

 one of which was pronounced by a skilful fruit- 

 grower to be the Baldwin, and the otherplate an- 

 other variety. — N. E. Farmer. 



-«»■ 



Why that Rose Bush Failed. — Roses to 

 shade a window, are often planted under the 

 dripping eaves of ihe farm house, where in the 

 leached, gravelly trench they linger out a miser- 

 able existence, trying the patience of the wife 

 who wonders over their slow growth for a few 

 years, and finally abandons them to utter neg- 

 lect, declaring that she never could have luck in 

 raising roSoS, and it is no use to try it. 



Planting them in the earth thrown up in dig- 

 ging a cellar is no better ; roses require a rich 

 deep soil ; the surface around their roots should 

 be kept free from sod, and annually supplied 

 with chip manure or forest mold, or a weekly 

 pail full of the drainage of the cow house, or of 

 soap suds. Give your roses a little attention of 

 this kind each spring and you will have no rea- 

 son to complain of your luck. 



