448 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 350. 



of the pears that reach market are rubbish, without color or 

 flavor. Fall pears especially, such as Sheldon and Anjou, 

 rarely ever get to the consumer in good condition. I have 

 formed the habit of engaging such fruit ahead of time to 

 special consumers, with an agreement to hold them in storage 

 until fit for table use. The Anjous in this way may be ripened 

 all the way from November 1st to the middle of January. 

 They should bespread, about October 20th, in shallow bins in 

 a dark, cool cellar or storeroom, away from draughts of air. 

 They should be picked with tenderest care. As they turn yellow 

 they can be removed for use. It is, of course, possible to 

 hasten ripening by placing the fruit in a warm room. 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. P. 



Correspondence. 



How to Move Large Maples. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It is my purpose to move some Norway Maples some 

 six or seven inches in diameter and pretty thickly furnished 

 with limbs at the top. The impression seems to prevail here 

 that Maples should not be cut back or trimmed like other trees. 

 I should like to know whether it would be proper to prune the 

 trees, and, if so, any suggestions as to the proper method of 

 cutting them back would be appreciated. 



Westbrook, L. I. c. 



[In removing trees the roots are generally injured to a 

 greater or less extent, and those which are bruised must be 

 cut away ; it is good practice to prune in the branches to 

 a corresponding extent, so that there will not be more 

 leaves than the roots can supply. Norway Maples of the 

 size indicated cannot be removed without the loss of many 

 roots, and pruning will be necessary. Such pruning will 

 be perfectly safe, as these Maples are not injured more 

 than any other trees by this operation. A great deal of 

 this pruning can be effected by thinning out the inner 

 branches, but there should be no hesitation about cutting 

 back limbs where this seems necessary. When the ends 

 of the branches are pruned they should be cut back to a 

 limb, the wounds should be covered with coal-tar, and no 

 stubs should be left to decay. In removing such large 

 trees it is good practice to prune the roots back by digging 

 a trench about the trees, say, five feet from the trunk, and 

 if this trench is filled in with good soil new feeding roots 

 will start out during the next year, so that the tree will be 

 in excellent condition for removing in a year from the 

 coming winter. Large trees can be removed with success, 

 but it costs time and care and money. Persons who do 

 not choose to go to the extra expense, however, can con- 

 sole themselves with the reflection that, as a rule, it is best 

 to plant small trees, and that a tree ten or twelve feet high 

 will probably be as large in ten years as one planted at the 

 same time when it was twenty-five feet high. — Ed.] 



Insects Injurious to Plants. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I have never suffered serious loss from insects, and, 

 therefore, although I have glanced over what has been pub- 

 lished in Garden and Forest and other papers about various 

 insecticides, and the methods of using them, I have never 

 made any serious study of the matter. I have vague ideas of 

 kerosene emulsions and Bordeaux mixtures and arsenical 

 compounds, but I have no full knowledge of when or how to 

 apply them or what particular weapon to use against particular 

 insects. Last year white grubs in my Strawberry-beds brought 

 the matter home, and I must be prepared against them another 

 season. My Plum-trees, too, suffered from curculio, and I 

 am inclined to try something different from the old-fashioned 

 jarring method. Where can I learn such rudimentary tactics 

 as will enable me to make something like an intelligent war 



5. C. 



been issued during the present year by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture as Farmers' Bulletin No. 19, 

 which will probably furnish all the instruction needed by a 

 novice. It contains a list of the more important insecti- 

 cides, with directions for their preparation and use. It 

 also explains the habits and structure of our more common 

 insect enemies, showing why the different applications are 

 fatal to them, and giving the times and seasons when these 

 should be applied. The bulletin was prepared by C. L. 

 Marlatt, First Assistant Entomologist of the department, 

 and it will be sent to any one who writes for it to the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, Washington, District of Columbia. — Ed.] 



on my enemies : 



Elizabeth, N. J. 



[The bulletins issued by the experiment station of our 

 correspondent's own state contain all the information 

 needed ; and, besides these, there are so many good 

 treatises now published that we can hardly pick out one 

 from a dozen for commendation. A twenty-page tract has 



The Pear-borer Again. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your issue for September 19th, the specific name of 

 the Pear-borer, there described, was doubtfully given as Agri- 

 lus acutipennis. At that time it was believed that we had to 

 do with an American species, and the possibility of another 

 European importation had not been considered. Recently 

 my attention was called to an account, published in the vol- 

 ume of the Entomologische Nachrichten for 1893, summarizing 

 investigations made in Germany on Agrilus sinuatus, Olivier, as 

 a pest on Pear-trees in that country. Careful comparisons made 

 show the complete identity of that insect in habits andstructure 

 with the species observed by me in New Jersey, and no doubt 

 remains that we have to do with another imported pest. It is 

 a practice among nurserymen to import Pear-stocks from Ger- 

 many and France for the purpose of grafting upon them 

 American varieties, and I have succeeded in locating the 

 probable point of original importation in the region now most 

 infested. The time cannot be certainly fixed, but does not date 

 back more than ten years. I find, also, that the insect is more 

 widely distributed than I believed even a month ago, and it 

 extends northward to Lake Hopatcong, at least. It is also as- 

 serted that the species has gained a foothold in New York state, 

 in the vicinity of Marlboro, and it behooves growers in that 

 region to examine theirorchards carefully, to ascertain whether 

 it is really there. This is another illustration of the dangers of 

 careless importation of stock by nurseries, to which I called 

 the attention of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 

 Science. do-.., 



Rutgers College. John B Smith. 



Salt-water as a Preventive of the Yellows. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In many Peach-growing sections the trees are being 

 rapidly destroyed by the disease known as " yellows." In 

 Kent County, Delaware, for example, the trees in several large 

 orchards have been grubbed out and burned within the past 

 two years on account of this disease. It has been rapidly 

 spreading throughout that part of the state, and unless it can 

 be eradicated by the prompt destruction of diseased trees 

 or by some other practical method, Peach-growing will soon 

 be a thing of the past in Kent County. 



Early last spring the tides were very high along the coasts of 

 Delaware and Maryland, and in several instances Peach- 

 orchards were overflowed by the salt-water. The cold 

 weather which prevailed at the time of these high tides 

 caused the destruction of the fruit-buds in many of the Peach- 

 orchards on the peninsula. A few orchards produced a fair 

 crop of excellent fruit, and as they were in some instances 

 located in the sections where the overflow occurred, the 

 report was soon spread abroad that only those trees which 

 were growing upon the overflowed land produced fruit and 

 were free from yellows. 



In order to ascertain the facts concerning the matter, I made 

 a trip during the peach season among the bearing orchards in 

 Delaware and along the eastern shore of Maryland. 



In what is known as Quaker Neck we found many orchards 

 yielding fair crops of excellent peaches, but many of these 

 trees were on land which the water never overflows. In one 

 orchard, a portion of which was on low land which had been 

 overflowed, we could see no difference in the yield or the 

 quality of the fruit between the trees whose roots had been 

 treated with salt and those upon the high land, although the 

 foliage of the trees on the low land was much moie vigorous 

 and of a deeper green than that of the trees on the high land. 

 From what we learn the overflow of salt-water appeared to 

 have little effect on the production of fruit, and unfortunately 

 on the prevention of the yellows, so there is little hope that 



