334 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



trees do not answer the description. A 

 third says his strawberries are staminate — 

 they ought to be pistillate ; and so on. 

 These are all indications of that spirit of 

 inquiry and observalion which is a sure 

 presage of intelligent and successful cul- 

 ture. The time has come when nursery- 

 men must be observing and accurate, or 

 they will lose their business character and 

 customers both. They must plant speci- 

 men orchards, test and compare their va- 

 rieties, read and study, attend exhibitions 

 and meetings, such as this, and by these 

 means acquire such knowledge of their 

 profession as will enable them to prosecute 

 it successfully and honorably. The facili- 

 ties which dwarf trees now offer for test- 

 ing a large collection rapidly on a small 

 plat of ground, and at a moderate expense, 

 leave no excuse whatever for the neglect 

 of this work. 



The cultivation and management of 

 trees in orchards and gardens are im])rov- 

 ing rapidly, but much yet remains to be 

 done before we attain even mediocrity. 

 The loss which the United States sustains 

 annually in the careless and unskillful 

 planting and management of trees, if ac- 

 curately summed up, would be almost in- 

 credible. 



At the Fruit Growers' Meeting in Wes- 

 tern New York, a few days ago, the ques- 

 tion was raised ; What becomes of all the 

 trees that are propagated and sold in the 

 nurseries of that section? 



The opinion of the meeting expressed 

 in the discussion, was, that although many 

 trees were lost and worthless from defec- 

 tive or improper treatment in the nursery 

 and many from damage sustained in trans- 

 portation, yet more were lost by unskillful 

 planting, and neglect afterwards than from 

 any and all other causes combined. 



This I believe to be the case. In all my 

 observations of travel, I think 1 can safely 

 say that I have not seen one orchard or 

 one garden in a hundred even tolerably 

 managed. By far the greater number look 

 as though the proprietor had abandoned 

 his trees to ruin. 



Blown over to one side, anchored in a 

 tough grass sod, buried up in groves of 

 cornstalks, torn and broken by cattle, 

 barked and bruised with the plow, pruned 

 with an axe — thus they perish in their 

 youth, or become old, deformed, covered 

 with lichens, and a prey to swarms of in- 



sects, before they have yielded their first 

 fruits. What folly it is in men to invest 

 their money in trees, and then wilfully 

 ruin them in this way ! In Western New 

 York, where cultivation is about as good as 

 in any other section, a man who cultivates 

 his orchard or his garden thoroughly, M^hose 

 trees are healthy and handsome, making 

 vigorous growth, and yielding fine fruit, is 

 talked of as rarity — and so he is. 



The specimen trees in the establishment 

 with which I am connected, are but tole- 

 rably well managed ; the ground is kept 

 clean around them, and is occasionally 

 dressed with manure or compost ; so that, 

 in all seasons, w^e get a fair growth and a 

 fair crop — but amateurs might have theirs 

 vastly better. Yet we are daily asked 

 what we do to our trees ? and many seem 

 to think that we have some secret art — 

 some system of" terraculture"— with which 

 the world at large is unacquainted. 



We need a complete revolution in these 

 matters. I cannot now detain you to go 

 into the details of planting and mulching; 

 but I beg you who understand these mat- 

 ters, to constitute yourselves missionaries, 

 and preach this doctrine of high cultiva- 

 tion zealously in your respective parishes, 

 and give examples of it in your own 

 grounds, that your practice may correspond 

 with your precept." — Miner's Rural Amer- 

 ican. 



PORTRAITS FROM THE FIELD 

 AND FARM- YARD. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 

 THE OWL. 



In my portraits from the field and farm- 

 yard I must not omit the Owl, which is 

 one of the most remarkable of the feath- 

 ered race, and in one way or another fa- 

 miliar to all persons. There are about 

 fifty species belonging to this tribe ; but I 

 shall select for my sketch the common lit- 

 tle brown owl, (strix nsevia) which is one 

 of the typical owls, and affords a fair spec- 

 imen of the race. The owl has been, hy 

 naturalists, compared with the cat, to 

 which he bears a strong resemblance in 

 his face, in the capacity of his vision, and 

 in his predatory and nocturnal habits. 

 Like the cat, he sees most clearly by twi.- 

 light, or by the light of the moon, seeks 

 his prey in the night and spends the great- 

 er part of the day in dozing. He has a 



