146 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
f April, 
■WINTEK PUOTECTIOX FOP. THE BtlDS. 
Sometimes he bends the lower limbs to tlie 
eai-tli, and puts a weiijlit upon lliem to keep 
them there ; vciy often tlie snow furnishes the 
needed covering, and in northern climates tliis 
•will be found sufficient. But in our less snowy 
latitude, where we often have great depression 
of temperature without any such covering to tlie 
earth, we need some artificial protection. For 
this purpose, Mr. Bolmer uses long open boxes, 
supported by four legs of the requisite hight, 
say from two to five feet, to adapt them to the 
different parts of the 
trees. Into these the 
branches are gathered 
and crowded and pres- 
sed down, and covered 
■with straw, with a^little 
earth or something else 
to keep them in place. 
This is done in Novem- 
ber, and they are left 
until late in March or 
April, -when the exposed 
part of tlic tree is in 
full bloom; these pro- 
tected buds arc then bo- 
ginning to swell, and 
tliey will ha two or 
three weeks later in their 
blossoming, and may 
thus escape a spring 
frost that miglit destroy 
tlie earlier l^loom and 
fruit. Mr. Bolmer cuts 
back his peach trees 
every second year, or if 
they bear too full, he 
shortens Ihcni every 
season, to thin out the 
fruit, taking off say one 
tliird of them, so as to 
increase the size of those 
that arc left. Tliis he 
considers a very paying 
operation, on account of 
tlie increased size and 
corresponding price of 
the fruit; nor is it a 
very expensive opera- 
tion, if, as he says, one 
man can trim from fifty 
to one hundred trees a 
day. To recur to the 
mounding -work, he 
does not give the abso- 
lute expense of the ope- 
ration, which cacli must 
calculate for liimself, 
reckoning local cost of 
labor, etc., but he claims 
that it pays, and that 
it preserved the longe- 
vity of his trees, -while other orchards in his 
neighborhood have died out and disappeared. 
Tlie original tree upon which he first oper- 
ated, now twentv-scven years old, is still living. 
Tliongli not able to give llio cost per tree or 
per acre, j\[r. Bolmer feels satisfied that the ex- 
pense will compare favcn'ably with the constant 
plowing, and tending, and worming of a peach 
oreliard, attended with uncertain results and 
frequent failures, because mounds once made 
are a permanent protection from the worms 
and insure a crop, so that he considers his plan 
the cheapest and most profitable method of 
growhig fruit that has yet been discovered, and 
lie claims that fruit produced in tliis way is 
wortii one-tliird more on account of its superior 
flavor, size and color." 
A Brilliant Beddings Plant. 
(Oazania sjAeiukns.) 
Of late years many plants formerly consider- 
ed as only suitable for green-house culture, have 
been found to grow with perfect success when 
placed in the open ground, and even attain a 
luxuriance of growth, and give a profusion of 
-^ 
upper surface, wliile below they are very near- 
ly wliite. The flowers are produced singly 
upon long stalks, and are of the size and shape 
shown in the engraving. It will bo seen that 
this flower belongs to that very large family, the 
Composite, of wliich the Sunflower and Mari- 
gold ^re common representatives. The rays in 
this flower are of a rich yellow color ; each one 
of them has, near its base, a spot of purplish 
brown, so dark that it appears to be black, and 
upon each one of these dark spots is a clear 
white marking. These spots together form a 
circle or crown of ex- 
ceeding brilliancy. A 
great merit in tliis plant 
is the long duration of 
its flowers ; they open 
only in a strong light, 
and close at night and 
on dark days. The same 
flower will open and dis- 
play its beauties day 
after day, for about a 
week. The plant is a 
native of the Cape of 
Good Hope, and though 
tender, is not destroyed 
by the first light frosts 
of autumn. With this, 
as with other bedding ' 
plants, cuttings should 
be nia' o during the 
growing season for a 
stock to keep through 
the winter. It succeeds 
well in ordinary garden 
soil. The name, Gaza- 
nia, is said to come from 
the Persian word ftu' 
riclics, while the specific 
name, splendent, is so 
near the corresponding 
English word as to need 
no translating. The bo- 
tanical name is not inap- 
proiiriate,for llie plant is 
both rich and splendid. 
Forest Trees 
Shelter. 
for 
G.IZ.INIA SPLENDES3. 
bloom, far in advance of any results that can be 
reached in pot culture. Tlicse bedding out 
plants are in great demand, and the establish- 
ments devoted to producing them arc, so to 
speak, regular plant factories, where the speci- 
mens arc turned out bj' hundreds of thousands. 
One of the plants which has been tlius popular- 
ized and removed from the exclusiveness of 
green-house society to the promiscuous assem- 
blage of the border, is Oazania spletideiis, of 
which we here give an engraving. The plant 
branches freel3-, its weak stems laying pros- 
trate upon the ground ; the leaves are ratlicr 
thick in texture, and of a dark green upon llie 
The importance of 
Bheltcring fruit trees 
from the violence of 
winds, is shown by the 
attention given to the 
subject by the AVeslcrn 
Horticultural Societies. 
At llio last meeting of 
the Illinois Stale Horti- 
cultural Society, the 
merits of the different 
forest trees were discus- 
sed almost as fully as those of fruit trees, and a 
list of those best for shelter adopted with equal 
formality with the lists of fruits. TVe enumer- 
ate the trees selected, placing those first wliicli 
the Society consider most valuable. Black 
AValnut, Hickory, Butternut, AVild Cherry, Sil- 
ver Maple, Elm, Ash, Sugar JIaple, Ash- 
leaved JIaple, Basswood or Linden, Honey 
Locust, Oaks (Red, AVhitc, and Bur,), Larches, 
Red Mulberry, Catalpa, Chestnut, Loinbardy 
Poplar, Silver Poplar, and Osage Orange. The 
Cottonwood, and White and Yellow Willows, 
were recommended, if notliing else could be 
had. The Evcrarceus recommended were: 
