370 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
September, 
The Red Spider on Pear and other Trees. 
The scorched appearance which the leaves of 
the pear sometimes put on, especially in hot 
weather, leads many to suppose that they have 
been burned by the heat of the sun. The in- 
jury is more likely to be caused by the garden- 
er's great enemy, the Red Spider, which does 
not confine its depredations to plants in the 
green-house, but attacks those out of doors, and 
infests even fruit and forest trees. Many of the 
evergreens at Central Park, and at places on the 
Hudson, have suffered severely from this, or a 
very similar species, during the long drouth of 
June and July. The insect is so small as to 
escape general notice, but if one observes close- 
ly, the leaf will be found to have numerous 
small reddish or brownish specks upon it, 
which when magnified largely, look as in the 
figure. One of the 
natural size would be 
but a mere point if 
shown in the engrav- 
ing. They may be 
seen running busily 
about or quietly 
sucking the juices of 
the plant. They also 
do injury by stop- 
ping the pores of the 
leaf by means of a 
film or web which 
they spread over the 
RED SPIDER, MAGNIFIED. snrface . The name 
given to it by naturalists is Acarus ielarius, and 
though called "Red Spider it is not a true spider, 
but oue of the mites. The fumes of sulphur 
are used to destroy the insects on plants in 
houses, but this is hardly applicable out 'of 
doors. An experienced cultivator informs us 
that he finds that syringing the trees with a so- 
lution of whale oil soap — 1 lb. to 8 or 10 gal- 
lons of water will in two applications effectu- 
ally clear the trees of the insect. Common 
soap suds with some sulphur stirred in, is used 
in England for the same purpose. The insect 
flourishes best in a warm and dry atmosphere, 
but dislikes a warm and damp one, and there is 
no doubt that syringing with water alone would 
be of great service in destroying the pest. 
•-• in — —*■ 
A Home-made Fruit Picker. 
A great amount of ingenuity has been expend- 
ed in contriving implements for securing fruit 
inaccessible by hand. The general fault is that 
they are too complicated and liable to get out 
of order. "Veteran," of Somerville, Mass., 
makes a fruit picker as fol- 
lows : "Take an old quart 
tomato can, and insert it in 
the coals ; when it has re- 
mained long enough to 
melt the solder, pull off the 
top with a pair of pincers 
and file the edge of the ;an 
smooth. Take part o. an- fruit-picker. 
other can and make a socket, and solder 
this to the bottom of the can, put an old rake 
handle into the socket and the implement is 
complete. To use it, put a handful of grass in 
the bottom of the picker, then press the edge 
of it against the fruit stem at its junction with 
the limb, and you will have the fruit without a 
bruise." The cut shows the picker without a 
handle. Every housekeeper ought to know how 
to solder, and such can readily fit a socket of 
this kind. Those who can not tinker, can use a 
can nailed or screwed to the top of a long han- 
dle. It is worth while to take a little trouble 
to save fine specimens of fruit without bruising. 
«-4 * J^ *-m 
A Wild Native Stock for Pear Trees. 
The report of the Secretary of the Maine 
Board of Agriculture, for 1863, gives an account 
of the experiments of Mr. Jefferson Slubbs, of 
Hampden, Me., with the common Shad-bush as 
a stock for pears. The shrub is Amelanchier 
Canadensis, grows all over the country, and is 
known by the popular names of Shad-bush, June- 
berry, Service-tree, and Sugar pear. It presents 
a great variety in the size of its flowers and the 
character of its leaves, and is one of the most 
conspicuous shrubs in May. Mr. S. transplants 
his trees from the woods, heads them back se- 
verely, and grafts on the new growth thus pro- 
duced. " He claims that they bear early and 
constantly, and that they are perfectly hardy." 
He has an orchard of two hundred and fifty 
trees treated in this way, including the follow- 
ing varieties : Madelaine, Tyson, Buffum, Pratt, 
Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Onondaga, Louise 
Bonne, Seckel, Beurre Die], Urbaniste, and Win- 
ter Nelis. . A western nurseryman states that 
he has budded on this stock, and that the trees 
promised well, but that in moving his nursery 
they were lost sight of. The subject is an inter- 
esting one, and if any of the readers of the 
Agriculturist have had experience with this stock 
for pears, they should communicate it. 
Save the leaves. 
" R. J. H.," writes that an old gentleman, a 
neighbor of his, who has a large garden, said to 
him: "I don't know what on 'airth to do with 
them pesky leaves, they kiver up everything, 
and make things look kinder shiftless." Ac- 
cording to our observation there are. many oth- 
ers who have not yet learned the value of leaves. 
In their desire to keep the garden and grounds 
neat, they put the fallen leaves out of sight with- 
out a thought of the value of what they are 
throwing away. Leaves are useful in two ways ; 
in their entire state as a mulch, and decomposed 
as a manure. Leaves are the natural mulch. 
Go into the woods in autumn and look under 
the leaves and you will find various seeds 
sprouting under them and getting a sufficient 
st«rt to enable them to winter under this genial 
covering, and break into vigorous growth with 
the return of spring. The beautiful wild flow- 
ers, which die out when taken to the garden, are 
in the woods nicely tucked up under a coverlet 
of leaves ; they sleep warm and awake strong 
and refreshed. There is no better winter cov- 
ering for a strawberry bed, and for herbaceous 
plants generally, than a good coating of leaves. 
The great difficulty is, they will blow away. 
This may be prevented by laying brush 
upon them, or giving them a light sprink- 
ling of soil. Plants protected in this way 
have a covering which will ward off the injuri- 
ous effects of sudden changes of temperature, 
but will not pack so closely as to endanger the 
health of the plant. Decomposed ieaves are 
valuable, and in the form of leaf mould are con- 
sidered one of the chief fertilizers. Aside from 
the purely vegetable matter they contain, the 
leaves have also a great deal of mineral matter 
which is deposited in them during the constant 
evaporation that is carried on during the 
growing season. This mineral matter is in 
just that finely divided and soluble state which 
makes it ready to be again taken up by other 
plants. The leaves of trees when burned, give 
from ten to thirty per cent, more ashes than the 
wood of the same tree. It will be seen that 
leaves are of the highest value in the compost 
heap, the barn-yard, and the pig-stye, and he 
who neglects to save them disregards the 
sources of fertility which nature is kindly offer- 
ing him. Even thus early in autumn many 
leaves will fall, and the collection should be be- 
gun and continued, and any place, large or 
small, will find a well sheltered pile of leaves 
valuable to draw upon for mulch, for winter 
covering, and for use in equal proportion with 
manure in hot-beds. Those not needed for these 
purposes may add to the richness of the ma- 
nure heap. By all means save the leaves. 
•-« ■ ■■ > i m 
Hanging Baskets for Plants. 
These have now become among the most pop- 
ular of household ornaments, and justly so, for 
they are equally in place in the rooms of the 
wealthy and the poor. The baskets as they are 
prepared for sale by the city florists, are often 
unsatisfactory, as they sometimes contain plants 
which do not flourish out of the atmosphere of 
the green-house. The best way is to start the 
plants, in partial shade, out of doors, or under 
a verandah, and have them ready to remove in- 
doors on the approach of cold- weather. Bask- 
ets or vases made of different kinds of pottery, 
and of various fancy patterns, are sold at the 
stores, but one need not be at the expense of 
these. A rather short flower pot may be en- 
closed in a frame of rustic work, made of limbs 
with the bark on ; or a basket may be construct- 
ed out of small crooked branches; annealed iron 
wire (afterward painted green), or oven a wood- 
en bowl or zinc pan properly covered and orna- 
mented may be used. Ample provision should 
be made for drainage when a pan or bowl of 
any kind is employed, by means of holes through 
the bottom. Baskets of rustic work or wire 
need a lining of moss from the woods, within 
which some good potting earth is placed. Pots 
or other vessels should have a good drainage of 
broken pots and some moss over it, and then 
be filled with earth. Suspend by means of wires 
or chains. Any one with a little ingenuity can 
contrive some kind of a hanging basket. It 
would be better of rather large size, say half a gal- 
lon or morein capacity, than smaller, as the small 
ones soon dry out. The first thing to secure in 
the way of plants is a good green, and nothing- 
is equal for this purpose to the European Ivy, 
which grows in the shade, retains its fine green 
through the winter and will stand almost any 
thing but sudden thawing after being frozen. 
Small plants may be had cheaply at the nurser- 
ies, and cuttings will grow with the greatest 
ease. If plants can be had with stems of suffi- 
cient length, they may be twined around the 
basket and be made to form a beautiful green 
covering to it. Another useful plant, and one 
which is very common in old gardens, is the 
Periwinkle (Vinca minor), sometimes improperly 
called Myrtle. There is a variegated sort of this 
and of the Vinca major, which are both beauti- 
ful and useful in baskets. The Ivy-leaved Ge- 
ranium, of which there are several varieties, 
and the striped Tradescantias are also desirable 
for both their foliage and flowers, as is the old- 
fashioned Saxifraga sarmentosa, the Beef-steak 
plant or Wandering Jew. A basket made up 
of these is a beautiful object without any flow- 
ers. We must confess that we have never had 
any very great success with flowering plants 
in baskets; the best among those tried was Man- 
