December, 1889. 
235 
ORCHARD 
CARDEN 
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pepper, or carrying a lighted torch through 
the vineyard at night, the foliage at the 
same time being disturbed, have also been 
recommended. 
Tlie Red Spider. 
t Tetranychus telarius.) ' 
All lovers of “ House Plants” have no 
doubt been more or less bothered by the 
Red Spider. In fact this mischievous 
little pest is not a spider at all but belongs 
to the spinning mites, which differ essenti- 
ally from the spiders in the fact that they 
are never constricted between the thorax 
and abdomen as are the latter. In their 
earlier stages all mites have but six legs, 
but when mature all possess eight. There 
is an apparent exception to this in the case 
of the Phytopti mites, those almost in- 
visible creatures which produce many of 
the peculiar excrescences on leaves or other 
parts of various plants. 
The Red Spider is found on a great 
variety of plants, and is itself varied almost 
as much as the plants upon which it feeds. 
Some are greenish, marked with brown 
specks upon the side while others are red- 
dish. It is thought that this rusty color is 
an indication of greater maturity than is the 
green. The legs of these mites are wonder- 
fully modified to adapt them to the peculiar 
function of drawing out the threads for 
their webs. The threads of these webs are 
secreted by a small nipple under the ex- 
tremity of the abdomen. These threads 
are drawn out and guided by the action of 
the small claws and hairs of the legs which 
seem to be used only for this purpose. In 
the construction of the web all of the feet 
are moved very rapidly, but the move- 
ments of the mite itself are sluggish. Place 
it upon a polished surface and its move- 
ments are slow and awkward, but upon 
leaves, especially on the under side, it finds 
a fitter hold, for supported upon the bristles 
that just out beyond the claws it spins a 
web, affixing the threads to the prominences 
and hairs of the leaf, and under this shelter 
a colony of many of both sexes and young 
in all stages, feed and multiply with great 
rapidity. The sap is sucked from the 
leaves by these myriads of insects and the 
pores of the leaves are choked by exere- 
mental fluids. The leaves become yellowish 
or greyish with patches of a lighter shade, 
and soon, unless some remedy is applied, the 
plant languishes and dies. Many remedies 
have been proposed for ridding our plants ! 
of these enemies. Sulphur placed upon the 
pipes in the greenhouse is very effective. 
Soap and water is also recommended, but 
probably as good a remedy as any is to 
thoroughly spray the plants with water, as 
these mites cannot endure moisture. In 
spraying we should dash the water upon 
the under sides of the leaves in order to 
reach the mites in their retreats. 
We shall be glad to hear from our read- 
ers in regard to such insect pests as have 
troubled them during the past season, with 
notes on same. 
Raising Nut Trees from Seed. 
The bright and interesting Orange County 
Farmer, ever on the alert, instructs its 
readers how to start nut trees for the farm 
and garden in the following very compre- 
hensive manner which covers, in brief, 
nearly all that we have said upon the same 
subject. , 
To raise walnuts, butternuts, shellbark 
and other species of the hickory, it is only 
necessary to gather the nuts when ripe in 
the fall, and sow them on any good land. 
Cover with about two inches of light soil. 
If the nuts are covered with clay or any 
soil that will become hard when packed 
down by the rain or snows of winter, the 
young shoots will not break through it 
freely, but are very likely to be distorted 
and grow crooked. If there is any danger 
of squirrels or field mice digging up the 
nuts during the fall and winter, they may 
be mixed with sand or light soil and left 
in a heap in the garden and covered with 
sods or any firm earth, to the depth of six 
inches or more. Leave in this position un- 
til spring ; then take out and sow in drills, 
covering with light soil. The chestnut is a 
more delicate nut than the liickory ; conse- 
quently it requires more care in handling. 
When gathered in autumn spread out the 
nuts in the shade or in a cool room for 
about one week ; then assort them, throw- 
ing out all false and wormy specimens. 
Pack the sound ones in well drained boxes 
and pure, moist sand. First place a layer 
of sand an inch or two deep on the bottom 
of the box, and over this a layer of the 
nuts ; then another but a thinner layer of 
sand, and proceed in this manner until the 
nuts are all packed. Then take the box or 
boxes, as the case may be, and set them in 
a half shady position out of doors and cover 
all over with earth to the depth of ten or 
twelve inches. If a dry, sandy knoll is 
convenient, the boxes may be buried below 
the surface of the surrounding soil ; other- 
wise it is better to set them on the surface 
and bank up, forming a mound over them, 
as this will prevent too much water getting 
in among the nuts. The conditions re- 
quired for keeping the nuts sound are 
sufficient moisture to prevent shrinking 
and a temperature so low that they will 
not sprout until the time arrives for plant- 
ing in the spring. Continued freezing will 
do no injury, but alternate freezing and 
thawing will and for this reason we advise 
placing the boxes in the shade of an ever- 
green or on the northern side of a board 
fence or building. In early spring, or as 
soon as the ground is dry enough to admit 
of making a seed bed, take out the boxes of 
nuts and sow in shallow drills, dropjjing a 
nut every two inches and about one inch 
deep. Transplant when one year old. 
Notes on Niil-srowin£, 
The dwarf Japan chestnut is a miniature 
tree that is not out of place on the lawn. 
It bears at three years old a moderate supply 
j of nuts that are much svreeter than the 
Spanish and almost as large. It is quite 
distinct from it and much hardier. 
I 
I 
The Spanish chestnut makes a handsome, 
symmetrical tree, very desirable for plant- 
ing along the roadside, where it will not 
only furnish as good shade as the maple but 
produce a good crop of nuts, and timber of 
much more value for posts, rails etc. The 
American chestnut makes the largest and 
tallest tree and is much the hardiest ; the 
European forms a tree much shorter, and 
with a round head somewhat similar to the 
Norway maple. 
Numbers of young seedling nut trees are 
to be found in the pastures and woods of 
the farm that might be grafted with the 
large foreign chestnut or choice varieties of 
hickories and bring in quick and profitable 
returns. It is true that the grafting of nut 
trees is much more difficult than that of 
fruit trees but it is an operation that is well 
worth practising. 
Chestnuts are about as difficult to graft 
as the cherry, perhaps more so. The opera- 
tion requires to be done carefully. With 
proper care they may be successfully cleft- 
grafted, but the best way to graft the chest- 
nut is by whip-grafting. The European 
can be worked on the American but does 
better on its own stocks. 
A correspondent describes how he grafted 
the hickory on hickory stocks as follows : 
We had some young seedlings about one 
and one-half inch in diameter. The neces- 
sary implements were procured and we 
proceeded in the usual way by sawing off 
seedlings about two inches from the ground, 
splitting the stocks and inserting two grafts 
into each. We now wrapped around the 
grafted heads a cloth containing a large 
handful of mud from a ditch near by, tak- 
ing pains to cover all the cracks and the 
part sawed off with this mud, so as to keep 
the air from it. When we had returned home 
we had so little faith in the success of this 
experiment that we did not even record 
the day of it but I am inclined to think 
that it was in March. During the dry time 
which followed this operation, I kept the 
mud around the grafts damp and soft by 
frequent applications of water, a little at a 
time. All the four experimental grafts 
lived. 1 cut away one from each stock, 
the remaining one being sufficient to show 
skeptics that the hickory could be grafted 
successfully. On the 12tli of March of the 
following year I set a few grafts mostly in 
higher stocks, but otherwise in the same 
way as the former. Every single one on a 
stock four feet high died, and only two, 
which were grafted about two feet from 
ground, escaped. 
