SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
150 
in which case the extremity of all other surroundins; 
shoots should be carefully pruned off when about 
six inches long. By this means, the leader will gain in 
strength, while the other shoots, which are to become the 
lateral branches, are, fora time, arrested in their growth, 
and thus their due .proportion is preserved. It is, however 
proper to remark that it may become important to stop 
the exuberance of growth in this leading shoot itself, 
when it seems to draw too largely on the supply of its fel- 
lows ; this is done, whenever ic becomes necessary, by 
pruning off a few inches of the extremity. The leaders of 
the lateral branches should also be examined and treated 
in like manner in order to secure a suitable leader, well 
proportioned to the minor shoots of the same branch 
Particular attention should be bestowed upon t-lie small 
shoots which are to become the fruit-bearing branches 
Jt frequently happens that their terminal shoot takes on 
too strong a growth, thereby losing its capacity for bear- 
ing fruit, and becoming but a leaf-branch. By resorting to 
this method of method of checking the strong-growing 
shoots, the gardener and orchardist is enabled to exercise 
a complete control over the development of his tree; 
though it may be necessary to repeat the operation over 
and over again. Under this treatment, the fruit-branches 
are greatly favored and strengthened, and even new ones 
are developed, which, without this attention on the part 
of the gardener, would have become but useless leaf- 
branches. During Uiese operations in summer every hap- 
hazard water-shoot, frequently sprouting on trees, should 
be removed ; in general, ordy a proportioned number of 
shoots is to be preserved ; all those which would tend to 
create excess should be taken off altogether. In this man- 
ner the sap and strength of the tree will be employed in 
the production of useful and valuable parts, securing 
abundant corps, and well proportioned, healthy trees. 
It is in the Nursery that the beginning should be made 
to form the pyramidal tree. When the bud has grown to 
the height of fifteen or eighteen inches, it should be check- 
ed by pruning off the extremity. This check will cause 
the growth of smaller lateral shoots, each having a new 
and well proportioned leader. These lateral shoots thus 
developed, are well fitted to become the leading lateral 
branches. Care must be taken, however, to prevent them 
from becoming rivals of the upward leader. By this treat- 
ment the tree is really advanced for one year, inasmuch 
as the sap of the first year is turned at once to the best ac- 
count in the production of branches, instead of cutting off 
the redundant grow h as a useless switch, as is usually 
done, when the tree is transplanted. 
For hedge-growing it is quite leasonable, also, to turn 
the vigor of vegetation, by repeated summer prunings, 
into the production of dense brush-wood to form the ba.se 
of the hedge, instead of throwing it in the fire of the b*'ush 
heap the following spring; or of raising hedges, as too 
many are, which are dense enough ci^hi feet above Ike 
groiuKf but open at the bottom, wliere the greater density 
is needed. 
This subject of summer pruning is of great practical 
importance, and deserves a rnwre extended exposition 
than we can nov/ give it. Anri we feel assured that the 
horticulluiisl would find greater satisfaciioii and more en- 
joyment, to say nothing of profit, in the culture of l)is 
favorite orchard, when cot ducted with such considerate 
precavitions and watchfulness over his trees as the philo- 
sophy of this subject su2:2:psfs. — Cindn.natus. 
To Destroy Flies. — To one pint of milk add a quarter 
of a pound of raw sugar, and two ounces of ground fiep- 
per ; simmer them them together for eight or ten miimtes. 
and place it about in shallow dishes. I'he flies attack it 
greedily, and in a few moments are suffocated. By this 
method, kitchens, &c., may be kept clear of flies all sum- 
mer, without the danger attending poison. 
.SIJBSOIIi GARDENIA f;. 
“ Ahcaijs do your best and leave the rest." 
Some people are afraid to look below the surface soil, 
apparently regarding it as a sacred spot that must not be 
disturbed or intruded upon. Now the fact is, too many of 
us have been looking at the surface of things instead of 
penetrating into the subsoil below and examining its tex- 
ture, to see if a mine of wealth be not there secreted. 
The period has arrived when gardening must commence, 
and those whose garden plots are underlaid with a stiff, 
tenacious subsoil, would do well by considering whether 
some measure might not be taken with it that would ren- 
der it more certainly productive. It has been demonstrated 
beyond cavil, that when a tenacious subsoil is dug and 
loosened up, without bringing it to the surface, or mixing it 
with the vegetable mould of the surface soil : if the season 
is very wet, the water descends into it readily, and the 
plants are protected from the injury of their food being too 
much diluted with water; and if a drouth comes on, the 
roots penetrate deeper and are benefited by the reser- 
voir of moisture which lies below, and the capillary attrac- 
tion in the earth brings the moisture upwards to the sur- 
face, and feeds and refreshes the vegetables. Any way 
you may fix it, it does much good, like all those good 
honest old rules, that work well either end foremost. 
The way to work it is to dig a little gutter a spit deep 
and the width of the spade on the side of a bed, and throw 
the surface earth which comes out ot it to the other end 
of the bed which is to be dug, where it will be required 
for the purpose of filling the trench which will be left at the 
conclusion of the work. Then begin atone end of this gutter 
and dig it up, and turn it over in the bottom, from end to 
end ; when this is done, begin and dig in the usual vvay, 
turning down the surface soil on the subsoil which has 
been dug; doing (his from 'end to end properly will leave 
another gutter which dig and overturn as before ; and so 
proceed till the bed is all dug two spits deep; the subsoil 
being turned topsey-turvy, but none of it being brought up 
or mixed with the surface mould. 
Trenching dilTers from this in turning the whole over, 
and bringing the subsoil to the surface ; but that would 
be inexpedient when the vegetable mould was not at least 
two spits deep, unless the ground should be very heavily 
manured. 
Now what is the objection to putting a garden through 
this salutary process ? None at all excepting that it will 
require twice the amount of labor; and this may appear 
to some a serious objection, but its adoption once in four 
or five years may be sufiicierit, unless the soil is very still 
and intractable ; and it enables the gardenerr gradually 
every year, to extend his diggings a little deeper into the 
subsoil, and by bringing up to the surface a small por- 
tion of it annually, tfie surface soil is constantly gaining 
dcfith, whicli i.s a matter of firinie importance in obtain- 
ing good crops with much greater certainty. 
Should it be too serious an undertaking to overturn a 
whole garden in this way in one season, try a single bed 
this spring, and become convinced of the importance ot 
doing everything you undertake in the way you are cap- 
able of; and then resolve never again to do anything 
uscU enough, wliich means, in common parlance, just, as 
had as will in any way answer ilie purpose for the time 
being. 
The foregoing plan lias no novelty in it, for it has been 
often done, will) the greatest advantages resnhing fiom 
it. Tlterc is no untried theory about it that it need scare 
the most limifl, and the writer does not expect to gam 
anything fnriher by die suYKestion, than tlie pleasure of 
seeini; many more good gardens, stocked with delicious, 
flourishing vegetables, than lie lias in limes passed wit- 
nessed. — Sou them Agriculiurut 
