317 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
and others of a similar cl)oracter, may be raised with 
^reat advantage; not, however, on tlm land-butchering 
sysiem, to rob the soil of its last particle of strength ; they 
should be manured and cultivated in such a way as to 
benefit the trees. 
Mtilchivff, or covering the ground for several feet 
around each tree, will be found to be of great advantage 
to the trees, not only preventing weeds from exhausting 
the soil, but keeping the ground cool and moist. Any 
kind of coarse litter, pine straw, or even saw-dust, will 
answer, 
In^conclusion, I would say a few words in regard to 
orders sent to a nursery. The stlling season in a nursery 
is a very busy tinie; in fact, none but a nurseryman can 
imagine how much work there is to be done during timt 
time. It is, therefore, very desirable that ail orders should 
be written in such a way as to facilitate the filing of tkem. 
It is very common in most nurseries that orders wiiich 
are wriaen in a confused way, or mixed up with the con- 
tents of the letter, arc laid aside and must give way for 
others that are distinct and plain. In making out an or- 
der the purchaser should make up his mind whicli varie- 
ties he wants, or if iie leaves the selection to the nursery- 
man, merely siate the number of trees. Such a list should 
never be mixed up with the contents of the accompany- 
ing letter, but noted on a separate piece of paper, and en- 
closed in the letter. It is ilien an easy matter for the pro- 
prietor of a nursery to hand such a list over to his fore- 
man and have the order filed at once. It should also be 
mentioned in the order whether the purchaser wishes the 
articles sent by “Express,” by “Freight train,'' or any 
other conveyance. Robert Nelson. 
FruilLand, Augusta, Ga., Sept., 1857. 
PROTECTION OF FKCIT TREES FROM FROST. 
Editors Southern Cultsv-ator — In the Cidtivator for 
August you state, in reply to some inquiries from “T. P. 
L.j” of Alabama, that you do not know of any practicable 
method of protecting large orchards from the effects of late 
frost. 1 write this to say that I believe there is a perfect- 
ly practicable, easy and certain method of doing so. My 
belief is founded on actual experience of the success of the 
method the past spring. The experiment was purely ac- 
cidental and on a very' limited scale, yet not on that ae 
count the less satisfactory atid conclusive. 
In my orchard there was a peach tree with a broken 
limb — it may have been broken more than half off — the 
under side of the bark and wood remained unbroken. It 
did not bloom nor the buds swell until long after the other 
buds had blossomed and been killed. There was a fuil 
crop offruit on it. growing to perfection. lam sorry to 
have to add that the cows got into the orchard and .stripp- 
ed the limb ofevery thing ; in consequence of which 1 am 
not able to speak as to the quality of the fruii that will be 
matured under such circumstances. I notice, however, 
that the broken part of the limb has healed up, so as ai 
‘this lime to be evidently p?.ssing as much sap as any 
place else. From this single inchimt a mind less deduc- 
tive than Newton'-s may draw valuable com lusions. !i 
gives us this plain, broad hint: that by retarding the flow 
of sap for two or thiee weeks vve may keep the ouds trom 
swelhngi.mt.il all danger from late frost is past, uud that 
the flow of sap may be thus retarded witii perfl et ease 
and certainty by judiciously removing the bark from a 
portion, of the limb or tree. 
Sections oftlie bark iniiiht Itc removed from the under 
side of each principal limb logo h iff round flie litob or 
more as experience shall prove suiHcient; or sections of 
say an inch square of the ba''l< miglii be taken from the 
body of the tree just bf low the limbs, all around tl.e Imdy, 
leaving about as much bark between the sections vs is re> 
moved. This will retard the flow of the sap indefinitely, 
according to iho amount of bark removed, until the weatlr- 
er gels warm and all danger of the frost is past, when the 
increased warmth will cause a more vigorous flow of sap 
which will atonco develofte the bloom and the peach, and 
at the .same time heal up the wounded places so rapidly, 
i have no doubt, as to mature the fruit as perfectly as if 
no wound had been made. 
Another advantage of this method would be, tb.at in 
case there came no killing host evety tree would produce 
ptirt of its fruit as early as usual, .and another part some 
lime later; thus doubling the length of the fruit season 
of every tree. 
I apprehend the actual damage done to the trees by this 
method vyould not be gieat, if it even amounted to an 
objection at all. I speak of peach trees. Every one 
knows how hardy and recuperative they are — how rapid- 
ly they recover from the most ruinous disasters But as 
in case of line and costly fruit trees this method of wound- 
ing might be more objectionable, I will suggest another 
method for the readers of the Cnltivator to try. It is to 
wrap a cord around the tree as high up as can be done for 
the limbs; wrap the tree thus for two or three inches or 
more, and wrap it as tightly as the cord can be drawn so 
as to produce the greatest practicable amount of pressure 
around the tree — periiaps the effect might be increased by 
using a gum elastic or wet raw hide ligature; and if the 
tree should be old and the bark coarse, the bard outside 
bark might he removed, so as to give more full effect to 
the pressure. It seems to me that by some such means 
the flow of the sap to the buds might be materially retard- 
ed, until all danger of frost be past, and then the ligature 
might be removed and the sap let loose upon the extremi- 
ties of the tree, when a most rapid and vigorous produc- 
tion of buds, blos.soms and fruit would ensue. 
Vf . Deii.amborg, 
Ashley Coimty, Ark , August, 1857. 
STH.lWBERRIE.'^i— I.ETTF.R FROM MU. I.ONG- 
worta. 
EniroRs Southern Cultivator — A writer in your paper 
says, “a pure staminate strawberry plant is never seen in 
its wild sta'e ” That “it is by hybridizing and high culture 
this change is produced.” In their wild state pure stamr<- 
natesand pistillates abound. Hermaphrodites are sca-ce. 
If any wild starainates are w’anting, ibey can be ^'oi-nd 
abundanton the farm of one ofoiir leading Horticulturi-ts, 
Robert Buchanan In my days of boyhood they annoyed 
me greatly when going in the meadows to gather fruit. 
Though we in tliai day were as wise as they still are in 
F.urope, where thy liold all the tribe are perfect in both 
male and female organs, and bear fruit. 'Your correspon- 
dent speaks of the Iowa as a seedling of the West, 
ft is abundant in its wild state in Iowa, and was first 
brought lierc by D ivid T Disney. In that day it was 
valuable, Ibr it was one of the best, nearing hei maplirodites 
'hat we then had. Your corrc.spondent does tiot rank the 
'ize i.f McAvoy.s Superior, m-cording to its charactn- here. 
Pile aAorage si/.c of the fniu isf.'om \ lo i larger, than ihc 
Pi.stillale with v/lueh he ranks it. 
Yours truly, . N Longworth. 
P S. — Your corre pO'id; iit has Bnyi.ffii’s .Seeel'ug and 
Wilson’s Albany Seedling on trial From one season’s ex- 
perievme, and having seen it in fruit tv/o seasons in thegar- 
uenofMr Boyrlcu, 1 r mk his os vi-ry superinr. and its 
'iz“, bearing and quality such as to had us to raise seed- 
lings yearly. Wiis.m s I had in bearing this sju ing From 
iis biaiing ibis year it ap.pears to have the rare character 
■ifheirii: perfeef in borti .red' and female organs, and te 
l.ear a full crop of fruit of good size. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug., IS57. 
