SEED-TIME A#3D HARVEST. 
5 
ductivenees. Grafted trees of the best vari¬ 
eties usually commence to bear in from 
three to five years after working and be¬ 
come profitable in from eight to ten years 
.or about as early as the best varieties of 
apples do. 
The superiority of grafted trees in an 
economic view is obvious. They are consid¬ 
ered one of the difficult trees to graft, and 
require careful operation and management, 
but with proper treatment they can be 
worked about as easily and successfully as 
cherries or plums. 
The grafts should be cut early and kept 
dormant in a cool place until the buds are 
swollen on the stocks and then worked. 
It is necessary to watch the natural suckers 
and keep them off all summer or they will 
very quickly rob the graft and cause it to 
die. 
The European varieties do not generally 
succeed well worked on stocks of |the 
American species. 
The roots of the chestnut are very suscep¬ 
tible to injury by exposure and must be 
carefully protected from the air at all times. 
A few minutes exposure in a drying 
wind will often kill a tree. Neither do the 
roots establish themselves in the ground 
after transplanting as readily as those of 
some other trees do, and are often not 
prepared to supply the necessary amount 
of moisture and nourishment for tne tree 
when the hot weather and drought of sum¬ 
mer overtake them, for want of which the 
trees die. To obviate this danger trans¬ 
planted trees should be carefully nursed 
through the whole of the first summer. 
The land should be heavily mulched with 
long, coarse manure for several feet around 
the trees .when they are planted, and if 
necessary they should be watered liberally 
during the severe droughts. Where these 
precautions are exercised there is not much 
risk in transplanting good trees. Such 
treatment would save the lives of a majority 
of the trees of all kinds which are annually 
lost through neglect. 
Chestnuts, like all other fruit trees, need 
g-ood land. They will flourish in loam or 
travel or among rocks and stones if the 
land is made rich by surfcee manuring. 
When planted in rows or in orchards they 
should be set forty or forty-five feet apart 
each way. An orchard of chestnut trees 
grafted with the best varieties will return as 
much or more per acre, at the present prices 
of nuts as the best varieties of apples. 
There are few better shade trees for lawn 
or door yard and there is no other tree as 
well adapted for shade for cattle in the 
fields and meadows of a farm, which will 
be as profitable as the large chestnuts. 
The trees do not appear to be liable to 
any diseases or insect enemies. 
Morrisville , Bucks Go ., Pa. 
Keeping' Onions. 
The great point in keeping onions through 
the winter is to get them dry and keep 
them dry and cool. A damp, warm cellar 
is one of the worst places. If you do not 
want to use them until spring, a good place 
to put them in is a dry barn or loft and 
cover them over with straw or hay a foot 
or more thick, and let them freeze and stay 
frozen until they thaw of their own ac< ord. 
They should not be handled while frozen, 
unless you wish to use them immediately. 
We have kept onion sets by mixing them 
with dry malt sprouts, say r not less than one 
bushel of sprouts to a bushel of sets. We 
placed a layer of sprouts two inches deep 
at the bottom of a large bin, and then a 
layer of sets four inches deep, and then two 
inches of sprouts, aud [so on until the bin 
was full, when we placed a foot or so of 
sprouts on top. The bin was in a hay loft, 
where it was exposed to frost. 
In the spring the sets came out in the 
most perfect condition—none decayed and 
none sprouted. Coarse, dry bran, would 
answer the purpose. We once threw a 
quantity of onions by the side ot a row of 
evergreens, and covered them with straw 
thick enough to keep them dry. They re¬ 
mained there all winter and came out in 
good order in the spring. A good plan is 
to keep the onions in slatted boxes holding 
a bushel or less. Place these boxes in the 
cellar on shelves, or raised a few inches 
from the ground, and with spaces between 
the boxes for air to circulate.— Agricultur¬ 
ist . 
