Editorial -JYotes and Comments. 
We think that there is no other vegetable 
grown, the cultivation of which is so imperfectly 
understood by the masses as celery, and would 
be thankful if some of our friends who know how 
to handle it on a large scale successfully would 
give us their modus operandi, from sowmg the 
seeds to prepari g it for market. We will jnve 
an order for $10.00 wor h of se*ds to the writer 
of the best paper Uf ou this subject sent to us be¬ 
fore November, and publish the same in Seed- 
Time and Harvest so that all our readers may 
be benefited by it, 
Mr. Jamin Brundage, of this county, ha* 
the finest young apple orchard that can be found 
in this section of country. It has been set eight 
years and is now larger and thriftier than many 
orchards at eighteen years. Few marks of bor¬ 
ers can be se<m around the trees, and Mr. Brun- 
•dage gives as the main reason f<>r this unusually 
thrifiy londition the fact that he frequently 
washes the trunks of the trees with a wash 
made principally of common soft soap. Fr< m 
theSe observations we are inclined to think this 
practice worthy • f wide imitation. We see it is 
also highly recommended by Professor A. J. 
Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural College. 
In the Spring of 1877 we set one hundred 
Wi ! d Goose Plum Trees. They have grown rap¬ 
idly and luxuriantly. The first cr^p of fruit 
wns pr< duced last season and the curculios made 
very little impression on them. The fruit is of 
good size and beautiful in color, consequently it 
sells readily in market, but we think it very in¬ 
ferior in quality to many old standard varieties. 
For cooking or canning it is worthless. While 
the curculios are paying their attention to the 
Wild Gooses (shall we say Geese?) The finer 
varieties escape, so we think them worth some¬ 
thing as protection. 
It seems as though among the score or more 
of new, early grapes which have recently been 
offered there must be at least one which is as 
hardy and productive as the Concord and 
sprightly and fine flavored as the Delaware. In 
onr inland mountainous locality, with heavy 
clay soils, grapes naturaFy manure slow’y and 
ripen lat°. As heavy frosts usually come by 
September 20tb, it is useless for w* to set any 
variety which ripens later than the Concord, so 
that earliness is much more of an object than in 
some sections a hundred miles further north 
than we are. In order to ascertain what does 
really exist in the way of a good new early grape 
we have th s spring procured and set one or 
more vines each of the leading new varieties. 
A Western correspondent of the Farm 
Journal writes to that paper about a breed of 
hogs in his vicinity wnich he calls Wind-Split¬ 
ters. He says they are good to eat; they grow 
from three to ten feet long, weigh from twenty- 
five to one huudred pounds when full grown. 
They have a face about two feet long, about the 
shape of a barrel stave. They are of a white 
color, mature at five years, and are adapted to a 
country where acorns and roots grow and where 
hogs have to dig for their own drinking water ! 
Like tadpoles and blackberry vines they prob¬ 
ably “increase by propagation.” Would our 
readers like some of this improved “stock?” 
A CORRESPONDENT OF THE FRUIT RECORDER 
says that cotton soaked in turpentine and hung 
am one the branches of plum trees just as the 
blossoms a r e falling and frequently renewed un¬ 
til the plums are half grown will effectually pro¬ 
tect the fruit from the depredations of the cur- 
culio. If Gum Camphor or any of the essential 
oils, such as peppermint, pennyroyal, sassafras, 
&c, are dissolved in the turpentine it produces 
an odor so strong that it becomes intolerable to 
all insects. 
Some modern writers are persistent in de¬ 
claring that the old time method of trenching 
celery should be entirely done away with, and 
that surface setting gives better results. This 
may be t»ue on the sea coast and in naturally 
moist positions but in our inland locality which 
is subject to long summer droughts and scorch¬ 
ing winds we prefer setting the plants at least 
four inches below the surface. They will thus 
stand the dry weather better and the labor lost 
in trenching is regained in banking up the 
growing plants. It is of no use to be in too great 
a hurry about setting celery plants. They will 
not grow until the cool fall weather comes on 
anyhow, so July is early enough to set if you 
have good plants. 
A prominent fruit culturist in Scranton, Pa., 
uses the following as a remedy and prevention of 
pear blight: A pound of potash or concentrated 
lye, such as is used for making soap, is dissolved 
in twenty-five gallons of water and poured 
around the trees, a pailful at a time two or three 
times during the growing season. He claims it 
is thoroughly effective not only as a prevention 
but that it will check and stop the blight after it 
begins to show, the affected limbs of course being , 
cut away, 
