October, 1853 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
305 
eil as grand and impressive, but we made several 
visits on succeeding days, to study the floral beau¬ 
ties which remained until the 6th, and we were so 
much gratified with the sight, that we thought it 
w’ould be pleasing to our readers, to have a rep¬ 
resentation and description of this grandest floral 
display yet seen in our country. 
Cultivation of Ixias and Sparaxis- 
Among half-hardy greenhouse Irids (Iris fa¬ 
mily), the ixias, sparaxis, tritonia, and gladiolus 
are, perhaps, the most beautiful, and are so easi¬ 
ly cultivated, that those who have seen a well 
grown collection are surprised that they are not 
more extensively known and introduced. When 
in bloom, they produce an abundance of graceful 
panicles, or terminal clusters of brilliant flowers, 
varying in color, from the richest crimson and 
carmine to all the intermediate shades of red, 
orange and rose, blending with the most delicate 
sea-green foliage. Notwithstanding all these de¬ 
sirable and attractive features, they are generally 
neglected, or entirely overlooked in plant collec¬ 
tions. When grown in masses, they present a 
glowing combination of the most chaste and 
showy colors. They are natives of the Cape of 
Good Hope, where they grow in myriads, decor¬ 
ating the surfaces of the vast plains with their 
brilliant flowers. 
They are propagated by dividing and resetting 
the roots or bulbs, which multiply very rapidly. 
This is best done in October or November. For 
effect, they should be planted rather thick in the 
pot. Where a 6-inch pot is used—which is a 
convenient size—the largest and best bulbs only 
should be used for flowering, and as many as 
eight may be put in one pot. The small ones 
may be planted in shallow pans or pots, and kept 
in store until they have attained size enough to 
flower. The best season for dividing and potting 
is early in October. The soil should be a sandy 
loam, with a portion of leaf mould, and have a 
good drainage. After potting they should be pro¬ 
tected from heavy rains, and be sparingly watered 
until they appear above the surface of the soil. 
They may be kept in a cold frame until severe 
frost sets in, in the Fall, when they should be re¬ 
moved to a cool part of the greenhouse, where 
they can be supplied with plenty of air and light. 
After blooming, and the season’s growth is ma¬ 
tured by encouraging the growth of the leaves 
for a few weeks, water should be gradually with¬ 
held ; and as the foliage becomes generally dis¬ 
colored from cessation of growth, the pots may 
be removed to a frame, and all further watering 
be omitted. Expose them for a few weeks to 
strong sunlight, to enable the bulbs to elaborate 
their accumulated secretion of sap, necessary for 
the next season’s bloom. They may then be re¬ 
moved to any dry, airy place, until September or 
October. Where it is desirable to have them in 
bloom as long a time as possible, some of the 
bulbs may be potted as late as November. Bulbs 
so reserved should be kept as dry and cool as 
possible, for they will be disposed to start into 
growth in September or October. For a small 
collection, the following twelve named varieties 
would make a good assortment: 
Ixia grandiflora, longiflora, crocata, rosea, splen- 
dens, bicolor, rubra cyanea, tricolor, J. K. Knorr, 
carulea, striata and fulgcns. 
-- 
“ I never shot a bird in my life,” said some one 
to his friend, who replied, “ I never shot anything 
in the shape of a bird but a squirrel, which I 
killed with a stone, when it fell into the river and 
was drowned.” 
Fruit Planting. 
After the middle of October, and on till the mid¬ 
dle of November, is the best time for all sorts of 
Fall planting of fruit, or other trees with the ex¬ 
ceptions stated in another article. 
In the first place, if you buy your trees, and the 
nursery from which you get them, is near at hand, 
go and see to taking up the trees yourself. In¬ 
sist on every tree being taken up properly, with 
a good supply of unbroken roots, fine as well as 
coarse; and if a set of heedless, obstinate men 
are set to do the work, and will not take them out 
properly, which is sometimes the casein the hur¬ 
ry of the season, just refuse to take them at all, 
and insist on good trees, if such are what you 
buy and pay for. Or, if you send for your trees, 
and find, on unpacking them, some are defective 
in either root, trunk, or top, throw them aside at 
once. They will either not grow, or make un¬ 
satisfactory things when grown. These should 
be deducted from your bill—but if not, better lose 
them at the first than lose your labor and time in 
trying to cultivate at all what will never be satis¬ 
factory. 
Secondly. Plant none but good, well tried va¬ 
rieties of whatsoever kind you get, unless you 
choose to experiment with a new thing. We have 
known almost whole orchards which had to be 
reworked with other established varieties, because 
some enthusiastic man had recommended a few 
particular varieties which had been quite success¬ 
ful in a distant locality, and in a different soil. 
In this regard we speak principally of the tree 
fruits, as apples, pears, peaches, plums and cher¬ 
ries. The small, or shrub fruits usually being 
more universal growers than the others. 
Thirdly. Never plant in poor land, nor in an 
unprepared soil. You might as well take a thrifty 
sucking-calf from its dam, and turn it upon a 
lean pasture, and cold water, and expect it to 
grow, as to lift a tree from the highly cultivated 
soil of a nursery, and set it out with its roots to 
feed on a leechy gravel, a hungry loam, or a ten¬ 
acious clay. Young trees, in order to grow, must 
have a free, warm, rich soil for three or four of 
their first years. When well started, they will 
provide for themselves better, but good ground 
for their extending roots, they should have, al¬ 
ways. There are lands, large bodies of them, and 
pretty good farming lands too, for some crops, 
utterly unfit for extensive orcharding, and on 
which orchards, with ever so much cultivation, 
will never pay. So, reject such land altogether, 
or plant but few trees on it, if you have no other, 
and then only for family use. Natural orchard 
land—and there are wide tracts of such in various 
localities—is always to be sought, if fruit grow¬ 
ing is to be your business, and we will briefly de¬ 
scribe it. 
First: An elevated locality, free from late and 
early frosts. 
Second.: A porous, gravely, sandy, or elayey 
loam, having plenty of lime, or potash, produc¬ 
tive in grass, corn, and potatoes ; where no water 
stands, even if the ground be level; having a 
natural drainage of itself. Gently rolling land is 
the finest for orchard purposes. 
Third : A soil sufficiently fertile in itself to 
give force to the trees without perpetual tinkering 
with manures to coax them into growth, and 
bearing. In some cases artificial draining and 
manuring may be resorted to on a limited scale. 
We refer to the best natural lands for growing 
fruit largely. 
Fourth : Cultivate the orchard with any sort of 
crop you like, for a single season, provided the 
soil is sufficiently strong for the crop to bo a good 
one ; the only condition being, that you do not 
injure the trees by the plow, harrow, or whipple 
trees, or yokes of the teams while working the 
ground ; and also, that the soil for three or four 
feet around the trees is kept clear of the growing 
crops. 
Fifth. We don’t recommend laying down or¬ 
chards into mowing grass, for hay, until they 
make a growth of six or eight inches diameter ; 
nor then, without either mulching them at the 
roots for four or five feet, each way from the 
stem, or digging round them to keep the ground 
loose. Yet, they may be kept in grass for the 
pasturage of sheep or swine, if the trunks are 
protected so that the animals will not injure them, 
and the grass be not allowed to interfere with the 
roots. By close cropping the glass, and scatter¬ 
ing their manure in small quantities over the 
ground, the rain readily penetrates to the roots> 
and washes in the soakage of the manure. Be¬ 
sides these, the sheep and pigs pick up and de¬ 
stroy the windfall fruits, with the worms infest¬ 
ing them, and thus keep the orchard and fruits 
healthy. 
Sixth. Never let grown cattle nor horses into 
the orchard ; and keep the branches trimmed at 
a moderate bight from the ground, to let the 
wind and air sweep freely beneath them. Trees 
require a dry, free atmosphere to thrive and be 
healthy, particularly fruit trees, which are consti¬ 
tutionally made to require it. 
Seventh. Keep your trees pruned into free, 
open tops, giving them a uniform shape, as near 
as possible, and supplied with abundance of bear¬ 
ing wood ; and for all this, but little pruning ot 
cutting away is necessary—the main requirement 
being to cut away the small, thrifty, upright 
growing limbs, which are mere suckers to draw' 
off the sap from the lateral and fruit bearing 
branches. 
Eighth. Let your apple trees stand not less than 
thirty-six to forty feet apart. This looks too dis¬ 
tant at first; but rely on it, if planted at less dis¬ 
tance they will be too close when fully grown, 
and worth not half so much in the long run. 
Best Time for Transplanting 1 . 
With every returning Fall and Spring, the 
question arises: Which, on the whole, is the best 
season for transplanting ! We do not propose, 
now, to discuss the question at length, but merely 
to state a few general principles. 
Before planting, the question to be considered 
first, is the nature of the soil into which our trees 
are to be set. If it is wet, and cannot easily be 
made dry by draining and trenching, then in that 
case, assuredly, Fall planting is not the best. 
Trees set in such soil in Autumn, get but a slight 
hold of the earth before Winter sets in. The 
stagnant water at the roots not only cankers 
them, but by alternate freezing and thawing, 
heaves them out and exposes them to the air. 
And when all this does not occur, the stem of 
the tree is swayed about in the soft earth, making 
a hole around it for the descent of air to the roots. 
When Spring opens, such a tree, if alive, is in a 
poor condition to make a vigorous growth. If 
trees must be planted in such soil — which, by 
the way, we much question — the best way would 
be to wait until Spring, or to dig them up in the 
Fall, “ heel them in” in some dry and sheltered 
spot for the Winter, and set them out as soon as 
Spring fairly opens. But we must say that, con¬ 
sidering the many kinds of diseases to which all 
kinds-of trees are subject, we would go without 
trees —fruit trees, certainly — rather than set 
them in a ccld, wet soil that cannot be leclaimed 
