30 p 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Would it not he better still to sell the uncongenial 
land, and buy better if drain.ng cannot be effected! 
The same general principle would apply in the 
case of planting upon an exposed and bleak site. 
Trees set out in the Fall, on such land, would be 
likely to get lashed about or blown over by the 
winds of Winter, before getting established. Set 
out in April, the roots would get a pretty firm 
hold before Autumn came around, and would sus¬ 
tain the tree in its place. 
Again : trees whose hardihood is at all doubtful, 
should not he planted in the Fall. They are not 
in a condition to resist the cold of Winter. Trees 
are often condemned as tender, and the nursery¬ 
men who sell them get roundly abused, because 
the trees perish the first Winter after transplant¬ 
ing, when they would undoubtedly have lived had 
they been set out in Spring. 
That evergreens of every name should be 
transplanted only in the Spring, we need not now 
stop to show. Some of the hardiest kinds may 
go through the Winter safely, after Fall planting, 
but theory and experience testify against the 
practice. 
With some exceptions like these, we say, plant 
in the Autumn. Hardy trees, such as the apple, 
cherry and plum, and forest trees generally, set 
out in good warm soil, gain a decided advantage 
by this treatment. If set out early in the Fall, 
the ground gets well settled about the roots, and 
considerable root growth is made before Winter 
sets in. By this means, they are prepared to en¬ 
dure the cold of Winter, and to start forth vigor¬ 
ously in the Spring. In Fall planting, it is well 
to throw up a mound of earth a foot high around 
the trunk, to prevent hard freezing of the roots 
and to keep them firmly in their place. This 
precaution will also prevent mice from barking 
the trees. Large trees and those with short 
roots should be well tied to stakes, to prevent 
their being blown over by the winds. 
Land for Fruit Trees, and its Culture. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I have an acre of land, naturally good, but ra¬ 
ther thin at present. How shall I thoroughly pre¬ 
pare it for fruit and vegetables! Shall I plow 
deep, subsoil, or trench it! 
And how can I thoroughly enrich it, cheaper and 
better than with horse manure at $1.25 per load 
of from thirty to forty bushels ? What about 
guano, poudrette, bone-dust, lime, salt, &c.! I 
think of setting it out with pears (mostly Bart¬ 
lett). What can I do better! What shall I cul¬ 
tivate between the trees, as the best and most 
profitable—pie-plant, raspberries, rutabagas, or 
carrots 1 Gilbert B. Hart. 
Pcekslcill, New York. 
Remarks. —The above letter came a long time 
since, and, like many others, embracing so lono-a 
catalogue of questions, was necessarily laid over 
to a more convenient season. It is hazardous to 
undertake to prescribe for a particular soil with¬ 
out seeing it, or having a minute description. 
This subject has been discussed at length in va¬ 
rious articles, but we may sum up a few general 
statements. Land designed for fruit trees should 
always be made dry to the depth of three feet. 
Nothing pays better than good draining. Deep 
plowing and subsoiling are both highly useful, and 
in the long run, trenching by spade would pay. In 
some way secure a deeply-pulverized soil. For 
a few years’ effect, stable manure at the price 
named would be the cheapest. For permanent 
effect, nothing can be better than crushed bones, 
through both surface and subsoil. They give 
both present and long-continued effect. You 
can hardly add too much of them to a poor soil. 
Guano, poudrette, and bone-sawings, or very 
finely ground bones are powerful manures for a 
year or two, but are not lasting ; the bone sawings 
endure the longest, next guano, while poudrette 
expends most of its force the first year. Lime 
is good on cold, damp soils; a successive, light 
application every year or two is better than a 
single heavy dose at first, unless the land be very 
cold, damp and sour. Salt is sometimes good— 
sometimes of little utility. Experiment is the 
only certain guide. 
Bartlett pears are as good a variety as can be 
selected, if a single sort is chosen. It is better, 
however, to have a little variety. The Lawrence 
is a late pear, and will fill a gap in the market 
when few other good pears are offered. 
Almost any kind of hoed crop may be put be¬ 
tween the rows of trees, if the ground be kept 
in good heart by manure ; but nothing, especially 
not weeds, should interfere with the ground sus¬ 
taining the roots of the fruit trees. Raspberries 
succeed well when partially shaded, and this is 
a good plant to grow among fruit trees. The 
canes should be headed in, three or four feet in 
height, at most. They should not be planted - 
wiihin four or five feet of the trunks of the fruit 
trees. 
-■*> • - Maa -g HEw fr- o« - — 
Experience in Planting, Staking and 
Moving Trees. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Within the past ten years I have planted a great 
many trees —a number every Spring and Fall— 
but attention has often been directed to other 
business, and I have failed with fruit and other 
trees, only through haste and carelessness. Let 
my failures be a better lesson than the record of 
my success would be. Three years ago I had to 
plant from 40 to 50 silver-maple trees along a 
drive which was the boundary between myself 
and other property, whose owners, by agreement, 
were to plant the same number of the same kind 
of trees, along their side of the road. The trees 
cost us 75 cents a-piece ; and they were planted 
all in the same week by the same person. Those 
on the neighboring property were secured to the 
fence, and enclosed by two or three palings from 
cattle or any other thing rubbing against them. 
Mine were left without any support. They were 
planted in the Fall; cattle were turned into the 
field; they rubbed against them, some were 
thrown down, and the result, altogether, of this 
my half doing the work, is, that at this time but 
little more than half of my trees are growing at 
all—while every tree on the other side is flour¬ 
ishing and nearly double the size of mine. I 
would, to-day, give twice the original cost of the 
trees to have mine as good as the others. Fast¬ 
ening trees firmly by stakes, particularly those 
planted in the Fall, is very important to their 
success. 
In planting in the Spring, I have succeeded best 
when the ground was very wet, even after the 
buds were out, and in many cases, particularly 
with maples, where the leaves were larger than a 
shilling. Where the roots are taken out of a dry 
soil which leaves them clean, stirring them into 
a thin mortar of clay or soil—made in a barrel or 
keg if for small plants or shrubs, and for larger 
trees in one of the holes intended for the trees— 
coats with soil, even the small fibers of the roots, 
which, thus closely surrounded with the earth, go 
to their work of nourishing the tree at once. 
Let me boast of one of my successes. I had too 
hastily located a valuable dwarf pear, two years 
since, and found that it was in the way of a path 
in my garden. So last Spring, although it looked 
the most thriving of my trees, and was already 
out with green buds, I determined to remove it, 
To take it up and replant it I thought would be 
something of a risk, as it was then very dry, be 
fore our late rains set in ; so I had the walk dug 
with pick and shovel, 2 feet deep, round a circle 
of 2£ to 3 feet, which I left in one heavy ball at¬ 
tached to the tree. I wished it removed 4 feet 
only from the spot where it stood, and to effect 
this, I cut a canal, as I might call it, as deep 
as the under part of the mass of earth encasing 
the roots, and at its termination a wider and 
slightly deeper place, where the tree was to slop. 
But when ready to slide the mass in one piece, 
by applying a light lever of boards, it began to 
crack. Happening to have a large roll of old car¬ 
pet just taken up, and condemned by the kitchen 
folks, I wrapped it round and round the mass of 
earth tightly, and then taking a stout rope from 
the hay ladders, I wound this round the carpet in 
such a way as to draw tighter, and compress the 
mass when pulled upon. In five minutes we 
towed the tree along its dry canal, upon a broad 
shovel as its boat, one man acting as steersman 
and boat-horse, beside two pulling at the rope. 
We moored it snugly in its haven, 4 feet off. We 
next threw a little of the loose earth round the 
outside of the mass attached to the tree—and it 
has not found out to this day that it has been 
moved. J- H. M. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. 
Sulphur for Vine Mildew Dangerous. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
In the July Horticulturist (not Agriculturist) I 
found the following : 
“ The vine mildew having made its appearance 
in one of my houses, I tried the following plan 
of curing it: Having shut the house quite close, 
I got four large flower-pots, and half filled them 
with lumps of quick-lime; having sprinkled it 
with water, I strewed a handful of sulphur on 
each pot, and let it steam up through the vines 
till it quite filled the house with steam. On the 
following morning I opened all the ventilators, 
and gave the house a good syringing till I quite 
saturated it. I repeated the same the following 
day, when I found that the mildew had wdiolly 
disappeared. I have also tried the same remedy 
for red spider in a peach house, and I soon found 
it to vanish. If gardeners will use sulphur in 
this way, they will find no ill effects from it; as 
soon as they have strewed it on the lime they 
can leave it till the following morning.— J. 
James." 
As the editor of the Horticulturist endorsed 
this as “an excellent device,” I, unfortunately, 
followed the directions minutely in one of my 
grape houses, only that I used but two pots of 
lime instead of four. On opening my house the 
following morning, I found every leaf as dead, 
dry and crisp as if baited in an oven. The fruit 
remained on, and since new leaves have come 
out a portion of it is maturing sparingly. How 
the plants will survive and flourish hereafter, 1 
cannot tell, hut it will be gratifying if they main¬ 
tain even a sickly growth. 
I deem it important that the result should be 
published, as a caution to others, and I therefore 
send this item to your widely-circulated journal 
Frederick Seitz. 
Easton, Pa , Sept. 2nd, 1858. 
A friend showed a gentleman filling a place of 
, trust some slanders that had been written against 
him. “ These rascals,” said the official, “ make 
me talk and act as they would if they-were in my 
place.” 
Troubles like babies grow bigger by nursing. 
