1877.] 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
103 
tropes, Crotons, Cactus of all kinds, Lantanas, 
Oleanders, Petunias (double), Pelargoniums, or Ge¬ 
raniums of all kinds, together with nearly all kinds 
of a half woody or succulent character.—Besides 
the absolute certainty of having the cuttings root 
by this method, it has another most important ad¬ 
vantage : All propagators know that many kinds of 
plants when cut back for cuttings, become weaken¬ 
ed, so much that, if not carefully handled, they 
may die; also that if two or three crops of cuttings 
are taken off as they grow, the “ stock plant ” be¬ 
comes permanently injured. By this method of 
breaking the slip, so that it hangs by a shred to the 
parent plant, the roots have to use their functions 
for its support nearly the same as if it remained en¬ 
tirely attached to the plant. This results, exactly 
as we wish, in causing the parent plant to strike out 
shoots below the broken slip, and these again, in 
their turn, can be so treated.—We are using this 
method of propagating this winter on all such 
plants as we wish to make the most of, and with 
satisfactory results.—I may say that, in certain con¬ 
ditions of the shoot, instead of snapping it will 
“knee” or bend only; in such cases, it will be 
necessary to slip it two-thirds through with a knife, 
but in most instances it will snap and hang by the 
shred of bark, which is the best condition. 
Changing the Bearing Year of Orchards. 
Last year apples were so abundant that, in some 
localities, they would not pay for handling, and 
large quantities were left to decay where they fell. 
In view of the fact that a year of excess and low 
prices, is followed by one of scarcity and high 
prices, inquiries have come to us in such numbers, 
as show that many are considering the practicabili¬ 
ty of changing this state of affairs. It is an en¬ 
couraging sign that farmers are induced to think 
about their orchard at all, for as a general thing 
there is no part of their belongings so neglected as 
this. Trees are set, but it is looked upon rather as 
a waste of land, so the orchard must be cropped, 
and while no other part of the farm is expected to 
do it, that occupied by the orchard must yield two 
crops. The cause of all trouble with fruit trees, 
whether of failure altogether, or occasional exces¬ 
sive bearing, and the rest, may be summed up in 
one word—neglect. We now confine our remarks 
to the preseut trouble, and to answering the vari¬ 
ous inquiries about alternate bearing. The apple 
tree left to itself, will generally bear such an abun¬ 
dant crop that it requires another year, and some¬ 
times longer, to recuperate, and accumulate suffi¬ 
cient nutriment to form buds and nourish another 
crop. This tendency is very marked in some lead¬ 
ing varieties, and as it has been going on for many 
years, the habit has become fixed, and when we 
propagate these varieties, the young trees start with 
that as one of their peculiarities, in which they 
have been educated, so to speak. It is well known 
that this tendency is much more marked in some 
varieties than iu others, and while some naturally 
fall into alternate bearing, others resist it, and will, 
if they have a fair chance, give a crop of fruit every 
year. This is a character to which little attention 
has been given by our pomologists; they state if a 
tree comes into bearing early,—or if it is an abun¬ 
dant or shy bearer, but its tendency to annual or 
biennial -bearing is rarely recorded, while it is 
one of the most important qualities. Varieties 
that naturally bear annually, may be converted into 
biennial bearers by starvation ; planted, as they of¬ 
ten are on poor soil, and robbed of their nutriment 
by another crop, the trees cannot get food enough 
to enable them to carry even a small crop every year, 
and they are forced into alternate bearing. The 
practical question is, how can trees that now bear 
excessively one year and nothing the next, be made 
to bear moderately every year. So far as the alter¬ 
nate bearing is due to the poverty of the soil, the 
remedy is evident, and no doubt would be, with 
many varieties, sufficient. 
Will M innringr Help ? 
Our correspondent, “ Connecticut,” in writing us, 
says: “I once knew an old apple tree, an in voter- 
ate biennial bearer, that was made to change its 
habit by breaking up the sward in which it stood, 
and cropping it with potatoes; the sward was heavy, 
and in its decay enriched the ground, and besides 
this, the potatoes were well manured. But the ma¬ 
nuring was not continued beyond one season, and 
the tree in a few years relapsed into its old ways.” 
—We agree with our correspondent that fertilizing 
the orchard will help, and iu some cases be all that 
is required, but that it will break up the biennial 
habit where it has been fixed through many gener¬ 
ations, we do not believe. Its tendency will be to 
strengthen it by making the crop on the bearing 
year all the more excessive. In such cases nothing 
will break up the habit but the removal of a large 
portion of the fruit on the year of abundance. 
Will It Pay to Thin the Fruit? 
That this severe thinning will change the bearing 
year there is sufficient testimony, but there is one 
point on which we lack evidence—will it pay ? If 
any of our friends have tried thinning to induce an¬ 
nual bearing, or to reverse the bearing year on full 
grown trees, we ask in behalf of many inquirers 
that'they will give their results. With young or¬ 
chards, just coming into bearing, the case is very 
different, and whoever will take the pains, and give 
the young trees the needed care, can make their or¬ 
chard bear annually. The education of the trees 
must begin with their first fruiting, as the first ex¬ 
cessive crop, though small in itself, starts the tree 
on the wrong track. When the trees are young, 
the quantity of fruit to be removed is small, and 
all within reach. Of course the cultivation of the 
soil must not be neglected, but a healthy growth 
maintained. Whoever will start right with his or¬ 
chard, and treat it fairly, will have no reason to 
complain. Among the varieties of apples that are 
naturally annual bearers, though they may be 
starved into bearing biennially, or not at all, are 
Yandevere ; Sops of Wine; Grimes’ Golden, a com¬ 
paratively new apple of great excellence ; Milam; 
Minklers’; Rawles’ Janet, for the south; Benoni; 
Hubbardston Nonsuch : Domine ; Higby Sweet, 
and English Sweet (Ramsdell’s Sweet at the south). 
If any of our fruit growers can add to this list of 
annual bearers, we hope they will do so. 
A Large Caladium.— No matter what name 
botanists may fix upon, Colocasia, Arum, or Alocasia 
for the enormous aroid now so much planted for 
its fine, large ornamental foliage, Caladium esculen- 
tum is firmly fixed as a popular name. We thought 
we had grown fine specimens ourselves, but all that 
we have had or seen, are pigmies when compared 
to one raised by Mrs. A. T. Johnson, Des Moines, 
Iowa. She sends a photograph of her plant as 
grown last summer, which is the third year, since 
she first had the bulb-like root from Peter Hender¬ 
son & Co. The leaves come very near to the top 
of the bay-window, and are a little over nine feet 
inhight! We do not wonder that it was the ad¬ 
miration of the hundreds who came to see it, and 
doubt if in its home, in the Islands of the Pacific, 
it eve'- attained to anything like this. 
The Pyracanth Thorn.— This is not, as some 
have supposed, a native of our Southern States, 
though it is occasionally found growing wild there. 
It is from Southern Europe, and having been long 
in cultivation, its seeds have been distributed by. 
birds, and it is naturalized to some extent. It is a 
servicable and most beautiful hedge plant, but its 
ordinary form, with red berries, can not be depend¬ 
ed upon as thoroughly hardy in the climate of New 
York. It sometimes happens that a variety of a 
plant is more hardy than its normal form, and the 
Pyracanth is an instance of this. The so-called 
white-fruited (but really yellowish) variety is much 
more hardy, and may be safely planted in a more 
severe climate than that of New York. Where it 
is hardy, as it is in Virginia and southward, nothing 
can be finer than the red-berried form, as the fruit 
is exceedingly brilliant in winter, but those living 
farther north must be content with less showy fruit. 
Both bear cutting well, and form a compact hedge. 
TIM 
25F” For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Learning (lie Use of Books. 
There are great readers, and there are industrious 
students, who have never really learned the right 
use of books. Most people read to be amused, or 
soothed, or entertained in some way, not for the 
sake of instruction. They want a new sensation 
rather than new ideas. It is a good thing to be 
amused and soothed, when we have need of 6uch 
recreation, but a habit of reading merely for pleas¬ 
ure is, what I think an improper habit. Books 
should be used in such a way, as to assist our 
growth in wisdom, in goodness, and usefulness. 
The student who crams himself with facts and 
formulas, which he does not mentally digest and 
assimilate, not from a genuine love of knowledge, 
but simply to satisfy his greed for mental posses¬ 
sions, or his ambition to outstrip others, hinders 
rather than helps forward his intellectual growth. 
We learn from books, to be sure, but these are on¬ 
ly secondary means of knowledge. Whatever we 
learn by our own investigation and observation is 
far more available and profitable to us personally, 
than what we get from other people’s reports and 
views, contained in books. These reports and 
views are generally useful to us in proportion as we 
are able to judge of them by our own experience. 
It seems to me that children are often greatly 
wronged by teaching them to read too young, be¬ 
fore they have been encouraged to observe and in¬ 
quire into what they see about them. A child who 
learns to read early and easily, is apt to become a 
gluttonous reader, rather than a good student. If 
it has no direction, but has a free run among story 
books and periodicals, it is apt to fall into a kind 
of literary dissipation. Its books may have a good 
moral tone, but it reads so rapidly, and so much, 
that no strong impression is made by any one book. 
Such reading may keep a child out of worse mis¬ 
chief, but it certainly keeps it out of greater bene¬ 
fits. For while it sits and reads, and reads, in a 
way to gratify an indolent or thoughtless mamma, 
who hates to be bothered by her child’s questions 
and desire for “something to do,” the faculties of 
observation and comparison, and the instincts for 
activity, which ought now to be getting such nat¬ 
ural gratification, as would help forward the sym¬ 
metrical development of both body and mind— 
these are lulled, and in time become dwarfed by in¬ 
activity. The “ goodish ” literature for babies, 
served up so abundantly on all sides, is a “ sooth¬ 
ing syrup,” which proves disastrous in the end. 
When children are learning to read, it seems neces¬ 
sary that they should be supplied with some easy 
reading, easy to understand, as well as easy to pro¬ 
nounce. This reading should be attractive, but not 
sensational. The children’s department in some 
of our best papers comes under the ban of “sen¬ 
sational,” and should be indulged in very sparing¬ 
ly. We can not begin too early to guard the de¬ 
veloping taste for reading. Children can enjoy and 
profit by reading, which is usually thought to be 
beyond their years, if it is read to them by an ap¬ 
preciative reader. In the “ Record of a School”— 
Mr. Alcott’s school of over forty years ago, report¬ 
ed by Miss E. P. Peabody, who was then his as¬ 
sistant, and republished within a few years at the 
request of Miss Louisa Alcott, who wished her 
father to have the credit for some of the “ Plum- 
field ” modes of teaching and disciplining, related 
by her in “Little Nan ”—in this book I find ideas 
about reading to children and children’s books, 
which my own experience confirms. Mr. Alcott 
thought it very important that the reading exer¬ 
cises of children should be such as would impress 
their minds and touch their hearts, and this benefit 
he set far above the mere learning to pronounce 
distinctly, and to “mind the stops.” He was some¬ 
times accused of not trying to teach the children 
to read well, because he devoted so large a part of 
