AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
March, 
8.2 
special fondness for the bark of the apple and 
pear tree ; and its color being similar to that of 
the bark, helps to conceal it. Sometimes thct 
are so numerous as to completely cover the bark ; 
this happens often when the trees are growing 
in poor and wet soil, and are in a feeble condition. 
To exterminate these and any other insects 
which may infest the bark, begin eaily in the 
Spring, and scrape the trunk and large limbs 
smooth. If they have invaded the roots, the sur¬ 
face soil should he removed for several feet, and 
new put in its place. Then apply the following 
mixture with a whitewash brush. Two parts of 
soft soap and eight of water, or two pounds of 
potash dissolved in two gallons of water, to be 
applied in the same way. The scaly aphis should 
be looked after chiefly in the month of June, 
when they are young and easily killed. It the in¬ 
sects infest the branches, a painter’s, or scrubbing 
brush may be used, taking care not to touch the 
leaves or buds. 
Preserving Trees from Rabbits. 
A correspondent of the London Gnrdenei s 
Chronicle states that he has used the following 
mixture to preserve trees from injury by rabbits > 
or other animals gnawing the bark : 4 oz. soft soap, 
and C oz. flowers of sulphur to a gallon of water, 
with quicklime enough to bring it to the consist¬ 
ence of paint and some (!) soot stiired in the 
mixture. Apply it with a brush to the tilinks of 
young trees. The animals, it is said, will dislike 
the odor and leave the trees unharmed. He also 
recommends the mixture made thinner, to be ap¬ 
plied with a syringe to gooseberry bushes, to pre¬ 
vent birds destroying the buds in Spring. 
---< Q < - iria^P" — » » -— 
Wild Pear Stocks. 
We see it noticed in one of our cotemporaries, 
that wild seedlings generally known as perry trees, 
make the best stocks for Standard pears. Some 
six years ago, the writer transplanted about one 
hundred and fifty of them from a pasture into a 
portion of the garden, and grafted them. They 
have proved to be exceeding hardy, and remark¬ 
ably thrifty. The finest trees we have, are from 
those wild seedlings. 
In the older portions of the country where the 
pear has been cultivated, these seedlings are often 
found in considerable numbers in neglected pas¬ 
tures, and woods. The Spring is a good time 
to transplant them. The smaller ones maybe 
grafted as soon as they are set out. The larger 
trees, three inches or more in diameter, are best 
transplanted in the Winter, or early in March, 
when the ground is frozen. Those who have 
these trees upon their farms, should not suffer 
them to waste their sweetness upon the desert 
air. A day or two spent in transplanting and 
grafting, will yield abundant, fruit a few years 
nenoe. 
King of Tompkins County Apple. 
We have now before us some excellent sam¬ 
ples of this apple, received from Mr. S. T. Owen, 
Chemung Co., N. Y. They weigh from 11 to 12 
ounces, are globular to conical in form; skin, 
yellowish, hut deeply shaded with crimson red. 
The color is decidedly in their favor as a market 
apple. Flesh yellowish, tender, somewhat juicy, 
and flavor rich, vinous, slightly aromatic, mildly 
acid and agreeable. So far as cultivated, we be¬ 
lieve it has given general satisfaction. We put it 
in the list a 3 worthy of general cultivation, or a 
notch higher than it stands in the last Report of 
the American Pomological Society. 
Try Your Hand at Grafting How. 
A word or two for the inexperienced fruit- 
raiser. Some persons appear to think there is a 
spice of witchcraft in tiie operation of grafting; 
whereas, if once learned, it is as simple as set¬ 
ting out a tree. We know many farmers who 
will hire some strolling quack to do it for them, 
paying him largely for the day’s imposition, be¬ 
side spending as much time in waiting on him 
as would have been required to do it themselves. 
The excuse with many is, that they have never 
learned how, and do not wish to spoil their trees 
in making experiments. To such, we say, make 
experiments by the fireside, before Spring opens. 
Cut your cions and bury them in soil in the cel¬ 
lar. Then search your orchard for a few limbs 
nearly as large as your wrist, which need remov¬ 
al, bring them into your kitchen or workshop, 
and try your hand at grafting them. 
Do you want the particulars'! First; prepare 
some grafting wax, by melting together equal 
parts of tallow, beeswax and rosin—or a little 
more rosin than of the others. Have at hand a 
fine-tooth saw, a chisel or grafting knife, a mallet, 
and a sharp knife. As cleft-grafting is the most 
common method practiced in orchards, let us try 
our hand at that. Saw off the 
limb to be grafted, and pare 
smooth the cut surface of the 
end. With chisel and mallet, 
split open the end in the middle, 
two inches deep, keeping the 
cleft open with the chisel until 
the cion is inserted. Notv, cut 
the cions into a wedge shape at 
--A the end, about an inch and a half 
long [Fig. 1.] having, if possible, 
a bud at the shoulder of the 
wedge as at A. This bud fa¬ 
cilitates the union of graft and 
stock. The outer edge of the 
cion should he a little thicker 
than the inner. If the slock is 
quite large, two cions may be 
fig. 2 ] and if both succeed (in 
the living tree) one rnay afterwards be cut off. 
In all cases, see that the inner 
bark of the cion is brought into 
exact contact with the inner bark of 
the stock. Now, cover the wound¬ 
ed part of the stock with grafting 
wax, to exclude air and rain, taking 
pains to fill the split between the 
cions, and also along the stock, and 
the work is done. "Where the stock 
is small, and in “ whip-grafting ” 
small trees, and grafting into the 
root, it is found convenient to use 
grafting cloth instead of wax. This is made as 
follows : Get some cheap cambric or calico (at 4 
or 5 cents a yard;) tear it into narrow strips an 
inch wide, and saturate them in the melted 
wax. Then, after the cions are inserted, wind 
these strips around the stock until every expos¬ 
ed part is covered. This is quickly done, and 
it helps to bind the parts firmly together. The 
cloth will decay by the time the expanding 
branch requires more room. 
Whip-grafting, or tongue-grafting, is much em¬ 
ployed on small branches, as also splice-grafting. 
Saddle-grafting is another mode often used on 
large stocks. But of these and the hundred and 
more methods sometimes practiced by the French 
Fig. 1. 
inserted, [See 
horticulturists, we need not now speak. Let the 
tyro practice the cleft mode, by the kitchen fire, 
until he fully understands it ; then, on the open¬ 
ing of Spring, he may confidently try his hand on 
the best trees of his orchard. 
How long do Varieties of Fruit Last ? 
In our last paper, page 53, in the course of a 
“ Jog in the Fruit Garden,” the opinion of certain 
cultivators was given, that varieties of fruit have 
only a limited term of existence. Tims : A cer¬ 
tain kind of fruit—say the original Seckel pear 
tree—will live, it may be, only one hundred and 
fifty years. All buds or grafts taken from it, 
being only parts or extensions of the original 
stock, will die whenever the parent tree dies. 
Every sort of tree has a certain fixed amount of 
vitality, which it at length uses up, as a garrison 
does its bread. The most distinguished advocate 
of this theory, was Thomas Andrew Knight, of 
London. His own words are these : “No trees 
of any variety, can be made to produce fruit till 
the original tree of that variety has attained the 
age of puberty ; and, under ordinary modes ot 
propagation, by grafts or buds, all become sub¬ 
ject, at no very distant period, to the debility and 
diseases of old age.” 
Mr. Kenrick, one of the earliest pomologists in 
this country, adopted the same theory. In his 
“ American Orchardist,” he speaks of “the fines 
of the old pears, whose duration we had hoped. 
but in vain, to perpetuate.”.“ Except in i 
few, highly favored situations, these old sorts have 
become either so uncertain in their bearing, so 
barren, or so miserably blighted, so mortally dis¬ 
eased, that they are no longer to be trusted,” 
etc., etc. And, it can not be denied that the be¬ 
lief is now widely entertained among fruit grow¬ 
ers, (especially pear-cultivators.) that certain va¬ 
rieties have about run out. If they are not be¬ 
coming exhausted, it is asked, why this cracking 
of the bark and of the fruit, these black spots on 
the leaves, this stunted growth, this barrenness, 
and every other sign of debility and old age • 
If this doctrine has learned men and many culti¬ 
vators on its side,so lias the opposite. Dc Candolle, 
one of the greatest vegetable physiologists of the 
age, maintains that “ varieties will endure so 
long as man chooses to take care of them, as is 
evident from the continued existence, to this day, 
ol sorts, the most ancient of those which have 
been described in books. By negligence, or 
through successive bad seasons, they may be¬ 
come diseased, but careful culture will restore 
them and retain them, to all appearance, for 
ever.”.“ ’To say that buds or grafts partake 
of the age and accidents of the (original) trunk, 
is improbable, if not. impossible, as they can in 
fact he influenced only by the stock to which they 
are last transferred.” The late Mr. Downing, 
held the same opinion.* A tree propagated from 
a bud or graft (which is but a developed bud,) is 
as much a new tree as one raised from a seed, 
and may live just as long. A seed has been well 
His views were, in substance, these. One cause of ilis 
ease may be found in our inode of propagating trees. A 
seedling, unmarred by the saw, or ax, or grafting knife, is 
longer lived than one of the same variety grafted on an¬ 
other stock. A tree, grafted on a slock closely allied to 
it, will last longer than one grafted on a stock not so re¬ 
lated. For instance, the pear of one variety grafted on 
another kind of pear, will outlive one inserted upon a 
quince, or thorn, or mountain ash. An unhealthy stock 
enfeebles the tree grafted upon it. Weak cions often 
make weak trees. And last, but not least, soil and 
climate have very much to do in promoting the health¬ 
fulness and longevity of trees. Futting those several con¬ 
siderations together, lie finds it easy to account for the 
apparent decay of many varieties of fruit. 
