368 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
ries,- and the smaller around the dwelling. Set 
them so as to preserve views of the neighbor¬ 
hood, at the best out-looks. Calculate for tlieir 
growth many years ahead, and plant according¬ 
ly. Many persons plant a large number of trees 
in their grounds, intending, at some future day, 
when the trees become crowded, to thin them 
out. But very few persons have resolution 
enough to cut down a tree which has become 
large and thrifty, especially if it was planted 
by themselves. Multitudes of persons annually 
impose on themselves, and multitudes of places 
are annually ruined in this way. 
It is safer, perhaps, for amateurs who make 
trees their habitual study, to have a large vari¬ 
ety of trees, and of all sizes. They will take 
care of them; and when one interferes with the 
healthy growth of another, it will be removed. 
But for most persons, the better way is to 
select a few hardy, free-growing trees, set them 
at wide distances apart—say at least thirty to 
forty feet—and let them grow at their leisure. 
The effect will be good, and increasingly pleas¬ 
ant for a life-time. 
Trees Against Flowers— A Debate. 
(Overheard and Reported for the American Agriculturist.) 
John— Well, Mary, what do you think of flow¬ 
ers, this cold day ? I reckon your posy-beds 
are done with for this season. 
Mary— No, indeed. I have a fine collection of 
them here on tlie phint-stand. Flowers are not 
confined to the Summer season. See! I have 
chrysanthemums, geraniums, fuchsias, helio¬ 
tropes, petunias, etc., making this southern win¬ 
dow all a-glow. 
John —Yes, that’s better than. nothing. But 
look out of doors. Where are the ten thousand 
summer flowers which filled the garden, and 
bloomed on hill arid dale? All dead, or frozen 
stiff and buried up with snow. But my favor¬ 
ites, the trees, are still alive and doing well. 
The deciduous trees have cast tlieir leaves, 
but their limbs and feathery spray are still beau¬ 
tiful; and the evergreens have undying charms. 
Mary— I can’t bear to hear you disparage my 
pets.' Think how early in the season the spring 
flowers appear. The crocus, and snow-drop, 
and violet, hardly wait for the snow to melt. 
Go out even now, and brush off the snow, and 
you’ll find the Christmas rose in bloom. Flow¬ 
ers begin early to blossom, and they persevere 
in doing so until Winter returns. 
John —But, dear lady, only think of the trouble 
they make for mankind. One has to dig and 
manure, aud rake and weed, sow seeds and save 
seeds, thin out and transplant, prune and tie up, 
and water, and protect from sun and frost, and 
so on—an everlasting botheration. Mow, when 
I set out an apple tree or an elm tree, and get it 
once established in good soil, there’s an end of 
all trouble. I can now stand or sit and look at 
my beauty, and enjoy it. All I have to do 
henceforth, is to clip a stray limb here and there, 
and it will go on, year after year, and build it¬ 
self up—a splendid piece of architecture. 
Mary —Good! sir, you are eloquent. But think 
wliat a variety of beautiful things we have in 
flowers—variety in color, shade and tint, form 
and fragrance. And then, what endless combi¬ 
nations we can make of these, both in the gar¬ 
den and in bouquets. How many pleasing asso¬ 
ciations florists have, poetical and historical. 
These toucli the heart, and weave about our 
. finer sentiments in a way that trees can not. 
John —And you are eloquent. But hear one 
word more, before I submit to your superior ar¬ 
guments. You go into ecstasy, every Spring, 
over your beds of hyacinths and tulips; but re- 
membeiy that in a very few weeks, these beds 
become a sightless mass of dry, withered stalks. 
A maple, or pear tree, or magnolia, blossoms, 
but the flowers are succeeded by a harvest of 
bright-colored and useful fruit, and by clustering 
boughs of fresh, green foliage. Bear in mind 
this fact, also: when you set out a dahlia, ver¬ 
bena, or other flowering plant, in the Spring, it 
attains its perfection in a single season, and that’s 
the upshot of it. It dies down when the first 
frost comes, and each succeeding Spring you 
have to begin where you did the Spring before. 
You make no progress from year to year, and 
would gain nothing more at the end of a life¬ 
time. But in setting out a tree, you plant 
something which is a pleasant object from the 
very first, and which develops itself more and 
more every year; it is something larger and 
grander, every season, and will continue to 
make progress-for one’s whole lifetime. 
Maory —My dear friend, there’s something to be 
said on both sides. Trees give us refreshing 
shade; they suggest ideas of repose and comfort. 
John —They give us fire-wood and lumber, and 
ship-masts, wagon-hubs and ox-yokes. 
Mary —Yes, you practical man. The oaks of 
Mamre, the cedars of Lebanon, “ the pine-tree, 
and fir-tree, aud box-tree, together,” have sa¬ 
cred associations, as well as the rose of Sharon 
and lily of the valley. I think we had better 
shake hands, and agree that flowers and trees 
are both good things in their way, and were 
made for man’s use and enjoyment. 
[Our reporter goes on to tell how John and 
Mary compromised, and .agreed that each was 
right in his and her tastes; and how John fell 
to praising the rose bloom on Mary’s lips, and— 
but the reader may guess the rest. They are 
likely to have both trees and flowers, and enjoy 
them together. — Ed. American Agriculturist .] 
For the American Agriculturist. 
More Standard Fruit Wanted. 
As the season for selecting cions for propaga¬ 
tion is at hand, I would suggest to nurserymen 
the importance of materially reducing theirlong 
lists of varieties, and propagating none but the 
best. It costs no more and is as easy and con¬ 
venient to grow them, as inferior sorts. When 
trees are grown, no matter how poor the varie¬ 
ty, they are almost sure to be sold by some un : 
scrupulous agent or tree peddler. If a man 
wants one or two thousand trees of one leading 
variety, he can not obtain them without pur¬ 
chasing a greater number of assorted kinds, 
which he does not want, and should not plant 
at any price, and if he selects but one or two 
leading varieties, he must pay from fifty to one 
hundred percent, more for them. The same 
difficulty occurs in selecting pear tre.es, which 
would not be the case if nurserymen were gen¬ 
erally more scrupulous in discarding all inferior 
aud worthless sorts. Pomologist. 
Experience in Peach Culture. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
During a long experience in raising peaches I 
have tried many experiments and have found 
the following treatment most beneficial: I sift 
coal ashes around the trunk of each tree to the 
distance of two feet, and five or six inches deep. 
The trunks are washed with whale-oil soap 
twice a year, using a quarter of a pound of soap 
to a gallon of water. I apply very little ma¬ 
nure. About the 15th of April, 1st of June and 
September, and the middle of November, the 
trees are carefully examined for worms, which 
are cut out and destroyed. I have a Morris 
White tree which has been treated in this man¬ 
ner, and has borne a good crop for eleven suc¬ 
cessive years, and it promises to last a long time, 
with proper care. Northumberland Co., Pa. 
Wine and Grape Fair in Hermann— 
Notes on Grapes in Missouri. 
A correspondent, F. A. N., sends the fol¬ 
lowing notes to the American Agriculturist; 
This little town of Hermann, in Gasconade 
County, about 80 miles west of St. Louis, situ¬ 
ated on the Missouri river and the Pacific Rail¬ 
road, is probably the only place in this State 
which will have held a fair this year. Out of a 
population of scarcely 2,000, men, women and 
children, so many have enlisted in our armies, 
that not a sufficient number of citizens liable to 
military duty to form a militia company have 
remained. As a natural consequence, the vine¬ 
yards have been neglected in most cases, in 
some worked only by women and children, and 
in-some not worked at all, though vine-growing 
is the principal and most lucrative occupation 
in this part of the county. In view of these sad 
times it was thought hardly advisable to ven¬ 
ture on holding a fair; yet the hopeful spirit of 
our people predominated, and they at last, on 
short notice, exhibited under the auspices of the 
Gasconade County Agricultural Society the pro¬ 
duce of farms and vineyards. 
The main features of the exhibition were, the 
exceedingly fine display of grapes on boughs, 
in bunches, and as wines. There were, in all, 
some .35 varieties of grapes, grown here out 
doors, the most attractive of which were boughs 
of the Herbemont, Concord, Norton’s Virginia 
Seedling, Catawba, North Carolina Seedling, 
and Cunningham. One bough of Norton’s Vir¬ 
ginia Seedling with 81 fine bunches Avas the 
most prolific on exhibition. In this region all 
the A r ines are groAvn on the reneAval or spur- 
system, alloAving each strong vine to have tAvo 
Shoots of about 6 feet length. 
I have taken some pains to collect the obser¬ 
vations and experiences of our most successful 
vine-growers as to the relative value of the dif¬ 
ferent varieties raised here, and will give a short 
synopsis of my notes, which I derived chiefly 
from the brothers Poescliel—the successful com¬ 
petitors this year. The following statements are, 
therefore, not my individual opinions, but the 
result of observations by intelligent cultivators. 
One circumstance in this connection deserves 
special mentioning—the most successful because 
most observing and discriminating vine groAV- 
ers, Avere not brought up as such, but commenced 
after they had settled here in their maturer years. 
Market Grapes. — Concord , dark colored, 
showy, large, fine flavor, early, prolific bearer, 
quite hardy, very easily propagated.— Union 
Village , very shoAvy, hardy, healthy.— North Car¬ 
olina Seedling, a very valuable, showy market 
grape, sweet, resembles Isabella, prolific bear¬ 
er, a week earlier than Concord.— Delaware, 
white or light colored, hardy, healthy, very 
sweet, prolific; fine bunches, berries medium. 
—Allen's Hybrid, superior to the DelaAvare; may 
rot some; will be further tested.— Rebecca, very 
fine, pretty good bearer.— Anna, healthy, fine.— 
Cassady, promising; to be tested further. 
Wine-grapes. — Herbemont, though small berry, 
the cluster is so croAvded that there is no room 
