156 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
©rdjctrft, (S&arlren, $zt. 
SOWING GRAIN IN ORCHARDS, 
We frequently see this folly along the line 
of our railroads, in our summer travel. 
Here we see a splendid crop of rye, and 
there a vigorous growth of oats or barley. 
Sometimes Indian corn is planted in a young 
orchard. We believe the practice to be 
bad husbandry. A neighbor of ours has an 
apple orchard, set about ten years since. 
He took admirable care of it for several 
years, washing the trunks and larger limbs 
with strong soap-suds, and manuring them 
abundantly. The orchard was a beautiful 
sight, and began to bear fruit. Three years 
ago lie stocked it down with rye. The crop 
was a good one, but it proved disastrous to 
his orchard. It checked the growth of wood, 
and it has borne no fruit since. Similar 
facts are abundant in the experience of farm¬ 
ers. We cannot tell, perhaps, all the causes 
of this injury to fruit trees. Any grain is a 
heavy draft upon the land, and probably uses 
up the material the young trees want to per¬ 
fect their fruit. A grain crop shades the 
soil very much also, and this must prove in¬ 
jurious. It is well to keep a young orchard 
under cultivation for some years, but the 
ground should only be cropped with roots, 
and abundantly manured. An orchard will 
pay us for our trouble according to the capi¬ 
tal and labor we expend upon its cultivation. 
— Ed - 
PRUNING FRUIT TREES. 
It the present state of horticultural knowl¬ 
edge it is about as important to tell the own¬ 
er of an orchard, seasonably, what he should 
not do, as what he should. Much skill as it 
requires to plant a tree, it requires still more 
to prune it so as to help its growth and fruit 
bearing. Fortunately for the nursery-men, 
there is so little skill in planting, that a ma¬ 
jority of the trees removed from the nursery 
never call for pruning. The sunbeams of 
their first season remove every redundant 
twig with a thoroughness that the mostrabid 
pruner might envy. A small sample of un¬ 
dersized bean poles is the autumn inventory 
of what went upon his plantation in the 
spring as a splendid lot of the choicest fruit 
trees, purchased at one dollar each, and 
richly worth two. These of course will not 
want further pruning. But you have an old 
orchard, with some dead limbs and a thick, 
heavy growth of sprouts, and so much top 
that there is no chance for the sun to get in 
to ripen the fruit, what is to be done with it 1 
Do not infer that because you have a keen- 
edged knife and a sharp saw, that the best 
use you can make of them is to go into the 
apple tree tops with them in April. The 
truth is, February, March and April, are the 
worst three months in the year for this pur¬ 
pose. Lay your pruning tools upon the 
shelf for the present, and walk with us to 
your neighbor’s orchard. This Avas pruned 
last April. You see that many large limbs 
were removed, and that the old wood is now 
nearly as black as if it had been painted, and 
that along black stain extends far down the 
amputated limb, greatly injuring as well as 
disfiguring the bark. Examine the wood 
closely and you will find it has already begun 
to decay. The whole tree has received a 
shock by this untimely pruning, and years 
will not repair the injury. 
The best time for a general pruning is at 
the close of the first growth of summer, 
which-js from the 15th of June to the 15th 
of July. Then the leaves will take care of 
the flowing sap, and all small wounds will 
be rapidly healed over. The large wounds 
may be closed by a coating of tar, thickened 
with brick dust, applied warm. Gum Shel¬ 
lac is good, but is more liable to peel off 
than the tar mixture. 
Never cut a limb for the sake of using 
your tools. The tops of apple trees do not 
require severe thinning in our hot summers. 
Nature understands the wants of the tree 
often much better than the gardener who has 
had his training under the dripping skies of 
England. The thick limbs and foliage are 
needed to protect the trunk, the larger 
branches and the fruit. You will find your 
fairest specimens in the top of the tree, and 
partially shielded from the sun’s rays by 
leaves. Very small limbs, a half inch through, 
that cross each other or that interfere with 
the symmetry of the top, may hoav be remo¬ 
ved, but no general pruning should be at¬ 
tempted. — En. 
'A TREE CONTENTION. 
Since the joint Worm Convention, held a 
year or two since in one of our Southern 
Cities, there has been a terrible itching for 
notoriety among all animals, quadruped, bi¬ 
ped, centipede, and no ped at all, to hold 
similar mass meetings, to redress grievances, 
and to promote the common interests of their 
respective kinds. The mania has even in¬ 
vaded the quiet precincts of vegetable life ; 
trees have had their gatherings, and Avaxed 
eloquent over the story of their accumulated 
wrongs. 
One of our reporters recently sent us an 
account of a Grand Mass Meeting^held in the 
vicinity of a quiet village, on Long Island, 
which has sent out a multitude of sons and 
daughters to all parts of the country. His 
report runs thus : 
On a Avindy night in March, when the moon 
was riding high, at the Aveird hour of mid¬ 
night, a bushy looking character might have 
been seen tacking the following notice upon 
the sign-post of this village : 
GRAND RALI.J OF TREES. 
Whereas the graduates of the vegetable 
colleges, and arborescent schools in this vi¬ 
cinity, have sent back divers reports of hard 
usage, mutilation, disease, and premature 
death, greatly to the prejudice of their own 
reputation, and to the detriment of the 
schools, a Convention is hereby called to dis¬ 
cuss this and kindred grievances, and to pe¬ 
tition the proper authorities for relief. Old 
graduates are particularly invited to attend. 
Signed, Undergraduates. 
As this was stuck upon the board with 
wooden spines, it Avas concluded that Mr. 
White Thorn had been active in publishing 
the call for the meeting. 
The time of the meeting was kept a secret 
from outsiders, but on the 16th, as 1 Avas 
coming home late at night, I heard a terrible 
stir in the grounds of a neighboring nursery. 
I thought at once of the call for the conven¬ 
tion, and determined to be present and take 
“notes.” I posted myself in the branches of a 
Norway spruce, and saw the multitude gath¬ 
ering. Such a moving of trees, I venture to 
say has not been witnessed since the day 
Avhen 
-“ Birnam wood 
Did come to Dunsinane.” 
oaks, elms, and maples, spruces, pines and 
firs, pears, apples, and peaches, trees of high 
and low degree, came up in platoons, in 
double and single file, in masses, and singly 
on to an open space in front of the office, 
Avhere the trees are usually packed, and sent 
to their destination. The graduates Avere 
Avell represented for numbers, but such a 
lean, diseased, deathly company of trees, I 
never remember to have seen in one locality. 
Mr. White Thorn stated to the assembled 
multitude that he had taken the responsibili¬ 
ty of calling the meeting, and Avas very high¬ 
ly gratified to see such a hearty response to 
the call from his old friends who had gone 
out from the institutions in this vicinity. He 
hoped to hear a good account from them, for 
the sake of the good mothers who had nursed 
them in infancy. He wanted to have some 
means of silencing the slanderous reports 
(as he'believed them to be) which were cir¬ 
culated in regard to his Alma-Mater. He 
nominated Knight’s Monarch as Chairman of 
the meeting. This Avas carried by acclama¬ 
tion. We looked to see some real personage 
step forth from the crowd, but instead, Ave 
saw a most unpromising scrawny looking 
dwarf stepping forward to the Chair. He 
Avas not over six feet high, though he had 
been graduated, as he told his audience, four 
years. He had a stoop in his shoulders, and 
Avas covered Avith scale bugs from the sole 
of his foot to the crown of his head. He 
called the meeting to order, and announced 
the business. 
Mr. White Oak Avas the first speaker. He 
said he Avas rejoiced to receive an invitation 
to thisjjmeeting; though he had a good deal 
of reputation for toughness, and Avas not at 
all disposed to complain of grievances, yet 
he must say that he had suffered immeasur¬ 
ably in his reputation by the treatment to 
which he had been subjected. He said that 
he Avent out from his Alma-Mater six years 
ago, but he Avas in a condition so mutilated, 
that it was fully three years before he had 
been able to restore himself to a sound con¬ 
dition. When his roots had been replaced, 
he found that his pores had become so indu¬ 
rated, and his whole body was so hide-bound, 
that he had not been able to make more 
than half a summer’s growth, in any season 
since. His sensibilities were daily avouikI- 
ed by the slighting remarks he had been 
compelled to hear, not only concerning him¬ 
self, but the whole tribe of oaks. So much 
had their reputation suffered, so many deaths 
had occurred in his neigborhood, that the' 
Avhole race Avas in danger of being banish¬ 
ed from the parks and pleasure grounds of 
gentlemen, as if they Avere foreigners, and 
only half hardy. He hoped some measures 
Avould be taken to secure a large share of 
