50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
is little more than five feet high. Of this Mr. 
Sargent says : The Weeping Juniper is unques¬ 
tionably the most attractive of the Junipers—a 
small tree 15 to 20 feet high, from Japan, perfect¬ 
ly hardy with us and the most graceful and pendu¬ 
lous of evergreens. My best specimen has been 
planted 10 years. It is nearly 6 feet high, though 
only a few inches when set out. It takes several 
years to get under way, and often dies back from 
the effects of the sun, but when once started, suc¬ 
ceeds admirably. 
. —-- 
The White Pine. 
“ Beneath the forest’s skirt I rest, 
Whose branching Pines rise dark and high, 
And hear the breezes of the West 
Among the threaded foliage sigh.” 
Few trees have stronger claims upon the plant¬ 
er than the native White, or Weymouth Pine. 
The objections often urged against coniferous 
trees, as a class, that they are stiff, and lack in 
ease of motion, can hardly be brought against this 
tree. There is no primness about it. Its long, 
silken tassels sway and float in the breeze almost 
as gracefully as the foliage of deciduous trees; 
and being an evergreen, it always retains what¬ 
ever beauty it possesses. As commonly seen in 
the forest, this tree is a tall, picturesque object, 
towering above its fellows in majestic and almost 
solemn grandeur. Its trunk, furrowed at the 
base, rises with arrowy straitness, gradually ta¬ 
pering from the bottom, until it reaches often a 
bight of 120 or 150 feet. When young, the bark 
is smooth, and greyish green, and the branches 
shoot out in regular whorls, one above the other, 
around the stem. As one whorl is formed every 
year, the age of the tree, when less than twenty 
years old, can be ascertained by counting the 
number of whorls. As the tree becomes old, the 
lower whorls, (ifgrowing in a forest,) die out, and 
the upper branches shoot out irregularly, giving 
the tree a wild and picturesque expression. This 
is its way in its native state. But plant a good 
specimen in an open park or lawn, and it will 
throw out its lower branches in the most queen¬ 
ly manner over the sod, and retain them too ; and 
Us whole mass will present a great globe of wav¬ 
ing foliage of silvery green. 
This tree will thrive in light, poor soils, and 
bv its annual deposit of leavqs improve the land 
on which it grows. Yet it prefers a good, rich, 
and somewhat moist soil, and attains its highest 
excellence only in such situations. Its annual 
growth is a foot or more in hight. Its geograph¬ 
ical range is from New Jersey to the 4-7th degree 
of north latitude, indicating that it likes neither 
the extremes of heat nor cold. It is sometimes 
found as far south as North Carolina, but it is 
only seen there on the ridges of the Alleghanies. 
As an ornamental tree, it belongs to large parks 
or extensive grounds, rather than the small lawns 
of ordinary houses. At least, it should be con¬ 
fined to the boundaries of such lawns, where it 
makes an excellent shelter from the Winter winds. 
Speaking of this tree, as it is sometimes seen in 
open situations, Wilson Flagg says, very happi¬ 
ly : “ At the very first sight of a full-grown and 
well-developed White Pine, every one is struck 
with its evident serviceability for all purposes of 
shade and shelter. It wears the evidence of these 
qualities in every part of its form and appearance : 
in its wide-spread and horizontal branches, in the 
density of its foliage, and its general amplitude. 
It is not impenetrable to the sunshine, but admits 
it only in small portions of light, which are con¬ 
stantly flickering with the easy sway of its foliage 
and branches. One perceives immediately that 
there is no other tree under whose shade it would 
be more agreeable to recline on a hot Summer’s 
day, or under whose protection one could obtain 
a greater amount of comfort in Winter.” 
It has been supposed by many that the Pine 
would not admit of pruning ; that if lean, or strag¬ 
gling, or lop-sided, it must always remain so. 
But this is a mistake. If it has lost its lower 
branches, probably no skill can replace them. But 
a long, straggling branch may be safely taken off, 
if it is done in the Summer, just before the 
new growth has hardened. If it is desired to 
thicken up the foliage, prune in the Spring, by 
taking out the terminal buds. This will cause 
the inner buds to push, and so fill up vacant spaces. 
As to the practical uses of the White Pine, our 
readers well know’ that it is indispensable in all 
kinds of naval and civil architecture. Its stately 
trunks furnish the best possible masts and spars 
for vessels, and when cut into planks and boards 
the wood is easily wrought into all kinds of car¬ 
pentry' and cabinetwork. Its lightness, softness, 
beauty and durability combine to render it one 
of the most useful of all the trees of the forest. 
Cutting Grafts- 
For the Northern and Middle States, the pres¬ 
ent is a good month for cutting scions. If it is in¬ 
tended to propagate currant bushes or gooseber¬ 
ries, take cuttings now before the sap starts, and 
bury them in sand in the cellar. And so, ifgrafts 
are wanted of the apple or pear or cherry, let 
them be got soon, and either buried in the garden 
in a dry place, or, what is better, be taken into 
the cellar and covered with damp sand or moss 
or saw-dust. What is needed is to keep them 
just damp enough to prevent their shriveling, 
and cold enough to prevent the buds starting be¬ 
fore they are wanted in the Spring. In cutting 
scions, remember that only the wood of the last 
season’s growth is of any use, and that it should 
be plump and healthy. After being gathered, tie 
each sort in a bundle by itself, and attach a label 
to it, so that no mistake shall occur through for¬ 
getfulness of names or mixture of sorts. Between 
this time and Spring, overhaul the bundles once 
or twice, to see that they are in a good state of 
preservation. 
- -0-4 —■ssSOE*—-><*■- 
<w— — — +-* 
Young Woods. 
We do not expect that those of our readers 
who are making new clearings in the forest on 
which to establish their future homes and farms, 
will pay particular attention to this article ; but 
to those who dwell on prairies, and other sparse¬ 
ly timbered sections of the country’, and wish to 
save, and grow their timber, a moderate atten¬ 
tion to their young woods at this season of the 
year, is important. It will be recollected by those 
who read our papers of last year, that we gave 
them some good advice on this subject. We par¬ 
tially repeat it now ; and as our own experience 
since has confirmed the suggestions then made to 
others, we now add it. From now till April is a 
capital time to thin out, and trim the young groves 
which have sprung up from the old “ slashings,” 
choppings, and other places which we seldom 
preserve as future wood-lands, and timber. Last 
year we took a piece of such young wood in hand, 
cut out the superfluous underbrush, pulled out the 
old decayed logs, tree-tops, and oilier rubbish, 
and made it clean ; then thinned out, and trimmed 
the young saplings which we wanted to stand, 
and the past Summer's growth has been truly 
surprising. 
Our young oaks, of all varieties which grow in 
our climate, and soil—and they are proverbially 
slow growers—have shot up two, three, and even 
four feet in hight, where previously they had 
made but a few inches growth in a season; 
while the ashes, lindens, elms, maples, and others, 
have made a proportionally higher growth, for the 
reason that the wind, air, and sun have been let 
in among them, and they have had the soil all to 
themselves. The change in one year has been 
surprising. We drained off the long standing 
puddles of water standing round among them, 
which left the ground dry and warm—a wonder¬ 
ful promoter of tree-growth. The young grass 
has also sprung up under the trees, keeping the 
earth clean, and there it will stay until they get 
so full in the top as to overshadow, and kill it 
out, if thick enough. We know many a barren 
spot, which, a few years ago was a tangled mass 
of worthless underbrush, by the process of clear¬ 
ing out, and trimming, now worth many dollars 
an acre in its future promise of wood and timber, 
from a little well timed care and labor in thus 
training them. We repeat, now is the time to 
look after all such grounds. 
Letter from Pod Auger, Esq. 
DWARF APPLES-WHITE STRAWBERRIES, ETC 
Up the Mountains, Tioga Co.. Pa., ) 
Towards the end of 1858. j 
Mr. Editor :—You being a horticultural and 
pomological editor, it follows, of course, that 
every one who has a rood of ground, if he have 
handed up his dollar in advance, is entitled to 
walk into you on the “ pod auger ” principle, to 
the amount of a full foolscap sheet, at least once 
a year, and not only give you the result of sundry 
experiments, but ask not less than sixty-five 
questions, to all of which you are expected to 
respond instanter, and with the utmost readiness, 
by letter (paying your own postage, of course,) or 
otherwise, and with all the particulars required 
in matters of fact. Don’t every one of our Pod 
Auger family know that you have plenty of time 
to attend to the particular wants of each of your 
fifty thousand readers, and that it is your busi¬ 
ness to also make known to the “ agricultural 
sovereigns,” that P. A. Esq., is propagating a 
wonderful strawberry, which is a matter of the 
utmost moment to the public, though of no im¬ 
portance to t the said P. A., save that he is anxious 
to share his prize with the public, by sending ten 
seeds to every one who will remit him two stamps 
—one for return postage, and one for profit, of 
course. Is it right for you to bluff him off in his 
patriotic desires by pointing to your “25 cents 
per line of space 1” Never! 
Well, Sir, I, Pod Auger, Esq., am duly enrolled 
on your books, and I have you now by the button¬ 
hole, so hear me for my cause and be not silent. 
Away up here in the mountains, many hundred 
feet above the tide level, the peach will not flour¬ 
ish ; Catawba grapes are a myth, even the Isabella 
fails to ripen ; there is not unfrequently frost in 
eleven out of the twelve months ; and dwarf pear 
trees are almost to a certainty killed to the 
ground once in two or three years. So we are 
driven to turn our attention to the hardy grapes, 
and to that king of fruits, the apple. The latter, 
as a dwarf or pyramid, makes a beautiful garden 
ornament, but though I know of some promising 
collections that have been planted four or five 
years, I have yet seen only one variety that has 
succeeded, viz.: the “ Wagener.” 
Now for my string of questions. Who will give 
us a terse, practical article on dwarf apple cul¬ 
ture 1 Who has an orchard on the Doueain 
stock in successful bearing 1 - If anybody, now 
long has it been planted 1 How treated 1 What 
