Nov., 1859 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
the painter’s study. In England and on the Con¬ 
tinent, such scenes are unknown. Foreign poets 
tell us of “sallow autumn,” 
“ Shade deepening over shade, the country round 
Imbrown : a cloudy umbrage, dusk and dun, 
Of every hue, from wan declining green 
To sooty dark.” 
With us, how different the scene. Almost ev¬ 
ery tree contributes a distinct and peculiar shade 
to the picture. The chestnut and birch present a 
a golden hue ; the sweet gum is Vermillion ; the 
pepperidge and white ash furnish several shades 
of purple; the bass-wood is orange ; the tulip- 
tree lemon; the sumach fiery scarlet; and the 
maples, gayest of all, present nearly every color, 
running through yellow, pink, scarlet, crimson, 
purple, and sometimes all of them commingled 
on a single tree. The oaks, in stately dignity, 
about the last to change, are brown, gray, choco¬ 
late, red, and sometimes purple. 
As to the natural cause of this phenomenon, 
scientific men are not wholly agreed. Plainly, it 
is not entirely the work of frost; for some 
leaves change color before frost comes, and gird¬ 
ling or bruising a limb will produce similar effects. 
Yet, obviously, this is the principal agent. The 
change produced by frost is purely a chemical one, 
and is well exhibited in the following sentences : 
“ When a tree or plant is in full activity, its foli¬ 
age absorbs carbonic acid, and disengages oxygen. 
When, now, through the influence of a sufficient¬ 
ly low temperature, or from any other cause, the 
functions of vegetable life are suspended, and the 
fluids cease to circulate, the leaves no longer dis¬ 
engage oxygen, but in common with all dead 
bodies, absorb this gas, which, forming an acid, 
changes the color of the leaves, either to yellow, 
red, or some intermediate shade, depending on 
the quality of the matter present in its leaves.” 
It has also been asserted that this acid can be 
neutralized by an alkali, and the green restored. 
We hope this explanation is perfectly satisfactory 
to our philosophic readers ; but we must confess 
that such a scientific analysis of a scene of beau¬ 
ty adds very little to our enjoyment of it. 
-- - --«-•— - - 
Winter Protection of Trees and Plants. 
Fruit and ornamental trees planted this Fall, 
are benefitted by a mound of earth a foot high, 
thrown up around the trunk. Let this earth be 
brought to the tree from another quarter, not 
taken off from the extremities of the roots, and 
so exposing them, as is too often done. Such a 
mound will keep the trees steady against the 
wind, and protect the trunks from the inroads of 
^mice. Cunning as these vermin are, they don’t 
know enough to ascend a bank of fresh earth in 
search of green fodder. For pear-trees, subject 
as they are to frozen sap-blight, we would sug¬ 
gest the additional defence of a light board or 
section of bark set up against the south side of 
the trunks. A hay-band wound on loosely, an¬ 
swers a good purpose. Dwarf pears need special 
care in Winter, if the ground continues bare. 
Their roots need a covering of manure or a 
mound of earth. 
As to cherry trees, do the best you can, and 
even then, expect some injury and loss in the 
northern States. For the splitting of the trunk 
so common, the protection recommended for the 
pear tree is worthy of trial. 
Grape vines not perfectly hardy should be laid 
on the ground and fastened there, and then cov¬ 
ered with litter or a few inches of soil. So of 
tender roses and shrubs; they may be bundled 
up in straw, or covered with matting or ever¬ 
green boughs, but they are generally safer ifbent 
to the ground and covered with a little earth. 
Prune Grape Vines Now. 
This is the best month of the year for pruning 
the grape. It can not well be done in Winter at 
the north, because the vines are, (or ought to be,) 
laid on the ground and tucked up for the season. 
Neither can it well be done in the Spring, because 
the sap begins to flow very early, and profuse 
bleeding would ensue. If done early in Novem¬ 
ber, the wounds become healed before Winter, 
and the buds left on the canes gather up a good 
supply of elaborated sap for next year’s use. It 
is also a pleasant time to work, and the pruning 
will more likely be well done, than it would amid 
the storms and benumbing frosts of Winter. 
1. Is your vine a young one, and do you pro¬ 
pose to try the “renewal” method 1 Then, if 
it has two stout canes, six or eight feet long, (see 
Fig. 1.) cut each of them off to about four feet, 
and tie them down to the lower bar of your trel¬ 
lis. (See Fig. 2.) One or two buds on each cane 
may be allowed to throw up branches next year, 
and the buds on each end may send off branches 
for extending the horizontal cane at the base. 
Or, possibly, your vine is five or six years old, has 
this year borne fruit on several upright branch¬ 
es, and has meanwhile sent up as many more 
new shoots between the old (Fig. 3.). Then, all 
you will have to do this Fall, is to cut off those 
bearing branches down to the horizontal canes on 
the lower bar of the trellis. At the foot of those 
branches, you will undoubtedly find several plump 
buds which will throw up new branches next 
year, to fill the places of those cut off. The 
branches of the present year’s growth may now, 
if stout and healthy, be cut off at the top of the 
trellis, if weak, considerably below that (Fig. 4.). 
The branches which pushed out from buds at the 
ends of the horizontal canes may now be short- 
. 
_ _ 
Fig. 2. 
ened back, leaving two or three new buds of the 
new wood, and then tied down to the lower bar. 
2. Some persons prefer the spur-method of prun¬ 
ing ; and perhaps our present reader does. If so, 
possibly you have a young vine, something like 
Fig. 1. All you will have to do this Fall, is to 
shorten the canes about one half their length, and 
cut off any lateral branches that may have shot 
out from them. 
Or the vine may be several years old, and 
may have been trained systematically into the 
shape of Fig. 3. Then, your work now is to cut 
Fig. 3. 
out any thin watery shoots that may have sprung 
up between the bearing branches, robbing them 
of their strength and shading the fruit. The 
bearing canes should always be kept two feet 
apart, to allow room for the side-spurs to shoot 
out and mature their fruit without being overrun 
with superfluous wood. Finish your work, now, 
by cutting back the spurs on the upright canes to 
one or two buds. These buds will bear fruit next 
year, if properly cared for. 
Or your vine may have taken a more irregular 
shape, and looks something like Fig. 5. below. 
You must then, as before, simply cut out all weak, 
succulent shoots which have sprung up from the 
root or sides of the stock, and thin out the canes 
all over the trellis, so as to leave them evenly 
distributed over its surface, about two feet asun¬ 
der. Shorten in also the spurs on the sides of 
the old wood to one or two buds. If here and 
there an old cane has lost its buds, it should be 
cut clean out, and a young and healthy one train¬ 
ed up in its place. 
For partially tender vines like the Diana, this 
last method of training, (Fig. 5.) though less 
pleasing to a gardener’s eye, is, on some accounts, 
preferable to the other, (Fig. 3.), because the 
canes can be more easily bent to the ground in 
the Fall for Winter protection. 
Pruning having now been accomplished, all the 
vines may be untied from the trellis and laid upon 
the ground. Be careful, while doing this, not to 
break off the buds. If in a very cold region, it 
may be well to remove the soil a few inches, 
fasten down the canes with stakes, and throw on 
a few inches deep of soil. In central New-York, 
a little rubbish from the garden and an old board 
or two, to keep the canes flat on the ground, is 
all the covering required. 
-—<—»— - »-«- 
When to Transplant Trees. 
This is one of the “ vexed questions ” in hor¬ 
ticulture, and it is sure to come up with every 
returning Spring and Fall. The nurserymen, who 
have acres of trees to sell, maintain that both 
seasons are the best. Planters who have had 
their best success in one particular season, declare 
that that is the best. And if we should collect a 
mass of testimony from all quarters, we should 
find a large number ranged on both sides. 
Let us look at this disputed question awhile, 
both in principle and practice. 
1. So far as theory is concerned, there is a good 
deal to be said in favor of Fall planting. A tree 
newly dug up, is very much in the condition of a 
cutting which the gardener wishes to “ strike.” 
The cutting is placed in a light soil a few degrees 
warmer than the surrounding atmosphere. Over 
the cutting a bell glass is set to prevent exces¬ 
sive evaporation from bark and leaf. The bottom 
heat excites the forces of the shoot, causing it 
first to form a callus over the wound and then to 
emit roots, before the leaves push from the top. 
So, in setting out a tree, we wish first of all, to 
heal over the wounds made in digging it up, and 
