CALENDAR FOR MARCH. 
71 
the wood. In selecting stocks for apples and pears, use the crab 
and wild or seedling pears for standards, and the paradise or 
quince for dwarf trees, or such as are intended for small gardens 
or to be root-pruned. The buds of all choice trees, whether 
against walls or in the open garden, should be judiciously and 
gradually thinned, so that the trees may have no more to do than 
to mature a proper crop of fine fruit and a sufficiency of wood 
for the following season, thus materially reducing the quantity of 
cutting at the winter pruning, and enabling the operator to train 
his tree to any required or necessary form. This operation should 
be done so gradually, as to allow of the blossoms to be thinned 
when fully expanded; and also the fruit, when set and past 
danger, even when stone-fruit are nearly half-grown. 
Protect the early cherry and apricot blossoms from frost and 
cutting winds; also peach, nectarine, and other wall trees, but 
give all the air possible, and entirely remove the coverings when 
practicable, as too much protection in fine weather is very detri¬ 
mental to the plants, by preventing a free circulation of air, and 
also by protecting many insect enemies, and enabling them to 
breed and spread about earlier than would otherwise be the case. 
Fig-trees should be gradually deprived of their winter covering, 
pruned, and nailed. If properly disbudded and regulated during 
the previous summer, the knife will hardly be wanted now—a 
great point gained, as the fig is very impatient of cutting. 
Dress and fork over the strawberry plantations, being careful 
not to damage the pushing crowns. In order to secure a late 
crop, the flowers should be picked off* of a proper quantity, to 
meet the demand. For still later crops, seed of the red and white 
Alpine varieties should be sown, either on a rich, warm border, 
or in pans or boxes, to be afterwards transplanted. 
Forcing Garden. Allow the temperature to range a little 
higher in the cucumber pits as the sun gains power, but make 
little or no difference in the night heat, as the plants would only 
be drawn by raising it at that period. Stop the shoots freely, 
and do not allow them or the leaves to become crowded; thin 
the fruit so as not to injure the plants by allowing them to bear 
more than they can carry. Maintain a moist genial atmosphere, 
and use liquid manure occasionally, but not too freely. The 
same directions apply to melons, being still more careful in the 
