CALENDAR FOR APRIL. 
95 
they may assume the requisite shape; the displacing of buds at 
this time also reduces the number of unsightly wounds caused 
by the use of the knife, as well as materially lessening the amount 
of gum or canker on stone fruit trees. 
Continue to protect trees in bloom as long as necessary, but 
remove every sort of covering as early as possible, and let the trees 
have the full benefit of mild rains. Keep the mulching about 
trees lately transplanted, and water, if the weather should prove 
dry enough for the plants to require it. Treat figs as last month, 
nailing in the shoots thin, so as to admit a free circulation among 
them, and also to lay in a proper supply during the summer. 
Pay constant attention to insects of all descriptions, especially 
to caterpillars on young apple-trees, from which they should be 
carefully removed by hand-picking, as the only infallible plan of 
getting rid of them; dusting the plants with lime, soot, and 
various other substances has been tried with various degrees of 
success, but these insects are generally so thickly protected 
either by the webs they spin, or by their position, usually on 
the under side of the leaves, that these applications are in general 
very partial, even when they are useful. The gooseberry cater¬ 
pillar is another very troublesome enemy, and the first appearance 
of them should be carefully noted, and immediate preventive 
measures adopted. White hellebore powder dusted over the 
bushes has been used with the most beneficial results, and as it 
can be used when the caterpillars are small it should be applied 
early; if any escape and grow to a large size, then hand-picking 
may be resorted to, in addition to another dressing, but they 
must be got rid of, or the bushes are most materially injured for 
the next year, as well as the present. The green fly, especially 
on wall trees, should also be checked as soon as noticed, both to 
prevent its ravages on the young leaves, and the increase of its 
numbers, which is enormously rapid on the first rise of tem¬ 
perature. 
Vines upon walls should be pruned and nailed early in the 
month, before the sap flows freely; mulberries against walls 
should also have their shoots thinned and regulated so as to allow 
the air to get amongst them. Where fine and early crops of 
strawberries are wanted, the runners should be removed as soon 
as they appear, but advantage should be taken to preserve a 
