SRHP 
large tree; but in the Nortli It cannot be substi¬ 
tuted for the Osage a profitably as a hedge plant 
for fencing purposes. It makes a very orna¬ 
mental hedge. It can be obtained of almost any 
of the nurserymen advertising in the Rl'Ral. 
ontological 
THE PRATT APPLE 
Tree Boxes.— Brother Snook, of the Rural 
parish, I observe, gives some very neat illustra¬ 
tions of this article. Doubtless, if he knows It. 
all your readers are not aware that a tree will 
grow more than twice as fast if not boxed up at 
all. This is a faut which I have often tested, the 
truth of which must be apparent to every re¬ 
flecting and experienced tree grower. Boxes 
are well enough on the sidewalks of city streets, 
to protect the trees from injury, but should 
never be used where they can be dispensed with. 
Like all living things, trees thrive best with 
the largest possible liberty consistent with 
safety.— b. 
The Prutt apple is a variety not yet dis- 
seminated. The original seedling- tree was 
planted by the father of Charles B. Pratt 
on bin farm at Pulaski, New York. At the 
meeting of the American Pomological So¬ 
ciety’s Committee, in New York, 10th of 
February last, Mr. Pratt exhibited speci¬ 
mens of the fruit, which, Irian its size and 
beauty, attracted attention. Correspond¬ 
ence with Mr. Pratt brings the following 
relative to the tree;—“ The original tree 
stands on dry, gravelly soil; is large, with a 
spreading and very open top; a vigorous 
grower, very hardy, bears early and abund¬ 
antly. Younger trees worked from it ap¬ 
pear to do equally well on clay soil.” The 
leaves are of full medium size, regularly 
oval, dark green, with rather coarsely ser¬ 
rated edges. Young wood dark, rich, red¬ 
dish brown, with minute distinct white dots. 
Fruit large to very large, roundish, coni¬ 
cal, with broad slight ribs; color rich pale 
yellow ground, marbled, striped and shaded 
over two-thirds the surface, with two shades 
of clear, light pinkish red, and dotted with 
inconspicuous light dots. Stalk one inch 
long, slender for the size of fruit; cavity 
deep, broad and open; calyx closed ; basin 
abrupt, moderately deep, round, very slight¬ 
ly furrowed; llesh yellowish white, crisp, 
breaking, tender, moderately fine grained 
and juicy, mild, pleasant, sweet—very good; 
core open, hollow at center, not large; cap¬ 
sules well filled with short, pyriform, light 
brown seeds; season—December to March. 
Manure for Peach and Pear Trees.—I would 
like to learn which of the following- materials, 
lime, ashes, or charcoal, Is the best fertilizer for 
peach and pear trees, and in what quantity to 
apply. I have recently planted 4,500 peach and 
five hundred pear trees, upon poor ridge lund, 
with thin gravelly surface and clay subsoil. By 
a judicious use of fertilizers I think the trees 
will thrive well.—J. F. GotiOYtBt.Cktrksvtllc, Tenn. 
Ornamental Shrubs for North Illinois. —The fol¬ 
lowing list of ornamental shrubs is recommend¬ 
ed by the North Illinois Hort. Soc.Snowball, 
Persian, White and purple Lilac, Weigela Rosea, 
Japan Quinces Ryringa, Flowering Almond, Pink 
and White Purple Fringe, Tartarian Honey¬ 
suckle, Strawberry tree, (Emnymus), Cbianari- 
t) is Leaved Lilac or Josikea, Spirea Pruni- 
folia, Red Bud or J udas tree. 
the most popular apple in Tompkins, Seneca, 
and Schuyler counties. Its keeping qualities 
are not as good as the Baldwin mid Rhode Island 
Greening, though every good cellar can furnish 
them until April and May, and sometime# later. 
The soil generally i., more or less clay, though I 
have seen line crops on gravelly arid sandy soils. 
This famous apple wan originated by Thomas 
Th’achbR eighty or ninety years since, in War¬ 
ren county, Now Jersey, and is there called 
“ Tommy Red." Grafts were brought to Tomp¬ 
kins county by Mr. .1 a mbs Betts, and was given 
the mune of “King” by Mr. Setts, and after¬ 
wards culled “ King of Tompkins county."— E. 
Hopkins, Milford , Del. 
rbortntlfttrc 
c (bartxncr 
STARTING CABBAGE PLANTS, 
“Curetillo in Apples.”—In answer to “Sitb- 
seiUBKit, Delaware, Ohio.” Scrape the trunks 
of your apple trees with a hoc; cleau olf loose 
hark, then tie bands of fine hay around them, a 
few feet from the ground. As soon as you find 
that insect life is active, take those bandages olf 
and burn them, renewing the process every few 
weeks, until the apples are about an inch in 
diameter. The Godlin Moth, which I suppose 1 b 
the principal trouble with your trees, will bo 
found iu Hi os.- (my bandages instead of ascending 
the tree to sting the fruit, if you allow the 
hogs to eat all the lit Lien fruit for one year, you 
will find a marked change also. Here a wormy 
apple is the exception. Although we came to 
this region for The express purpose of growing 
grapes, we now intend going it extensively on 
apples, pears, pouches, &c„ also.— S. Miller, 
Bluff ton, Mo., March 30Mi, 186!). 
I will give a few hints and suggestions to 
those who adhere to the plan or practice of 
starling all their to-be-transplanted garden 
vegetables in pails, boxes, pans, &c. Procure 
a pan or box, full of the soil from the garden, 
and, if possible, from the surface where the 
plants from the same seeds are to be trans¬ 
planted. The soil should be dry and mellow. 
Place it in an oven, and beat to a tempera¬ 
ture sulficient to destroy the vitality of seeds 
that may lie contained in it. Then remove 
to a cool place, there to remain a day or 
more, after which stir with the hand to the 
depth of three or more inches. The entire 
mass should be dampened by gradually ap¬ 
plying moderately warm water until all 
lumps are dissolved, when the seed may be 
thickly scattered upon the surface and 
Wintlirop Crab. 
James Morse of Winthrop, Me., writes 
me ol a variety under the above name, which 
originated in the town named, but which he 
does not think could have sprung from a 
Siberian Crab. He says :—“ The parent tree 
was six inches in diameter when I was a 
small boy, twenty-five years ago; and while 
there were a great many seedlings, none 
proved of value but this. It matures early 
in August, is productive, of a brilliant, crim¬ 
son color, and of excellent flavor.” I note 
this, noi that I have any faith in its value, 
but for the use of those less skeptical than 
myself in the belief that all is gold that 
glitters. 
Lady Grab. 
This is a foreign variety of great beauty 
in its fruit, and the tree a vigorous, upright 
grower, much resembling the Lady apple. 
Very productive; young wood grayish, red¬ 
dish, dark brown, with conspicuous white or 
gray dots. In beauty of appearance, it is 
second to none of the eatable crabs. 
Wild Goose 1*1 mn. — W. 8. Bamey, Columbia, 
Tonn., (lives in the Prairie Farmer his version of 
the origin of this fruit as follows:— 1 "This plum 
originated In Davidson county, Term., six miles 
from Nashville, on the farm of Mr. E. MCOanok, 
4 what shot the goose from whose craw the seed 
was taken,’ The seed was carefully saved and 
planted the garden, where the original tree 
stands, now about fifty years old. The tree is a 
rapid grower, a sure bearer unit u long liver. 
The fruit is red, very large, bears transportation 
well, and is of excellent flavor. We consider 
ihis plum of more value in Tennessee than all 
other varieties. It ripens here about the 18tl) of 
June. It is never attacked by curctiilo.” 
from road sides, meadows or pastures fur¬ 
nishes a most excellent, and inexhaustible 
supply of fuel, if cut in dry weather and 
stored iu a dry place 
of the Irish peasant, ami makes a hot fire. 
Prairie sod, inverted with a breaking plow 
to the thickness of two or three inches, and 
cut up small enough to handle, is as good 
fuel as any one needs. In every hundred 
bushels of corn there is half a ton of cobs, 
which form most excellent and cleanly fuel. 
They are very largely used now 
Illinois, where every farmc 
shed for storing them, though this has only 
been the case within a few years. Formerly 
this valuable fuel was always thrown into 
the roads to rot or wash away. 
Peat, too, which may be found in almost 
every “sloo," as we say in the West, or bog, 
where the current of the water does not 
wash out the vegetable matter as it accumu¬ 
lates, is quite as good fuel as coal or turf. I 
first observed this in the extremely dry sum¬ 
mer of 1854 , iu traveling across the. State of 
Iowa. The emigrants always camped in the 
lowest spots, near where timber was conve¬ 
nient and where water had been, and in hun¬ 
dreds of cases bad set the carbonaceous mat¬ 
ter in these places on fire, where it burned 
for weeks and months. If this is dug out 
in dry seasons and kept in a dry place, no 
belter fuel need be wanted. Rest assured 
that if we do exterminate our forests in the 
next thousand years, which is not likely, 
plenty of substitutes will be found. A kind 
and beneficent Providence always cares for 
llis creatures, and tempers the wind to the 
shorn lamb. 
I observe that a Mr. Halleck, in the New' 
York Tribune, speaks in the highest terms 
of the white locust. In the Northwest wo 
have only the honey locust, and the black 
and yellow' variety. On referring to 
Browne’s Trees, a compilation from Lon¬ 
don, lie speaks of the white as the poorest 
variety of all. He further declares that any 
variation is only a sport, induced by differ¬ 
ence of soil or climate, as the Hydrangea oc¬ 
casionally changes its color from the same 
causes. 
Mr. Harris also describes the locust borer 
as being quite as destructive in Massachusetts 
as in the West, where it has destroyed mil¬ 
lions of trees over an immense range of 
country, and has rendered this tree useless 
for any purpose whatever except a severely 
honey-combed article of firewood. 
Iu this connection it may not he uninter¬ 
esting to your readers to know what that ar¬ 
rant humbug, William Cobbett, told bis 
British countrymen iu 1823 , nearly fifty years 
ago, about the locust. It was already quite 
abundant and w r ell known there as the Aca- 
It is the sole reliance | The time will not be far distant, seeing that 
the locust grows so fast. The next race of 
children but one, that is to say, those who 
will be born sixty years hence, will think 
that locust trees have always been the most 
numerous trees in England, and some curi¬ 
ous writer of a century or two hence will toll 
bis readers that, wonderful as it may seem, 
in Central I the locust -was introduced iuto England by 
r has his tight. J Wm. Cobbett !” 
Cobbett’s knavery was gloriously suc¬ 
cessful. lie imported the trees by ship loads, 
and the seed by tons, and when the Ameri¬ 
can supply failed, he boldly took the Acacias 
that were patiently awaiting customers hi the 
English nurseries, and palmed them off for 
the real article. Several years of course 
elapsed before the bubble burst and the im¬ 
position was detected. By that time the 
humble sergeant in the British army had 
become a rich man, and bad got into Parlia¬ 
ment. The locust is an American tree, but 
after looking at the evidence from all parts 
of the country, the conclusion is inevitable 
that it is only suited for a small region, and is 
altogether unfit for general planting. 
Doubtless your Minnesota inquirer will be 
quite disgusted when lie learns that the 
Larch is nothing but the Tamarack, so 
abundant in every swamp in his region. 
The foreign variety is of course praised as 
being far superior to the home article. The 
latter, however, is certainly good enough to 
satisfy any reasonable man. Northwest. 
Hale's Early Peach.— lig it a hardy and pro¬ 
ductive kind? Some have told me that It is sub¬ 
ject to winter-killing, and as I Intend setting' 
about five hundred lrevs in the spring, I would 
like to sot none but those that have been well 
tested.-C. B. N., North ItiOQC, N. Y. 
Wo find that the Anterioan Homological Soci¬ 
ety recommend Hale's Early Red for both East¬ 
ern and Western New York; but Hale’s Early, 
(from Ohio; Is not so recommended. Hale’s 
Early is curlier than Hale's Early lied. If any 
of our New York correspondents can answer the 
above questions from experience let them do so. 
PLANTING PEAS, 
I have been at work to-day planting peas. 
I always manure and plow my pea ground 
in the fall, so that as soon as the frost is out 
iu the spring 1 can get my peas in without 
delay. I know some assert that if the ground 
is cold they gain nothing; but my practice 
has taught me that if I want to eat early 
peas, I must plant them early. My ground 
is a sharp, coarse, sandy loam, not rich, but 
good and dry. 
I take my home and little plow, lay oft - my 
line, and plow a furrow about four or five 
inches deep. 1 then sow my peas along in 
it, and cover them by turning the next fur¬ 
row upon them, anti when 1 have plowed 
three furrows I sow again, covering as be¬ 
fore. I plant all my kinds the same day', 
and thus while my Carter's first crop are my 
earliest, McLean's Adcances follow closely, 
and these are again succeeded by Eugenia , 
Champion, &c. 
All rny garden work that I can arrange to 
do with horse labor is so arranged — long 
lines and straight, and the distance between 
plants such that cultivating can mainly be 
done with the home. Frank Amon. 
The Rebecca Grape for Market. Jo1 1 n Lowe 
asks “ Now and Then ” if it would be advisable 
to plant the Uebeecu for the New York market, 
where it succeeds, tie has an Idea that white 
grapes are not so saleable as black grapes In the 
said market. "Now and Then ’’ replies“White 
grapes are always very scarce, and in demand at 
high prices, and will be for years to como. Any 
quantity of a good, sweet white grape can be 
sold at the price of the best quality Catawba." 
The fruit is small in size, roundish, oblate, 
a little oblique iu form; color a rich dark 
red, with traces of russet, and many appar¬ 
ently rough russet dots; stalk of medium 
length for a crab, quite slender; cavity open, 
broad, deep, russetted; calyx with connected 
half recurved segments; basin broad, shal¬ 
low , distinctly corrugated next, the base of 
calyx; flesh yellowish, moderately juicy, 
mild subadd; season November and De¬ 
cember. 
Best Currants fur Herkimer Go., IV. Y.—-GKO, 
Graves. Newport, N, Y., asks what kinds of 
currants arc best for our climate. We do not 
know of any better varieties than the Rod and 
White Dutch currants. Where these varieties 
thrive —and we know they do thrive in Central 
and Eastern New York—tlicy are not exoellcd 
by any variety with which we are acquainted. 
Fourth of July anil Tetofsky Apples.—We have 
the following note from Mr. Hanford : “ It has 
been claimed by some of our prominent polito¬ 
logists, that the first is but a synonym of the hit¬ 
ter. In some works on Pomology, and some of 
our most reliable catalogues, it Inis been so suit ¬ 
ed. I t Id n k it is ft m istako, and that they are two 
distinct varieties. The first is similar,and might 
easily he mistaken one for the other, but Hie 
growth of the tree is different,—the first sending 
out long strong si toots, of very dark color; tin- 
latter short, illicit and quite red. One of our 
most noted Politologists, to whom sonic of the 
fruit was sent, fell sure it was Tctofsky, yet. on 
seeing the tree, be wrote, ‘The fruit and leaves 
are very much alike, but the wood is distinct; 
I am glad the mistake was discovered before it 
was fully made public.' Another weft known 
Politologist was at my place this summer, and 
picking some of the fruit from the tree, said he 
could easily call flic fruit Tetofsky. but the tree 
was not. Mr. Bateham always claimed that they 
were t wo distinct varieties, and comparing the 
two kinds of fruits together, says the Fourth of 
July is larger, longer and handsomer.”— Garden¬ 
er's Monthly. 
Trees for Forest Planting in N. Illinois. —The 
Nortli 111. Hort, Society recommends the fol¬ 
lowing for planting for useful purposes:—Eu¬ 
ropean Larch, Black Walnut, Butternut, Whjte, 
Red and Blue Ash, White and Burr Oak, White 
Pine, Tulip Tree, Osage Orange, Rock Elm, 
Acer Negundo, Honey Locust, For nut-bearing, 
the Black Walnut, Butternut and Shell Bark 
Hickory. For shade and ornament. White Elm, 
Silver Maple, White Ash, Tulip Tree, Mountain 
Ash and Cucumber tree. Evergreens -Norwuy 
Spruee, White Spruce, Austrian Pine, White 
Pine, Red Pine, Balsam Fir, Arbor Vita* and 
Red Cedar. We confess we cannot com prebend 
the stupidity which should omit the G’hestnut 
from every one of the above lists of deciduous 
trees. There is no tree in the list of more value 
nor more durable to plant for any purpose on 
the prairies. 
Upland Cranberry. An Illinois correspondent 
asks where tic Oun get the Upland Cranberry, 
and the price. If our correspondent asks with a 
view of planting it for profit resulting from the 
crop of fruit ii produces, he had better let it 
alone; for we never know of anybody to make 
any money by its cultivation. We do not know 
where it can be obtained, 
Strawberries for North Illinois.—The North 
Illinois Hort. Soc. recommend the following va¬ 
rieties;—For Market -Wilson, Green Prolific 
and Downer's Prolific. For Amateurs—French’s 
Seedling, McAvoy’s Superior and Extra Red. 
Lawn Grass.—A correspondent asks us about 
the best lawn grass. Peter Henderson, in his 
Practical Floriculture, recommends the follow¬ 
ing mixture of grass seed for lawns: Twelve 
quarts Rhode Island Bent Grass; four quarts 
Creeping Bent Grass; ten quarts Red Top 
Grass; three quarts Sweet Vernal Grass; two 
quarts Kentucky Blue Grass, and one quart 
White Clover. This mixture makes one bushel, 
and he recommends sowing from two to five 
bushels per acre, more seed being required on a 
poor than on a rich soil. 
Plums for Wisconsin.—{J ko. p. Puffer, in a 
recent Essay on Plums, before the Wisconsin 
State Ilort. Society, recommended the Lombard, 
Imperial and Blcekec's Gages, Duane's Purple, 
German Prune and Damson's, as hardy. 
Evergreen Thorn or Burning Bush — (Cratcrgus 
pyraeantha.)— L. Cooper, Clurkson, N. Y., sends 
us an extract from a Texas paper, which asserts 
that hedges of this plant are highly spoken of in 
the South,and are said to be far superior to the 
Osage Orange or the Cherokee Rose. Mr. Cooper 
asks about the habits Of the plant and where it 
can be obtained. It is a low, bushy plant whieh 
retains it* foliage all winter, and bears bright 
orange-scarlet berries. It may be better as a 
hedge plant in the South, where the Osage is a 
Cherries for Wisconsin.—Tlie State Hort. Soc. 
of AVIs, recommend the Early Richmond, Kent¬ 
ish and Late English Morel]o ns profitable and 
hardy cherries for general culture. 
Tompkins Go. King Apple,—L. Rogers, Edin¬ 
burg. O., asks if it be true that the Tompkins 
Co. King Apple fails to bear good crops after 
fifteen or six (ecu years of age. I lived Afty 
years within three miles of the old parent tree 
in Tompkins Co., and where one can find in 
every old orchard large trees of that variety, 
and I ne/er heard that complaint made against 
Melons and Cucumbers in the West.—OSCAR 
A. Strong, Kolfe, Rochester Co., Iowa, writes us 
that melons, cue-umbel's, etc-., are more free from 
bugs when planted on the sod of the same year’s 
breaking than if planted upon old laud; but 
they appear to be at home in either place. 
Cranberry Vines.— R. Hall, Rochester, Minn., 
asks some one to inform him where he can get 
crauberxy vines nearest his home, and the cost 
per acre. 
