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VOL. XXVIII. No. 13.1. 
WHOLE No. 1235. ) 
fPRICE Six CENTS 
1 $2.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1373, by D. D. 
Moore, In the oiBco of the Librarian of Congress, pt Washington.] 
of Juno (the longest day) these gentlemen 
went through many long rows in the orchard 
and girdled eveiy other tree just below the 
limbs, by cutting around carefully through 
the bark, without disturbing the inner coat¬ 
ing (or wlmft is termed albumen), pealing the 
bark down about eight inches. This process, 
if well done, will Lu the course of the season 
form a lino new burk, which is supposed to 
do no harm to the tree. The effect is so pal¬ 
pable that 1 beheld with surprise and delight 
every other tree loaded down with apples, 
while those not girdled had few if any apples 
on them. So well am I satisfied of its bene¬ 
fits that if there wore a hundred trees in my 
orchard that, were tardy in fruit boaring I 
should not hesitate to girdle every one of the 
number. H. N. Langworthy. 
Rochester, N. Y., Sopt. 15,1873. 
nuts, repeated washings and triturating will 
rid them of their bitter and acrid principle, 
leaving the fecuia in an eatable state ; the 
only question being that of the cost of the 
labor required for these operations.— -Fredk. 
Palmer, Versailles. 
ing is the best wash that can be applied to 
promote growth and prevent moss. Moss 
will not accumulate on trees that are grow ¬ 
ing rupidly. An apple or peach tree will 
grow finely on soil that will not produce corn 
or potatoes, by plowing throe or four times 
through the summer ; and you can get well 
paid for the cultivation by planting corn or 
potatoes in your orchard. If the soil is too 
thin to produce a good crop, and manure 
scarce, manure in the hill, t do not think it 
uoeessary to plow trees t he first year set, but 
mulch. Plow after that regularly until large 
enough to bear ; then sow in clover. 
Trimble Co., Ky. Ben. Morris. 
THE ARECA PALM 
Few, if any, of the noble family of Palms 
present a more lovely or graceful appearance, 
than the Areca Paltn (Areca Catechu), nor 
does any other Palm perform a more import¬ 
ant part in reference to the manners and cus¬ 
toms of the peopio of Southern and Western 
India than this does. It is a necessary ad¬ 
junct to ©very Cingalese aud Indian village 
wherever it, will grow; but being naturally a 
UNFRUITFUL vs. FRUITFUL APPLE 
TREES. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of September 
13t,h your attention was called to the cause 
and remedy of unfruitful apple trees, by 
Fred. Ckllkm, Kalamazoo, Mich. Although 
yon could not answer his request without 
being wise beyond your day and generation, 
yet there are new developments of the laws 
of vegetable physiology In our day that are 
of great value to the rural profession. 
A few days since, while visiting my friends, 
M. I. Babcock and son, in the town of 
Brighton, who arc largely engaged in fruit 
growing and farming generally, my atten¬ 
tion was called to a most useful experiment 
in one of their largest orchards (of a few less 
than a thousand trees), for the purpose of 
In some of increasing their bearing habits. The modus 
s unproduc- operandi was after this sort:—rn the month 
BOXWOOD 
Will you be so kind as to give me some 
information about boxwood ? By some it is 
considered to be very unhealthy.— Bedford. 
We can scarcely determine from your 
Wb are reading, frequently, in the various questions what kind of information you do- 
agricultural papers of numerous prepara- sire. There, are many species of Box 
ticris to promote the growth and remove the (/Li.cus), native of New Holland, China and 
moss from off fruit trees. From my oxperi- Great Britain. Some are mereiy small, dwarl’ 
enoe (I have five thousand apple trees set shrubs, while others grow to a size sufii- 
from 3 to 5 years), 1 find that thorough plow- oiently large to be termed trees, liko the 
__ liuxus arbwrescena, the wood of which is so 
=Slll£fejv extensively used by engravers. We never 
N. heard of un instance where any one suffered 
\ any deleterious offset by coming iu contact 
^ with boxwood, or that the plants were in 
3 junous to health. It may bo that your in- 
: ■» , quiry refers to some other kind of plant, and 
L ^ not to the^true boxwoods. 
MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARD TREES, 
ORIGIN OF THE NAME HORSE CHEST 
NUT. 
The following curious derivation of the 
name Horse Chestnut sEsculus Hippoc.asta- 
num) an well as the fact giving rise to it, may |J 
possibly be as new to others as it was to me, ^ 
particularly as neither Loudon in his “ Ency¬ 
clopaedia, ,J nor any French book on the sub¬ 
ject, that I have seen, makes any mention of 
it. On examining, cither with or without a 
glass, the mark left by the leaf stalk after its 
fall, a very distinct impression of a horae = 
shoe imbedded in tho bark may be observed, 
bearing in relief seven dots, simulating the 
heads of as many nails. This mark assumes 31 
much more accurately the shape of the horse 9 
shoe on the twigs of last year’s growth than ® 
on older wood. This derivation seems much fj 
less “ fur-fetched” than the two following, H 
given by Loudon : —“ It is said by some to be s 
applied ironically ; the nuts, though having § 
the appearance of sweet Chestnuts, being 
only lit for horses ; and by some others, be- iff 
cause the nubs are used in Turkey for curing =? 
horses of pulmonaiy diseases.” If fit for any g 
animals, ILorse Chestnuts are more likely to S 
be called only lit for pigs. First, because the 1 
irony would be so much the greater; and, H 
secondly, because horses do not eat them I 
w illin gly As to their use in the medical line, I 
it is possible that Turks, being no great doc- 3 
tors, may administer them to consumptive I 
horses, but they can hardly be of much use £ 
in lung complaints, as their only medicinal ^ 
property recognized in civilized pbarmaco fl 
peia, ig that of a tonic, and, as such, the I 
tincture of Hors© Chestnuts, is sometimes II 
given for gastralgia. The. oil of Horse Chest- I 
nuts was, a few years ago, greatly puffed up j i 
In Paris as a cure for gout; it was applied H 
externally, but of little or no use, and is now I 
considered merely as a quack medicine. 
Starch 3eems to be the best product of these 
nuts, but somehow the manufacture of it haB 
never paid in this country, although Horse 
Chestnuts may be had almost everywhere 
for the mere gathering. Like Cassava (or Is 
Manioc) and many other feculent roots or 
ARBORICULTURAL NOTES 
Torch Pruning in Summer is practiced 
when it seems desirable to shorten branches 
ori large treea whoso innovations upon their 
neighbors render it apparently necessary to 
■xit them down. This is done, by some urbor- 
culturists, by means of a long bamboo cane 
with a torch affixed to its tip, upon a contin¬ 
uation of stiff wire for the last half-ell. The 
present season of midsummer is the time at 
which to operate. The torch is merely a 
bunch of cotton or linen rags dipped in oil. 
By means of it we can easily shrivel up, 
light, and destroy the foliage for over two 
►r three or more feet at the extremity of a 
ide-braneh, although it may be thirty or 
orty feet above our heads. In the follow¬ 
ing Bpring such extremities will be seen to 
bB either quite dead or nearly so ; and the 
. iteral advance of the offending limb of the 
ree will have been effectually cheeked. 
A. S. writes : “If 
| Plaguing Stone Fruits, 
>u plant the pit of a peach, plum or cherry, 
. ill it produce the same variety of fruit; if 
>t, can you graft it with any fruit of the 
iime kind ? Can you graft a garden cherry 
o i a wild cherry.” No, the product of the 
pit of tlio peach, plum or cherry will not 
1 always produce the same variety. It some- 
’ i lines does, but not often. To both question* 
( about grafting, we answer yes ; but in the 
ease of grafting cherries, some of the culti- 
■ated sorts make w ood so much faster than 
. t ic wild cherry, that it is better- to root graft. 
Osage Orange J ledge .—I have some Osage 
j Orange hedging, set last spring. Can you, 
[ or some of your corn,pendents, tell me how 
1 to manage it through the winter—whether 
K it needs any protection or not?—W m. C., 
I Cicero, Ind. 
[j It needs no management. Let it alone ; if 
the winter nips i* it will grow again, gener 
ally, the following spring. 
