JAN.28 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
57 
chiefly because the trees were planted too near 
each other. 
One of the other orchards was planted on 
good, rich land. The trees behaved much as in 
the previous case, though they bore good fruit 
in considerable quantity for some years, when 
they crowded, died or split down, and to-day, 
wheu only about twenty-eight years old, the 
orchard is of little value. On a neighboring 
farm with similar soil, another orchard was set 
at tiro same time. The latter has borne the 
most fruit and is still apparently good for many 
more years of profit to the owner. 
In ordinary good loamy soil, or in poor light 
soil, too roots of an applo tree, when fifteen 
years old, extend at least twenty-five or twenty- 
eight feet in all directions. This iB not a theory 
but a fact, aB I have repeatedly seen the roots 
as described while putting in tile or while digging 
for the purpose of examining the roots. The 
feeders of the roots—the root-hairs—are re¬ 
newed every fow weeks during the growing sea¬ 
son. The small roots from which the root-hairs 
grow are also often renewed. I mean these die, 
and others take their places or other places not 
far away. In this manner roots are all the time 
feeding on new ground. Doubtless, after a 
time, much grouud is fed over again and again. 
Hoots do not search for food as animals search 
for it, but they grow where they find the best 
soil and they will there multiply in the greatest 
abundance. 
For long-lived trees and the best results, I am 
satisfied that large varieties of apple trees 
should not bo planted nearer than forty feet, if 
they aro Bet in squares. This gives not a whit too 
much air and light for the tops and, as has been 
shown, the roots will soon occupy all the ground 
and make good use of it. While the apple trees 
are young, if desired, other crops may occupy 
the intervening spaces. I prefer to set trees in 
squares because it is the simplest plan, and be¬ 
cause it is easier for the cultivation. As men¬ 
tioned, the roots will run all through the soil, 
even crossing one another at long distances be¬ 
tween two trees. 
If the trees are of varieties which do not grow 
fast or become large, they may be planted nearer 
together than forty feet. If. like the Wagener, 
they begin to bear young and are allowed to 
bear and get ready to die by the time they are 
fifteen years old, they may be planted only 
twenty or twenty-five feet apart. Trees are 
often injured by planting too closely, seldom by 
having too much room. One tree does not pro- 
teot another by growing very near it. On the 
contrary, one robs the other. Our strongest, 
finest ornameutal and forest trees grow in open 
spaces where there is plenty of room and whore 
the soil and climate are suited to their natures. 
-- 
PEAR TREES AS OBLIQUE CORDONS. 
Gen. n. W. Sarcient, at Fishkill Landing, N. 
Y., has a largo number of these cordons border¬ 
ing the quarters of his kitchen garden. In this 
way an immense variety in a small space is under 
complete control as regards pruning, disbud¬ 
ding, thinning the fruit, Ac. The General re¬ 
marks “ It is not quantity, but quality 1 want. 
During the pear season there is an abuudauoe 
of other fruits, so that I can afford to grow but 
a fow pears on each tree, and have them of the 
very best quality." 
As many of your readers may be uxiacquaiuted 
with “cordon training," I will endeavor to ex¬ 
plain. In the United States our excellent sunny 
summers ripen the fruits on standard trees so 
thoroughly and satisfactorily, that artificial 
training of tho trees for a maturing end, is sel¬ 
dom needed and not often practiced ; but never¬ 
theless, such training has its advantages. Well 
then, oblique cordous are trees of one stem 
trained at an angle of 55 to 75 —as suits the 
grower—to a trellis, as is often done with grape 
vines. The tree# are planted eighteen to thirty- 
six inches apart, the one leaning, as it were, 
over the other thus— fill. 
Thus it will be seen, a great many kinds, if 
required, may be grown in one row, and they 
are as much under command ss a currant busli 
or grape vine would be. If all tho fruits they 
“ set” were allowed to ripen, the trees would 
boou be ruined and the principle of the system 
abused; only a four—say one to six, according 
to the size and strength of the tree, should be 
permitted to remain to mature, and depend upon 
it, those will be line. To take any sort of a pear 
tree and mako a cordon out of it, would be buy¬ 
ing experience dearly—at the loss of time, care 
of tree, and the misery of disappointment in 
the bargain. I would advise those who wish to 
try the system, to purchase one-year-old trees 
for oblique cordous directly from some respon¬ 
sible nurseryman, and see that you get strong, 
healthy, well-rooted plants. 
Plant them at your ohoaen distance, cut back 
the stem for one-third or oue-balf its length, to 
a plump wood-bud facing front, and tie the 
stumps in position. Sevei‘al shoots will start 
into growth, but as soon as they grow four to 
five buds long, shorten them all (but the top one, 
and that don’t touch.) to the third joint; and 
if they grow again from these lateral spurs, 
shorten again to one loaf, and if necessary, 
pinch the point of the main or top shoot. In 
September, cut back tbe end shoot to one-half 
or two-thirds its length, and finish whatever 
pruning is necessary on the spurs. Proceed in 
this way till the desired bight is attained, then 
cut over the end shoot and cast all vigor into the 
fruit-spurs. Never allow a side-shoot to grow. 
In after years, instead of continuing thia 
“fore-shortening,” “disbudding” will bo mostly 
resorted to ; that is, when sufficient fruit-spurs 
are secured, instead of pinching, as in earlier 
years, the shoots had better be rubbed off when 
they grow about au inch long. 
Cordons are most applicable to amateurs who 
are interested in fruit trees, and who have only 
a small town lot or suburban garden in which to 
develop their hobby. This system is much prac¬ 
ticed in France and Britain. w. F. 
J'loriciiltitral. 
BULBS EOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
W. O. L. DREW. 
CYCLOBOTHERA. 
Tuk Cyclobotheras are new introductions among 
tho bulbous plants, which, for genuine beauty, 
leaving out the question of fragrance, have no 
superiors among that class of plants. 
They are natives of tho State of California 
where among the foot-hills Of the Sierra Nevada, 
they grow in the greatest luxuriance. When in 
bloom, none of our many wild flowers are so 
highly prized as the chaste Cyclobothera, and 
none are so easily gathered by the exulting bot¬ 
anist or frolicksome child. 
The bulb, which is small in all the varieties, 
is in form and outline like those of the Tulips; 
the neck is very fiue and small, swelling towards 
the center, where at its greatest circumference, 
it is from a quarter to a half an inch in diame¬ 
ter, varying in depth from three-quarters of 
an inch to an iuoh. The bulbs, although so 
small, are always found very deep in the ground, 
never less than four inches, but often eight to 
ten inches, at which depth they flourish the 
best. As the varieties differ considerably, it 
will be necessary to describe each separately. 
Cyclobothera elegans is a variety more abund¬ 
ant than any others. It grows from six to ten 
inches high; the leaves are of a dark, metallic 
green color, averaging iu length one foot. 
Each bulb produces from three to eight cup¬ 
shaped flowers, the perianth being composed of 
three large petal-like, and three smaller sepal¬ 
like appendages, the larger ones being thickly 
covered with Bhort lxaira whioh give them a vel¬ 
vety appearance. In color, the flower is bright, 
shiniug yellow throughout, being one of the 
most intense yellows I have ever beheld in the 
floral world. It grows in common soil, doing 
best iii slight shade. It flowers from April to 
June, coming earlier than Snowdrops and lasting 
much louger, 
Cyclobothera alba is the gem of the family. 
It grows from one and a half to tbrwe feet high, 
the leaves are a bright shining green, from one 
to three feet long. The flowers are produced 
along the stem, each of the latter producing from 
four to twelve blossoms. The flowers are iu 
shape like those of C. elegans, but iustoad of 
being erect as iu that variety, they are of a 
drooping habit, like those of the Crown Imper¬ 
ial, whioh they resemble. In color, they aro 
pure, pearly white. They are about one inch 
long and the same in diameter at the mouth. 
They grow always in the shaile of trees, liking 
moist, rich soil iu whioh they luxuriate. If I 
could have only one choice between these and 
the royal Hyacinth, I would take Cyclobothera 
alba three to one. Can I give it higher praise ? 
Flowers from May to July. 
Cyclobothera purpurea has similar flowers to 
C. alba, but in color, while of a pure white on the 
outside, they are purplish within, otherwise it re¬ 
sembles alba. 
C. pulchella is a scarce variety, resembling C. 
elegans. In color the flowers are delicate cream. 
It grows one foot high. 
C. rubra is tho least known of all varieties; 
it is very scarce; color, a clear rose tinge 
throughout. It grows one and a half feet high. 
A charming variety only to be seen to be cov¬ 
eted. 
If you waut a flower for bouquets, for garden 
decoration, for lawn decoration, for vase, or for 
cemetery purposes, try the Cyclobotheras. 
-• ♦ ♦ 
WORMS IN FLOWER POTS. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Earth-worms do frightful mischief in flower¬ 
pots. They turn the soil out or break the roots, 
deposit humus iu impermeable and sour masses, 
clog the drainage, and thus prevent a healthy 
percolation and ready escape of water. Their 
presence is easily detected by the upraised excre¬ 
ments on the surface of the soil, by which 
can be known whether the worms be big or little 
fellows. If they be big worms, I would water 
the plants—that is tho soil in the pots—iu the 
morning, and in the afternoon turn it out of 
the pot, preserving the ball intact; most likely 
the worm will be visible on the ontsido when it 
should he firmly caught hold of and pulled out 
slowly. If it be done with a jerk you aro likely 
to break tbe worm, for as soon as it feels itself 
caught it pulls back. A better way perhaps is, 
after watering the plants, to tap the pots on a 
table, bench, or anything else that is solid till 
the intruders come to the surface to recon¬ 
noitre, which they will soon do. Don’t clutch at 
the worm immediately you see it, else it may give 
you its head but retreat with its body ; hut let it 
get half way out aud then catch it. 
A little lime-water applied now aud again to 
the soil, makes the depredators uneasy aud leave, 
but in the case of Camellias, Rhododendrons and 
some other evergreens, lime is almost as de¬ 
structive to plants as to worms. A little soot- 
water answers the same purpose aud is not ob¬ 
jectionable to most plants but, on the contrary, 
it acts as a stimulanc. 
If the earth iu the pots he so perforated and 
the drainage clogged, as to render the.mass un¬ 
healthy, it is best to turn the plants out of the 
pots, remote the worms and a goodly portion of 
the sour earth, and re-pot, using a comparative¬ 
ly email but clean aud well-drained pot. Flower¬ 
pots containing plants, stood cm the ground out 
of doors, aro a certain trap for worms. Pots 
should always have a piece of slate or wood, 
some coal ashes, or other preventive of ingress, 
right under them. Worms are also often intro¬ 
duced in the soil to tho pots, particularly so in 
the case of manure or leaf soil ; therefore, iu re¬ 
potting your plants, be careful to pick out and 
discard every living creature you find in tbe 
oarth you are about to use. 
^rborimliuntl, 
A FEW CHOICE EVERGREENS. 
SAMUEL PARSONS. 
The depth of winter would seem hardly a 
suitable time for selecting evergreens; but the 
appearance of the lawn owes, at this season, so 
much to evergreens and there is so much leisure 
now r.oluok up the matter that we feel incliued 
to briefly call attention to the subject. Of 
course, tbe solid frame-work of lawn groupings 
must be constructed from the cheaper, more 
rapid growing aud massive pines and spruces. 
These, arranged iu belts, the individuals of 
which fill up the vacant spaces of either row in 
alternate fashion, will serve to shelter from 
winds, protect more precious plantations, and 
early give character and effect to landscape 
viewed as a whole. All this is, however, gen¬ 
erally studied in constructing any well arranged 
lawn. The evergreens which we wish to notice 
just now, possess a more marked individuality 
and lasting nature. They neither lose their 
beauty in a few years, nor occupy after a time 
so much space on the lawn as to mako them rel¬ 
atively monstrosities. Many such varieties 
may be selected of decided beauty and value, 
but it will bo found after all that but two or 
three varieties of each species really possess the 
desired qualifications. Nor would we embrace 
every well-kuQiyn species of evergreen in this 
selection, for neither the Yew nor the Chinese 
Arbor Vitie fall quite within our category. 
Experience, thus far, decidedly indicates the 
Couical spruce as entitled to the highest rank 
among popular evergreens. And it has become 
popular not from an extreme pre-eminence in 
beauty, but from the possession of a high aver¬ 
age of useful and attractive qualities. Every 
one, moreover, knows the Norway spruce and 
values it; the Conical spruce, therefore, inde¬ 
pendent of its own intrinsic value, obtains a cer¬ 
tain favor at once from its being simply a sym¬ 
metrical Norway spruce of dwarf, permanent 
habit. The Weeping spruce is quite as valuable 
a tree as the Conical spruce, and is only less 
popular, because less familiar iu its forms, which 
also, though picturesque aud graceful, fail iu 
that charm possessed by perfect symmetry for 
the popular eye. These forms, however, weep¬ 
ing uml hugging the stem in the most irregular 
masses, must always constitute it one of the best 
of drooping evergreens. 
Tbe Oriental spruce is the very best of all 
spruces, if people did but know it. Unfortu¬ 
nately while young, it resembles the Norway, 
lacking somewhat of that spiuce’s early vigor. 
As age increases, it develops more rapidly, and 
finally iu no great time towers into a solid mass 
of dark, lustrous foliage possessing a very pecu¬ 
liar beauty aud marked character on the lawn. 
It is, moreover, extremely enduring and hardy. 
While tbe spruce is perhaps the most invar¬ 
iably enduring of evergreens, the Piceas or 
Silver Firs excel all iu beauty. For Bolid gran¬ 
deur, and unfailing attraction the Nordmau’s 
Silver Fir is almost without a peer. Very sym¬ 
metrical, with shining dark-green foliage, re¬ 
vealing light-blue shades on the under sides of 
the leaves, it wants but one quality to render it 
the finest of evergreens, and that is the power of 
retaining unaided a general shapeliness through 
life. The central leader will push up with a 
rapidity that is apt to destroy a proper and well 
filled base. An occasional pruning of the ram¬ 
pant leader will, however, curb thiB injurious ten¬ 
dency. 
The Weeping Silver Fir is not as picturesque 
in its forms as the Weeping spruce, because it is 
rounder and more compact, but much surpasses 
it in perfect curves and shining rich foliage. 
The Dwarf Silver Fir is the hardiest of a spe¬ 
cies the other members of which scarcely equal 
in hardiness those of the spruce .family. Its 
compact form and rich foliage are also most at¬ 
tractive. 
The Retiuosporas, not long fairly introduced 
to America, are worthy of very particular atten¬ 
tion. Their forms and colors are most varied 
and their fern-like grace is unsurpassed. Quite 
hardy and of compact habit, it is strange they 
are not better known. Chief among them are 
pisifera and obtuse. Ode, termed plnmosa aurea, 
(said, however, to be simply a form of pisifera), 
has great value for its rich golden hue retained 
and even deepened throughout the fall and 
winter. The queen of alt evergreens is the 
Weeping Hemlock. Its graceful sprays have a 
permanent beauty that we only see equaled, in 
a fleeting way, by some stray form of common 
hemlock. Not less striking, in its way, is the 
broad-leaved Hemlock, tbe dark, massive foliage 
of which contrasts finely with the Golden Reti- 
nospora. 
These meager notes are not intended to indi¬ 
cate by any means a cumplete list of desirable 
evergreens, but ouly such as no lawn oau afford 
to be without. It is to be hoped that the taste 
for acquiring full collections of tine evergreens 
may continue to grow iu the future as it has in 
the recent past. We may then expect to event¬ 
ually see even the humblest homes intelligently 
decorated with trim, graceful evergreens prop¬ 
erly adapted by nature to the size and character 
of their surroundings. Few realize tbe attraction 
that might in this way be lent to many a place 
now forlorn with ragged spruces and pines, and 
unkempt flowering shrubs. 
PAMPHLETS &c. RECEIVED. 
Mr. T. C. Evans, Boston, Mass., has issued 
his hand-book for 1878. It is very attractively 
gotten up, the list appears conveniently ar¬ 
ranged, aud the press work so neat that it must 
prove of great benefit as a reference book. Mr. 
Evans’ long aud successful experience as an ad¬ 
vertising agent has been utilized in the book be¬ 
fore us, and we cordially recommend it to adver¬ 
tisers seeking trustworthy mediums. 
Union Mektinu of Farmers. —Arrangements 
are in progress for a general agricultural meet¬ 
ing on Wednesday aud Thursday Jan. 30 and 31 
at the City Hall, Manchester, N, H. 
The design of the originators of the meeting 
is to include all horticultural and agricultural 
organization in the State, Granges, Farmers’ 
Clubs, Town aud Local Associations, County and 
State Societies, the Board of Agriculture, and 
the Agricultural College. 
W. W. Sharpe & Co‘s. Catalogue of news¬ 
papers, magazines, Ac. The fifty-five pages of 
well arranged lists uf periodicals between the 
covers of this hand-book embrace about all the 
information an advertiser can reasonably ask 
for. In view of suoh books as the one under 
notice, it would seem strauge that a business 
man could spend money in advertising inj udici- 
ously. as to the firm, a loug aud pleasant busi¬ 
ness experience enables us to indorse them 
heartily. They are as corn-toons as their esti¬ 
mates are reasonable, and if they err, it is on 
the side of generosity. 
E. 0. Williams the recording secretary of the 
New Jersey State Hort. Society informs ns that 
the Third Aunual Meeting will be held in Geo 
logical Hall, New Biuuswick, Feb. 6th aud 7th, 
at 10 o’clock, A. M. The following subjects 
have been proposed for discussion : 
Pear culture, in its present condition as a 
profitable pursuit; Pear blight, results of an¬ 
other season’s observation ; Raspberry culture, 
best methods and varieties; Tree planting, for 
shelter and the roadside, and best trees for tho 
purpose; Our small birds, is tbeir destruction 
justifiable ; Peach culture, a d best varieties for 
New Jersey; Our native uuts. their cultivation 
and commercial value ; Upland cranberries, has 
their cultivation proved profitable; Old-fash¬ 
ioned flowers. 
All who are iu any way interested—if only to 
the extent of a city lot—are cordially invited to 
be present and take part in the proceedings. 
