FEB. 23 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
labor in every way possible; to his habit of keep¬ 
ing good stock and avoiding fancy prices when 
purchasing. 
--. 
CONTENT ON THE FARM. 
My June pullets, thirty-five in number, com¬ 
menced laying about the 1st of December and 
averaged about two dozen eggs 
each day until within three 
weeks ago when eggs went 
down. Then my poultry, think¬ 
ing it did not pay for the wear 
and tear, dropped very suddenly 
to three or four eggs a day. 
They have now recommenced 
laying abundantly and I shall 
consequently expect to see the 
egg market improve. I feed 
buckwheat and oats and corn 
and clam-shells, all they want, 
and plenty of clean water. 
I keep ten cow's: they have 
made two hundred pounds of 
butter since the first of Decem¬ 
ber, aro looking well and are 
coming in in March. I feed 
twice a day, once in the yard 
and once in the stable. I like 
to have my cows run out in the 
day-time, unless stormy or very 
windy. I think cattle are stron¬ 
ger if wintered in this way. I 
feed corn-stalks and two quarts 
of Indian meal and buckwheat- 
bran mixed, mornings; and at 
night, all the hay they will eat 
and the same feed of grain. I 
have farmed thirteen years and 
never had a sick cow in the 
spring. My hogs get all sur¬ 
plus milk and I think do much 
better thau if fed on clear 
grain. 
I have seven hundred fruit 
trees and to protect them from 
the mice in the winter, my little 
boy goes ahead with a pick 
and loosens the ground, and 
then I follow with a hoe and 
cloar from around the tree ev¬ 
erything wherein mice can hur- 
bor, and pile around oach tree 
a little mound of clear dirt 
about three inches high. More¬ 
over, I take a wire and sharp * 
knife along with me and clean 
out every grub. Tins work I 
do about the middle of Sep¬ 
tember, and I am never troub¬ 
led with either mice or grubs. 
My trees Lave been set from 
two to ten years, and in that 
time I have lost only one tree 
through the ravages of mice. 
This, of course, requires some 
labor; but as some woittiy has 
said, you can’t get something 
from nothing. A little labor 
laid out at the right time, saves 
a good deal of money and 
trouble. I hato to lie awake at 
night and think that mice and 
grubs are undoiug what I have 
tried to accomplish. 
Now, just one word for the birds. I think 
they are my greatest friends. Nothing makes 
my children more happy than the return of 
these feathered wanderers. They are harbing¬ 
ers of the summer days, aud they follow me as I 
turn the furrow, and clean my land as well as 
the trees of all the posts they can get at. I have 
never been in the Jaw business, but if I should 
see anybody on my premises shooting birds, I 
think I should give him a doso of Blackstorm. I 
am happy in farming and think all farmers 
would be bo, if they worked more and grumbled 
les r 8 ‘ W. H. Ingalls. 
tureen County, N. Y. 
iioritcttdttral, 
A WORD TO INQUIRING FRIENDS. 
In sending specimens of plants for name, 
some of our friends merely forward a blossom, 
and a more charming spring plant we hardly 
know. It is quite hardy, will take care of itself 
if given half a chance, and cannot fail to please 
any lover of flowers. 
The plant is from the north of China, and is a 
herbaceous perennial. The flowers aro much 
like thoso of the biennial vine, Adlumia cirrhosa 
(Climbing Fumitoiy, Alleghany Vine,) with which 
BUY GOOD LAND. 
In buying farms there are usually many things 
to bo considered, the size of the purse, nearness 
to market, good water, healthful climate etc. In 
visiting many portions of several or the Northern 
states, we have usually found the people most 
prosperous where the land was the best. There 
wo find the best houses and the best barns 
among itio farmers. A lean soil supports far¬ 
mers who aro unable to build fine houses and 
barns. To till laud costB a good deal. To grade 
H and take out stumps also often require much 
jabor. I have concluded that enough attention 
has not been paid to the subject while hunting 
hL* Fit, ° tmm of *be best soil are 
bom at high prices, but I think they are cheaper 
ban poor land at any price, if they aro inttiul- 
or most kinds of farming, and for similar 
oasonskndof medium quality is also dearer 
an good land at any price. w. j. b. 
liLJDKDING IIEABT-D1CENTRA J3MSC3T.A.BI11.IS. 
a leaf, a seed or even a piece of stalk. It would 
be well in bucL cases, to bear in mind Iho multi¬ 
tudinous genera, species and varieties of vege¬ 
tation. many of which iu one or more of these 
particulars so closely resemble each other that 
several points of comparison must bo instituted 
between them in order to distinguish one from 
the other. Itence, a leaf and a blossom should 
always be remitted to uh to henre a satisfactory 
answer to a query in this connection. In this 
matter, as in all others connected with agricul¬ 
ture, horticulture, and kiudred subjects, we shall 
bo happy at all times to furnish the beBt infor¬ 
mation to inquiring friends. F,ntomoIogy also is 
yearly becoming a subject of greater interest 
and importance to the farmer, and the necessity 
is constantly growing more urgent that he should 
make this a subject of study aud attention. All 
inquiries connected with this department of 
knowledge shall secure prompt attention through 
onr columns, and we cordially invite our friends 
to send us specimens of all insects about which 
they may desire to obtain information. 
■-- 
f ur friend may bo familiar. But they are far 
prettier, the white and Lright rosy-pink flowers 
adoruiug the graceful sprays of foliage like so 
many heart-shape gems. The foliage appears 
in April and the flowers in May. The roots may 
be allowed to remain in the same place for sev¬ 
eral years, when they will form large masses 
that few of the treasures of the floral world can 
equal. 
To those who have seen this plant from child¬ 
hood, in almost every garden of the neighbor¬ 
hood, the above may seem extravagant praise, 
while, if they set eyes upon it for the first 
time they would find it difficult to framo their 
admiration of it in fitting words. 
To the botanist, the flowers are especially in¬ 
teresting, and a study of the manner in which 
the Htigmas are pollenated will repay the young 
studeut. 
BLEEDING HEART. 
Will yon tell mo what plant is meant by 
Bleediug Heart ? Would it be hardy here ? Is 
it a shrub or a root ? Would you advise me to 
purchase a plant ? E c . A 
Meadvllle, Pa. 
\\ o furnish, for the benefit of our inquirer, a 
very accurate sketch of what is generally known 
as Bleeding Heart, sketched from life by Mr. 
Hocustein, years ago. Dicentra spectabilis, 
(sometimes Dielytra s.) is the botanical name, 
-♦♦♦- 
SLITTING THE BARK OF HIDE-BOUND 
TREES. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
This is a tender question and one to which 
there may bo two sides ; and with due defer¬ 
ence to your scientific correspondents who, with 
the Rural, have adopted the negative, I must, 
in justice to my own practice and observation, 
assume the afiirmative. Of the existence of 
hide-bound trees I am perfectly satisfied, and 
the writings and teachings of our most noted 
modern physiological botanists prove scientific¬ 
ally what 1 have noted practically. That the 
slitting of the bark does relieve trees so affect¬ 
ed I have proved to myself beyond a doubt; 
however, I do not mean to dictate to others, but 
merely relate my own experience. 
Trees growing under natural conditions, as by 
the way-sides or in the fields and woods and not 
subject to artificial pruning and training, are 
less liable to this ailment than are cultivated 
trees—the members of onr gardens and orch¬ 
ards. Grafted, budded, and clean-stemmed 
trees are the most subject, and 
trees that havo been firmly sup¬ 
ported by the help of stakes 
from their early youth, are more 
liable to become hide-bonnd 
than those that have been al¬ 
lowed to support themselves. 
As your other correspondents 
have called attention to this sub¬ 
ject as regards nut-door trees, 
permit me to notice it respect¬ 
ing trees cultivated in glass¬ 
houses, aud which from their 
artificial conditions of growth 
are very liable to become hide¬ 
bound. 
In the United States we know 
little of fruit-growing under 
glass, because our nut-door con¬ 
ditions are so favorable; but 
in Europe the cultivation of 
Peach, Nectarine .Apricot, Plum, 
Cherry, and the finer kinds of 
pear trees in orchard-houses, is 
one of the most particular 
branches of horticulture. No 
matter what-like the season uisy 
he, out-of-door gardeners are 
expected to annnally reap from 
the orchard - bouses the very 
finest fruits, and heavy crops of 
them. With this end in view, 
they make it a point to keep 
their trees iu the best condition, 
both as regards roots and crops; 
in fact, nothing is left undone 
that money aud skill can do. 
Let ns take the Poach for in¬ 
stance. The Peach trees are 
budded on Plnui stocks, and 
mostly grown iu inside borders 
and in pots, those iu borders 
oftentimes living to the ago of 
30 or 50 years and over, as may 
be seen at the Earl of Strat¬ 
ford’s gardens at Barnet. Dur¬ 
ing a few years of their youth¬ 
ful career the trees, in growth 
and iu fruitfulness, are usually 
&U that can be desired ; but 
afti r a time the diameter of the 
peach stem may considerably 
exceed that of the plum stem 
with a knoh or hood at the 
union. Gardeners who know 
their business, never permit this 
difference to attain an injurious 
degree, bnt timely correct tbo 
matter by slitting the bark of 
the plum stem, and thus secur¬ 
ing the desired end—a greater 
and more proportionate pass¬ 
age-way for the conduction of 
food from the roots to the tops. 
Referring to *• the great as¬ 
sistance, to the increase in diam¬ 
eter of trees,afforded by the dim¬ 
inution of the pressure of the baik on the cam¬ 
bium," we find in “ Sachs’ Morphological and 
Physiological Botany,”—The bark of young 
trees is split from above downwards iu summer; 
cushions of wood are formed at the edges of the 
incisions, which soon closo up the wounds. The 
use of this process is that from Lhe more rapid 
increase of tho wood in thickness, tho conduc¬ 
tion of water to the leaves becomes more oopi- 
ons, aud the low by transpiration is more easily 
replaced. The development of the buds and 
hcnco tho formation of the organs of as¬ 
similation will bo promoted by the increase 
of turgidity in tho young branches." That the 
narrowness of the plum stem would beneficially 
affect the poach trees grown under glass, by 
curtailing their wood-luxuriance, wonld be a 
libel on gardeners , for once their trees begin to 
fruit, they practico other aud better means of 
regulating growth. 
The effect of the evil of the hide-bound tree 
is first observable iu debility of the leaves aud 
young wood, a tendency to drop more fruit than 
healthy trees usually do, and inability to satis¬ 
factorily mature in quality and quantity the 
fruits that remain. Two notable examples—one 
at Glapham, and the other at Twickenham—of 
the evil of •‘hide-bonnd” iu peach-trees came 
under my notice some years ago. In both cases 
the gardeners—green-house men who knew 
uothiug of fruit-culture—were averse to slitting 
the bark because it was contrary to their ideas 
of physiology. “And if Camclias and if Azale¬ 
as—both 1 worked plants wore shrouded in 
blooms without slitting, why shouldn't tho 
peach-trees ripen good fruit with equal immuni¬ 
ty ? ’ But they didn't, aud instead annually be- 
