§06 
this is true, yet great complaints are made 
that the laterals winter-kill when the tips of 
canes are broken. The tendency in such cases 
seems to be to a too late growth of laterals to 
ripen thoroughly. After many experiments, the 
better class of growers in Southern Jersey are 
abandoning this system and allowing the earn s 
to grow unchecked, pruning in the earlySpring. 
The fruit may not be quite as large and fine, 
but the cane withstands the Winter much 
better. Many varieties that are tender if 
Summer pinched, go through the Winter well 
when not so treated. J. B. Rogers. 
Essex Co., N. J. 
b o rich Itural 
FOREST EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
M. 1 avallee's Work in France. 
DU. JOHN A. WARDER. 
The library at Segrez contains about 12.000 
volumes especially devoted to woody plants, 
and is a worthy companion to the extensive 
collections to which it is a fitting and neces¬ 
sary complementary part. A special herba¬ 
rium, made by M. Lavallee, contains about 
0,000 specimens, and a general herbarium by 
Desvaux contains more than 40,000 plants. 
) he park of Segrez had contained some old 
trees, but they were without scientific inter¬ 
est. All the plantations and nurseries have 
been made by the present proprietor. In 1877, 
when the catalogue was published, it contained 
4,207) s|>ecie.s and varieties, all marked and 
studied. Siuco that time them numbers have 
been constantly increasing, and now amount 
to 0,500 species and varieties, and 500 to 000 
new kinds are added each year. Such is the 
grand laboratory of horticulture which M. 
Lavallee has organized and built up, until it 
has deservedly attained a world wide reputa¬ 
tion. Tlio creation and maintenance of so 
grea t a work have met with innumerable dif- 
► 
Acuities; indeed, it has not only required great 
material resources, profound erudition,and ex¬ 
tended knowledge of botany, but also long 
practice in tree-culture to know, or even to 
guess at, the tastes and needs of each plant. 
Some require to be grouped, to live iu fami¬ 
lies, such as the Liquidambar, the Sugar Ma¬ 
ple, the Nettle Tree; others, on the contrary) 
such as the Walnuts, prefer isolation away 
from others of their kind, to produce and to 
display their full development. A humid soil 
suits some trees, while others thrive on that 
which is very dry, and so on. 
The proprietor has, however, had to foresee 
and to surmount al I difficulties. By a singular 
coincidence his family had long possessed Tou¬ 
voye, where Rene de Bellay, Bishop of Mans, 
had collected a large number of trees in the 
sixteenth century, that had been brought to 
him by the famous botanist 1’eter Belon. The 
garden of Touvoye was at that time richer 
and more beautiful t han any in France, Ger¬ 
many or Italy. In the catalogue of his collec¬ 
tions at Segrez, M. Lavallee gives interest¬ 
ing details respecting the trees of Touvoye, 
now destroyed, and also those of Trianon, the 
work of A. Richard, uncle arid grand-uucle of 
the botanists bearing his name, those of 
Miehaon and others, bred especially of the 
rich collection of LOW shrubs made by the 
celebrated Academician Du Ilaunel du Man- 
eau on his domains of Veiguy, of Monceau 
and Denaiuvilliers. 
We do not sufficiently appreciate the serv¬ 
ices of these wise amateur arboriculturists of 
the past, nor those of their worthy successor,; 
of our own times. Indeed, we should not Ire 
forgetful of the fact, that if we were to ex¬ 
clude our recent conquests in the vegetable 
kingdom, we should cause the disappearance 
from our forests, parks and highways of the 
Horse Chestnuts, both Red and Wliite-flow- 
ered, the Western Plane-Trees, the Ailauthus, 
the Paulownia, the Judas-Tree, the Cedars, the 
Robiuias, the Silver Fir, the Pinesaps, the ad¬ 
mirable (Sequoia, aud others (including the 
Catalpas) which have been introduced in our 
own times. 
Mr. Lavallee has industriously continued 
the labors of his illustrious predecessors: be¬ 
sides his absorbing work of arrangement and 
classification, we ure also indebted to him for 
important results of a practical nature. Thus 
he has discovered that some higldy prized 
cabinet woods are derived from certain vari¬ 
eties of the Ptero-carya which thrive admira¬ 
bly at Segrez. He thinks that the nuts of 
Juglans Sieboldiana will furnish an article of 
food and a valuable oil, that the Persimmon 
of Asia will produce a fruit worthy of a place 
iu our orchards, anti that the Poplar of Turk¬ 
estan, with its abnormally large trunk, will 
furnish a wood especially fitted for some in¬ 
dustries. These examples, which ueed not he 
multiplied, show the results of the labors car¬ 
ried on at Segrez. 
Mr. Lavallee has also conducted a series of 
investigations of great interest in the classifi¬ 
cation of n* bfeeful plants the varieties of which 
present great confusion, such as the cabbages 
Of his publications, giving the results of his 
labors, is the catalogue of trees and shrubs 
cultivated at Segrez, with a preface that is 
full of interesting facts. Another work of 
great value is his description aud figures of 
new and rare species in the arboretum. This 
is to form two large volumes with 60 plates, of 
which four livraisous have already appeared 
He has already prepared a monograph on the 
Clematis. Besides his many occupations at 
Segrez. he has edited and published many es¬ 
says on botany aud horticulture. 
The writer reminds us that “Europe has 
240,000,000 hectares (583,000,000 acres) of forest 
land, of which 8,800,000 (21,744.800 acres) in 
France, yield S,400,000 steres (20 cubic feet each 
—rather mora than a quarter cord) of wood in 
all kinds. 'This, however, is hut one of the items 
of interest in arboriculture. Trees are every¬ 
where, in the orchards, in the fields, in the 
hedges, in the gardens, beside the highway's 
and w alks. Wood is the most valuable pro¬ 
duct of the soil, rendering the most numerous 
and most valuable services to man. Bernard 
Palissy fully appreciated this when he wrote: 
“I have sometimes thought to count, up all the 
arts of life that would cease to exist if there 
were no more wood; but w T hen I had writteu 
dow r n a great many, I could not reach the end, 
and came to the conclusion that there was 
not a single ait, that could be carried on with¬ 
out wood.” 
ftlisccUrtiieoiis. 
REMINISCENCES OF FRONTIER SET¬ 
TLEMENT. 
It affords me much pleasure to read what 
some writers say in the Rural. I wish there 
were more to denounce the wholesale destruc¬ 
tion of our forests and also the gobbling up of 
the public domain by the rich, who never in¬ 
tend to improve one foot of it. It ought to 
have been held sacred by the law r for thoso 
seeking a home for themselves mid families. 
Those nabobs or then’ agents may be seeu at 
all times following the hues of the railroads 
and selecting every valuable location and 
stretching out their grasping hands to the 
right, aud left, for every valuable spot und 
buying the best sections for a mere trifle, or 
holding by possession as a “claim” by u post 
here and there to support a single wire. This 
land will be sold by and by to those seeking a 
home, and the last cent the seeker of a homo 
is possessed of will be exacted, whether the 
land-sharks have bought the land or claimed 
it. I hear much said iu condemnation of indi¬ 
viduals in other countries holding largo estates 
Are we not tending in the same direction—to 
make the rich richer and the poor poorer? 1 
think we are making long strides in that di¬ 
rection. Many of these individuals escape 
without paying one cent to support the Gen¬ 
eral or State Government. 
I have hail a little insight into the workings 
of the settlement of a new country'. I came 
to this county (Winnebago, Ill.) iu 1820 from 
Ohio; but I am a native of England. My 
partner and myself built the firat house iu 
Rockford, except a log house. This country 
was then well supplied with timber for all 
necessary puqroses; but uufortuuately the 
timbered laud was not in the market, and the 
timber was all gobbled up by a few large 
claim-holders, who entered into a compact to 
defend each other iu their claims even to the 
burning out, in many coses, of those who 
dared to settle down on any part of their 
claims, although not themselves residents, in 
many instances Borne lived in Joliet, some 
iu Bt. Louis, some iu the East, und others in 
other places. I settled down on one of these 
claims, it being my present home. I was 
called on one day in a friendly manner and 
was informed I would Ijo burnt out some day. 
I asked: “Will you tell me when I may expect 
such a visit? I promise yt.u you will never 
buru out, another settlor.” Bo I escaped the 
threatened visit, but some others were not so 
fortunate. 
Thousands of acres of the choicest of this 
timber have totally disappeared—not a bush, 
twig or stump is to be seen. 1 could name 
some who had timber in great, abundance, but 
who to-day are without a stick to burn or 
place to cut a pole needed for the farm. I am 
a great admirer of timber and trees, and have 
plenty of uative timber for the use of my 
farm, i am now surrounded by a beautiful 
grove of Hard and Soft Maple, Oak, Ash, Elm, 
Walnuts of each kind, grown from seed, some 
standing 40 or more feet high with plenty of 
nuts in season, evergreens of different specias, 
European Larch by the thousands, all doing 
well. I can now begin to thin out for posts If 
I ueed them. I have often thought we ought 
to be careful that while wo build up we do 
not also pull down or impoverish our goodly 
inheritance, Not only is our timber disap¬ 
pearing, bull we are also impoverishing om‘ 
farms, for in many places, to my knowledge, 
land has been constantly under the plow from 
year to year for the past SO or 40 years, not 
having one season of rest, and the straw 
grown on it has been hauled to town and sold 
the paper-mills. I often hear complaints that 
the laud does not yield as iu the past. Many 
of the old settlers have sold out and gone 
West, and many more are looking for new 
lands to conquer and impoverish. This makes 
room for new-comers who are a better class of 
farmers generally, and in man}’ places the 
marks of thrift and improvement, are visible 
in better crops and surroundings. The ap¬ 
pearance of those long stretches of prairies 
would be very cheaply and profitably changed 
if there was a united effort among the settlers, 
aDd I should thiuk last severe Winter would 
tempt those on the “open” to do someth mg for 
a wind-break. Young trees cau now he bought 
at a small cost at the nurseries. I would ad¬ 
vise those intending to plant to get their land 
deeply aud well plowed—the deeper the better 
—and well pulverized. I do not advocate deep 
planting. I mark out my land as straight as 
possible with the plow in rows four feet apart 
aud in lines four feet across, so that I can cul¬ 
tivate each way. I plant on the south side of 
each young tree two or more grains of coni; 
hut I reduce the stalks to two if more grow. 
These protect the young trees from the 
parching sun iu Summer. Cultivate thor¬ 
oughly; keep Out the weeds for two years; 
then the trees will take care of themselves. I 
tried to cultivate the third year, but failed to 
get the horse through. This grove was prin¬ 
cipally European Larch intermixed with 
Walnut and evergreens. “Pioneer.” 
-- 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD, 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Cows Chewing Bones. 
Every now and then some person full of 
imagination aud theory, gives us a disserta¬ 
tion on cows chewing bones. They imagiue 
that when a cow does this she must be iu a 
disordered condition and needs something— 
they don’t exactly know what. Those inclin¬ 
ing to chemical fertilizers insist that bone is 
wanting, aud they recommend buying bone 
dust uud strewing the pastures with it. One 
versatile genius, with more theory than prac¬ 
tice, who writes a great deal for the agricul¬ 
tural press, says be cures his cattle of this pe¬ 
culiar appetite by giving them salt frequently. 
He imagines his cattle chew bones because 
they don’t have salt enough. Now' the truth 
is, according to my observation, cattle chew 
bones because they like to, and one cow may 
chew them more than auother just as one girl 
muy chew moi e gum than another. My cat¬ 
tle are never without salt, as it is kept iu a 
tight Ijox where they cau help themselves 
every day, and yet they chew bones w henever 
they can find them, and, so far as my observa¬ 
tion goes, all cattle do the same. 
An Ancient Hop Vine. 
For nearly one hundred years a hop vine 
has sprung up annually and trailed on the 
fence where u cabin stood a long time ago in 
which there lived two slaves. It is supposed 
that the hop vine was planted by them. The 
cabin uud slavery are of the past, but the hop 
vine yearly appeal’s to remiud us of the 
strange history of former days. 
Planting Old Seed. 
I made a bad mistake in planting old 
mangel seed. It was purchased two years 
ago, aud, having it on hand, I planted it 
thinking it would grow. The surne was true 
of my carrot seed. The latter has grown 
well; but the former was such u failure that 
the grouud bus hud to be planted over with 
fodder com. The mangel seed may have 
been old when 1 purchased it, aud the carrot 
seed fresh, which may account for the differ¬ 
ence. I have planted turnip seed teu years 
old, aud it grew- well. 
Hill vs. Broad-Cast Manuring. 
1 agree fully with the Rural in regard to 
broad-cast manuring as l>eiug preferable to 
manuring iu the hill. Putting manure in the 
hill is one of the old practices which has come 
down from father to sou, and been followed, 
it seems to mo, without any thought in regard 
to tiie nature of things. Farm era must have 
supposed that plaster, when put on the corn, 
fed it through the leaves. I know' they are 
usually very particular to drop it directly on 
the corn. When sown broadcast the plants 
will certainly got all they can absorb m this 
way, or rather all the good the plaster can 
ubsorb for them, and the roots will also get 
the same benefit if scattered before cultivat¬ 
ing, and this is the way 1 apply it, and also 
ashes, and thus mix them with the soil where 
the roots can feed directly on them. 
A QUEER HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
Last Sabbath as I was getting into my car¬ 
riage to go to church I saw four of our men 
laboring with an eight-weeks-old calf. Two 
were pulling iu front, two more were pushing 
from the rear, and yet the “calfalcude” moved 
slowly on and in an undignified manner. On my 
return from church lirod men mot me at the 
office door. They reported that they had re¬ 
moved the calf from the stable to a small 
inelosuro turfed w ith tender clover, and that, 
on loosening the animal it bounded over the 
fence like a bird und away through the 
orchard and strawberry beds to a wheat- 
field, and thence to a dense wood covering 75 
acres; that they had searched for it until ex¬ 
hausted without success. Now this calf was 
from a peculiar strain of hornless cattle which 
we had hoped would become the parents of a 
valuable race for milk. Therefore, with some 
compunctions of conscience, twelve of us 
marched toward the timber, driving before 
us the mother of the lost calf (from which the 
calf had been weaned) and followed by our 
pot pointer, over which we sometimes shoot 
woodcock and partridge, though I oid not 
then know that he had joined us. Eleven 
men foirned iu line and marched through the 
woods with the dog, while 1 kept the mother 
cow moving along slowly, and finally seated 
myself iu a clearing on a hill and enjoyed the 
wild beauty of the surroundings. Soon I 
heard the shout “There he goes!” accom¬ 
panied by the bark of the dog. In a few mo¬ 
ments afterward* a partridge arose from the 
bushes, and soon 1 saw the calf (resembling a 
deer as neatly as could be imagined) coming 
out of the wood into a wheat stubbble 200 
rods away. He halted a moment, as though 
surprised by the sudden change of scenes, 
when I foolishly called out "Here he is, boys!” 
No sooner had 1 opened my mouth than back 
into the timber the calf stampeded, and I 
could hear the dry twigs Crack as he bounded 
aw-ay like a wild beast. Onward he came, 
j passing closely to his mother, but paying no 
I attention to her, She saw him aud followed 
j for some distance, but the calf seemed to con¬ 
sider her as an avenging demon, for he dashed 
away more fiercely than ever, entering the 
w ildcst part of the timber, where underbrush 
completely concealed him. Calling all hands 
together we marched home, convinced that 
though each of us was mighty in some re¬ 
spects, all of us united wore not enough to 
conquer this one particular calf. 
Well, os uight came on a heavy rain set in. 
It poured and poured without cessation. Poor 
calf—no shelter, no supper of warm viands, 
no tender hands to caress, though 24 eager 
hands would gladly have caressed him but a 
few hours before. Such are the tribulations of 
life. What will become of the poor fellow ? 
Will ho perish of exposure ? Will he l>eat his 
brains out against the cruel trees? Will he 
starve? No, he will none of these; he is a 
philosophical calf, also a navigator, aud pos¬ 
sesses au elasticity of limb that knows not the 
confinement, of a six-barred fence, for when the 
glad morning da wned the calf was found with 
his mothor iu another part of the farm, at 
least half-a-mile from the woods, from which 
the place was separated by several Inclosures. 
How r did he get there ? We give it up. 
Rochester, N. Y. Chas. A. Green. 
A Gift of Pear Grafts. 
1 read with much interest the article on 
pears by Mr. Blackwell of New Jersey, and 
his experience corresponds so nearly with 
mine that 1 wish to at Id one more variety, the 
Viekcr’s, which is not in any catalogue that I 
have seen. The tree is a beautiful, upright 
grower, nearly as handsome as the Buffurn; 
fruit, ab we medium in size; ripening in Sep¬ 
tember uud deeidely the finest-flavored pear I 
have, except the Soekel—sweet, rich aud 
spicy. It is a tolerably good bearer. I think 
it entirely too good to bo bid, and any of my 
pear-loving readers are welcome to a graft in 
the proper season if they will write to me in¬ 
closing stamps to prepay postage. In the 
same manner will i send grafts of a pear that 
bos been grown to weigh two pounds, or 48 
pears weighed 1<M) pounds. This, however, is j 
I am told, only fit for cooking and preserving, 
while others contend it is good to eat fresh. 
Blufftou, Mo. s. miller. 
-» » ♦ - 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Smith’s Self-adjusting Swing Cattle 
Stanchion. —This little circular describes 
what appears to be an excellent stanchion for 
cattle. The stanchions which are made of any 
desired size, turn on pivots on the center of the 
top aud bottom, so that as the fastened animal 
turns the head to eit her side, that side of the 
stanc hion turns back towards the body, allow¬ 
ing the neck to turn naturally round and the 
head to rest on the body with ease. There are 
several other desirable features iu this stan¬ 
chion about which full information will be 
given on application to the manufacturer; G 
Di W cooks, Addisoti, Ni Y< 
