TO 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
The Tea as an Ornamental Plant. 
Those who cultivate house plants may well 
add a Tea plant to their collection. Naturally 
every one is interested in raising the plant, 
the leaves of which afford an almost univer¬ 
sal beverage, and besides being a curiosity, 
the plant itself is interesting and somewhat 
showy. It is a slow-growing evergreen 
BRANCH AND FLOWERS OF TEA PLANT. 
shrub, with dark-green leaves. In cultiva¬ 
tion it is kept as a busli, about six feet high, 
but in the wild state it is said to form a tree 20 
or 30 feet in higlit. It begins to bloom when 
but a foot or two high, and in pot-culture 
may be kept of any desired size. It bears 
very pretty white flowers, which closely re¬ 
semble those of a single Camellia, though they 
are only about an inch across. Indeed so 
close is the resemblance in all respects to the 
Camellia that recent botanists place the Tea 
plant in that genus. The flowers, borne 
singly, or in small clusters, are followed by a 
pod, about the size of a hazel-nut, contain¬ 
ing one to three seeds. The shape of the 
leaves, flowers, etc., is shown in the en¬ 
graving. In window .culture, the Tea, like 
the Camellia, will not endure a hot, dry atmos¬ 
phere; it thrives best in a room where there 
is no fire. In summer, it should be placed 
out of doors in a partly shaded place. The 
plant is hardy any where south of Washing¬ 
ton. The Tea is propagated by cuttings and 
very readily from seeds. Plants are to be had 
of florists, and some seedsmen offer seeds. 
Practical Pear Culture. 
BY A PRACTICAL GROWER. 
The growing of pears for market has met 
with varying success, not so much from the 
fact that diseases and insects seriously affect 
their growth and productiveness, as from 
the fact that the business, in its details, is 
indifferently understood. It is only when 
one’s efforts are properly directed, and vigor¬ 
ously prosecuted, that success is assured. 
Having commenced, some fifteen years ago, 
to raise pears for market, we have had a 
long and severe experience, but have yet to 
find any year which did not yield a snug 
profit. One of the greatest faults into which 
beginners are apt to fall, is expecting, or an¬ 
ticipating too much. It is more satisfactory 
to figure the profits after the crops are har¬ 
vested, than when the trees are planted. The 
matter of varieties is one of the first im¬ 
portance, and those who have had experience 
will never fall into the error of planting 
too many. It pays much better to plant 
a few of the well-known, hardy, and de¬ 
sirable market sorts, than to set out many 
varieties with but few of each kind. The 
number of really desirable market sorts of 
pears, for profit, can be counted on one’s fin¬ 
gers, those which will do well over a 
wide range of climate and soil being sur¬ 
prisingly scarce. People who anticipate an 
easy time, and large and continuous profits, 
in growing pears for market, had better dis¬ 
abuse themselves of 6ucli fallacies. It takes 
constant, frequently hard and intelligent 
work, to produce profitable results. There 
may be some localities where the pear will 
not do well, but they are few. Although 
longevity, as well as productiveness, is great¬ 
ly governed by soil and locality, nearly every 
thing depends upon the care, experience, and 
diligence of the pear-grower, as his hand 
and knowledge must be plainly seen in all 
the management. We may, at some time in 
the near future, give our experience with 
varieties. Those who propose to commence 
an orchard for market purposes the coming 
spring, should settle this point at once. The 
profitable varieties for such an orchard are : 
the Bartlett, standard, and Duchesse d’An- 
gouleme, dwarf (or half-standard, as it can be 
made, or will in time become), will be found 
the very best. A planter can not go far 
wrong, if he plants three-fourths (or even 
four-fourths) of his orchard with these. 
Pruning—Good and Bad. 
Pruning is often necessary to renovate a 
neglected orchard, and as we have heretofore 
suggested, it may be the means of increasing 
the value of 
forest trees. In 
the excellent 
work of Des 
Cares (transla¬ 
ted by Prof. 
Sargent), he 
gives numerous 
illustrations of 
the mischief re¬ 
sulting from in¬ 
judicious prun¬ 
ing. A common 
fault in removing a branch, especially a 
large one, is the leaving of a stub or stump 
of greater or less length, as in fig. 1 . This, 
if it has no buds or leaves, soon dies, and is 
practically a foreign body, as much as would 
be a wooden plug of the same size driven 
into the tree. The appearance of such a de¬ 
caying stump at the end of five years is given 
in fig. 2. These 
illustrations are 
taken from an 
oak tree, but the 
result is the same 
with other trees. 
The decay of the 
stump continues 
until at the end 
of ten years it 
has nearly disap¬ 
peared, as shown 
in fig. 3. The j^g 2 .— after five years. 
mere decay of the 
stump would be of little consequence, were 
not the disease communicated to the tree 
itself. As a decaying fruit will soon affect 
sound ones with which it may be in contact, 
so wood in a state of decomposition will 
rot the living wood, and greatly injure, if 
not destroy the tree. Figure 4 represents the 
tree cut open, to show the extent to which 
the wood of the interior of the trunk has 
been destroyed. This, if unchecked, will 
continue, and in time leave the tree a hollow 
shell, worthless 
as timber or as 
fuel. In no case, 
whether in re¬ 
moving large 
branches or 
small ones, of 
fruit or forest 
trees, should a 
stump be left. 
Those persons 
who go about 
hacking at 
street trees, under pretense of ‘ ‘ pruning ” 
them, are very apt to leave such stubs, and 
thus lay the foundation of the decay of the 
trees they have already disfigured. A clean 
cut, which leaves a scar no larger than the 
branch that has been removed, will soon 
heal over, especially 
if the surface of 
the wound is made 
smooth and covered 
with melted graft¬ 
ing-wax, with shel¬ 
lac varnish, or paint. 
In France, coal-tar 
is used for this pur¬ 
pose. If the branch 
to be removed is 
large and very 
heavy, it may be Fi g- 4.— interior of 
, ~ . TRUNK. 
cut off at some 
distance from the trunk, and the stump thus 
left may be removed with greater ease, and 
without danger of stripping 'the bark. 
Experiments in Crossing Apples. 
BY PROF. W. J. BEAL. 
Will the pollen, or flower-dust, from one 
variety of apple change the appearance of 
another variety? It is not uncommon to 
see apples of a variety which is usually 
smooth, bearing strips of russet from the 
stem to the blossom end. These russet 
strips have often, even by good botanists, 
been considered evidence of a cross, or a 
partial cross, by pollen from a russet variety. 
On examining several such apples, I can not 
now remember to have seen a single one 
where the russet stripe corresponded to a 
cell or carpel of the fruit. This we should 
expect in case the russet stripe was due to 
russet pollen. A few years ago, I crossed 
some smooth variety with pollen from a rus¬ 
set tree. No effect was produced on any of 
the apples. In 1881, the experiment was re¬ 
peated, using pollen of a Golden Russet on 
the stigmas of the Northern Spy. In no case 
was there any indication of russet on the 
skin of the Spy apples. I think the russet 
stripes found on apples, which are usually 
smooth, are to be attributed to what we call 
a “sport.” I have seen a white paeony and 
a pink one coming from the same root; a yel¬ 
low sweet potato coming from a stalk which 
bore the rest of the crop of a red color. It 
is not very uncommon to find a similar 
change in color in common potatoes. These 
are slight changes, or sports, the cause of 
which is not known. 
Fig. 1.— A LONG STUMP. 
Fig. 3.— AFTER TEN YEARS. 
