64r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
ception, were totally destroyed by tbe severe 
cold of April 28tli. The fruit ripens in this 
latitude with strawberries—say from the mid¬ 
dle to the last of May. The tree is a semi¬ 
dwarf, with pendent, willowy branches; some¬ 
thing like a Kilmarnock willow, although not 
so leafy. My trees, now ten years old or more, 
can have nearly all the fruit picked from them 
by standing on a chair. The original tree, as 
well those from which mine were taken, grew 
upon soil almost too poor to produce anything 
else; a slaty, cold, bluish, yellow clay, with a 
sand-stone substratum. In rich soil, the trees 
grow somewhat larger and 
faster, but do not ripen the 
fruit so early. I believe this 
fruit is well adapted to rigid 
climates and sterile soils, 
and planted in such places, I 
should advise a heavy mulch 
during winter and sum¬ 
mer. The, fruit is a bright, 
pinkish scarlet, when fully 
ripe, and somewhat opaque. 
A tree in full bearing, when 
ripe, has the appearance 
at a short distance of being 
covered with a scarlet cloth, 
such is the abundance of 
the fruit. I sent over three 
hundred of these trees to 
different parts of the country 
for trial, and sent some 
of the fruit to different emi¬ 
nent horticulturists, among 
them F. R. Elliott, of Cleve¬ 
land, O., who pronounced 
it the “Early May,” In 
this he is certainly mistaken, 
for we have the Early May 
growing beside it, and while 
there is much resemblance in 
these fruits, a novice'can tell 
the difference at a glance, 
when seen side by side, 
at any season. They differ 
in shape of tree and time 
of ripening, also in color 
and shape of fruit on my 
grounds; and as to hardiness, 
there is no comparison; 
the Early May being killed while the Dyehouse 
yielded a full crop, as could have been seen 
the present season in several localities about 
here. The “ Cerise Indullo ” of Downing is not 
this fruit. I verily believe that it is a seedling , 
and new. It is certainly very desirable. As a 
fruit for tarts, pies, and especially preserves, it 
has no near competitor in the Cherry kingdom. 
Persons who know the fruit often pay fifty 
cents per gallon for them to make preserves, 
rather than use the old Morellos when they 
could be had for the picking. The fruit is 
quite tart, but when fully ripe is, to my taste, 
perfectly delicious, having the most pleasant 
and agreeable acid. One never knows when to 
quit eating it. I send you a rude sketch of 
a fair sample of my orchard of fifty bearing 
trees, now eight years transplanted. I believe 
these trees would make a fine wind-break and 
ornamental hedge, if planted eight feet apart, 
and cut down at planting time to within a foot 
of the ground, and annually pruned. It will 
bear much hacking, ■with impunity. I saw a 
small orchard of them which had been repeat¬ 
edly browsed by stock, and it grew finely. I 
cut one down to the ground, and it threw up a 
dozen vigorous stems, and grew into a beauti¬ 
ful bushy tree. 
I am only an amateur cultivator for the love 
of horticulture and fruit, and have no “ ax to 
grind,” having no trees for sale at any price. 
---• --» m - 
The Hop-Tree. —Ptelea trifoliala. 
A few years ago there was very generally ad¬ 
vertised a Hop-tree for which was claimed great 
advantages over the common hop; as, being 
once planted, it would go on and yield its yearly 
crop of fruit without further care. This Hop- 
tree, which in its wild state is only a shrub, is 
hop-tree.— (Ptelea trifoliala.) 
very common from Pennsylvania westward, and 
southward to Florida; we have seen it very 
abundant in Michigan, but do not know its 
northern limit. Its leaves are compound, and 
made up of three leaflets, as shown in the en¬ 
graving. We notice that it is the latest of all our 
shrubs to start in the spring. The flowers are 
Quinn peak .—(See preceding page.) 
small and greenish, and are borne in clusters at 
the ends of the new shoots. They have a most 
unpleasant odor, as do the leaves when bruised. 
The flowers are polygamous— i. e., there are 
male, female, and perfect ones upon the same 
plant. A magnified representation of a single 
perfect flower is given in the engraving % The 
- fruit is a two-seeded capsule, and is surrounded 
by a broad ring; it very much resembles the 
fruit of the elm. As an ornamental shrub, the 
Hop-tree has in its favor 
a very neat habit and 
freedom from insects, and 
when in fruit it is at least 
interesting if not showy. 
When kept to a single stem 
it grows quite large. There 
are in England specimens 
thirty and forty feet high. 
The fruit has a very strong 
and nauseously bitter taste, 
entirely without the aromat¬ 
ic quality of the bitter of 
the hop. The use of hops 
in making yeast and beer 
is to prevent the fermenta¬ 
tion from proceeding too far. 
Were it not for these, acetous 
fermentation would set in 
and the liquid become sour. 
Before hops were introduced 
into England, various bit¬ 
ter herbs were used in brew¬ 
ing. It seems that many, if 
not all, vegetable bitters pos¬ 
sess with hops the property 
of retarding or preventing 
the souring of fermenting 
liquids, and hops are only 
to be preferred for the rea¬ 
son that their bitter is more 
agreeable to the taste than 
that of most others. So 
far as effectiveness goes, we 
have no doubt that the fruit, 
of the Hop-tree will answer 
as a substitute for hops, 
but we should be afraid 
that its exceedingly disgusting taste might be 
Communicated to bread from yeast made with 
it. The engraving here given represents the 
leaves and fruit of about half the natural size. 
i mm 
