1872 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
343 
tributed valuable articles to our columns. He 
lias enriched our collection of Cannas by many 
fine varieties, and has of late years turned his 
attention to producing double Pelargoniums or 
Geraniums. The varieties that he has propagated 
are highly praised by the French horticultural 
journals, and some have passed into the hands of 
the commercial florists. Mr. Sisley has sent us 
by the hands of a friend two of his best seed¬ 
lings, “Charles Darwin” and “Emilio Cast.e- 
lar.” They were weak when first received, but 
have recovered by good nursing, and we hope 
they will give a good account of themselves. 
Notes from the Pines. 
Correspondents write to ask what has be¬ 
come of “The Pines.” When I commenced 
these Notes I had no idea of continuing them 
regularly, but chose this gossipy form of pre¬ 
senting from time to time such things as I did 
not care to put in a regular editorial. 
Pegged-down Roses. —A little bed of tender 
roses kept well through the last winter, severe 
as it was. They were protected after Mr. Hen¬ 
derson’s plan, by covering them with sods. 
Not having been laid down by a careful hand, 
many of the stems were badly bent, and rather 
than cut them away, as they never would have 
come straight, I pegged all down flat upon the 
ground. This is a common method of growing 
roses in England, but I had never before tried 
it, and am much pleased with the result. The 
bloom has been most abundant, the new growth 
(also pegged down) remarkable, and I think that 
the plants have been freer from slugs and other 
insects than when they grew erect. 
Double Portulacas. — What fine things 
these are when you do get double ones! Some 
seeds from Mr. Dreer produced almost all dou¬ 
ble flowers. I have a rock-work devoted to 
succulents, but wishing something that would 
make a show while these w T ere getting estab¬ 
lished, the Portulaeas were planted among 
them. Their flowers every bright day are really 
fine, as double as roses, and white, crimson, and 
golden yellow. 
Bush and Cordon Apple-Trees.—I wish 
something could be done to make these dwarf 
apple-trees better known. They cost but little, 
and if they were planted only as ornamental 
shrubs their flowers in spring -would be quite as 
satisfying as those of many things grown for 
their flowers alone. Then they bear fruit, and 
it is very pleasant to pick a dozen or two of 
apples from a little tree. One of my cordons 
not three feet long ripened twenty-three fine 
Duchess of Oldenburgs. The apples were 
almost as close as they could stick. Mind, I 
don’t recommend these trees for profit, but as 
affording pleasure in fruit-growing. 
That Potato. — I think that in an earlier note 
I mentioned having received for trial from B. K. 
Bliss & Sons a potato for which great claims 
were made as to earliness. I made two plant¬ 
ings side by side with Early Rose, and in both 
cases it was easily ten days ahead of that well- 
known early variety. I don’t know that the 
potato has any name, nor have I tried it upon 
the table. I could not afford that, as the geu- 
tleman who raised it was offered at the rate 
of $4,000 a bushel for his remaining half-peck. 
I planted one pound each of Early Rose and 
this new variety in such soil and with such 
treatment as one would give in ordinary field 
culture, the object being to make a fair com¬ 
parison of the two without attempting to get 
the greatest possible yield. When dug, the 
yield from the pound of Early Rose was 35 lbs., 
and that from the pound of the new potato was 
34 lbs. As several potatoes were taken from 
the last-named from time to time for the pur¬ 
pose of observing progress, it is probable that 
had these remained the yield of the two vari¬ 
eties would have been the same, and we are 
safe in saying that it yielded in this single test 
quite as well as the Early Rose. 
Moore’s Concord Corn. —Last year I gave 
adverse report upon this variety, but spoke 
highly of the quality of Judson’s Branching 
Sweet-Corn, though it did not branch a bit. 
I procured seeds of half-a-dozen varieties of 
corn at the same time, and the seedsman 
who served me is convinced that in putting 
them up the Moore’s went into the bag labeled 
Judson’s, and vice versa. This year’s expe¬ 
rience shows that he was right—or wrong, as 
you choose to have it. Moore’s Concord has 
this year done well, and is apparently just what 
my Judson’s-of last year was. It makes a fine 
large ear, larger than any early variety with 
which I am acquainted, and of very good quality, 
though not so sweet as some smaller sorts. To 
one not brought up in Rhode Island, where 
sweet-corn was invented—to the Boston people 
for instance—Moore’s will no doubt seem 
the perfection of sweet-corn. But put it by 
the side of Early Narragansett, and then you 
will see that (as between Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts) size is not the only quality to be 
looked for in either sweet corn or States. 
Striped Japanese Maize.— This has been 
“out” these many years, but I never happened 
to grow it until this season. I planted it in a 
thicket of Castor-Oil Beans, Cannas, and other 
quick-growing stuff intended to serve as a 
screen, and am much pleased with it. I may 
have got hold of a very good strain (R. H. Allen 
«fc Co.); at all events every plant is well marked, 
and some individual ones arc really beautiful. 
Tomatoes. —I have usually grown a dozen 
or more kinds for comparison, but this jmar my 
main crop has been the Trophy. The only 
others I tried were Early Shipping, from Peter 
Henderson & Co., and the Peach, from a corre¬ 
spondent at the West. The Trophy was ahead 
of either of these in earliness, while in size 
and quality there is no comparison. The Early 
Shipping has a most peculiar foliage, and looks 
more like a potato than a tomato. The “ Peach ” 
is a medium-sized fruit of good flavor, very 
regular, and of a peculiar light crimson color. 
Propagating by Budding. 
A majority of the readers of the Agriculturist 
rely upon its pages as their sole source of infor¬ 
mation upon all subjects relating to agriculture 
and horticulture. It is easy to refer those who 
send us letters of inquiry to this or that book 
to answer their questions, but the fact is, and 
we are glad to know that it is so, our large cir¬ 
culation is among those in moderate circum¬ 
stances—people to whom the cost of the paper 
is an important item, and who can not as a 
general thing afford to invest much in books. 
Our great usefulness has-been in adapting our 
teachings to the masses, and if our friends who 
are skilled in horticulture find us, as in the pre¬ 
sent article, now and then treating of what 
seem to them mere elementary matters—first 
principles—they must bear in mind that to the 
great multitude of readers such things are new, 
and that articles like this are called out by nu¬ 
merous letters. 
We are asked by many to give directions for 
budding and inoculating 
trees. It is a great 
misfortune that the 
term inoculating is em¬ 
ployed, as there is a con¬ 
fusion of ideas caused 
by its use. People 
know that inoculation is 
practiced to so affect 
the human system as to 
diminish or destroy the 
liability to an attack of 
small-pox. Many quite 
intelligent people think 
that the inoculation of 
a tree introduces some¬ 
thing into it that will 
cause it to bear better 
fruit, and are not aware 
that budding or inocu¬ 
lation replaces a worth¬ 
less tree by a valuable 
one. The mechanical 
operations of budding 
are easily learned, but to 
work intelligently the 
principles which govern 
them must be under¬ 
stood. The propagation 
of plants by cuttings is 
one of the most common 
ways of multiplying 
them. Almost every one 
has grown a plant from 
a cutting, or “slip” as 
it is often called. This 
cutting or slip is a twig 
from the parent plant, 
with usually several 
eyes or buds upon it. 
This being put in the soil under favorable cir¬ 
cumstances, roots are formed, the eyes or buds 
push and form branches, and we have a new 
plant precisely like the one from which the cut- 
Fig. 2.— BUDDING KNIFE. 
ting was taken—a part of it as it were. The 
number of buds upon the cutting will depend 
upon the kind of plants, some rooting so easily 
that a single bud is enough. But all the plants 
that we desire 
to propagate can 
not be readily start¬ 
ed from cuttings, 
and notably among 
these are our most 
valued fruit trees. 
In case of these we 
resort to grafting 
and budding. In 
grafting, we take a 
cutting or slip with 
several buds, and in¬ 
stead of planting it 
in the soil, we cut 
off and split a tree or a branch, and plant the 
cutting in the split. The wound soon heals, 
and the cutting or graft unites with the branch, 
and goes on and grows by means of the roots 
of the tree (stock), in which it is placed, just 
as readily as if it had made roots of its own. 
Grafting and budding are essentially the same 
in principle, though the mechanical operation 
